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Accepted.com Odds 'N Ends
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What's New at Accepted.com |
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Accepted.com Extends Discount on MBA Services
We are extending
our discount on
Pre-Season Consulting and
Application Review through May
31, 2004. Get a jump-start on the 2005 MBA application season AND save
$25.
Hey, Pre-Meds, We're not Leaving You
Out!
Purchase
Essay and
Letter of Recommendation Packages by May 31 and
receive 10% off the regular price. It's going to be a tough
medical school application season. You want your essay to present you at
your best. Get experienced admissions professionals to help you with
your personal statement and improve your chances of acceptance while
saving money.
AMCAS Magic
Please join us on Thursday May 6, 2004 at 6:00 PM Pacific Time (7:00 PM
Mountain Time; 8:00 PM Central Time; 9:00 PM Eastern Time) for the first
pre-med chat of the 2005 application season.
Linda Abraham, Accepted.com's president and founder, will be available
to answer your questions about writing for the AMCAS applications.
AMCAS will start accepting applications in just a few short weeks.
Competition for spots in medical school is fierce, and will be fiercer
this year if the April MCAT volume is any indicator: 7% more tests were
administered in April 2004 than in April 2003, according to AMCAS.
Now is the time to make sure your personal statement does its job. Find
out how to write an essay that presents you at your best.
For further information, please visit Accepted.com's
chat schedule page or e-mail medchat@accepted.com
.
Accepted.com Admissions Almanac
I've started blogging. Now, instead of finding interesting articles and
putting them away for a few weeks until it is time to publish O&E, I
can put them up on my blog ASAP.
As a result, readers of
Accepted Admissions Almanac will find out about
admissions news as it happens. If you want to know the latest on the
admissions scene, along with my thoughts on a host of related topics,
please subscribe to the blog's RSS feed.
The other good news is that Odds 'N Ends will become leaner, but not
meaner: Just the admissions tip, resume tip, and Accepted.com news from
next month on.
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Essay Tip |
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6
Steps to a Remarkable Reapplication
OK. You didn't get accepted at any of the
schools you applied to. What should you do now?
Deal. Get over it. And consider what you're going to do next
year. If you decide to re-apply, you need to assess what went
wrong and resolve to improve it.
- Determine what you need to change. You definitely need to
do something different, because your previous approach didn't
work. Don't turn in the same essays.
- Analyze your qualifications versus your target schools'
average stats and requirements. If you are applying with below
average stats at more than two schools and are not from an
under-represented minority, you are relying on miracles and not
applying effectively. You either need to improve your profile or
apply to less-competitive schools.
- Seek feedback. Some programs, particularly MBA programs,
give constructive feedback to re-applicants. If your school
provides that service, take advantage of it ASAP. You want to
hear the criticism as early as possible so that you have as much
time as possible to deal with any defects or weaknesses.
Furthermore, some schools only provide feedback during a small
window of time. So don't delay.
- Evaluate your application. Do your essays and letters of
rec (if you have access to them) add to the reader's knowledge
of you? What could you do to improve them? Consider using
Accepted.com's
application evaluation service to help you with
this step.
- Work on weaknesses. For example, if you applied to
medical school with limited or no clinical experience, start
volunteering at a local free clinic or hospital. If you applied
to business school with a low GMAT, study for and retake the
test.
- Prepare to highlight valuable recent experiences. When
you reapply, you want to show that you are "new and improved."
For example, if you are pre-law and worked for the last six
months at the DA's office, you will highlight that experience,
related achievements, and lessons learned in your resume and/or
essay when you reapply.
SAVE THE DATE:
Accepted.com is hosting,Create a Better Sequel: How to Reapply Right to Business School, a teleseminar on reapplying to MBA programs. The
teleseminar takes place on June 10, 2004 at 5:00 PM PT/8:00 PM
ET. Please click on the link for details.
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Resume Tip |
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Bullets or Paragraphs?
The heart of every resume is the accomplishments (or
sometimes responsibilities) listed under each employer. What is
the best way to present this crucial information? As
bullets-one- to two-line incomplete sentences highlighted by a
"bullet" or similar display element-or as
paragraphs-full-sentence "mini-essays" of three lines or more?
The obvious advantage of the bullet is its visual appeal-it
draws the reader's eye to the most important material: your
accomplishments. In his book Trashproof Resumes, Timothy
Haft asked over 200 corporate recruiters and career development
professionals, which they preferred to see in resumes, bullets
or paragraphs. Almost three-quarters of recruiters and
two-thirds of counselors preferred bullets.
Case closed? Perhaps, but even those recruiters and
counselors would probably agree that the bullet style can be
misused and is not suitable for every resume. A row of six or
seven straight bulleted items, for example, wastes the
attention-grabbing impact of the bullet, as do bulleted items
more than two lines long. Likewise, because bullets should be
fewer than three lines in length and bullet sections should be
set off before and after by a blank line, they rob you of
valuable "real estate" you could use to greater effect.
For some resumes, then, the paragraph approach will be the
answer. As John Lucht notes in Rites of Passage,
paragraphs can be (1) more credible because they mirror the
prose style of newspapers and books whereas bullets suggest the
throwaway superficiality of ad copy and (2) more persuasive
because using full sentences and transitional words like "as a
result" or "consequently" allows you to show the evolution and
interconnectedness of your impact.
Some resume experts even claim that the paragraph style is more
than a useful alternative to bullets-it's the only choice. In
Best Resumes for Attorneys, Joan Fondell and Mary Jo Russo
characterize bullets as "distracting and unprofessional" and
urge the use of "detailed, but concise" "prose-style"
paragraphs.
Consider carefully which approach, bullets or paragraphs, will
work best for your specific needs.
Paul Bodine
Senior Editor, Accepted.comBack to top
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MBA News You Can Use |
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Ask Accepted.com
I have been asked to contribute to a number of MBA Web sites
in the last couple of months. Thank you to my hosts,
specifically:
The MBA Association which has published two of my articles
("
Where Should You Apply " and "Wait-list Purgatory"), and has
invited me to respond to questions on a thread in its forum. You
can find my thread and post questions at the
Ask Accepted.com
thread . The MBA Association is an international organization of
MBA applicants, current students, and alumni.
The GMAT Club , a 5000-strong group profiled a few months ago in
O&E, started out strictly focusing on the GMAT with an active
forum supporting GMAT-test-takers worldwide. It has expanded to
include admissions advice and invited me to host a forum. You
can ask your admissions questions there at the
Ask Accepted.com
forum .
MBADiversity has also asked me to contribute. Its magazine,
The
Network, has published one of my articles: "
Wimp Hill " an
article about cross-country ski adventures and failure essays.
The Network also quotes my views on the current rankings
brouhaha in "
Top Schools Resign from the Ratings Game ."
Harvard and Wharton won't cooperate with BusinessWeek anymore
BusinessWeek Online reports that Harvard and Wharton
have informed them that they would not be providing access to
the Class of 2004, citing privacy concerns and policies against
providing e-mail information to commercial enterprises, among
other reasons. Harvard was ranked No. 3 on the BusinessWeek
list in 2002 and 2000 overall (and No. 14 and No. 4 in student
satisfaction in 2002 and 2000, respectively). The University of
Pennsylvania's Wharton School ranked No. 5 on the list in 2002
and No. 1 in 2000 (and No. 12 and No. 3 in student satisfaction
in 2002 and 2000, respectively).
Since 1988, the BusinessWeek rankings have measured
customer satisfaction among current-year MBA students/graduates
and the recruiters who hire them. It is the only ranking in
which students play a significant role. They are asked to
analyze, among other items, the quality of their school's
education and curriculum, professors, teaching and career
guidance.
BusinessWeek believes that the rich and detailed data
gathered by their surveys provides prospective MBAs with
independent data that helps them decide which programs are right
for them. With the cost of an MBA program reaching more than
$30,000 per year in tuition alone, plus lost wages, the decision
about which program to attend has become increasingly complex.
Class of 2004 Wharton and Harvard students have been invited to
contact BusinessWeek about participating in the 2004
student survey by writing to:
MBA2004@businessweek.com .
USC Picks New Business School Dean
The Los Angeles Times reports that management scholar
Yash Gupta has been named dean of the University of Southern
California's Marshall School of Business and holder of its
Robert R. Dockson Dean's Chair in Business Administration,
effective July 1. Gupta will succeed Randolph W. Westerfield,
who led the USC Marshall School for 11 years.
Almost two years after the longtime dean said he would step down
to return to teaching, USC Marshall School of Business has
selected a new leader who is skilled at both revamping curricula
and raising money. For the past five years, Gupta has been dean
of the University of Washington Business School, where he
revamped the undergraduate and graduate curricula and boosted
fundraising by 400%. Before joining the University of
Washington, Gupta was dean and professor of management at the
College of Business Administration of the University of Colorado
at Denver and had also received numerous honors and awards. In
1996, he was ranked the No. 1 production and operations
management scholar in the country.
Professor R. Glenn Hubbard Appointed Dean of Columbia
Business School
Columbia University President Lee Bollinger has announced that
internationally renowned economist R. Glenn Hubbard has been
named the new dean of Columbia University's Graduate School of
Business. Hubbard, the former chair of President Bush's Council
of Economic Advisers, will assume leadership of the school
effective July 1, 2004, upon the retirement of the current dean,
Meyer Feldberg.
Professor Hubbard, the Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance
and Economics, joined Columbia in 1988. He is a faculty member
in the finance and economics division of Columbia Business
School and holds a joint appointment with the University's
economics department. In addition to writing more than 90
scholarly articles in economics and finance, he is also author
of a leading textbook on money and financial markets, Money, the Financial System, and the Economy.
Looking forward to accepting his new post, Hubbard noted, "This
is an exciting time for Columbia. We live in a time in which the
success of business has transformed our economy and our society
in significant ways. At home and around the world, business
gains are essential for prosperity - and freedom. With its
global reach and strong student, faculty and alumni networks, I
know that Columbia Business School will be a leader in ideas and
shaping the possibilities of business for society.
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Med Admissions News You Can Use |
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Wayne State offers guaranteed medical
school admission under new program
MLive.com reports that Wayne State
University is offering a new program that guarantees acceptance
into its medical school if the student completes an
undergraduate degree with a 3.3 grade-point average. The medical
college receives about 3,000 applications each year for 256
slots in the incoming class. Students in the new "MedStart"
program will attend monthly seminars, have research
opportunities and one-on-one interaction with medical school
students and staff. The program, which begins this fall with 15
students, is designed to create more well-rounded doctors. In
addition to the grade-point average, students must submit a
medical school application to be accepted, but they don't have
to take the MCAT.
Similar programs are offered at more than 30 colleges and
universities, according to the Association of American Medical
Schools. Michigan State University, for example, has a similar
program called the Medical Scholars Program. It guarantees
acceptance to the College of Human Medicine for 10 students.
Created several years ago, it was designed to give smart, future
doctors a chance to have a different undergraduate experience by
keeping them out of "premed syndrome, the dog-eat-dog
competitiveness of getting the best scores, getting the best
grades and really only focusing on self," said Dr. Christine
Shafer, assistant dean for admissions at the medical school.
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Law
Admissions News You Can Use |
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Octogenarian Law Student
The New York
Times reports that it has taken everyone at the
Syracuse University law school a little while to get
used to the idea of an 81-year-old first-year student.
At 81, Jeanette Goldstein was the oldest law student
ever admitted to the school. Now, as an 83-year-old
third-year student about to graduate and go off into the
real world, Mrs. Goldstein is barely noticed around
campus. "I blend in," she said, "I wear jeans and a knit
top like everyone else."
Her work ethic, however, is exceptional, as she
gets to school by 8:30 AM, spends every free minute in
the fourth-floor reading room, and does not leave until
8:30 at night, seven days a week. "I never allow more
than 20 minutes for lunch," she said. While her
classmates take notes and type papers on laptops, Mrs.
Goldstein spends most of her time cutting and taping her
written ideas together. She then pays to have her papers
typed for her. Her son Jeremy bought her a laptop but
she made him take it back. She regrets not having
learned to type, but as a young woman, it was a matter
of principle. "I never wanted to get stuck as a typist
in an office," she said.
Now that everyone at school is used to Mrs. Goldstein,
it's the outside world that's curious. The local
newspaper, The Post-Standard, recently put her on
the front page. Local TV stations are also calling, as
people want to meet an 83-year-old law student.
Of the 280 who started in 2001, she is one of 231
expected to graduate next month. The day after
graduation she will begin a bar review course. She plans
to take the New York and New Jersey bar exams.
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Grad Admissions News You Can Use |
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Faculty-Salary Increases for 2003-4 Are the Lowest in 30 Years
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that
average salaries of full-time faculty members have risen by just
2.1%, to $66,475, in the 2003-4 academic year, the lowest
percentage increase in three decades, according to an annual
report by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).
The data are based on a survey of 1,343 colleges and
universities.
The report claims the tiny increase in average salaries is due
in part to the low rate of inflation this year (1.9%). The
report, which is to appear in the March/April issue of the AAUP
publication Academe, also cites state budget cuts, which have
caused public institutions to keep salary increases small.
Nationally, state appropriations for higher education declined
by 2.1% in 2004.
Because public institutions have suffered greater cuts than
private ones, the salary gap between public and private
universities continued to grow. On average, full professors at
public doctoral institutions in 2003-4 earned only 77.4% of what
their counterparts at private universities earned. That is the
lowest proportion since the AAUP began collecting data, in the
late 1970s.
The increase in tuition and fees from 2002-3 to 2003-4 far
outstripped the rise in faculty salaries. While tuition and fees
rose, on average, by 6% at private four-year institutions and
14% at public two- and four-year colleges, faculty salaries rose
by only 3.2% at private institutions and 1.6% at public ones.
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College Admissions News You Can Use |
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UC
cuts freshman class 7% for upcoming fall semester
The Los Angeles Times reports that for the first time
in four decades, the University of California school system is
unable to accept all eligible students due to the governor's
request and budget reductions. Reflecting the state's budget
woes and a request from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to reduce
freshman enrollment, the University of California has admitted
3,368 fewer freshmen than it did last year. UC officials
said all California residents who met eligibility requirements
but were not admitted were offered alternatives, including
winter or spring admission or guaranteed transfers from
community colleges as juniors. The system-wide numbers do not,
however, include out-of-state or international admissions, which
typically make up less than 10% of the student population at the
state's top public university system. Across the university
system, admissions officials said, about 73% of those who
applied were offered a slot this year, compared with about 76%
last year. Within the system, however, UCLA and UC Berkeley each
turned away about three out of every four students who applied,
officials said.Yale's Early Action policy reevaluated
The Yale Herald reports that hundreds of nervous
high-schoolers have visited the Office of Undergraduate
Admissions this spring, hoping that showing up in person will
help them get in. Indeed, changing from a binding early decision
(ED) program to a non-binding single-choice early action (EA)
program has affected the strategies that high school students
use when applying to college. The switch to EA was also
reflected in the fact that Yale's early admissions applications
increased by 55% from last year. Although Yale admission policy
changed this year, the admissions office's central goal of
selecting high-performing, engaging applicants remains the same,
according to Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Richard Shaw. "Our
feeling is that so far, the program seems to be working," Shaw
said, just days after mailing thick envelopes home to 1,950 high
school seniors. EA, Shaw explained, "opened up the opportunity
for kids to apply early who might not have done that before,
because they were worried about locking in [under a binding ED
program]." As a result, "we saw a much more diverse applicant
group," he added.
Shaw also emphasized how the non-binding program takes some
pressure off of applicants: "We believe kids develop a lot their
senior year and forcing kids to apply early and lock in early
precludes them from discovery. There's a benefit in allowing
students to be in more control of their destiny."
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| Wrap Up
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Forward This Issue
Please forward this issue to friends interested in graduate school admission. They will thank you and so will we!
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