How do you react when you read/hear the weakness question? With this question, schools are assessing how well you self evaluate. Like a business problem, they want to hear your plan of action, your implementation, and your success rate. Here are some tips to help you a) think about and evaluate your weaknesses, and b)…
How to Use Good Grammar to Create Essays That Flow
From my base in the Middle East, I work with many applicants throughout Asia who have excellent English but use a few phrases in ways that depart from the strictly correct. Here are some tips to help applicants improve their use of two words that are commonly misused. 1. Leverage Rule: Do not use a…
How to Get the Most Out of Working With a Med School Admissions Consultant
You’re applying to med school and need to juggle numerous things at once to stay afloat – school and/or a job, volunteer activities, MCAT prep, and family obligations…and that’s before we even talk about the complicated and time-consuming medical school application process. How can a consultant help you, and how can you get the most…
Should You Apply to a Safety School?
Many applicants who are targeting top ranked programs wonder if they should consider adding a lower-ranked school to their list as a “safety school.” Should you? And is there such a thing? What is a safety school? A safety school is one where you are highly competitive, that is strong in your area of interest,…
Accepted’s Holiday Hours
We wish you a happy and healthy holiday season, enjoying time with family and friends. That’s how most members of Accepted’s staff will spend December 24, 25, 31, and Jan 1. However, we also know that deadlines are looming for many of you. Over the holiday weekends we will periodically check our email for new…
8 Tips for Better Admissions Resumes
This post is taken from The Quick Guide to Admissions Resumes. Click here to download the full guide. Looking for solid tips for the actual writing of your resume? What should you include? What should you leave out? What sort of tone should you use? What do you need to know? The following eight tips will…
Admissions Resumes: Putting it All Together
This post is taken from The Quick Guide to Admissions Resumes. Click here to download the full guide. MBA and other graduate school applicants frequently submit a resume with their applications. Many schools require it, and some schools, such as Columbia Business School, even specify a given format. The resume not only will present a valuable…
How to Write the Qualifications Summary for Your Resume
The Qualifications Summary section of the resume is, in theory, the first section of the resume that the admissions reviewer will read: it sits at the very top of the resume after the applicant’s name and contact details, exactly where the eye is naturally drawn. However, if it is a bulky paragraph filled with ambiguity or…
Waitlisted! What Now?
So, you’ve been waitlisted and you’re not sure whether to laugh or cry. You can choose to do either, neither or both, but then it is time to figure out what to do next. Listen to the recording of our latest podcast episode to hear Linda Abraham’s six tips for waitlisted applicants. Make sure you…
Application Essay Tip: The Devil is in the Details
You can argue about the devil, but certainly the substance, distinctiveness, and success of your essays depends on the details. Bringing Out Your Uniqueness in the Details Many applicants tend to bury their uniqueness and success under vague assertions. You don’t want to hide your achievements; you want to trumpet them loudly and clearly. For…
Personal Statement Tip: Less is More
Most of us have heard the saying “less is more,” but how many of us put it into practice when it counts? Your application essays are the perfect forum for reaping the benefits of this deceptively simple principle. What does “less is more” really mean? It’s the idea that we must resist our natural tendencies…
Focus on Fit [Most Popular Show Rerun – Episode 176]
The most popular post of the last six months is “Focus on Fit,” and since Linda is taking a brief vacation, we are reposting it for this week. In this show, she shares the four not-so-easy steps to make sure you show you belong at your target programs. Whether you heard it the first time or…
Ten Do’s and Don’ts for Your Application Essay
The Application Essay Do’s: Unite your essay and give it direction with a theme or thesis. The thesis is the main point you want to communicate. Before you begin writing, choose what you want to discuss and the order in which you want to discuss it. Use concrete examples from your life experience to support…
Where’s the Poetry? The Secret Ingredient in Your Graduate Application Essays
Strategy will necessarily guide your selection of essay topics, anecdotes/examples, and structure. Yet an essay built on calculation alone, even if the strategy is spot on, will often disappoint. Logically it all makes sense. But it doesn’t take flight. Poetry can be the secret ingredient to make your application essay sing – right into the heart of its readers….
Writing the Diversity Personal Statement
One of the many challenges of applying to college or graduate school is showing the admissions committee how you’ll fit in and stand out. Adcoms are trying to build student bodies that will work cohesively towards shared goals and ideals, but that come from different backgrounds and with different ideas so that the combined educational,…
5 Mistakes To Avoid In A Cover Letter
You only have one chance to make a first impression. If the first impression you need to make is through a cover letter to a prospective employer, school admissions office, or internship sponsor, make sure it shines a light on your qualifications and displays your enthusiasm for the position or that seat in the class….
5 Things the Adcoms Hate
When I was admissions Director there were some things applicants would do that were minor, but that I found to be very annoying. Here are my top 5 “hates” that I’m sure are shared by many adcoms: 1. Asking for information that can easily be found on the school’s website Some applicants would do that…
Get a GRIP on Team Questions
I took away a lot of wonderful concepts, frameworks and strategies from my MBA education that led to a successful admission career. In fact, one of the most powerful lessons I learned at Michigan (now Ross) was how to lead and work effectively on teams. Professor Noel Tichy, one of the gurus of Organizational Behavior…
Are You A Leader?
Of course you are – but do you know how to present those impressive leadership skills and experiences in your application essay? For many applicants, writing the “leadership essay” is one of the most challenging aspects of the application process, mainly because the concept of leadership is so tough to define. It’s easy to say…
Can a Grad Consultant Help You Succeed?
Whatever your field and interests, when you’re applying for a masters or PhD, the process can be challenging. Top masters programs in competitive fields are extremely selective – and PhD programs might accept as few as two to three people in a given specialty. Your grad school application needs to be both strong and strategic….