31 Dec 2005

New Year's Greetings

Happy new year everyone! Best wishes for good health, cheer, and success in attaining all of your educational ambitions in 2006!

28 Dec 2005

NYU Stern "Personal Expression" Essay #3

Thanks to one of our loyal blog followers for providing us with the scoop on this story. Turn up the speakers on your computer and listen to some of the interesting stories from Stern concerning submissions for this very unusual essay topic: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2005/12/27/PM200512276.html

22 Dec 2005

Our Odd Phone Call of the Day (Or Even the Week, for That Matter!)

You get a lot of strange phone calls when you run a business. Our odd call of the day for today came from a a gentleman who told us that he was acting as an admissions "consultant" for a family whose child is applying to college. He wanted to know from us which SAT test or tests (SAT I or SAT II) the high school student should take, and in which order.

As many college applicants themselves would know, that's kind of a nonsensical question. SAT IIs are subject tests, not a follow-on to the SAT I general test. Which SAT tests you need to take depends on what colleges and programs you're applying to. Some colleges and universities want just the general test; some want both; some don't require standardized test scores at all.

It's probably not nice of us to laugh at this gentleman. Perhaps he was volunteering his help to a family in need. However, we can't help thinking that his question should make any college applicant wonder if anyone can afford the quality of advice he seems able to offer.

For the record, we did answer the gentleman's question. If you're wondering, it's that it is usually best to take the SAT I before the SAT II except in a few, and relatively rare, scenarios. The SAT I will familiarize you with the test format and with strategies for narrowing down answer choices and managing test time effectively. That way you'll be prepared to concentrate on the subject matter when you take the SAT II, without being thrown off base by an unusual test format.

17 Dec 2005

The Moment of Truth for B-School Candidates

Late December and early January is when many of the top business schools announce their Round 1 admissions decisions.

Wharton has confirmed that it will release R1 decisions at 9 a.m. EST on December 22. The Chicago Graduate School of Business says it plans to start calling R1 applicants with decisions on January 9; the official date it will release all decisions on is January 11. The Harvard Business School will release decisions on January 18.

Meanwhile, we're hearing back from clients who have already been notified of acceptances to Kellogg, Fuqua, Goizueta, and other schools.

13 Dec 2005

These Anxious Times

The winter solstice hasn't even arrived yet, and already anxiety among Fall 2006 applicants is reaching a fever pitch.

B-schools are sending notifications this month, too – there will be a lot more MBA applicants who have at least one admissions option in hand by the end of next week than there are today. There are many law school and other graduate school applicants who have recently received admissions offers as well.

Congratulations to all of you who succeeded in winning admission to your chosen schools and programs! That's certainly a pleasan way to end the year :).

9 Dec 2005

An Inside Look at EA Admissions

MIT's Ben Jones gives an inside look at how the admissions committee at a highly competitive school handles early admissions (EA) applications in this 6 December posting to his blog.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's overall acceptance rate has been in the mid 'teens in recent years. Like most schools, MIT's acceptance rate will probably be somewhat higher in this EA round. (EA acceptance rates are higher for a number of reasons, a major one being that many highly-motivated and well-prepared high school students submit their applications early.)

As Jones makes clear in his post, the problem that the admissions committee wrestles with at decision time isn't that most applicants don't meet the criteria for admission to MIT. It's simply that the school gets many more applications from qualified candidates than it has seats to fill. They have to say 'no' to somebody. And, as Jones conveys, the process of making those decisions is hard on the admissions committee, too.

8 Dec 2005

Goings-On at Harvard Law School

A former client who is now at Harvard Law School told us about her recent experience as a member of a focus group that met with the new Dean of Admissions. Part of the feedback she heard was a vow on HLS' part to become more approachable and to make the admissions process less intimidating for law school applicants, while still maintaining the program's high admission standards.

6 Dec 2005

Kelley Cuts Class Size, Not Standards

A news item about declining enrollment at Indiana's Kelley School of Business caught our eye yesterday.

According to Associated Press, enrollment in Kelley's full-time MBA program is 25 per cent lower than it was in 2002.

That's not surprising. B-school application volume dipped the last couple of years, in large part because the economy was sluggish and MBA grads were having some trouble finding jobs. (By the way, that situation has turned around completely in the last year. All of the top business schools reported that their 2005 grads were getting more and better job offers than newly-minted MBAs have seen in years.)

What might be surprising, at least for some people, is to realize that Kelley continued to turn applicants away while its enrollment was declining. In 2003, the Kelley School accepted about 1 out of 3 applicants. In 2004, it accepted fewer than 1 out of 4.

It might seem weird that a business school (of all programs!) would reject so many 'customers' at the same time that it had class spaces going unfilled. But that highlights an important point about reputable professional and graduate education programs: they will cut class size before they cut standards. The question asked in admissions is not, "How many seats do we have to fill up?" but rather, "Is this applicant right for the program?"

That's the question you have to give a persuasive answer to when you apply to business or any other kind of graduate school.

2 Dec 2005

Interview Etiquette: Be Polite - To Everyone

The University of Pennsylvania campus newspaper recently published an article for pre-meds about the etiquette of medical school interviews. It's good advice for anyone doing any other kind of interview for admission to a professional or graduate school.

The article quoted a funny but very insightful comment about the need for MD wanna-bes to be on their best behavior with everyone they encounter at the school when they go for their interview. That includes being polite to the receptionist and office staff, to other people in the waiting room, to people in the hallways and lobby – everyone.

This is important because a) you can't be sure whom you're crossing paths with – the person whose face you let a door drop into might be on the admissions committee; and b) the people you interview with just might ask the receptionist what she thought of you. Don't forget that, in medical and dental admissions, your ability to interact effectively with patients or

The reason schools include personal interviews in the admissions process is that they want to get an idea of what kind of person you are. It helps them decide whether you're someone they want to have around as a student and, later on, to claim as an alum. It's a situation where good manners make especially good sense.