GMAC published "Applications Rise at Business School Worldwide"  today with impressive stats about the just concluded 2008 MBA admissions season. A few highlights:

• "Among full-time MBA programs participating in the 2008 GMAC Application Trends Survey, 77 percent - the highest level in five years - said they saw application levels increase. This compares with 64 percent in 2007 and reflects the second-largest year-over-year surge in applications to full-time MBA programs since the survey was first conducted by GMAC in 2000."
• Part-time and EMBA programs also reported increases, but not at the same torrid pace.
• "The GMAT was administered 246,957 times during the testing year that concluded June 30, 2008, representing the busiest testing year ever for the exam."

The Wall St. Journal reports today that US New & World Report, which publishes the much watched and reviled law-school rankings, is considering changes to its rankings formula. These changes could have serious consequences for law schools and students.

The front-page article "Law School Rankings Reviewed to Deter 'Gaming' " claims that many schools are 'gaming" the rankings by using part-time programs as back doors into law school for applicants who may bring down their ranking.

Part-time students' stats have not been considered in the rankings and are generally lower. The part-time students frequently become full-time students during the second year, when their stats will not be considered by US News. That policy--or loophole--may disappear according to Robert Morse, director of data research at US News. The WSJ writes,

"Counting part-timers would roil the law-school rankings, which have a big impact on where students apply and from where law firms hire. A number of law-school administrators interviewed about the potential change contend it could have another effect: narrowing a traditional pathway to law school for minorities and working professionals."

Use the rankings for the data. Rank the schools for yourself.

While women now comprise nearly half the enrollment in both medical and law school programs (49 percent in medical school; 47 percent in law school), female enrollment in full-time MBA programs hasn't risen above 30 percent.

One reason for this disparity:  women often take a few years off (or more) for full-time motherhood, yet they know that a career in business often demands keeping up professional connections in a way that law and medical careers do not. Going on the "mommy track" for a few years can therefore leave women behind current trends in their field, while also missing out on valuable networking opportunities. In fact, a study released in June by the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business of nearly 1,000 Harvard undergraduates found that 15 years after graduation, female business school graduates were more likely than doctors or lawyers to have left the workforce. Fifteen years after graduating from Harvard College, 28 percent of the women who went on to get MBAs were stay-at-home moms, compared with only 6 percent of MDs.

But a recent column in The Wall Street Journal about "Mommy MBAs" noted that many schools remain committed to attracting young women with more flexible, part-time MBA programs. These include "morning MBAs," a distinct difference from most part-time MBA programs that hold classes on weekends or evenings only, and part-time programs that may allow up to seven years to complete the coursework. This flexibility is prized by many women, and probably explains why nationally, 37 percent of students in part-time, flexible MBA programs are female.

Part-time MBA students often have less access to recruiters than their full-time counterparts, but schools are trying to bridge that gap as well. The University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business now allows more flexibility not only with coursework, but also with the timing of internships. The Isenberg School of Business at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, has worked to encourage networking between students and female executives and faculty. The result? Female enrollment at this school is now above 50 percent.

Two good resources for women interested in a business career are AACSB.edu, which lists accredited programs, as well as ForteFoundation , which offers fellowships for women pursuing full-time MBA programs, as well as non-financial resources, including a job database and resume posting service, a networking database comprised of MBA alumnae, webinars specifically geared towards the MBA student, and an annual MBA conference specifically for women at Forte sponsor schools. While these are not specific to the part-time MBA student, these resources can still help women establish their business careers.

With incredulity, misgivings, and skepticism, I have set up a Twitter account and started "tweeting." No I am not bored. Maybe crazy, but not bored.

If you want to know what I'm up to and learn the latest and greatest admissions news ASAP, search Twitter either for Accepted or Linda Abraham. You can then follow me! And I'll know you really care. I may not know why, but I'll know you care.

And if you're not on Twitter, don't worry.  You can continue to read news via more detailed blog posts right here. No chirping allowed.

Every MBA candidate expects to write a goals essay. Everyone expects to tell a leadership story. These are the "flagship" pieces of any application--the essays that will help the admissions committee figure out what you've achieved and how you approach your professional life. But then, there are the "wild card" questions--these are almost always very personal, and they generally require very brief responses. "If you could be a character in a book, who would it be, and why?" "What's your most precious tangible possession? Intangible possession?" "What are you most passionate about?" "If you could spend a day anywhere... if you could invite anyone to dinner, living or dead..." and so on.

Why do the admissions committees ask questions like these, and--as so many of my clients have asked me--WHAT do they want to hear in response? What are they digging for?

Not all schools ask questions like these on their applications, but many do. If you look for the "question behind the question," you'll find that it invariably has something to do with their desire to understand your value system, your priorities, and your overall character. They don't just want to know what you've achieved (they can find most of that on your resume) or what you want your next job to be, though that is certainly important--they want to know who you are, what you care about, and how you respond to the world around you.

Remember, they're putting together a class of actual human beings--not just a bunch of high achievers, but a group of individual, idiosyncratic people with an incredible variety of likes, dislikes, belief systems and cultural practices--and they need to know how you're going to fit into their particular academic and social environment.

There is clearly no single "right" answer here, but there are plenty of wrong ones. The least effective essays I ever see on these topics generally involve inviting Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, and/or Bill Gates to dinner, or explaining why a framed undergraduate degree is one's most precious possession. And of course, far too many people write that if they could spend a day anywhere, it would of course be in the same "world-class, cosmopolitan" city where the B-school in question is located. These answers are doomed on many levels. They're predictable, they're dull, and they often make the mistake of assuming that adcom members are likely to respond positively to empty flattery and generic responses!

The best essays that I've read on this topic, on the other hand, offer the reader a small--but very clear--window into the writer's character. The personal items they discuss aren't particularly grand or expensive, their dinner guests don't always have instantly-recognizable names, and the books they choose to leap into aren't always best-sellers, but their responses are clear, authentic and insightful.

I think that your first and most important task here is to be as honest as possible with yourself--and in the essay you write--even if what you want to write about doesn't feel terribly impressive. I once worked with someone who wrote a terrific "important tangible possession" essay about a tiny piece of folded paper that he had carried in his wallet since middle school--a piece of paper with some meaningful words on it, written by someone he cared about. That essay worked because the writer approached it honestly, from a very "micro" level, and didn't try to hammer his reader over the head with a grandiose conclusion about life, leadership, or anything else. He simply answered the question and explained his response. That's all--but that was perfect!

In those essays that ask you to imagine yourself in a fantasy context or circumstance, it's a good idea to keep things grounded by focusing on illustrating some of the specific personal qualities you want to highlight in your application. You can write a good essay about spending your "anywhere in the world" day  practically anywhere--at a monastery in Mykonos, an archaeological dig in Egypt, a homeless shelter in Chicago or a food festival in Milan--you just have to come up with some really compelling reasons WHY you would do this, and discuss not just where you would go, but how you would spend the time and with whom.  Naturally, you'll want to choose something that is a bit of a challenge--not just something you could step outside your front door and do this Thursday--but you don't have to go overboard. You can even have a little fun with these sorts of topics--don't be glib and silly just for the sake of it, but feel free to let your imagination go a little bit.

Finally--and perhaps most importantly--don't spend too much time second-guessing yourself. You don't have to prove that you're incredibly cultured or brilliant... you don't have to drop important names... you don't have to "boldly go where no one has gone before"--you just have to show them who YOU really are, and in doing so, hopefully get them to care about you enough to let you in!

By Sonia Michaels, who has years of experience helping successful clients write revealing, authentic essays.