Accepted Admissions Almanac

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See you at the Accepted Admissions Almanac.

International Graduate Application Volume Slows

Following increases of 9% last year and 12% in 2006, graduate school applications from abroad increased by an anemic 3% in 2007-08. A few highlights from the Council of Graduate School's survey:

• Among regular participants in the survey, international applications are down 16% since 2003.
• Applications to CGS U.S. member institutions from both China and the Middle East increased 12% this year, but that figure pales when compared to gains of 19% and 17% last year, respectively.
• Specific fields are experiencing sharp changes. "Physical sciences applications have increased 7%, compared to 19% last year; engineering is up just 1%, vs. 11% in 2007, and there is only 2% growth in life sciences, compared to 17% last year. There is some good news, however: applications to social sciences are up 10% after a 2% decline in 2007." Applications to graduate schools of business increased by 10% in 07-08 compared to 15% in 06-07.

I will be interested  to see if the weak dollar doesn't turn the trend around, especially for applicants from countries with currencies tied to the euro.

US News Grad Rankings Are Out

The US News released its 2008 Grad School Rankings today. I'm going to list the top ten for business school, law school, and medical school 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. Harvard
1. Stanford
3. Wharton
4.  MIT Sloan
4. Northwestern Kellogg
4. Univ. of Chicago
7. Dartmouth Tuck
7. UC Berkeley Haas
9. Columbia
10. NYU Stern

Law School Rankings
1. Yale
2. Harvard
2. Stanford
4. Columbia
5. NYU
6. UC Berkeley
7. Univ. of Chicago
7. Penn
9. Northwestern
9. Univ. of Michigan
9. Univ. of Virginia

( I am not including a link to the law school methodology because as I am writing the link provided is a bad link.)

Medical School Rankings (Research)  and Methodology
1. Harvard
2. Johns Hopkins
3. Washington U (St. Louis)
4. Penn
5. UCSF
6. Duke
6. Univ. of Washington
8. Stanford
9. UCLA
9. Yale

A few caveats: My strong recommendation is to use the rankings as a library of raw data  conveniently compiled in one location and not as a tried and true guide of educational quality. They are not the latter. They are the former. To the extent you are going to use the rankings as a guide to school reputation and brand value, you must understand the methodology behind them and what they are measuring. Be cognizant of the differences between what is important to you and what is important to the rankings.

A few observations on the rankings themselves:

1. There are many ties in the rankings, which implies that the differences in reputation are almost imperceptible when talking about closely ranked programs. For example the difference between being "in the top ten" and out of the the top ten (i.e. #11) for MBA programs is 1 point,  for the top law schools is 2 points, and for the top medical schools is 1 point. Don't get hung up on these differences.
2. The "top ten" changes little from year to year. In most cases, if you compare these rankings to the 2007 version, it looks as if US News just reshuffled the deck a little.

For more on rankings, please see:

• Rankings: Controversy and Magazine Sales
• Thoughtful Dean Looks at Rankings
• Law School Admissions: Study Says Rankings Influence Decision Makers

Whom Do You Want Working for You?

Inside Higher Ed continues to report on conflicts of interest involving consultants who work for colleges or graduate schools and admissions staff members who moonlight as admissions consultants. Its most recent piece, "Private Counselors Who Won't Double Dip" spotlights the position of the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants, an organization that Accepted belongs to and that I am president of.

The article cites AIGAC as the admissions organization that has taken a clear stand on dual employment: It bans what the article calls "double dipping."

It quotes me in giving the basis for AIGAC's unequivocal position:

Linda Abraham, president of the association and also of a private counseling business called Accepted.com, said that the group wants to be very clear about the philosophy behind its ban. “You can’t have two masters when their interests may be in conflict,” she said. “As an adviser to applicants, we have to try to have one employer, the applicant.”

Life is full of conflicts and clashing interests. Adding  the impossible task of balancing the interests of client applicants and employers who just happen to be deciding  whether to accept those applicants adds a layer of complexity and ethical challenge that I don't want to face. In fact, I don't even want the appearance of facing it.

When you seek advice, you should not have to wonder if your trusted adviser and mentor has your interest as primary or that of the school you are applying to. If you choose to seek Accepted's help, or the help of other AIGAC members, you'll know that your interest in our primary concern.

I am proud to be a member of AIGAC, an new organization that is proving to be a leader in defining standards on dual employment and conflicts of interest in admissions. I urge other graduate admissions consultants who share AIGAC's vision and values to join. I encourage applicants to seek out AIGAC's growing list of members when choosing an admissions consultant.

Three Stories

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 of wisdom, the proud papa insisted on going ahead with his speech. However, he also decided to use stories to illustrate his points. He kept his guests’ attention during his 15-minute discourse. When he returned to the table, he triumphantly said to his wife, “See. I told you I wouldn’t talk too long.” He came about as close to “I told you so” as he could.

Once upon another time, there was an elite business school by the name of “Harvard.” (Its friends called it “HBS.”) HBS had a professor named John Kotter, who became an internationally famous “leadership and change guru.” When he wanted to spread his gospel of change to the widest possible audience, he didn’t publish a thick tome full of facts; he didn’t write a philosophical treatise on the truth about change and leadership. (Been there; done that.) He wrote a fable. Why? In Kotter’s words, fables “take serious, confusing and threatening subjects and make them clear and approachable. Fables can be memorable…They can stimulate thought, teach important lessons, and motivate anyone…” His book has become a best-seller.

In fact stories are so important that another top business school (Michigan’s Ross School of Business) has an award-winning screen writer, Robert McGee, come to its orientation “to teach business leaders how to tell a riveting story.” McGee wants to challenge the new MBA students to “take a case study and create a story that will persuade. He wants them to answer the question … What is the inciting incident that upsets the balance of forces in this company’s life? What is the object of desire?”

Ross gets it. Harvard gets it. Even my husband gets its. The engaging and persuasive power of a compelling, succinct story.

Do you get it? Considering that you want your essays to engage and persuade, can you afford not to use one of the oldest and most successful techniques of communication known to man? You really can’t.

Embrace stories. Show what you want to communicate. When you sit down to write your AMCAS essay, application essays, or personal statement, which succinct anecdotes illustrate your point? What were the turning points in your life? In your dreams? What motivated you to change?

Keep it real. Keep it memorable. Just tell a story.

Let's be friends...

Accepted has a Facebook page. I invite you to become an Accepted.com fan and/or join our first Accepted.com group, "Ask Accepted: MBA Admissions Experts." We plan to add other groups in the near future. In the meantime, please drop-by.

And all you Acceptees, clients and visitors to Accepted.com, please feel free to add me as a Facebook friend. Yes, this grandma has a Facebook page. That news was met with a certain amount of eye-rolling, shrugged shoulders, and we-can't-take-her-anywhere looks from my kids, who are mortified that their mother has a Facebook page. They'll get over it, and you and I can be Facebook friends.

Admissions Consultants and Conflicts of Interest

Since last week the activities of three admissions directors have raised a storm of controversy in the admissions world. These directors serve or have served on an advisory board at a private admissions consultancy in Japan. The directors have positions at Wharton, UNC Kenan-Flagler, and Columbia Teacher's College. Wharton has since requested that the director resign both from the Japanese advisory board and from her own private undergraduate consulting business; she has done so.

Accepted fully endorses the position of the Association of  International Graduate Admissions Consultants, which it co-founded  last year and where I am currently president. The AIGAC blog post, "Admissions Director & Consultant– Simultaneously?" details how this arrangement violates AIGAC's Principles of Good Practice ("PGP") in two respects:

• AIGAC's PGP  requires members to “Maintain independence of thought and action.” Accepting payment both from the school and from applicants and/or an admissions consultancy representing applicants compromises that independence. An AIGAC member, like Accepted, would not be allowed to participate in such an arrangement.
• One article quotes the Wharton director as saying that to avoid any conflict she arranged to receive from the consultancy a list of applicants to her school and intended to recuse herself from consideration of these applications. While her motives are commendable, the consultancy's release of client names would also violate AIGAC’s PGP. AIGAC members agree to “Maintain client confidentiality”;  providing a list of client names (presumably without clients’ permission) to an associate director of admissions at the school to which the clients are applying once again is in violation of the PGP.

Several of the articles indicated that both IECA (an undergraduate admissions consultants' organization) and GMAC (the association of leading business schools) are scrambling to establish standards for their  members and employees. Adoption of and adherence to AIGAC's PGP would have prevented  the controversy and the appearance of impropriety in this case. I suggest that IECA, GMAC and the graduate schools consider adopting them.

Now to Accepted's practice: As a member of AIGAC, Accepted, unlike the consultancy that hired the admissions directors and the directors themselves, is bound by the terms of AIGAC's PGP. We, however, view AIGAC's PGP as our starting point in avoiding conflicts of interest.

Business requires a constant weighing of clashing interests and values. Accepted strives to serve applicants exclusively and to put its customers and clients' interests first, even when doing so means forgoing income or turning away an admissions director interested in moonlighting for us.  We have taken both steps to preserve our independence.  We will continue to do so in the future.

Foreign Enrollment in Grad Science, Math Programs Soared in 2006

The National Science Foundation released the results of its survey of graduate enrollment in science and engineering. In 2006 total enrollment of first-time, full-time science and engineering (S&E) graduate students rose 6% over the 2005 level. That moderate rate of increase was fueled by a striking increase in enrollment by first-time, full-time enrollment of foreign students in S&E, which grew 16%. First-time, full-time enrollment of S&E graduate students with U.S. citizenship or permanent resident status rose by slightly more than 1%.

Reminder: Prices go Up on Thursday

Yes. Accepted.com is raising its hourly rate on Thursday September 1. You can beat the price increase by purchasing on or before August 31. That gives you just a few days. So don't hesitate. Choose the expert admissions advising and essay editing that you need to navigate the admissions process.

Price Increase Coming Sept. 1, 2005

Accepted.com is raising its hourly rates on September 1, 2005. Beat the price increase by buying Accepted.com's outstanding admissions advising and editing services on or before August 31, 2005.