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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
Early-Bird MBA Special
Gain the early advantage in MBA admissions and save money. Order
MBA essay services this month to save 10%.
As I am writing this column, Harvard's, Haas', and Columbia's
2007 MBA application questions are already out. The other schools
will be releasing their question over the next several weeks. For
those of you aiming for Round 1 deadlines with the GMAT behind you,
now is a great time for you to start work AND save money.
10th Anniversary Ebook Sale
Accepted.com launched on the July 4th weekend in 1996. That's ten
years ago! To celebrate our 10th anniversary, Accepted.com is giving
you -- our clients, visitors, readers, and subscribers -- 19.96% off
all ebooks and CD's thru July 9, 2006. Please visit our
bookstore for details.
Upcoming Events
MBA Admissions BlastOff Teleseminars
The feedback on our last
MBA BlastOff teleseminar has been excellent. Listeners could not
believe how much information Maxx Duffy and I provided during our
last free teleseminar in May. This month we have two BlastOff
teleseminars scheduled:
- July 12, 2006: MBA Application BlastOff: How to Transform
Your Resume, Recommendations, and Interview into Application
Assets
- July 27, 2006: Admissions Consultants' Secrets for H/S/W
If you haven't yet registered for these previews of our 2-day MBA
Admissions BlastOff workshop and seminar, please sign up at the
MBA Admissions BlastOff
registration page. Doing so will give
you access to previous and future teleseminars as well as
information about our Labor Day MBA Admissions BlastOff, a 2-day
immersion in techniques and strategies to gain admission to top MBA
programs. Don't forget, if you sign up now, you can take advantage
of the two-pay option, which will end soon.
Coming Soon
for MBA Applicants.
Stay tuned to
the web site and Accepted
Admissions Almanac for the latest admissions news in between
issues of Odds 'n Ends.
Recent Transcripts
Suny Upstate Medical School Admissions with Jennifer Welch
Johns Hopkins Medical School Admissions with Paul White
IMD MBA Admissions with Janet Shaner will be accessible from the
MBA chat transcript page by the end of the week.
Blog Posts of Interest
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Essay Tip |
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Flaws are Real
A speaker recently told a story about traveling in Asia where he saw a
stunning emerald. Enchanted by the stone's beauty, he decided to buy it.
On the spot.
He returned home and took the emerald to a jeweller for appraisal.
The jeweller began to examine the stone through his magnifier, and as he
did so, his face went pale.
"What's the matter?" asked the proud owner of the emerald.
"I can't find a flaw." said the jeweller.
"Wonderful!" said the stone's owner.
"No, it's not. If the stone is flawless, it's a fake. A phony. It's
not real. Nothing in the natural world is flawless." replied the
jeweller.
"Then find a flaw!!!"
After a few more tense moments the jeweller found a small flaw, and
the owner of the emerald could again enjoy its beauty without worrying
that he had been taken in by a piece of plastic masquerading as a gem.
The adcoms are trying to appraise you through your essays. If they ask
you about a flaw, failure, or weaknesses, as for example
HBS does in its third question and you fail to provide that proof of
authenticity, then you will be a phony and fake in their eyes.
Remember what the jeweller said: "Nothing in the natural world is
flawless." Everything in nature has an imperfection, a flaw. Certainly
homo sapiens are wonderful proof of his point. But, the question becomes
how do you handle your flaws, faults, and failures? Do you deny they
exist? Do you just throw up your hands and say, "That's me. Take it or
leave it."
If asked, don't hesitate to reveal a real weakness. Also, try to show
how you have strengthened that area, developed other talents to
compensate, or grown as you dealt with and minimized your imperfection
so that over time it has become much harder to see, perhaps
imperceptible.
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Resume Tip |
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Avoiding "Crutch" Words in Your Resume
With the application season getting underway or just around the
corner, many of you are revamping and updating your resume as a
first step in the application process. Many will succumb to the
temptation to use generalities and buzz words as a crutch to
make the process go faster and/or to try to sound in sync with
their target audience, the adcoms. What is the problem with such
words? They don't say anything. They're deceptive. On first
glance, they seem clear, but when you really think about what
they mean - nothing is there.
Here
are some examples of the two types of words and how to avoid
them.
Generalities. Leadership, entrepreneurial - those might just be
the two most overused generalities currently decorating resumes.
"Provided leadership to newly formed pricing team." Sounds okay
- at first. What exactly does "provided leadership" mean? It
could mean motivating the team to stick to its recommendation in
spite of senior management's initial skepticism, getting a
cross-functional group to envision a common goal and utilize
their diverse skills to meet it, or numerous other interesting
and meaningful achievements. Similarly, consider, "Instilled
entrepreneurial attitude among administrative staff."
"Entrepreneurial attitude" can mean any number of things -
seeking and grabbing opportunities, individual accountability
and initiative - but the reader would never know if you used the
vague phrase.
Buzz words. "Drive," "add value," "change" (alone or following
"drive"), "leverage" are just a few. "Drove process to create
common technology platform across divisions." Impressive, or so
it sounds, until you start to wonder just what the writer meant
by "drove." Developing the process? Getting resistant users
onboard? Leading an implementation team? Any or all of the
above? Or consider "add value" - what value, exactly, and how
did you add it? "Change management" is tricky, in that it is an
accepted phrase in the business community, yet used alone it
doesn't say much. If you feel it would be helpful to show
familiarity with the concept, use the phrase and then specify,
e.g., "Employed change management by doing [specific thing]
when/where/how/with or for whom."
Generalities and buzz words are seductive - don't fall for them!
Cindy Tokumitsu
Senior Editor, Accepted.com
Member, Professional Association of Resume Writers
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Our Services
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
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Check us out. Complete information on our services, including
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