Essay questions dealing with failure, risk, mistakes, and difficult interactions or conflict often cause applicants to cringe, squirm, and bite their nails. After all, you want to show yourself succeeding and conquering the world in your essays and personal statements, not falling down. But there’s a reason why these questions are common. Schools want to…
You Can Get Accepted Off the Waitlist! Here’s How
The application process is not over for waitlisted applicants. You’ve still got a chance of getting into your dream school. Now’s not the time to slack off, and it’s certainly not the time to give up. Continue fighting for that acceptance! Your waitlist updates (you write those) and letters of support (other people write these)…
How MBA Adcoms Evaluate Your GPA
“But my undergrad school was highly competitive…” “But I worked 20 hours a week during college…” “But I was a varsity athlete at a Division I school…” “But even though it took me a couple of years, once I got it together I made dean’s list every semester…” “But my PhD GPA was 3.9…” These…
So, You’re Applying to Business School with a Low MBA GPA or GMAT Score?
First, are your numbers really so bad? “Low numbers” for the purposes of this article, and for most applicants, are GMAT scores and GPAs at the lower end of or below the mid-80% range for a given school. It may be difficult to find average GPAs for your target programs, but if you have a…
How to Discuss Failure in a Medical School Interview
Inevitably, you will be asked to describe a time when you have failed. It’s a common medical school interview question. This blog post will help you prepare for this question. It’s a tough one. When selecting an example to discuss, consider the following strategies: Choose a recent example. It’s almost always better to use examples…
How Your Academic Statistics Should Influence Your Medical School Choices
The most reliable source of information about allopathic medical schools is provided on the Medical School Admissions Requirements (MSAR) website, offered by the AAMC. It is worth purchasing access to this database because the statistics it contains can be extremely valuable in helping you decide where to apply. Before you begin exploring the school data,…
How Do You Deal with Criticism? MBA Admissions Committees Want to Know
Many MBA essays ask you to write about a time you were given criticism and how you dealt with it. This may not be the kind of question you wished they had asked, but it is one that provides an excellent opportunity to show the highly prized quality of emotional intelligence (or EQ). Additionally, the…
Med School Admissions: Challenges and Solutions for Older Applicants
“You’re going back to medical school? Why would you do that? Are you crazy?” Hopefully most people won’t react so strongly to your decision, but the question is probably still on their minds. And similar reservations are bound to pop into the heads of medical school admissions committee members reviewing your application. While the experiences…
GPA Issues When Applying to Med School: What to do With a “W”
Almost everybody has a blemish on their GPA. Usually it’s a failed class or a semester of poor grades. But there’s also the issue of how a “W” on your transcript will affect your chance of admission to medical school. The truth is that withdrawing from one or two classes is not going to hurt…
Writing About Weaknesses in Your Med School Personal Statement
When coming up with material for your medical school personal statement, it’s important that you ask yourself the following: Are there any weaknesses, any holes in my information, or any questionable data that somebody may question about my application? You don’t want your admissions reader getting to the end of your application and then asking,…
3 Tips for Discussing Failure in Your MBA Application Essays
“Business schools only want to accept candidates who are perfect, so I am going to make sure I show myself in the best possible light. Crickey. One of the essay questions is to tell them about a failure. What do I do now?” While this is a conversation you might conceivably have with yourself, fear…
3 Tips for Handling a Low GMAT Verbal Score
Recently, I talked about overcoming the challenge of a low GMAT quant score. Today we’ll discuss how to handle a less-than-perfect verbal GMAT score (in the bottom of the 80% range or lower for your target programs). With such a strong emphasis on teamwork and communication in business school (and for the rest of your…
3 Tips for Handling a Low GMAT Quant Score
A low quant score on the GMAT (at the lower end of the school’s 80% range) is never good news, but it doesn’t equal immediate rejection. As I’ve mentioned in the past, no single score is scrutinized independently, but rather your entire profile is examined as a unified package. WWAS (What Would Adcom Say)? Interpret…
Low GMAT Score? Don’t Panic…Yet.
Look at your scores in the context of a bigger picture. A low GMAT score or a low GPA is not necessarily an MBA deal breaker. No adcom is going to admit or dismiss a candidate based solely on one semester’s poor GPA or a low verbal GMAT score without also reflecting on other numbers…
What Eagles Quarterback Nick Foles Knows About MBA Applications
I often talk about the fact that MBA programs are essentially sifting through the applicant pool to find people whom post-MBA employers will want to hire. Employers love leaders who take risks, learn from and then brush off failures, and persevere with team spirit and camaraderie. Those people are the ones who time and again…
Help! My LSAT is Low – Should I Still Apply to Law School?
The December LSAT scores are now in, and some of you may be reevaluating your law school choices or plans. What should you do if your LSAT is low? Below are 5 important things you should consider before making any decisions: 1. The LSAT matters. Law schools look to the LSAT and GPA to see…
How Does the Med School Adcom View Multiple MCAT Scores?
In 2007, the MCAT was first offered electronically. Prior to this technological shift, the MCAT was only offered a limited number of times a year – as a paper and pencil exam. There was also a restriction placed on the number of times you could take the exam in one year as well as in…
Help, I Was Rejected by All the Med Schools I Applied To!
Here’s my 2-minute answer to the question I hear every application season: “I was rejected by every single medical school I applied to. What can I change?” There’s a simple 2-step process that rejected med school applicants need to follow: 1. Assess what went wrong, 2. Fix it! What exactly was your application weakness? Did…
16 Grad School Application Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make [Episode 237]
The application cycle is in full swing in early December, when I’m recording this podcast. In reflecting on the many applications that my colleagues and I review here at Accepted and the problems we help our clients deal with, I thought it might be a good time to discuss things you shouldn’t do – mistakes…
Applying to Med School With Low Stats? Read This.
Medical school admissions are competitive: it’s a fact of the process. If your GPA or MCAT is lower than average for your target schools, you may be facing an extra level of worry. Can you mitigate your low stats with a great essay? Or should you take a step back and focus on raising your…
