After devoting many days and countless revisions to his 250-word Stanford GSB Reliance Fellowship essay, the blogger at MBAdreamz concludes: “The mantra for writing essays should be bringing one’s ‘INSIDE OUT.’ The more one knows and reveals (about himself) in the essays, the more comfortable and confident he would be with the essays.” Having worked…
GRAD SCHOOL ADMISSIONS
Rankings (Part 5 of 5): 8 Flaws in Rankings
How NOT to use the rankings Don’t give them too much importance. Don’t replace research and self-reflection with school ranking to determine where you apply or attend. Using them mindlessly could contribute to an expensive, time-consuming mistake. Blinding yourself to the rankings’ flaws leads to poor decisions. Consider this partial list of limitations: They…
US News Grad Rankings Are Out!
The US News just released its 2009 Grad School Rankings. I’m going to list the top ten for business school, law school, and medical school (research) and provide links to the ranking methodology for each category. For other graduate specialties, please visit the US News site. Business School Rankings and methodology 1. Harvard2. Stanford3. Northwestern Kellogg…
A Writing Lesson from President Obama
Take a writing lesson from President Obama. Newly sworn in, he ended his inauguration speech with these paragraphs: So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying…
Exercise to Quiet the Critic
Most of us carry a very large critic inside our heads when we sit down to write. I have an exercise that helps writers defeat this critic who keeps them from writing. Dialogs to Diffuse The Power of Critical Voices Years ago, I was flying Southwest Airlines from Seattle to Tucson where I was going…
Maclean’s Magazine Issues Latest Canadian Rankings
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Maclean’s released its 18th annual Canadian University Rankings aiming to provide essential information that will help students find undergraduate and graduate programs that will best suit their needs. Some interesting highlights: For the fourth consecutive year, McGill University was #1 in the medical-doctoral category. The University of Toronto…
Getting Closer to Your Material: “This is a story about….”
When you need to remember the images and details of an experience, it can be helpful not to worry about chronology and narrative as you begin writing, because fresh to the page, you might become stymied wondering how to fit everything together. In that state, you may inadvertently start squelching details so you won’t have…
The Many Faces of Leadership
“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…
Innovation and Leadership
I just read McKinsey Consulting’s fascinating interview with director Brad Bird. While McKinsey’s focus was on the lessons one can learn about innovating from one of the world’s most innovative companies, Brad Bird’s story was also a story of laudable leadership. Many applicants find "leadership" the most difficult of the MBA qualities to demonstrate in…
Personal Statement Tip: Once Upon a Time…
Once upon a time there was a wedding (actually yesterday). The father of the bride wanted to give a speech. His wife (me) worried that he would bore the guests. Mildly insulted and not wanting to forgo an opportunity to praise the bride, his new son-in-law, his son-in-law’s parents, and to share a few words…
What is an Accomplishment?
Accomplishments constitute the bread and butter of personal statements and application essays. Nothing too exciting in that statement. However, a fascinating brainstorming session on Accepted’s Editor Mailing List reveals that applicants don’t always know what an accomplishment is. What goes into this application staple? The bread: Impact. Your accomplishment must show you as a contributor…
Personal Statement Tip: Failure Questions
Facing a failure question? Keep in mind this maxim from Michael Josephson of the Josephson Institute: "Find the lesson in every failure, and you’ll never fail." That concept is the key to successfully answering failure questions on applications and in interviews.
Personal Statement Tip: History vs. Memory
Over the weekend I went to a talk focused on the difference between history and memory. The two are clearly related, but not the same. History is what you read in an encyclopedia or newspaper timeline. It is facts, dates, statistics, and data, impersonal and frequently very dry in isolation. Memory consists of vignettes, stories,…
Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants
Two years ago I attended Tuck’s first Conference of International Educational Advisors. I went with the purpose of learning more about Tuck. And I did learn a lot about Tuck, as expected, but I discovered that I enjoyed meeting my competition and professional colleagues much more than I anticipated. The networking was great! I have…
Themes in Admissions: Good or Bad?
Are themes good or bad? That depends on whether you are talking about a theme for your application or for your essay. For the former, bad. For the latter, good. If you are applying to a top program, you don’t want your application to have a nice, neat theme that simply labels or tags you:…
Common Sense Isn’t So Common in Admissions
MBAAnonymous questions in "Admissions consultants?" why applicants use or think they need admissions consultants. After briefly providing her background, she adds, I’m just an applicant. I have however worked as a writing consultant where I edited, among other things, MBA applicants’ essays to places like HBS, Stanford GSB, and LBS. Looking back on that experience…
Penn Prevents ABD: Provides Dissertation Bootcamp
Dissertation Bootcamp Rules: Four hours a day for two weeks, starting at 9:00 AM Only a 30-minute break. No emailing. Internet use for academic purposes only. $50 fee back if you complete the process. The Writing Center at Penn is serious about focusing its grad students on their dissertations. Uninterrupted time for researching, structuring, writing…
More Jobs for PhD’s in History
Inside Higher Ed reports more job postings for PhD’s in history than ever before. Quite a switch from recent history. However, the paper hastens to add that most of the jobs pertain to Asian or African history. Furthermore more and more positions are part-time and non-tenure track.
Graduate Program Options: Merge or Close?
Inside Higher Ed reports on a possible merger between the German departments at Duke and UNC Chapel Hill, two small struggling programs. According to Inside Higher Ed: "In so doing, the two universities believe that their programs could catapult to among the largest — if not the largest — in the country, with 18 full-time…
Essay Tip: What to Do If You Procrastinated.
I was looking for something on the old blog and came across a post that I thought was timely and worth repeating. I wrote it in early January 2005, when my daughter was applying for grad school (She got in and then decided she didn’t want to go.) It gives advice for those of you…