Pre-Season Consulting
2010 MBA Applicants: If you only want a few hours of consultation and you want it now, Accepted Pre-Season Consulting is for you.
During your consultation, you and your advisor will discuss your goals and educational preferences, your strengths and weaknesses. Together you will develop a solid strategy so that when the time comes to start writing the essays you'll hit the ground running.

B-School Photo Contest Ends April 30th
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.

Featured Ebook
Create a Better Sequel-- April's Featured Ebook
Create a Better Sequel shows you how to craft a compelling application and gain admission to top MBA programs -- the second time around.
Here are a few of the topics covered in this succinct, instantly downloadable MBA reapplicant report:

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Chats

Upcoming Chats

Join Accepted.com's President, Linda Abraham, as she hosts the MIT Sloan Waitlist Chat with Jennifer Burke Barba. The chat will be held on Tuesday, April 7, 2009 at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/5:00 PM GMT. Jen Burke Barba, MIT Sloan's Assistant Director of MBA Admissions will discuss MIT Sloan's waitlist policies and procedures.

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

New Chat Transcripts
Last month's chats have generated must-read transcripts. Check out the following newly posted chat transcripts:

• "I'm Smart, Really I Am!" How to Prove Character Traits in Essays
• 3 Factors to Consider When Choosing Which B-School Offer to Accept
• Prepare for Interviews with Positive Imagery
• Despite Recession, Medical Schools Expanding
• Law School Application Reader's Thoughts
• Record Match!

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Essay Tip

Put Your Best Foot Forward...And Make Sure It's Your Foot

Periodically, I am asked about the wisdom of lying on the application or the advisability of other admissions "irregularities." Now you all know that lying is wrong. And if you don't, I am not going to waste every reader's time trying to convince you of that here and now. But sometimes, when in an ends-justify-the-means mode, any of us can make errors of judgment and ethics. These errors become particularly possible when we exaggerate the upside and minimize the downside of a particular course of action.

So I am going to share an e-mail I received. Concerned about frequent job changes and wanting to present a more stable work history, this young woman extended her time at one job and eliminated another job from her application. Now, accepted to two of her "dream" schools, she writes,

" ... quite honestly the guilt is killing me.

"When I start school next fall, I want to go back to my other resume — the truthful one that lists the jobs I've had and the correct dates. My question is this. Can I do this without having admissions find out? Is there any overlap between admissions and when school starts and I begin working on my resume with the career center? I realize my lying would get me expelled if I were caught. Or, do I have to keep using my lies and hope recruiters don't call that job reference?

"I've put myself in a real bind, because I've always been an ethical person. I think if I can just go back to the honest resume I can put this episode behind me — but I just don't want admissions to find out."

I can just see some cynics condescendingly rolling their eyes and hooting,

"Oh come on! The career centers don't check with admissions to verify the data. And besides, she can just keep her new dates on resumes from now on. No one will care about a job she had years earlier and changed the dates on."

Well Cynic, the chances of discovery are low, but not non-existent. Furthermore, the consequences are devastating — far worse than acceptance at a lower ranked school. I personally know of a corporate officer who was forced to resign from his company after a twenty-year, stellar career when someone disclosed to his bosses that a claimed college achievement had never happened.

Maintain your integrity. Remember, put YOUR best foot forward.

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Wrap Up