(This post is a shameless plug. If that offends you, please click away.)

In my Internet meanderings, I occasionally come across posts from applicants who dismiss and deride admissions consultants. These sages, who usually have never talked to a consultant, claim that applicants can get all they need to know from the web and books and talking to a few friends.
 

They don't understand the difference between the dynamic, individual qualities of educational advising and the static, mass nature of information. 

I am proud of the rich information Accepted.com provides, probably more than any boutique consultancy. But I am also keenly aware of its limitations. Information is static, inert. It cannot respond to individual needs. It can't react to a fluid situation.  It doesn't analyze or change. It can target segments, but rarely individuals.

We can write a gazillion articles and ebooks. We can develop web tools, databases, and chats to serve you. But none of them will replace an in-depth, one-on-one consultation or the nitty-gritty work of critiquing and editing your applications and essays.

Accepted editors and advisers can help you develop and implement your admissions strategy, whether you are shooting for a BA, MBA, JD, MD, or PhD or a host of other degrees.  And unlike friends, we stay abreast of admissions news and developments because admissions is our business.

Using our expertise and experience to guide you as an individual interacting with a dynamic admissions world is the magic of admissions consulting.

That's how we help you develop your admissions strategy. Then there's implementation, and the personal statement, application essay, or statement of purpose.

Professional writers have editors with reason: writing is rewriting. Writers can fall in love with their own words and lose objectivity.  Writers need editors.

If the professionals need editors, so do you.

Can you implement a carefully thought-out strategy? Can you maintain your critical eye after reworking an essay ten times? Can you bring the superior editing skills of professional writers to your application?  If you can't, you need an Accepted editor to critique and review your essay(s).

Accepted has two early bird specials running through July 31, 2008.

• For MBA's, you can get 10% off our MBA essay editing and B-School advising and editing packages.
• For residency applicants, you can get 10% off essay editing for your Match essays.

Get the magic before July 31 and save 10%.

“I figured it all out.”

That’s how I would paraphrase the essays many of my clients—MBA applicants and others—write in response to the ubiquitous “Describe a leadership experience” question. Now of course “figuring it all out,” my shorthand for “I came up with a creative solution to a tricky problem” or “I developed a killer spreadsheet model, the likes of which my team had never seen before” or similar achievements, is an important aspect of leadership.

But it’s just one aspect.

Skilled problem-solving, or “thought leadership,” as we called it at McKinsey and Company, where I worked as a business strategy consultant, was the mark of, well, a skilled problem-solver; but many of the most respected consultants at the firm, including senior partners, were equally or even more talented at something we didn’t have a formal name for: people leadership. By effectively leading our thinking on client firms’ problems as well as motivating us to work long hours to develop solutions to these problems and collaborate with our clients on implementing them, these colleagues were exemplary leaders.

So don’t forget to include strong elements of people leadership in your essays. Here are several to keep in mind:

• Rallying others around a vision. Did you convince your team or group to follow a specific path/solution? How did you do it? Successful clients have talked about handling dissenting opinions diplomatically or presenting their teams’ detailed quantitative evidence for a recommendation. The more you can show that you understood your audience and tailored the content and form of your message to them, the better.
• Harnessing others’ strengths—and expanding them. Did you provide team members tasks they could handle comfortably based on their capabilities, as well as opportunities to broaden their skills? For example, you may have handed your quant jock teammate the most complicated operations analysis as well as responsibility for leading a key client meeting. In this way you leverage teammates’ strengths while helping them develop new ones.
• Getting through tough times. Did you model for your team enviable cool in pressure-cooker situations, maybe helping them keep the big-picture goal in mind or lightening the mood with humor? Did you reward teammates with praise, pizza, or both for working long into the night? Did you pitch in on others’ responsibilities as deadlines loomed? Helping your team handle stress while managing your own is a cornerstone of strong leadership.

These are just some of the leadership traits you can show in your essay to make it more compelling. And remember, you don’t have to be in an official position of leadership to demonstrate them. We all know peers who provide great leadership without any formal authority. Make clear that you’re one of them.

My fellow Accepted editors and I will help you include a powerful combination of leadership and other elements in your essays and interviews.

By Dr. Sachin Waikar .  

To write a compelling personal statement or application essay, you need to draw readers into your experience without much set-up. You have to get to the heart of the matter quickly and at the same time make the reader care to read on. Visualizing a particular moment from a situation that disappointed or thrilled you will show you how you can start an essay about a disappointment, an obstacle, an intellectual or creative passion or a lucky break with a short scene.

To write a scene effectively you can start with thee phrases to gather your images:

•  I smelled ...
•  I heard ...
•  I saw ...
•  I felt ...

Once you have the scene you might open with wholly detailed in your mind, you will have a much easier time writing in a way that will hook your audience. An essay that includes a scene might start this way:

My father showed us a home video shot when I was in Kindergarten, and I saw my young self at my older brother’s electronic keyboard. I saw that I was happy playing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” for an audience of Teddy bears. I realized I’ve always been happiest when I am playing a tune or classical piece for others. After many years of study, today, I am pianist in our state's best orchestra. Not only have I performed up and down the Eastern Seaboard, I have also traveled to Europe and the Mediterranean with the orchestra and heard many fine orchestras as well as played with their musicians.

There is no more effective way to involve the reader of your essay than with images and details used right from the start. Try your hand at collecting some using phrases that will help you get in touch with your senses.

By Sheila Bender, author of Perfect Phrases for College Application Essays, a great book on writing college application essays, but more about that soon. In the meantime, if you would like Sheila to personally guide you as you write your application essay, please review our application essay editing services.

When someone asks what your favorite color is, you might answer green or violet or even cerulean. But you're probably not going to say "not blue" or "I've had a bad experience with red." Yet so often, when asked about the reasons behind their career goals, clients answer, "Because my job as a programmer isn't challenging me enough" or "because I've seen how bad some doctors are and I want to be different/better."

This is definition by negation. And while it's true that it can be a very useful technique in helping you whittle down your career choices, it's not a compelling argument for why a medical school or business school should accept you into their program. It simultaneously conveys arrogance and naivety -- that at the age of 26 you've mastered all that you possibly can in the technology field, or that at 22 you can do a better job than a veteran doctor -- neither of which are highly sought after qualities by admissions committees.

Try to turn that frown upside down by inverting the quality that you've identified. If you've plateaued in your current position, focus on the initiative that it took you to get there. Describing challenges you embraced on your way to the top is much more persuasive than complaining that the view's not as nice as you expected. And it's easier to make the leap from there to why an MBA will open you to new challenges.

Or pair a negative role model with a positive one. If you've been struck by one doctor's lousy bedside manner, it's likely you've also noticed another one who was stellar. Comparing them will help you identify the qualities that made a difference -- and then convince the admissions committees, using anecdotal evidence, that you share those positive qualities.

These are subtle switches, to be sure, but they will go a long way toward presenting you in a positive light -- whatever your favorite color might be.

 By Cydney Foote, Accepted Senior Editor, who would be happy to help you show your true colors.

Think you know how to write an effective wait-list letter? Test your knowledge with the following quiz:

1. Wait-list letters may be three or more single-spaced pages long:  (a) when the applicant has a lot of accomplishments to talk about, (b) they should never exceed two pages, (c) only for law school wait-list letters, (d) if you are not enclosing an additional letter of recommendation.

2. Expressing some frustration or disappointment in the wait-list letter is: (a) OK if the school is really your number-one choice, (b) appropriate if it reflects how you honestly feel, (c) never a good idea, (d) useful in the letter's conclusion to elicit sympathy.

3. During the wait-list process, you should generally aim to contact the wait-listing school: (a) every other day if it's really your number-one choice, (b) weekly by email or letter, (c) only when prompted by the school, (d) every three to four weeks (if the school allows contact).

4. The main topics of a wait-list letter should be: (a) your recent professional achievements, (b) new reasons why this school is a good fit for you, (c) developments in your community work since applying, (d) any substantial recent examples that offset the weaknesses of your application, (e) all of these.

5. It's acceptable to repeat wording from your application essays in the wait-list letter: (a) never, (b) if you run short of time, (c) if it was an especially strong part of your application, (d) if you think it's important enough to reinforce.

Answers:  1b,  2c, 3d, 4e, 5a.