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…
MEDICAL SCHOOL ADMISSIONS
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 graduate-school essays are the perfect forum for reaping the benefits of this deceptively simple principle. First, what does “less is more” really mean? It’s the idea that we must resist our…
Financing Your Medical Education
You’re undoubtedly familiar with the customary ways of financing medical education – loans, grants and scholarships. Service commitment programs, which provide financial assistance to enrolled medical students or residents in return for physician services after completion of training, may be news to you. Perhaps you’ve heard of the Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship Program and…
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…
How Should You Use Rankings? (Part 3 of 5)
How should you use the rankings? For initial research and data mining. And maybe a little reputation checking if you are lucky enough to receive multiple acceptances. First for that initial research: Let’s say you are looking into the schools you will apply to. You recognize that your academic qualifications are an important element in that…
The Rankings (Part 2 of 5)
The rankings are not… The rankings are not objective measures of educational quality that apply across the board to all students. Nothing fits that bill. Educational quality is highly subjective, and experts debate it endlessly. Moreover, student objectives vary so “quality” differs from student to student. For example, a female student interested in strategy consulting…
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…
Despite Recession, Medical Schools Expanding
Boom Amid Bust: Med Schools Grow As Economy Tanks reports that in response to an anticipated doctor shortage, medical schools are increasing enrollment and expanding their programs. In addition, new schools are sprouting across the country. According to the president-elect of the American Medical Association, Dr. J. James Rohack, the reason is simple: “Americans are…
Med School Admissions: The “Problem” of Multiple Acceptances
Being offered admission by two or more medical schools is certainly nothing to complain about, but it may make your life a bit more complicated if the schools in question aren’t among your top choices and you’re awaiting decisions from your favorites. AAMC has rules to cover this situation. Complete information is available at http://www.aamc.org/students/applying/policies/admissionofficers.htm,…
What You Don’t Need to Know on a Waitlist
At the Ross waitlist chat yesterday, there were the usual percentage of questions related to waitlist stats. Indeed, at this time of year every year, waitlist applicants obsess over previous years’ acceptance rates at the schools waitlisting them. Nervous, tense applicants ask, “How many students at School X have been waitlisted and then accepted? Is…
Medical School Gender Balance
Although medical school enrollment currently has gender parity, men still dominate the ranks of senior faculty at medical schools. Many assume the imbalance may be due to female professors’ greater responsibilities at home and a lack of part-time careers in academic medicine. In The Second Shift in Academic Medicine, Inside Higher Ed reports on a recent study…
Medical School Admissions: What if I’m not accepted?
A new year brings, among opportunities for new beginnings and many other wonderful things, another dose of anxiety for those who hope to be in medical school in seven or eight months. The anxiety is of a happy variety for some as they weigh the two or more acceptances they’ve received or continue to go…
Medical School Admissions: Deferral?
“Suppose I want to defer….” Congratulations! You’ve made it into medical school! All your hard work has paid off, and you’re free of stress for the first time in years. Not exactly. Maybe you’re feeling more than a little burned out with the school scene. Maybe you’re thinking about the travel and study abroad opportunities…
Baylor Med School Dismisses President
The Dallas News reports that Trustees at Baylor College of Medicine and Peter Traber have agreed that he will step down as the school’s president and CEO, as of December 1. After serving as the medical school’s president for the last five and a half years, Traber will continue his affiliation with Baylor as president…
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…
Approaching the Ethics Essay
No b-school application essay may be harder to write than the ethics essay. For most applicants, one challenge is simply identifying an appropriate story. Many applicants assume that the ethics essay is designed to put their morals to some stringent litmus test. They brainstorm for examples that show them proudly refusing bribes, pointedly excusing themselves…
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…
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