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Accepted.com Odds 'N Ends
In This Issue:
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What's New at Accepted.com |
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What's New at Accepted.com
Best Wishes for the Holiday Season
The entire staff at Accepted.com would like to thank you for your
patronage and wish you a joyous Holiday Season and great New Year!
Ebook Sale
Oh yes! Another holiday sale. You can save 25% off all
Accepted.com
ebooks purchased by December 15, 2005. So don't wait. Hurry to get
these gems while you can save.
Featured Ebook for December:
The Consultant's Guide to MBA Admission
Are you a consultant interested in applying to business school? Do you
have competitive stats? Impressive work experience? Yet have you
failed to start an NGO in Nepal or pursue spelunking? In fact if you
grab a few seconds from your long work days, do you find that you have
done little since college other than work?
If you answered "yes" to these questions, you need
The Consultant's Guide to MBA Admission, Accepted.com's
Featured Ebook for December.
Time
Marches On
'Tis the season when time marches double-time. It's hard to focus on
essays and keep all the personal, professional, and educational balls
in the air. Those application deadlines somehow manage to creep up out
of nowhere. But now is a great time to work on applications due in
January. Don't delay. Help us help you.
Sign up
today for
Accepted.com's services or contact your editor.
Beautiful
B-School Photo Contest
I have long advocated school visits as a great way to learn about a
school, its culture, and its student life. They also provide you with
invaluable insights you can use to show your fit with the program in
your essays and interviews.
Now you can have even more fun while visiting, especially if you're an
amateur photographer yearning to be recognized for your artistic
brilliance -- or just your nice photo. Compete in our
Beautiful B-School
Photo Contest for lots of prizes - including a $200 Amazon gift
certificate -- and a chance to show your photo to the world!
For additional information and contest rules, please visit the
Beautiful
B-School Photo Contest Rules.
Upcoming Events
2006 MBA
Admission Chats
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Dec. 5
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6:00 PM
PT/9:00 PM ET |
Consortium |
Admissions committee members |
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Dec. 7
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9:00 AM
PT/12:00 PM ET/5:00 PM GMT |
INSEAD |
Johanna Helborg |
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Dec. 14 |
10:00 AM PT/1:00
PM ET/6:00 PM GMT |
Cornell |
Randall Sawyer |
If you would like to sign up for automatic
chat reminders, please visit our chat subscription page.
And of course, last month's chats have
generated must-read transcripts:
Blog Posts of Interest
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Essay Tip |
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Cliches of the Year
I haven't decided whether to have an
annual "Cliches of the Year" tip, but this year, I have a "Cliches of
the Year" tip. Either I am getting old and crotchety or you folks are
including more cliches in your writing, or it's just time to write about
them. I think the latter.
A cliche according to
Dictionary.com:
a trite, stereotyped expression; a sentence or
phrase, usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea, that has
lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long overuse.
I like that definition. But I'll also share my
own description. In a recent email to Accepted.com editors asking for
their "favorites," I wrote:
Every year certain phrases seem to come into
vogue, almost like an outlandish fashion that works only on a few models
and rare occasions... and somehow everyone who is anyone wears it
everywhere and all the time.
They cease to be fashion statements, to express
anything.
So what are my "favorite cliches" in personal
statements and application essays?
And the winner is...
Take it to the next level
This poor phrase, abused and overused, has lost
all meaning, distinctiveness, and color. Like the frequently washed,
ancient tie-dyed T-shirt, it's long past retirement age. It's more than
ready for the rag heap. Strike it from your essays! Frankly, when I see
"take X to the next level" my eyes glaze over, and I really just don't
want to read more because I have read this so many times before. That's
not the reaction you want your essay to engender.
Now the Runner's Up, in no particular order.
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Synergies:
Jennifer Bloom nominates "synergies." She thinks they're "going nuts
this year."
Sheila
Bender adds that she feels like sneezing when she sees "synergies"
in a personal statement. You don't want your essays to trigger allergic
reactions, do you?
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Leverage:
Tanis
Kmetyk is seeing less of "leverage," but I still see too much of it
for my taste.
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Been there for me: So banal and
hackneyed. And vague. Did he or she listen to you rant and rave at all
hours of the night? Walk with you daily to help you deal with loss?
Visit regularly? Sit with your quietly? Work long hours? Simply lend
profound emotional support in uncounted ways large and small? For
Heaven's sake tell me what they did!
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The bottom line: Whatever happened to
"conclusion," "summary," "crux," "main point," "core," or a
host of
other phrases. Bottom line means Income - Expenses. Limit its use to
profit and loss statements.
These are just a few of the most pernicious cliches that infest your
essays. Don't use them!!!!!
Ok. I feel better now. Maybe, just maybe, I won't see them so often if
you realize how evil they are. I can only hope, although I recognize
these "winners" reflect the tip of the iceberg. And yes. That's a
cliche.
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Resume Tip |
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The Application Specific Resume
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What exactly does it mean to tailor the resume you submit with your
application to complement the message of your essays? In practical
terms, it means that if you are applying to a school whose self-image or
class profile is unusually international, your resume should showcase
your global experiences in your work, community, or personal life.
Similarly, if you are applying to a school that emphasizes
well-roundedness (such as
University of
Michigan,
Wharton,
Cornell, or
USC), your resume should show your multidimensionality, your
breadth. And for schools like
Yale that emphasize social impact and
corporate responsibility you will want to spotlight your own social
impact activities or ethical profile.
For example, suppose you were trying to decide which of these two
achievements from your most recent position to include in your resume:
- Initiated, developed, and directed a $150 million portfolio of
European convertible bonds.
- Realized 20% staff reduction during firm's funding crisis while
leading 6-person group to same-period 5% productivity gain.
If you're applying to a more avowedly quantitative or
finance-oriented program you should lean toward the first bullet. If you
were applying to a team-oriented program like
Kellogg,
however, you would probably want to go with the second. By weighting
your resume toward these sorts of "team-enabling" achievements and
salting it with good cooperation-laden verbs like assist, contribute,
support, or provide you can go a long way toward showing admissions
official that you understand the Kellogg way.
--Paul
Bodine is the author of
Great Application Essays for Business School (McGraw-Hill)
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