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Submit a Stellar Application

MBA BlastOff: 45 Terrific Tips to Launch Your MBA Application to Acceptance.

How to Write Great College Application Essays and Stay Sane

How to Write Great College Application Essays and Stay Sane

Best Practices for
MBA Admissions

The Finance Professional`s Guide to MBA Admissions Success

The Consultant`s Guide to MBA Admission

The Techie`s Guide to MBA Admissions


The Nine Mistakes You Don`t Want to Make on a Law School Waitlist


The Nine Mistakes You Don`t Want to Make on a Med School Waitlist

The Nine Mistakes You Don`t Want to Make on an MBA Waitlist

Great Application Essays for Business School

Great Personal Statements for Law School

Write Your Way to a Residency Match

Write Your Way to a Fellowship Match

MBA I.V.: Mainline to Top MBA Programs MBA Interview Questions and Tips

Create a Better Sequel: How to Reapply Right to Business School

November 2006 Volume 9, Issue 11
Free monthly newsletter Subscribers: 4811
Archives ISSN: 1526-2316
Published by Accepted.com Linda Abraham, Editor
Subscriber self administration

Accepted.com Odds 'N Ends


In This Issue:
 
What's New at Accepted.com
 


What's New at Accepted.com

What's New at Accepted.com

Comprehensive Help with Your Round 2 MBA Applications: Save up to $100

Save money by starting work on your Round 2 applications NOW. Purchase our comprehensive services by Nov. 30, 2006 and take advantage of these deals:

Don't let time slip through your fingers. Before you know it, you'll be facing both the holidays and a time crunch with the R2 deadlines. Now you can save money, get comprehensive, professional consulting and editing assistance, and start your essays early enough to submit your best.

Featured Ebook: Save on: Write Your Way to a Fellowship Match


How can you distinguish yourself in the competitive subspecialty match process? Cyd Foote and I tell you how in this successor to our best-selling Write Your Way to a Residency Match. In it you'll learn:

  • 16 steps to an exceptional personal statement.

  • 7 mistakes to avoid.

  • Tips for targeting programs

  • 5 criteria for choosing recommenders.

Write Your Way to a Fellowship Match is Accepted's featured ebook for November. You can get it at 20% off, this month only.

Do the College Application Essays Drive You and Your Family Crazy?

Don't let them. Read Sheila Bender's new ebook, Don't Let Writing the College Application Essays Drive You and Your Family Crazy. In it Sheila teaches you:

  • The 6-step process for writing application essays.
  • The appropriate and constructive role for parents.
  • 3 Tips for approaching this year's Common Application essays.
  • How to choose a topic for your essay.
  • 8 patterns of thought that create great essays.
  • And much more.

Beautiful B-School Photo Contest

I have long advocated school visits as a great way to learn about a school, its culture, and its student life. They also provide you with invaluable insights you can use to show your fit with the program in your essays and interviews.

Now you can have even more fun while visiting, especially if you're an amateur photographer yearning to be recognized for your artistic brilliance -- or just your nice photo. Compete in the Beautiful B-School Photo Contest for lots of prizes and a chance to show your photo to the world!

For additional information and contest rules, please visit our Beautiful B-School Photo Contest Rules.

Don't Miss the Admissions Chatter!

Columbia

Linda Meehan

Nov. 1

10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/ 5:00 PM GMT

CMU Tepper

Laurie Stewart

Nov. 9

10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/6:00 PM GMT

Michigan Soojin Kwon Koh & Jim Hayes Nov. 13 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/6:00 PM GMT 

Happy Thanksgiving!

If you would like to sign up for automatic chat reminders, please visit our chat subscription page.

And of course, last month's chats have generated must-read transcripts:

Blog Posts of Interest

Back to top
 

 
Essay Tip
 


Tightening Language


Want to know what I look for when I read an essay that tells a good story, but is 20-30% over the essay guideline or word limit? It needs editing, not major surgery. I don't really want to cut content, but I must cut verbiage. I look for clues, signs of lazy writing. These quirky writing tics tell me I can edit without taking away from the story line or changing the writer's voice.

  1. Passive voice. I harp on this a lot, but flipping a sentence from passive to active cuts words and usually creates more readable, active sentences. And you want to be active in your application essays! For example:

         The project was completed by my team. (7 words)

         My team completed the project. (5 words.)
     

  2. "To be" verbs. The verb "to be" has a legitimate place in written English, but it is frequently abused. Whenever I see a "to be" verb   ("is," "are," "was," "were," "being"), my delete finger gets twitchy. I start looking for ways to condense.


  3. This is the X that did Y. For example:

          "This was the strategy that we pursued." (7 words)

          "We pursued this strategy (4 words).


  4. Using noun forms of roots instead of verb forms. For example:

          "I came to the conclusion ..." (5 words) "I made the decision ..." (4 words)

          "I concluded..." (2 words) "I decided..." (2 words)


  5. I am able to trim words when I cut "am able to."

          "I was able to run the marathon..." (7 words)

          "I ran the marathon." (4 words).


  6. Lots of independent and simple clauses. You can frequently combine them and shorten the text. For example:

          "My mom is a fantastic cook and has lots of event planning experience. She helped me prepare for the fundraiser." (20 words)

          "My mom, a fantastic cook and experienced event planner, helped me prepare for the fundraiser. (15 words).

When you see these lazy writing fingerprints, check if editing will distort the essay's meaning. If not, it's DELETE time.

If you want a professional editing job that saves you time and cleans up your writing while maintaining your voice and content, please check out Accepted.com's personal statement and application essay editing.

Back to top
 

 
Resume Tip
 

I
If You Are Preparing a Resume for a Transition, Beware of Muddying the Message


Are you seeking a new job involving broader, higher-level responsibilities than you have yet undertaken, or applying to MBA or law programs from a technical background? You probably need to update your resume. If you're coming from a specialized background, beware of muddying your message by mingling too much technical detail with business-related information and accomplishments. When seeking a position that focuses more on management, problem solving, and strategy than on the technical qualifications of your specialization, communicate your technical expertise swiftly and succinctly. Provide more detail in the points that demonstrate your understanding of the business context and the accomplishments that impact the overall venture.

In essence, this involves some "letting go." You are proud - rightly so - of your accomplishments in your field. They've become part of your professional identity. But to move on, you must let those details go - at least in your resume. Rather than spotlighting your development of a highly successful application platform, for example, show how your understanding of the system's potential market impact drove your conceptualization of the product.

If you're targeting a business or management position that will directly employ your technical expertise, say IT product manager, the principle still applies. However, add a bit more technical detail - enough to convey your qualification for the position - but maintain the pre-eminence of the business message.

Your resume will be most effective if it has a clear focus, and that means making the decision to emphasize one thing over another. Trying to "balance" technical and business messages equally will only muddle your message. Impressive as your technical accomplishments may be, their intricacies will probably make your potential employer's eyes glaze over. On the other hand, she'll be thrilled to read about how your initiative to obtain more extensive customer feedback contributed to the successful market impact of the new technical application while also prompting a more rigorous internal development process.

By Cindy Tokumitsu
Editor/Writer, Accepted.com
Member, The Professional Association of Resume Writers

Back to top


Wrap Up


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?

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Check us out. Complete information on our services, including prices, testimonials, and information about our top-notch professional staff, can be found at our services page.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at info@accepted.com or 310-815-9553.

We look forward to serving you.

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