Accepted Admissions Almanac

New Blog location

Accepted has moved this blog to a different hosting service. We invite  you to view it at http://blog.accepted.com.

We've enjoyed our stay with Typepad and intend to keep this blog posted, but will add new posts only to blog.accepted.com. Please visit us there and subscribe so that you don't miss any of the tips and news that will be added regularly.

If you want to ask us a question, you can do so on the new blog or in the Accepted Admission Forum.

See you at the Accepted Admissions Almanac.

Med Admissions Telethon on Tuesday

Cydney Foote just noticed that in a few places we wrote that the Medical School Admissions Telethon is on Thursday April 8. That is wrong. It is on Tuesday April 8 between 5:00 -7:00 PM PT/8:00 - 10:00 PM ET.

Now that  you know when it is (very soon!). Would you like to know what it is?

Two hours when Accepted's medical schools admissions experts will be available to answer your individual questions via telephone. Prior to calling in, you will receive a brief, questionnaire and submit it along with your CV to a designated email address. (No essays, please.)

When you call in, your consultant will review the information you provide, and you will have 15 minutes to discuss with her your most pressing medical school admissions questions. You can ask about school choice, your competitiveness at particular schools, handling negatives, differentiating yourself in a crowded field … anything you need to know to enhance your chances of getting into the med school of your dreams.

Oh yes. It's free. But you do need to register to obtain call-in information.  So sign-up, get that phone number, call in, and receive answers to your most important med admissions questions.

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

2008 Match Stats for Residents

AAMC summarized the match this year:

U.S. medical school seniors celebrated Match Day on Thursday. More than 94 percent of seniors who applied for residencies this year through the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) were paired with a program of their choice-the highest percentage in more than three decades. In fact, 84.6 percent of those seniors matched to one of their top three program choices.

The 2008 Match was also the largest ever. Overall, 28,737 applicants vied for one of 22,240 first-year residency positions--the most applicants in history.
A record-high 15, 242 of those applicants were U.S. medical school seniors.
The number of first-year residency positions available through the Match was also the highest in history; 395 additional positions were added this year.

For more information, please read the press release from AAMC.

I am happy to say that we have heard from many happy residency client who matched with their first choice program this year.

Medical School Admissions Telethon

With the med school application season just around the corner, medical school hopefuls are preparing to join thousands of other applicants eager to distinguish themselves. Meanwhile admissions committees prepare to read thousands of similar-sounding essays about ailing relatives and a deep-seated, inner yearning to help others.

The Accepted Medical School Admissions Telethon can help applicants find a fresh approach. During two hours on Tuesday, April 8, admissions consultants will be standing by to offer advice to medical school hopefuls. Candidates can speak with one of these admissions experts -- FREE.

Accepted launched this innovative concept originally to encourage MBA candidates to begin thinking early about the application process. In fact for the last thirteen years I’ve seen consistently that those who start early and set aside the time to prepare the best applications, end up submitting—surprise!—the best applications. And that's true for all applicant categories.

Now medical school callers can learn the same smart choices that ensure their application journey is smoother, more successful, and less nerve-wracking.

Accepted.com editors Cydney Foote and Joan Davis will be on hand during the Medical School Admissions Telethon to advise applicants on strategies for essays and secondaries, mitigating weaknesses, and even which recommenders to choose. Says Foote, “I see so many applicants who overlook the more unique aspects of their lives, instead writing the more generic stories that they think the admissions committees want to hear. They just aren't aware of what they can do to make themselves more competitive.”

Consultants who have experience working with hundreds of medical school applicants can provide that awareness. Davis observes, "So many applicants forget that the AMCAS application requires lists of work experience, volunteer experience, research experience, etc. The essays they produce are often just expanded versions of the lists, and they share nothing of personal backgrounds which are often real attention-getters."

Foote adds that non-traditional students can especially benefit from an admissions consultant's advice. "Applicants who don't fit the regular cookie-cutter mold have an uphill battle. Even in a short conversation, we can share some of the proven steps that have helped past client get noticed -- and accepted -- by top medical schools."

The Medical School Admissions Telethon offers 2009 candidates a chance to get an early start and get noticed. For more information and to sign up, please visit Accepted.com Medical School Admissions Telethon. The telethon is free, but it does require registration for you to obtain the call-in information and the consultation.

Healthcare Loan Limits Increased

AAMC released the following announcement:

Dept. of Education to increase health professions student loan limits

In response to an AAMC-led group letter sent last fall to Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, the Department of Education has agreed to raise the combined aggregate Stafford loan limit for health professions students from $189,125 to $224,000. Secretary Spellings sent a letter to AAMC President and CEO Darrell G. Kirch, M.D., last month, in which she announced the increase in student loan limits and promised to provide additional information as soon as possible. This increase is entirely in unsubsidized Stafford loans and will allow medical students to borrow at a 6.8 percent interest rate.

For more information: http://www.aamc.org/advocacy/library/educ/corres/2008/022808hploanlimits.pdf

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.

Residency Work Hours

In the four years since the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) began enforcing work rules for medical residents, it has expanded its enforcement efforts and egregious abuse of residents seems to have ended. Its annual report reveals that on one hand hospitals are not 100% in compliance and that the work rules have had an impact.

To have a better idea about either how your hospital fares if you already are a resident or what you can expect if you are in medical school or considering a career in medicine, please see "The ACGME’s Approach to Limit Resident Duty Hours 2006-07: A Summary of Achievements for the Fourth Year under the Common Requirements."

Med School Student Satisfaction

Is the glass more than half-full or more than half-empty?

AAMC STAT cites a 2004 study that shows "Nearly 90 percent of graduating medical students are satisfied with the quality and content of their medical education."

These results contrast sharply with the results of an AMSA study quoted in last week's post on medical student satisfaction.

There are lies, damn lies, and statistics.