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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
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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

December 2006 Volume 9, Issue 12
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

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!

Ebook Sale
Oh yes! Another holiday sale. You can save 25% off all Accepted.com ebooks purchased by December 15, 2005. So don't wait. Hurry to get these gems while you can save.

Featured Ebook for December: The Consultant's Guide to MBA Admission
Are you a consultant interested in applying to business school? Do you have competitive stats? Impressive work experience? Yet have you failed to start an NGO in Nepal or pursue spelunking? In fact if you grab a few seconds from your long work days, do you find that you have done little since college other than work?

If you answered "yes" to these questions, you need The Consultant's Guide to MBA Admission, Accepted.com's Featured Ebook for December.

Time Marches On
'Tis the season when time marches 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 out of nowhere. But now is a great time to work on applications due in January. Don't delay. Help us help you. Sign up today for Accepted.com's services or contact your editor.

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 our Beautiful B-School Photo Contest for lots of prizes - including a $200 Amazon gift certificate -- and a chance to show your photo to the world!
 
For additional information and contest rules, please visit the Beautiful B-School Photo Contest Rules.

Upcoming Events

2006 MBA Admission Chats

Dec. 5

6:00 PM PT/9:00 PM ET

Consortium

Admissions committee members

Dec. 7

9:00 AM PT/12:00 PM ET/5:00 PM GMT

INSEAD

Johanna Helborg

Dec. 14

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

Cornell

Randall Sawyer

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
 

Clich�s of the Year
I haven't decided whether to have an annual "Clich�s of the Year" tip, but this year, I have a "Clich�s of the Year" tip. Either I am getting old and crotchety or you folks are including more clich�s in your writing, or it's just time to write about them. I think the latter.

A clich� according to Dictionary.com:

a trite, stereotyped expression; a sentence or phrase, usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea, that has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long overuse.

I like that definition. But I'll also share my own description. In a recent email to Accepted.com editors asking for their "favorites," I wrote:

Every year certain phrases seem to come into vogue, almost like an outlandish fashion that works only on a few models and rare occasions... and somehow everyone who is anyone wears it everywhere and all the time.

They cease to be fashion statements, to express anything.

So what are my "favorite clich�s" in personal statements and application essays?

And the winner is...

Take it to the next level

This poor phrase, abused and overused, has lost all meaning, distinctiveness, and color. Like the frequently washed, ancient tie-dyed T-shirt, it's long past retirement age. It's more than ready for the rag heap. Strike it from your essays! Frankly, when I see "take X to the next level" my eyes glaze over, and I really just don't want to read more because I have read this so many times before. That's not the reaction you want your essay to engender.

Now the Runner's Up, in no particular order.

  • Synergies: Jennifer Bloom nominates "synergies." She thinks they're "going nuts this year." Sheila Bender adds that she feels like sneezing when she sees "synergies" in a personal statement. You don't want your essays to trigger allergic reactions, do you?

  • Leverage: Tanis Kmetyk is seeing less of "leverage," but I still see too much of it for my taste.

  • Been there for me: So banal and hackneyed. And vague. Did he or she listen to you rant and rave at all hours of the night? Walk with you daily to help you deal with loss? Visit regularly? Sit with your quietly? Work long hours? Simply lend profound emotional support in uncounted ways large and small? For Heaven's sake tell me what they did!

  • The bottom line: Whatever happened to "conclusion," "summary," "crux," "main point," "core," or a host of other phrases. Bottom line means Income - Expenses. Limit its use to profit and loss statements.

These are just a few of the most pernicious clich�s that infest your essays. Don't use them!!!!!

Ok. I feel better now. Maybe, just maybe, I won't see them so often if you realize how evil they are. I can only hope, although I recognize these "winners" reflect the tip of the iceberg. And yes. That's a clich�.

Back to top
 
 
Resume Tip
 

The Application Specific Resume

What exactly does it mean to tailor the resume you submit with your application to complement the message of your essays? In practical terms, it means that if you are applying to a school whose self-image or class profile is unusually international, your resume should showcase your global experiences in your work, community, or personal life. Similarly, if you are applying to a school that emphasizes well-roundedness (such as University of Michigan, Wharton, Cornell, or USC), your resume should show your multidimensionality, your breadth. And for schools like Yale that emphasize social impact and corporate responsibility you will want to spotlight your own social impact activities or ethical profile.

For example, suppose you were trying to decide which of these two achievements from your most recent position to include in your resume:

  • Initiated, developed, and directed a $150 million portfolio of European convertible bonds.
  • Realized 20% staff reduction during firm's funding crisis while leading 6-person group to same-period 5% productivity gain.

If you're applying to a more avowedly quantitative or finance-oriented program you should lean toward the first bullet. If you were applying to a team-oriented program like Kellogg, however, you would probably want to go with the second. By weighting your resume toward these sorts of "team-enabling" achievements and salting it with good cooperation-laden verbs like assist, contribute, support, or provide you can go a long way toward showing admissions official that you understand the Kellogg way.

--Paul Bodine is the author of Great Application Essays for Business School (McGraw-Hill)

Back to top

Wrap Up


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