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College Admissions News Round Up

April 27, 2010 by

Last week we loaded you up on MBA admissions news; this week we’re all about undergraduate news. Here’s what’s been going on in the exciting world of college admissions:

  1. University of Pennsylvania’s international student body is looking to increase the school’s diversity by attracting more international applicants, reports a recent Daily Pennylvanian article. As part of their initiative, these students have formed a new advocacy group call the Student Ambassador Program that works to actively recruit international students. Ambassadors go through rigorous training to learn the ropes about international recruitment, including how to create presentations that will draw in high school students and how to lead effective question and answer sessions. After gaining some field experience and speaking with international students, what Penn ambassadors are learning is that local high schools in some countries simply lack information about top universities in the United States (Penn in particular); the ambassadors aim to educate, attract, and recruit these young students to Penn’s growing diversity pool.
  2. The New York Times ran an article recently (“Exactly How Personal Is That Personal Statement?“) about the problem of plagiarism in college and graduate school application essays and personal statements. Detecting plagiarism can be a tedious project, which is why many schools are signing up with companies like Turnitin that specialize in plagiarism detection on applications. Of 450,000 personal statements that Turnitin reviewed to demonstrate the effectiveness of their program, 70,000 essays showed up to have “significant matches”—that is, 15% of the essay closed matched other documents. Apparently, there’s only a one in a trillion chance of constructing a string of 16 words in a row that are identical to someone else’s 16 words; find such a string in an essay and it’s pretty clear that that person will be busted for plagiarism.
  3. Finally an article about the positive hiring outlook for recent college graduates! BusinessWeek reports that “employers are planning to hire 5.3% more college graduates from the class of 2009-10 than they did from the class of 2008-09.” The source for the good news is the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) who put out a recent survey that indicated that almost all industries in almost all regions of the U.S. are expecting to increase hiring this spring. The Northeastern United States is projecting the highest increase in hiring at 25.5%; the Southeast on the other hand expects no improvements this year.
  4. In The Chronicle article “Frustration With Green Rankings Pushes Colleges to Develop Their Own,” author Scott Carlson describes how some colleges have taken measures to boost their sustainability standards so they rank higher in the green rankings, and how some colleges are simply fed up and are “suffering from green-ratings fatigue.” The Sustainable Endowments Institute wants to issue universities College Sustainability Report Cards, and few colleges are interested in dealing with the hassle. First of all, you have to pay to take the survey—a survey that can take up to a full week to complete; second of all, few schools receive a satisfactory rating and many claim that the rankings just plain don’t make sense. The Sustainability Report Cards have gotten a lot of criticism, though most schools and sustainability managers will admit that receiving bad marks has encouraged universities to step up their green-ness.

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Do You Take Advantage of Your School’s Career Center?

April 27, 2010 by

When most students are applying to graduate school, they usually focus on the caliber of the program, the reputation of the professors, and the location. What’s generally not on their criteria list—but should be—is the quality of a school’s career services department.

According to “Consider a School’s Career Services Before Applying,” an article in US News & World Report‘s Best Graduate School report, the availability of job search support and career counseling opportunities should be of utmost importance to potential grad students who are (presumably) going to grad school in order to land better post-grad careers.

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, students who use career center resources are more likely to secure jobs than those who don’t take advantage of such services.

Most university career centers have responded to the need for increased services by providing more to students than basic resume and cover letter reviewing. Some offer webinars, workshops, or one-on-one career counseling; some set up job fairs and aggressively work with recruiters and alumni to create networking events.

Some schools even offer a career management course…for credit. Some top MBA programs even require that students take such a course. Duke Fuqua students need to create a “personal development plan” before they even begin their first semester!

The US News article provides a few tips:

  1. Start job searching early in your college or grad school career. Get to know your career services department early, make connections with people in your school’s career center, and attend as many courses, webinars, and workshops as you can during the course of your studies.
  2. Create an account at your school’s online career website. At this virtual career center you can generally receive job listings, post resumes and your profile, find internships, and receive podcast seminars. You can also receive updates about local or campus-wide job fairs. At Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business, the online career center even offers videoconferencing between recruiters and MBA students.
  3. Seek help in starting your own business. More and more students are joining the startup nation and skipping the daunting task of job searching altogether by starting their own businesses. You school’s career center should be helpful in brainstorming with you, helping you build your contact list, and working with you to create a business plan.
  4. Take advantage of alumni services. Just because you’ve graduated doesn’t mean that you need to abandon your ties to your school’s career center. Online and in-person resources and services are often available to program graduates and should certainly be utilized.

While choosing a graduate program based wholly on the quality of its career services department would be silly, examining different career centers at different universities should be included in your overall assessment of programs when considering which schools best suit your needs.

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Filed Under: Admissions Consulting, College Admissions, Dartmouth Tuck, Georgetown McDonough, Grad School Admissions, Job Search, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions Tagged With: , ,

Changes to Legal Education Round Up

April 26, 2010 by

This week’s law school admissions round up reflects turmoil in legal education. What has worked is no longer working.  Law firms (and their clients) are demanding change, and the law schools may actually be responding.

  • At the Future of Education Conference in New York City, United Technologies general counsel Chester Paul Beach called graduating 3Ls and first and second year associates “worthless”. His speech drew attention to some large issues faced by law grads and firms today: students finish law school overwhelmed with debt and with few practical or transferable skills. The Generation J.D. blog suggests that law schools require significant clinic credits to graduate. Plus, schools should also work in conjunction with corporations, in-house counsel and managing partners in order to supplement their curriculum to target common weaknesses found in young associates. This approach can benefit the companies, law schools, and the students as well.
  • New York Lawyer also mentions the developments broached at the Future Ed conference. Not only have law firms slowed hiring due to the recession, but now clients are refusing to pay for the on-the-job training of first- and second-year associates. This training has been essential since law schools have not sufficiently prepared their grads for the professional world. This may be the incentive law schools need to innovate their programs, assisting students to develop their professional competence in many respects, including a greater focus on clients’ needs.
  • Perhaps some schools have gotten the memo. The JD Admissions blog at Harvard Law has recently focused on their clinical program, in which 70% of its students have participated. HLS offers over 60 clinical courses, almost 30 in-house clinics, and nearly 70 clinical faculty/clinical supervising attorneys. Its many clinics and student practice organizations include a Child Advocacy Program, Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, Sports Law, Prison Legal Assistance Project, and Tenant Advocacy Project. Hopefully, other schools will follow suit in providing their students with the practical education they need to enter the legal job market. 

 

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AAMC’s 2011-2012 MSAR Guidebook Released This Week

April 26, 2010 by

The Association of American Medical Colleges announced this week that the AAMC 2011-2012 Medical School Admissions Requirements (MSAR®) guidebook has been totally revamped and is currently available to the public. This “bible of medical school guides” provides all the info you’ll need when choosing an American or Canadian medical school, including:

  • An up-to-date listing of all accredited medical school programs.
  • Class profiles.
  • Costs and financial aid opportunities.
  • M.D./Ph.D. options.
  • Med school application procedures and deadlines.
  • Selection factors (including MCAT exam scores and GPA data).

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UCLA Students Green with Environmental Interest

April 26, 2010 by

According to UCLA Today, the Environmental Sciences B.S. degree has exploded to become one of UCLA’s fasted growing disciplines. The major is offered by UCLA’s Institute of the Environment (IoE). In 2006, the inaugural year of the degree, there were ten students majoring in Environment Sciences; next year’s graduating class boasts 230 green graduates. (In 2003 three students minored in the field.)

“Students are more environmentally aware. They’re hearing about the environment in high school, in the news and from the Sierra Club,” said Glen MacDonald, IoE director. “They’re seeing that many companies and the government are focused on it. There are career and entrepreneurship opportunities, and the students want to get in on the ground floor.”

IoE’s academic director, Cully Nordby, says that the university is overwhelmed by the sudden growth of the discipline—”overwhelmed in a good way,” she explains. Nordby later describes the Environmental Sciences major as the place “where science and policy meet.”

Environmental Sciences majors are required to fulfill a year-long practicum in their senior year, a project that enables students to transform theory into practice. One student led an initiative to help California vintners produce affordable organic wine.

While the Environmental Sciences major is popular, it’s certainly not the only option on campus for students interested in contributing to a greener world. The Action Research Teams (ART) works to help university departments address sustainability within their fields. One successful initiative that the one ART group has run through IoE is the Sustainable Living Program. Another group is working to improve landscape conditions during droughts.

The fact that IoE and other campus groups have been successful in influencing other university departments shows how far-reaching this interdisciplinary major has become.

“We’re all here to work together and collaborate,” says Nordby. “We know it will take a multidisciplinary effort to solve the problems this whole planet faces.”

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MBA Admissions News Round Up

April 23, 2010 by
  • According to a Haas School Newsroom press release, UC Berkeley Haas will be offering ten scholarships this fall that will be matched by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Yellow Ribbon Program in an effort to attract more veterans to its top MBA program. The scholarships will be up to $10,000 each per year. To qualify, veterans must have Post 9/11 GI Bill veterans’ benefits and have served a minimum of 36 month of active duty.
  • The Consortium announced last week that UCLA’s Anderson School of Management had joined its network of top MBA programs with the unified goal of promoting inclusion and diversity in American business enterprises. UCLA dean Judy D. Olian says, “We’ll be enriching the learning experiences of our students through a student body that reflects a diverse set of perspectives, backgrounds, and life experiences, and that’s a strategic priority for our students.” (The Consortium Press Release)
  • In the BusinessWeek article, “Building a Wharton for Emerging Economies,” Bruce Einhorn discusses the leaps and bounds the Indian School of Business (ISB) is taking to become a big league business school in an emerging economy. The b-school, which opened only nine years ago, has already moved up to the number one slot in Indian b-school rankings. ISB has become so popular in fact, that it will be expanding to a second $50 million new campus which will focus on manufacturing, infrastructure management, and other subjects pertinent to emerging economies. ISB has teamed up with MIT Sloan, UPenn Wharton, and Northwestern Kellogg to further their academic reputation—MIT Sloan and ISB, for example, have agreed on a faculty rotation plan between the two top MBA programs.
  • Who knew that frats would become an essential ingredient to job networking in the business world? At Wharton, as the economy started shifting downward, the popularity of fraternities among business students moved upward. Business fraternities like Phi Gamma Nu, Alpha Kappa Psi, and Delta Sigma Pi provide Wharton students with mentors, career support, and a large, strong, family-like alumni network. “Getting to know more of the business world helps you decide what you want to do,” says Nancy Zhang, president of Phi Gamma Nu and Wharton sophomore. (The Daily Pennsylvanian)

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Filed Under: Consortium, Fellowship, Financial Aid, International, MBA Admissions, Military, MIT Sloan, Northwestern Kellogg, Stanford GSB, UC Berkeley Haas, UCLA Anderson, Wharton Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

GMAC Institutes Greater Security Measures

April 23, 2010 by

The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) has taken greater measures to secure GMAT test-taking, implementing biometric palm-vein technology to prevent cheating, reports a Financial Times article, “Helping hand for GMAT security.”

Dave Wilson, CEO of GMAC, explains that when he joined GMAC in 1995, one of his first tasks was to crack down on cheaters who would take advantage of time differences— for example test-takers on the east coast would provide answers for the west coast test-takers. Of course, providing answers 15 years ago was a lot more simple when tests were still being administered via paper and pencil and all test questions were identical and in the same order.

GMAC significantly reduced cheating by switching to computer-adaptive tests. These new tests use algorithms to provide questions based on how well you’ve answered earlier questions. Now you only have a one in 35,000 chance of sitting the same test as another test-taker.

Once the cheating obstacle of paper-based tests was removed, another ring of cheats sprung up, this time led by Lu Xu. Xu and a few friends were creating fake IDs and sitting for exams by posing as candidates. These applicants would pay Xu and his team a fee of about $5,000 to take the GMAT for them. (Xu and four of his friends have been caught and sentenced; a fifth participant in the ring is still out there. 600 tests were administered before Xu and his team were caught.)

In 2006 GMAC partnered with Pearson Vue (of the Pearson Group that owns the Financial Times) for test distribution. Along with this switch came a more technologically savvy method of corroborating identities: digital fingerprinting. Since then, palm vein scans have replaced fingerprinting.

According to Wilson, the PalmSecure reader—a device that reads the blood veins in a palm when the palm is raised to a sensor—is more accurate than fingerprinting, as well as less invasive.

Every time that a GMAT test-taker enters the test room his or her palm vein pattern must match the pattern taken at initial check-in. Further security measures include the taking of a digital signature and photograph at check-in and the use of real-time recording and audio/video monitoring.

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Optimism in Own Job Prospects, Not Peers’

April 23, 2010 by

Students nowadays may be more optimistic about their economic future than previous generations, but this optimism seems to only translate to themselves. According to a Kaplan survey, 52% of pre-law students feel “very confident” that they will find a legal job post-graduation, as reported by Business Wire. However, perhaps due to their competitive nature, of the 330 pre-law students surveyed, only 16% feel “very confident” in their peers’ job prospects. 

These students are well aware of the economic downturn, as 39% cite the recession as a stimulus in their decision to apply to law school. Additionally, more and more students are attending law school with no intention of pursuing careers in law.

Law school candidates also emphasize the importance of a high LSAT score; when asked to choose between submitting a perfect 4.0 GPA, a perfect 180 on the LSAT, or a letter of recommendation from a Supreme Court justice in their application, 80% would choose the perfect LSAT score.

All the participants in the survey were Kaplan students who took the LSAT in February 2010. 

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Getting Your MBA Goals in Shape

April 22, 2010 by

Knowing they’ll have to write essays about their goals, most b-school applicants have identified their goals prior to starting the application process.  But I’ve found that “identified” often has a very narrow scope, too narrow to effectively serve the purpose of the essays. 

With some moderate effort now, you can flesh out your goals message, so that you can spring into action when the essays come out in summer.  You’ll need details to make the essays credible, interesting, and individualized, and clarifying your motivation also furthers those ends.

 Here are some steps to take to fully prepare for writing outstanding goals essays.

  • Identify short-term, intermediate, and long-term goals.  For each, fill in the details:  what would be your likely or desired positions(s) (note titles), what types of companies (with specific examples), what industries.
  • Develop a vision for each of these phases.  In other words, what do you want to accomplish, what impact do you want to have?  Too often people focus on what they want to get out of it for themselves.  That’s secondary.  What external impact will you aim to have?
  • Research the desired companies: what kinds of post-MBA positions they offer, their hiring trends, products and/or services, structure/organization, market status, competitive concerns, etc.
  • Research your industry: what are its challenges, how is it adapting to globalization, etc.
  • Reflect on your motivations for pursuing your particular goals and be prepared to present them succinctly as part of your goals essays. While most questions won’t ask about it, your motivation is an essential part of creating a message and story that will engage the adcoms.
  • If you are a career changer or even if you are just shifting career emphasis, have informational interviews with people in your chosen field or function.  Utilize your college alumni network and perhaps other professional and/or social networks to identify possible people to ask.  Not only will you glean valuable insight, but you also can discuss taking this proactive step in your essays.

Taking these efforts now will enable you to write goals essays that are informed, thoughtful, distinctive.  And you can hit the ground running when you start writing!

  By Cindy Tokumitsu, co-author of The Finance Professional’s Guide to MBA Success, The Consultants’ Guide to MBA Admission, The EMBA Edge, and author of several articles and the free, email mini-course, “Ace the EMBA.”

Filed Under: MBA Admissions, MBA Goal Tagged With: , ,

If You Call the Admissions Office, Always Ask With Whom You Are Speaking, Write Down His or Her Name, the Date of Your Call, and the Reason for Your Call

April 22, 2010 by

If you need permission to deviate from the stated policies, be sure you know to whom you are speaking and mark the date and time. It is important to follow-up with an email confirming what you were told. If, for example, your application was late and you called to get an extension, you must be able to verify that a deadline extension was granted by someone in the admissions office. Another example might be that students will sometimes contact an admissions office to have a course evaluated or to determine whether or not they have successfully met one of the required prerequisite courses for admission. While most admissions offices keep a record of such requests and decisions, considering the amount of emails and the volume of mail received each day, things do get lost or misplaced, despite best efforts. It is important to keep a record of such exceptions and decisions, to keep track of which schools granted their approval and which did not. In case the issue should come up again, you will have documentation of the decision.

Additional Resources:

This is excerpted from 101 Tips on Getting Into Medical School by Jennifer C. Welch, who has served as the Director of Admissions at SUNY Upstate Medical School since 2001.


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