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Acceptances Rolling In

We love to hear about acceptances both from clients and from Acceptees, those who have benefited from Accepted.com's other resources: ebooks, this newsletter, the Accepted Admissions Almanac blog, the admissions chats, and our articles & email courses. Please take a minute to share your success by emailing us.

Featured Ebook for January: The Nine Mistakes You Don't Want to Make on an MBA Waitlist, an excerpt:

Mistake #3:  Hide your genuine interest in the school.

You discussed it in your essays already. You aren't really sure why you want to attend. Or you have been rejected everywhere else, so this is your last hope. There's no point in elaborating on your interest. Right? Wrong.

Right Move:  Reinforce the idea that this is the best school for you to achieve your goals.

While your qualifications relative to your peers' is primary in admissions, "fit" is a major factor. The adcom members want to know that you will do well in their school, not just in terms of academics, but also in terms of the school's culture and values. The last thing they want is to admit someone who will leave, drop out, or graduate and bad mouth the school.

If you want to know why this information is important and how to present it, look on page 10-11 of our featured ebook of the month, The Nine Mistakes You Don't Want to Make on an MBA Waitlist. And remember, save 20% on The Nine Mistakes You Don't Want to Make on an MBA Waitlist during the month of January.

Upcoming MBA Admissions Chats

• Jan. 5: MIT Sloan Application Tips at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/6:00 PM GMT
• Jan. 7: USC Marshall Tips at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/6:00 PM GMT
• Jan. 14: Ask Consortium Alumni Chat at 5:00 PM PT/8:00 PM ET/1:00 AM GMT
• Jan. 22: Michigan Ross Waitlist Chat at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/6:00 PM GMT  

All chats will take place in the Accepted.com chat room. For more details, please visit our chat schedule page.

Latest MBA Admissions Chat Transcripts

Last month's chats have generated must-read transcripts.  

• CMU Tepper MBA Admissions
• London Business School MBA Admissions
• NYU Stern MBA Social Enterprise
• NYU Stern MBA Marketing
• NYU Stern MBA Consulting & Strategy

Blog Posts of Interest

• Six things to Think About When You'd Rather Procrastinate on Writing Your Essays
• MBA Admissions: Prepare for Probing Interviews
• 16% Increase in Those Retaking LSAT
• Recession Hurts Private Universities and Public Colleges
• Medical School Admissions: Deferral?

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Essay Tip

Metaphors as Themes

You can use a metaphor as a phrase in your essay or as a whole theme that envelopes your essay. In either case, if used well and thoughtfully, metaphors will add color to your essay and anchor it with concrete images.

Let's discuss metaphors as themes in this tip. You can reveal an interest or hobby by using it as a metaphor. For instance, I used my favorite hobby, hiking, in "Personal Statement Tip: Topic Choice,"  my cross-country ski expertise or lack thereof in "Wimp Hill," and cooking in "Recipe for Disaster: Application Mistakes You Want to Avoid" (MBA) and Recipe for Disaster: (Law) . The author of the college sample essay, While the World Sleeps, successfully uses running to convey her boundless energy and determination. In all cases, personal experience frames the piece, allows the writer to better connect with the readers, and adds interest. 

Be genuine when choosing your metaphor and reflect a real passion of yours. If you never cook, don't use a cooking metaphor. If you are a couch potato, don't talk about ironman marathons. But if old silent movies are your love, what do you see in that form of entertainment and what have you learned about human nature and communication from those oldies?

And if you aren't interested in silent movies, running, hiking, cross country skiing, or cooking, what makes you tick? Painting? Tennis? Drama? Dance? A specific volunteer commitment? What have you learned in this activity? How has it changed you? Could you use it in an essay?  Think about it.

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Resume Tip

Proofreading Your Resume
After all the time and energy you've invested in preparing your resume, don't skimp on the last step: proofreading. A minor error may go unnoticed - or it may signify to the reader a lack of professionalism and attention to detail. Moreover, because resumes contain varied formatting elements, different types of numbers, and unique spellings, they are especially challenging to perfect.

Here are some tips for proofreading your resume effectively.

• Complete all the editing first. Do not proofread while you're "finishing up" the last few changes. Make sure all the content is completely set. Then start the proofreading as a separate task, and give it your full attention.
• Try to leave some time between the last edit and proofreading. It is too easy to "see" words, punctuation, and graphic elements as you had previously envisioned them if you have just recently worked on the editing.
• Do not rely on your spellchecker; read every word carefully.
• Do not just look for errors. Check for consistency. Spelling, grammar, and punctuation are not like mathematical formulas. You make many choices in writing, e.g., "gray" or "grey," "11-03" or "11/03," "10%" or "10 percent," "PhD" or Ph.D." These are all correct, but if such matters are not consistent in the resume they will be incorrect. For example, if you use periods in titles such as M.D., B.A., etc., use them in every title. You also need to decide about matters such as capitalization, use of commas in a sequence, and different kinds of dashes. A resume is more likely to have inconsistencies than actual errors.
• Formatting is an important factor in resumes. In proofreading, also examine the graphic elements. These elements include bullets, rules, boxes, line spacing, margins, fonts, bold, indentation, and italics. These items too must be consistent, for clarity as well as correctness.
• If you are customizing your resume, proofread the whole new resume, not just the changes, because it's easy to change a document on the computer in unintended ways.

Cindy Tokumitsu
Editor, Accepted.com
Member, Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants

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Wrap Up