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Odds 'N Ends
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tip of the month, admissions information for grad, law, MBA, and medical school applicants,
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Index
What's New at Accepted.com
Essay Tip of the Month
Resume Tip of the Month
MBA Admission News You Can Use
Law Admission News You Can Use
Medical Admission News You Can Use
College Admission News You Can Use
Our Services
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!
Time Marches On
'Tis the season when time marches at 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 mysteriously out of nowhere. Now is a great time to start on applications due in January. Don't delay. Help us to help you. Sign up today for Accepted.com' services or contact your editor.
Acceptances!
Those acceptances are starting to come in! If Accepted.com played any role in your application process -- whether as an informative Web site or advisor and editor -- please let us know where you were admitted, how we helped you, AND how we can do better. E-mail acceptances@accepted.com or visit our Share-Your-Success page at http://www.accepted.com/services/shareyoursuccess.aspx .
Arrogance or pride?
Many admission essays focus on achievements that you are proud of. That focus creates a challenge: How do you craft essays that reflect appropriate pride and confidence without any arrogance or bragging?
Here are a few tips:
- Provide specifics that demonstrate the magnitude of your achievements. Don't make grandiose, unsupported claims about them.
The Good: "While I was Membership Chair of the Dog Catcher's Union ("DCU"), the membership committee initiated programs A, B, and C, which increased the DCU's membership by 20% in less than one year - a record in the group's ten years of existence."
The Bad: "I used my exceptional leadership skills, which would really benefit your school, as Membership Chair for the Dogcatcher's Union."
- After describing your achievement, provide the analysis that the question requests. For example, if the question asks why you consider an achievement to be important, think about it and tell them!
The Good: "I am proud of my record with the DCU because I was able to serve my community -- despite our cause being an unpopular one -- and improve working conditions for those playing a vital role in our community"
The Ugly: "I believe my work on behalf of the DCU demonstrates my leadership skill and shows how I will add to the diversity of your school."
- Don't provide conclusions that the adcom isn't asking for. To use again the questions that ask you why you are proud of a particular achievement, provide your reasons. Then allow the reader to conclude your values mesh perfectly with the school's values. See the Good and Ugly in #3.
- Don't make unsupportable statements. You can claim singular knowledge, experience, or achievements only if you are positive that you exclusively have achieved X or experienced Y.
The Good: As a result of my experience as a trader on the Himalayan Stock Exchange, I have handled Challenges A, B, and C while trading in a developing, young securities market.
The Ugly: As a result of my experience as a senior trader on the Himalayan Exchange, I am the only applicant who can present the valuable perspective of a Himalayan professional.
- If discussing a weakness or failure, take responsibility for your actions. Don't belittle your competition, colleagues, bosses, teachers, or anyone else.
Pride and confidence are qualities that schools admire so don't indulge in false modesty. Tell your story proudly. And follow the tips above to make sure that you don't cross that fuzzy line into ugly arrogance and ding territory.
Resumes for College Seniors in a Tough Job Market
Today's college seniors: remember the situation you observed as freshmen three years ago? Seniors then weighed multiple job offers; recruiters competed hungrily for new grads.
As you know, that situation has reversed. Now you are the ones who have to compete to gain the attention of future employers. How do you distinguish yourself from many other talented seniors when you don't yet have a professional track record? Your resume is the answer.
You may not have work experience that reflects your knowledge, skills, and potential. However, your school-related accomplishments and activities likely do. You just have to be creative and resourceful in presenting them.
Here are some tips for mining your undergrad experience to create a profile of an engaged, impact-making individual who will contribute substantially on the job:
- List all academic honors and awards.
- List participation in any varsity sport(s), noting duration of participation and any notable achievement; add qualitative information if relevant - did you regularly boost the team's morale?
- Does your school require special papers, theses, or research projects? If so, note the paper/project, its title, grade if B or above, and quote any noteworthy feedback.
- If you have completed a "regular" paper or project that was especially significant in some way, mention it, explaining the significance.
- Flesh out activities. Don't just say "wrote regular articles for College Daily"; mention the frequency, average length, type of article. If you participate in a club even without holding office, detail your efforts.
- If you informally help a professor, say reviewing tests, reserving books, etc., note it.
- If you often help out classmates with schoolwork voluntarily, that's something to add.
- If your school requires four courses per semester and you regularly took five, a potential employer would like to know about your extra commitment.
- Foreign study experience: note any semesters or summers abroad, and add relevant detail about what you learned and did.
- If you have working knowledge of a foreign language, mention it - be sure to specify level, e.g., fluent, conversational, reading knowledge.
Good luck - but with persistence, creativity, and a dynamite resume, at least you won't have to depend on luck!
Cindy Tokumitsu
Senior Editor, Accepted.com
Member, Professional Association of Resume Writers
Wharton Changes Financial Aid Policy for Int'l Students
International applicants to Wharton's Class of 2005 are facing a new set of financial aid rules that could seriously affect the international representation of the Wharton School of Business. According to the Wharton Journal, Wharton's student default rate on loans to students has climbed over the last few years from less than 2% to 5%.
The changes are twofold:
- Students must acquire a visa before applying for a loan. In order to apply for a visa, the U.S. requires the student to show that s/he has assets to cover expenses in the U.S. for two years.
- Wharton Loans will only cover tuition and mandatory fees.
As a consequence of these two changes, international applicants, who used to be able to use the Wharton Loan to obtain a visa, will not have to use the visa to obtain the Wharton Loan. Secondly, by no longer including expenses other than tuition and mandatory fees, Wharton has created a real gap between what it provides and what its international students will need while a student at Penn.
For more information, please visit http://www.whartonjournal.com/news/313478.html?mkey=484833
UCSD to Launch New-Style B-School
Businessweek reports, that former dean of UNC's Kenan Flagler Business School, Robert S. Sullivan, has been wooed to San Diego to start a new business school associated with UC San Diego. The new school has every intention of marching to a different drummer than its well-established cousins at UCLA and UC Berkeley. Starting in 2004, it aims to attract techie, recent grads who want to finish their masters in one year, not the traditional two. Sullivan is planning an integrated curriculum that will take advantage of the new school's location - strong high-tech and bio tech in San Diego, excellent engineering and medical programs at UCSD, and neighboring Latin America.
Chats Coming Up
Dec. 4: NYU Stern with Julia Min and Stern students
Dec. 9: UNC with MBA Program Dean Bob Adler, Sherry Wallace, and KFBS students
Dec. 16: Indiana U's Kelley School with Jim Holman
Jan. 15: INSEAD
Jan. 20: USC
New Chat Transcripts
New transcripts have been posted for the chats held this month with Chicago, Cornell, Darden, and UT.
So if you would like to know what percentage of interviewed applicants are accepted to Cornell, how you can overcome a low undergrad gpa when applying to Chicago, or how recruiting is going at Darden, view the chat transcripts at http://www.accepted.com/chat/transcripts/#mba.
Grad Admissions News You Can Use
Unionization
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports mixed results for unionization drives at top universities this fall. Although graduate-student unions have been approved at 30 universities, Cornell's grad students rejected a union. In a decisive defeat, Cornell grad students voted 2-1 against a UAW-led union.
In contrast, graduate assistants at Penn won the right to form a union, from the National Labor Relations Board. AFT-affiliated Organizers of Graduate Employees Together - University of Pennsylvania was thrilled by the NFLB's decision and are planning a vote in the spring semester. Penn has indicated it may appeal the NFLB's decision.
Semiconductor Research Center at SUNY Albany
Tokyo Electron, Ltd., a Japanese manufacturer of microchips, says that it will provide $200 million over the next seven years to SUNY Albany. The State of New York has agreed to provide an additional $100 million for construction and equipment costs.
Law Chat Transcripts
We had a well-attended and informative chat with Loretta DeLoggio this month. She fielded a wide variety on question about specific law schools' admissions policies as well as more general questions like the following:
"If you had to name 3 qualities that law schools are looking for - beyond high LSATs and GPAs - what would they be?"
For the answer, please visit http://www.accepted.com/chat/transcripts/2002/law11142002.aspx.
HLS Going Soft?
I guess civility is becoming PC. CNN reports that Harvard Law School is considering a ban on offensive speech after the raw intellectual debate that the school is famous for degenerated into racial mud slinging.
Proponents like the Black Law Students Association, which first advocated the new policy, say they want to stop harassment or at last give the administration tools to deal with chronically offensive behavior. Others at HLS, including Dean Robert C. Clark, are clearly uncomfortable with anything that smacks of curbs on free speech. In response to the furor, Dean Clark has appointed a fifteen-member Committee on Healthy Diversity to make recommendations on a "speech code" by spring.
For more information, please visit http://www.cnn.com/2002/EDUCATION/11/24/harvard.speech.ap/index.html.
HLS DEAN TO STEP DOWN
Harvard Law Dean Robert C. Clark will resign his position as dean at the end of the 2002-03 academic year. He plans to return to teaching at Harvard Law after he steps down. Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers will appoint a faculty group to advise him on the search for Clark's successor.
Yale Surgery Residency Program Regains Accreditation
According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, Yale's School of medicine has regained accreditation for its general surgery residency program. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education withdrew accreditation last July because of the residents' grueling schedules - workweeks of 100 hours were typical. Yale has reduced the residents' workweek to a maximum of 80 hours per week with "call" no more than every fourth night and at least one full day a week without clinical responsibilities.
Applications Drop
The AAMC reports that the number of students applying to U.S. medical schools dropped for the sixth year in a row. This year's 33,501 applications represent a 3.9% drop from 2001 and slightly more than a 28% dive from 1996 when almost 47,000 applicants applied. It is also still more than applied in 1988, when 26,721 applied.
AAMC President, Dr. Jordan J. Cohen, also predicted a slight rise for 2003, based on the numbers of students taking the MCAT.
Applications Soar. Again
CNN reports that applications are swamping admissions staffs around the country. An increase in the high school population combined with a tendency among students to apply to an increasing number of schools is fueling the deluge.
The National Association of College Admission and Counseling reports that 81% of colleges participating in its annual survey reported an increase in application in 2002 over 2001. Anecdotally, many schools are receiving increased requests for applications and seeing bigger crowds at recruiting events.
UC Will Spot Check Information
The Chronicle reports that UC will ask an "unspecified number" of applicants to provide evidence supporting their claims in admissions essays and activity lists.
The university's "systemwide verification process," believed to be the first in the nation, is an outgrowth of UC's increasing reliance on qualitative factors in admission. A faculty group reviewing the impact of the university's changing admissions criteria concluded that academic quality of admitted students has not declined as a result of UC's new "comprehensive review" policy while also expressing increasing concerns about the reliability of information and claims in essays and activity lists.
Stanford and Duke Contemplate Staff Cuts
In the face of burgeoning budget deficits, two wealthy private universities are considering staff cuts to reduce deficits. The double whammy of declining income from investments and rising costs forces both universities to face painful decisions.
Writing a personal statement is a tough challenge. A former client, an NBC journalist with over twenty years of experience in the field, once said that his personal statement "was the toughest thing I ever had to write." He sought our help. Shouldn't you?
Accepted.com's editors are here to help you write your best essays - eloquent, compelling essays that distinguish you from the competition and transform you from a transcript and test score into a competitive applicant and unique individual.
Check us out. Complete information on our services can be found in our catalog. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at http://www.accepted.com/services/generalinquiry.aspx.
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