Accepted.com Odds 'N Ends

Religion and Politics: Controversial Topics, but Sometimes Too Important to Avoid
"Shouldn't I just steer clear of religion and politics in my personal statement? They're controversial subjects, today more than ever." 

Not necessarily. By their nature, religion and politics are deeply significant to many people, and thus the focus of their non-professional activities. For such applicants, discussing their religion or politics may help them create a compelling, distinctive profile. 

There is a wrong way and a right way to address politics and religion in essays. Wrong way: preaching. Essays and personal statements are not the place to make theological, political, or philosophical arguments. 

Right way: focus on the activities in which your political or religious interest has inspired you to participate. Like all applicants, you want to demonstrate initiative, communication and teamwork skills, leadership, and commitment to constructive goals. Your political or religious activities are one major way that you actualize these qualities. When you write about your activities, use details and anecdotes to create a vivid picture of your impact. And enhance your discussion of what you did and what you accomplished with the insight you gained from the experience. Finally, you represent yourself in your essays, not your religion or political party. In your discussion, apply your own critical judgment and analysis. The admissions committee wants to see your thought process at work, not your ability to adhere to the party line. Someone who is an independent thinker and still remains committed will appear mature, whereas someone who seems to need blinders in order to act on commitment may produce the opposite impression. 

For some applicants, the "story" of the evolution of their religious faith or political ideals is also good essay material. For example, if your parents are passionate "sixties liberals" and you became a politically active conservative during college, it could make an intriguing narrative. In such cases, focus on the challenges the change presented, how you handled those challenges, and what you learned in the process.

There is a bonus for applicants who effectively discuss their religion or politics: you show that you face up to the difficult issues of the time, and that you handle those issues with tact and maturity. 

Cindy Tokumitsu
Senior Editor, Accepted.com 

Nontraditional resumes
What is a "nontraditional resume"? In one sense, it can mean a creatively designed resume for a traditional job like an engineer or, in another, the plain-vanilla resume for the nontraditional applicants, like an actor or artist. This month we will be looking at a third, special subset of the "nontraditional resume": the use of creative or unusual resume styles for the nontraditional applicant. 

Nontraditional resumes often use bolder design elements, including graphics, multiple columns, or unusual type fonts. But visual differences are only part of their distinctiveness. On a mundane level, the content of resumes for nontraditional professionals such as interior designers, graphics artists, or film production people will usually include wording that a portfolio of their work is available. Similarly, dancers, choreographers, actors, and musicians will offer to supply a demo or audio tape. 

What would be highly inappropriate in a traditional banker's resume can be de rigueur in the nontraditional resume. Whereas describing oneself as "unhinged" or "insane" would damage one's chances at Goldman Sachs, it might be highly effective on a comedian's resume. Likewise, where references to one's age and vital measurements would be unwise on a stockbroker's resume, they are expected on a runway model's CV.
The body of the nontraditional applicant's resume can be distinctive as well. A media reporter might present her resume in the three-column newspaper article format, complete with headlines and subheads. A professional cartoonist might insert a sample of his strip into his resume, and a professional sports coach might include a multi-columned table showing her teams' win-loss and post-season records during her tenure. The body of a theater director's resume might be divided into a long Qualifications section to communicate overall skills and then a "Selected Directorial Efforts" section to list specific productions directed. The body of a professional singer's resume might begin with a "Vocal Profile" in which she communicates such information as pitch (contralto, etc.) and musical styles mastered (operatic, etc.). Next, she might include a "Performances" section that lists venues and songs performed and perhaps includes even an "audience reactions" subsection that quotes listeners' praise. For a writer, actor, or chef, this same testimonials type section might quote glowing passages from critics' reviews. Finally, a rock musician's resume might include a chronological "Band Experience" section followed by an "Equipment Owned" section, highlighting his arsenal of guitars and amplifiers.

While such unusual elements would be the kiss of death on an accountants' resume, they can be not only appropriate but effective--and even expected--for nontraditional careers.

Paul Bodine
Senior Editor, Accepted.com
Member, Professional Association of Resume Writers

Spring Special for MBA applicants Extended through May 31!
To get started on the right foot, take advantage of Accepted.com's Spring Special. You can purchase one hour of Admissions Consulting and one Initial Essay Package for only $650 (Stanford $800) -- that's $110.00 off Accepted.com's regular price for these services when purchased separately! Good through April 30 May 31, 2003.

Ratings Added to MBA Interview Feedback Database
One of my favorite features at Accepted.com is the MBA Interview Feedback DatabaseT, which allows those scheduled to interview at a business school to review feedback from those who have previously interviewed at that school.

Accepted.com editor Cyd Foote recently suggested an enhancement to the database:  a rating system that would allow users of the database to rate the feedback.  I liked Cyd's idea and decided to implement it. Visitors to the database can now rate the individual feedback forms on a scale of one (waste of time) to five (brilliant). This should make the database even more user-friendly and valuable for those about to interview.

The New MBA -- A full profile from The Chronicle of Higher Education
Debates about the proper balance in the MBA curriculum have raged for at least half a century, but as long as employers were hiring MBA. recipients in droves, schools had little incentive to change. Now that MBA ranks have swelled -- a record 112,258 students received their MBA in 1999-2000, a whopping 43% jump from 1990-91 according to the U.S. Department of Education -- and as the number of GMAT-takers continues to soar, schools, businesses, students, and applicants are raising new questions about the degree's value.

Critics complain that older programs are out of touch with today's business needs. While today's businesses operate in Internet time, they gripe that these programs train future business leaders using techniques and cases from ten years ago. MIT's business school was typical in that its old curriculum focused on an extensive set of required core courses in subjects like accounting, marketing, and finance and left students little room for electives. The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business recently concluded that textbooks and professors had not kept up with rapid changes in business. Its report, "Management Education at Risk," suggests that schools work more closely with businesses to ensure that the curriculum is up to date.

Most graduate business schools have concluded that they can no longer afford to be viewed as detached from the world they are training their students to enter. MIT's Sloan School of Management exemplifies the changes sweeping the business school world.

MIT now offers a new "Medical Innovations" course where MBA and engineering students collaborate with area research hospitals. The course is part of a sweeping revision taking place in Sloan's MBA program, and represents the specialized, project-based courses springing up at graduate business schools nationwide. Business schools are redesigning their curriculums, forging closer ties with businesses, and giving students more freedom to customize their degrees. In trying to give their graduates an edge in a brutal job market, the programs are also aiming to distinguish themselves from their competitors and respond to the concerns of disillusioned recruiters and students. 

Job applicants can use all the help they can get. In today's sluggish economy, an MBA is no longer viewed as a ticket to a six-figure salary. Instead of pondering multiple offers, many graduates who have just spent $100,000 or more at a top program find themselves scrounging for jobs that they would have considered beneath them when they started their MBA program. "Students are feeling that 'I've spent all this money and time, and I'm still having trouble getting the job I want.' That's part of the dynamic and tension everyone is feeling," said Robert S. Sullivan, former dean of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School.

MIT's curriculum overhaul, which goes into effect this fall, will break the traditional 13-week semester into two 6-week sessions, with an "innovation" week in between. During that week, students will be able to learn about faculty members' research, take a mini-course in leadership, tackle real-life business problems, or study a cutting-edge topic. Mr. Lo, the new curriculum's primary architect, says that "A one-week period when they can put their books aside will give them time for the material to sink in. They'll also have time to take what they've learned and put it into practice, or talk to people who have put it into practice." He adds that the objective in redesigning the MBA program was "to change the whole infrastructure so that it's adaptive and can change to address market conditions."

Another institution taking steps to rework its MBA and stand out from the competition is Penn State's Smeal College of Business, where students build their own "portfolio" from eight areas of expertise. In addition to the core curriculum, a student can, for instance, assemble a portfolio in e-business or product and market development. Like many MBA programs, Penn State has also developed courses and added work to existing courses that provide students with "soft skills" like communication, leadership, and teamwork.
In today's job market, "each person has to stand out that much more with complete and well-rounded skills," says the school's dean, Judy D. Olian.

Harvard Law School Has New Dean
Harvard Law School announced that Professor of Law Elena Kagan will be its next dean. A leading scholar of administrative law, Kagan has served on the faculties of both Harvard Law School and the University of Chicago Law School. In addition, she has previously held senior legal and policy positions in the federal government.

Kagan will succeed Robert C. Clark, who in November announced plans to conclude his service as dean on June 30, 2003, following fourteen years of service. 

University President Lawrence H. Summers described Kagan as an "imaginative scholar, a gifted teacher, a public-spirited lawyer and an energetic leader admired for her sound judgment and her capacity to inspire trust. She understands both legal academia and legal practice, enjoys broad respect among her colleagues and students and combines exceptional intelligence with a remarkable ability to bring people together around issues of academic and institutional importance. I have every confidence that her talents will advance Harvard Law School's vitality as a place of learning, and carry forward its leadership role in the world of law." 

For further details please see the Harvard Law School announcement.

AAMC Gearing Up for 2004 Applicants
The AAMC has announced that the 2004 AMCAS application will be online in early May.  In the meantime, it has posted the 2004 Application Worksheet so that applicants can start work ASAP.  AAMC also posted 2004 deadlines for all AMCAS schools. 

And these developments lead right to our next story...

Accepted.com Early Bird Special for Pre-Meds
Purchase selected Accepted.com Essay and Letter of Recommendation Packages by May 31 and receive 10% off the package price. Get a head start on your applications AND save money!

Match Day News From the NRMP
A record high number of residency positions were offered and filled in the 2003 Match. Of the 23,965 active applicants, 14, 332 were U.S. medical school seniors, 93% of whom matched to an open position in a participating residency program. 

The overall fill rates for internal medicine, pediatrics, surgery, anesthesiology, diagnostic radiology and pathology were all above 90%, with a few specialties over the 95% mark. Family practice, on the other hand, experienced a fill rate of only 76.3%, down 115 matches from last year.

For additional information, please see the complete results for this year's Match.

The AAMC vs. the Princeton Review
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the Association of American Medical Colleges has sued Princeton Review Inc., accusing the test-preparation company of copyright infringement, misappropriation of trade secrets, and fraud in a dispute over its methods of gathering detailed information about the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) that the AAMC administers.

Robert F. Jones, AAMC vice president, asserts that PR sends in employees disguised as students to take the exams in order to memorize the questions, thereby "stealing our creative work and using it to enhance their bottom line.that's against the law."

John S. Katzman, the Princeton Review's founder and CEO says his company will "vigorously dispute" the
lawsuit. He argues that his company does not send employees "in to memorize questions. We send them in to learn everything we can about the test.we think that's perfectly appropriate."

Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism Appoints New Dean
Columbia University has chosen Nicholas Lemann, the Washington correspondent for The New Yorker, to be the new dean at its famed Graduate School of Journalism. Mr. Lemann has an extensive background in journalism having also worked for 15 years for The Atlantic Monthly and having served as president of The Harvard Crimson, Harvard University's student-run newspaper.

For full story, please see Columbia's announcement.

Harvard Adopts New Rules For Early-Admission Applicants
The New York Times and The Chronicle of Higher Education have reported that for the second year in a row, Harvard University has changed the rules for its early-admissions program. As of this fall, it will no longer allow its early applicants to apply to any other college's early-admissions program. This represents a change in last year's policy, which, for the first time, allowed students to file early-action applications at an unlimited number of colleges, even if one of the other school's had a binding early-decision policy.

William R. Fitzsimmons, Harvard's dean of admissions and financial aid, said that his institution saw more students applying early who were also applying early to several other colleges. Though Harvard's policy change will make processing easier for his staff, Mr. Fitzsimmons said the college's primary concern is to help students. He maintained that if the number of early applications continued to rise, his committee would be unable to give each application appropriate attention.

Harvard, along with Princeton and Brown Universities, is now in clear violation of national guidelines
set by the National Association for College Admission Counseling, or NACAC. Those guidelines state that students are free to make multiple early applications, so long as no more than one is a binding early-decision application. The latest change sparked immediate complaints on NACAC's e-mail discussion list. As Scott White, a college counselor at Montclair High School, NJ protests, "It seems that these colleges have decided to do what they feel is best for them despite whether it conflicts with the policies of the professional organization to which they belong."

For the full story, please visit:
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/04.10/04-early.html 
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/11/education/11HARV.html?ex=1051075474&ei=1&en=8dd5d07396113991 

What's the difference between high school and college?
A recent survey conducted by ACT Inc. indicates that high school and college educators emphasize different writing skills in the classroom, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education. The survey data follow ACT college-entrance exam results showing that 46 percent of high-school seniors graduating in 2002 scored at or below 19 on the English portion of the test, out of a possible 36. This score indicates only marginal preparation according to the test administrators.

The survey was sent in November to 2,400 high-school English and language-arts teachers and 5,400
college faculty teaching entry-level humanities courses, including 900 instructors of English-language courses. About 35%-39% responded.

In a related article, The Chronicle also reports that a group of 61 leading research universities and the Pew Charitable Trusts have spent 3 years and $2.5 million assessing what college freshmen need to know to succeed academically. They are sending an information booklet reflecting the results of this assessment to every high school in the country in an effort to better align the curricula of high schools and colleges. The booklet, "Understanding University Success," gives detailed information on each area of study. Each high school will also receive a CD-ROM with sample syllabi, assignments, and work samples submitted by university faculty members.

Some, like Bill Powell, superintendent of the Strasburg School District in Colorado, are already planning to modify their schools' curricula based on the report. "This has raised the bar already," he said. "It gives information we never had before." 

Information about ordering the booklet and CD-ROM, or downloading a copy of the report, is available at the Standards for Success Web site.

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