Yale SOM Names Edward A. Snyder New Dean

This morning the Yale School of Management announced that Edward A. Snyder, currently Dean and George Shultz Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, has agreed to become the next Dean of the Yale School of Management. Snyder, who last fall announced his decision to step down from the role of Dean at Chicago Booth on June 30, 2010, won't actually begin his term immediately. He will take a year off, and then step into the Dean's office at Yale SOM on July 1, 2011. Current Yale SOM Dean Sharon Oster will continue on in her current role until then.

When Snyder announced that he was leaving Chicago Booth, it made a lot of waves in the education space, since he had put together one of the most successful tenures of any business school dean in recent memory. Under his leadership, Chicago Booth almost doubled its number of endowed professorships and more than tripled its scholarship assistance to MBA students. He transformed Chicago Booth by overseeing the move to the school's new Hyde Park campus and establishing a new campus in London. The school is now expanding its presence in Singapore and is playing a significant role in the University’s involvement in China.

And, the name says it all: In 2008, he announced a $300 million gift from Chicago alumnus David Booth and his family, which was the largest donation in the history of the University of Chicago and the largest gift to any business school in the world. In recognition of this gift, the school was renamed in Booth's honor.

This move marks the end of a long run in Hyde Park for Snyder, punctuated by stints in the public and private sector. He received both his M.A. in public policy, in 1978, and Ph.D. in economics, in 1984, from Chicago. He first started his professional career Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he served for four years. He then moved on to academia at the business school of the University of Michigan, where he also served as Senior Associate Dean and founding director of the Davidson Institute, which focuses on emerging markets.

Before taking over as Dean of Chicago Booth (then called Chicago GSB) in 2001, Snyder was the Dean at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business from 1998 to 2001. At Darden, he directed an expansion of the school's MBA program, worked to improve the diversity of the student body, significantly increased the school's executive education offerings, and led highly successful fundraising efforts, including a record gift from a single donor.

The Yale SOM alumni here at Veritas Prep HQ are celebrating the announcement, while the Kellogg alumnus here is disappointed since he was hoping that Snyder might take over from Dipak Jain, who stepped down as the Dean at Kellogg last September.

For advice on getting into Yale download our free Yale SOM Annual Report, one of 15 completely free guides to the world's top business schools, available on our site. If you're ready to start building your own application for Wharton or other top MBA programs, call us at 1-800-925-7737 and speak with an MBA admissions expert today!

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Chicago Booth's Rose Martinelli Gives Advice to Reapplicants

Last week Chicago Booth's Associate Dean for Student Recruitment and Admissions, Rose Martinelli, wrote a followup to her first blog post about how reapplicants can approach the MBA admissions process. While the first post gave very general information that our readers have seen multiple times (e.g., think about what aspects of your application you need to bolster, consider if your goals are the same this year...), Rose's second post contains some more concrete info that provides a good insight into how Chicago Booth reads reapplicants' applications.

About your data forms, Rose writes, "Do not rely on last year's application to provide us with that information since the forms change a little bit each year. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself -– why is this information important for the admissions committee to know about me?" While each school has its own approach for how much of your old application will make it into your new file, Chicago Booth includes your entire old application with your new submission. However, Rose stresses that your new application must present your candidacy fully.

About your resume, Rose says, "Your resume should be one that you would use for any job search, highlighting your role and accomplishments. " While she doesn't say it here, we would add that, although your resume should be complete and assume that the reader has no prior knowledge of your candidacy, you should put extra care into emphasizing what's new in the last year -- job promotions, a big achievement on a project, etc.

About your letters of recommendation, she has this to say: " While we know you may choose to use the same recommenders as in your prior application, ask your recommenders to update the information with your progression. It might also be helpful for you to take the time to meet with them to review your progress during this period and to highlight areas they might use as examples within the recommendation." This is all great advice -- don't assume that your recommendation writers know how to write you a great recommendation, no matter how smart they are or how strongly they support you.

Regarding essays, Rose says, "Avoid regurgitating information you used last year -– whether essays or elements of your presentation. Be bold and start from scratch." One question is specifically meant for reapplicants: Essay question 1B asks what has changed since you last applied. Rose says, "This could be anything from work experience, new goals or a greater self awareness. Here's your chance to help us understand your growth from last year."

This is consistent with what we always tell our clients: You are absolutely welcome to reapply to any top business school, but you really need to highlight what's new since last year. While we appreciate Rose's comment about greater self awareness, ideally you will have concrete achievements that you can point to as new and different since the last time you applied. Our reapplicant clients are most successful when they're able to do just that.

For more advice on applying to Chicago Booth, visit Veritas Prep's Chicago Booth information page. And, be sure to follow us on Twitter!

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Chicago Booth Admissions Essays and Deadlines for 2009-2010

The Chicago Booth admissions office recently announced its admissions deadlines and application essays for the coming year. These will help you start planning your Chicago Booth application. Our comments follow in italics:

Chicago Booth Application Deadlines
Round 1: October 14, 2009
Round 2: January 6, 2010
Round 3: March 10, 2010

(These deadlines haven't changed much vs. last year's. Note that, like other top MBA programs, Booth is is pushing to get all of its Round 1 decisions out before the holiday season. If Booth is your top choice, this will give you a chance to know your status with the school before you decide whether or not you need to work on Round 2 applications at your backup schools.)

Chicago Booth Application Essays

1. How did you choose your most recent job/internship and how did this experience influence your future goals? What about the Chicago Booth MBA makes you feel it is the next best step in your career at this time? (750-1000 words)
   
   (This is a new question for Booth his year, although, at its core, it's still the same "Why an MBA? Why now?" question that every business schools asks. What's interesting is how much emphasis this question places on your most recent job. This suggests that Booth wants to know more about your career choices to date, rather than just your future goals. If your experiences don't all line up into a perfectly neat, well-thought-out career trajectory, that's okay. But be prepared to show some introspection and communicate credible reasons why a Booth MBA is a logical next step.)


2. For reapplicants only: Upon reflection, how has your thinking regarding your future, Chicago Booth, and/or getting an MBA changed since the time of your last application? (250 words)

(Ahh, "reflection." Notice a theme here? Again, Booth looks for true introspection. What makes this different than many other schools' reapplicant questions is that it asks what's changed about your thinking, not what new jobs you have taken on or achievements you have earned. A strong answer to this question will still highlight these things, but the school also again wants to see evidence that you're really digging deep to understand why a Booth MBA is right for you.)


3. Please choose one of the following (500 - 750 words):
   
   Describe a time when you wish you could have retracted something you said or did. When did you realize your mistake and how did you handle the situation?
   
   or
   
   Describe a time when you were surprised by feedback that you received. What was the feedback and why were you surprised?
   
   (Both of these options are new this year. Usually, when a school replaces or changes its essay questions, it's because the old ones weren't giving the school what it needed in terms of really getting to know applicants and distinguishing one from the next. Both of these questions are a little different than the norm, and we even consider the first one a bit risky. However, that's a good thing -- don't shy away from discussing a serious mistake you made and what you learned from it, because such an experience can make for a terrific essay. The key, as always, will be to not only discuss the mistake, but also write about what you learned from it.)

Slide Presentation

In four slides or less please answer the following question: What have you not already shared in your application that you would like your future classmates to know about you?

We have set forth the following guidelines for you to consider when creating your presentation.

• The content is completely up to you. There is no right or wrong approach to this essay.


• Feel free to use the software you are most comfortable with. Acceptable formats for upload in the online application system are PowerPoint or PDF.


• There is a strict maximum of four slides, though you can provide fewer than four if you choose.


• Slides will be printed and added to your file for review, therefore, flash, hyperlinks, embedded videos, music, etc. will not be viewed by the committee. You are limited to text and static images to convey your points. Color may be used.


• Slides will be evaluated on the quality of content and ability to convey your ideas, not on technical expertise or presentation.


• You are welcome to attach a document containing notes if you feel a deeper explanation of your slides is necessary. However the hope is the slide is able to stand alone and convey your ideas clearly. You will not be penalized for adding notes but you should not construct a slide with the intention of using the notes section as a consistent means of explanation.

(Here Chicago Booth asks you to present yourself creatively and succinctly. Almost nothing is out of bounds, but you really must ensure that these slides add something new to your application -- don't use it to just show off professional achievements that you already cover elsewhere in your application. Be creative, and show some personality!!)

For more advice on applying to Booth, visit the Veritas Prep Chicago Booth information page, or download our FREE Veritas Prep Annual Reports. And, be sure to follow us on Twitter!

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How Does Chicago Law School Do It?

An ongoing trend in the law school world over the past few years is that the University of Chicago Law School has been losing top professors to rival schools at an alarming rate. And not just any old professors either - the attrition has included some of the most brilliant and famous legal minds in the country, as well as several other prominent subject matter experts and prolifically cited researchers.

Yet for all that, Chicago still ranks second in the country - behind only Yale - in terms of educational quality, according to the foremost authority on such things, Brian Leiter's EQR (Educational Quality Ranking).

Which begs the question: how do they do it?

To start with, Chicago has made a decision (and stuck by it) to put the quality of the teaching at the law school on the top priority rung, even to the detriment of other aspects of the school. As other elite law schools made the cirriculum more flexible and created more "crossover" opportunities with other programs, Chicago cinched its belt and required even more classes be taken within the law school. When Internet access flooded classrooms and threatened the intense dialogue between professor and student, U of C yanked out Ethernet and wireless in every room. Students didn't like it. Prospective students want flexible classes and wireless access, but frankly, Chicago doesn't care. At least, they don't care enough to risk diluting the quality of instruction that goes on within the law school.

Of course, making it all about priorities is a bit of a negative way to look at things. The other reason that Chicago's educational quality stays elite in light of the mass exodus is that they keep finding and nurturing amazing new professors. This is done through careful planning, the work of a highly-engaged hiring committee (populated with elite professors in their own right), and also by giving young academics a chance to come and shine in a "think tank" atmosphere. Very few schools allow as many workshops, seminars, and other non-traditional courses - all taught by some of the brightest young professors. Furthermore, Chicago was one of the first law schools to implement a mandatory legal writing class - called the Bigelow Program - and they staff the teaching positions with aspiring academics who show great potential. One of Chicago's best new professors - Adam Cox - came from the ranks of the Bigelow Program.

It's certainly not easy to add professors of high quality at the same rate that other school's are poaching them, but a quick glance at the highest profile names - both new and old - shows that the school is managing to keep pace. Gone are such luminaries as world-renowned legal scholars Richard Epstein (to NYU) and Cass Sunstein (to Harvard, and then to the Obama Administration), criminal law expert Tracy Meares (to Yale), beloved constitutional and legislative scholar Adrian Vermeule (Harvard), and law and econ guru Alan Sykes (Stanford). And I suppose you could add a former constitutional law lecturer by the name of Barack Obama to that list.

But just as the school features an unfortunate list of departed stars, Chicago is also compiling a roster of emerging legal minds that should keep them at the top of the academic heap for many years to come. In addition to the aforementioned Adam Cox, Chicago can also boast of young "rock star" professors like Kirkland Ellis appellate lawyer-turned McKinnsey consultant-turned corporate law guru Todd Henderson, property law scholar Lior Strahilevitz, crim law expert Bernard Harcourt, and student favorite Adam Samaha.

And of course, the school still boasts some of the stars of yesteryear, including the wildly popular contract expert Douglas Baird, constitutional law scholars such as Geoffrey Stone and David Strauss, policy and family law expert Emily Buss, and current dean Saul Levmore.

All told, the school looks to maintain its lofty perch at the top run of law schools when it comes to educational quality. The challenge for Chicago will be to keep up with the times and the changes in legal education while doing so.

For more information on the University of Chicago Law School, or any other top law schools, please feel free to visit our law school admissions consulting website or contact us at law@veritasprep.com or 1.800.925.7737.

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Chicago Booth Announces New International Loan Program

More good news is on the way for international business school applicants. Last week the University of Chicago Booth School of Business announced a new loan program for international students. Launched in partnership with JPMorgan Chase, the new program will give these students access to private educational loans without requiring a co-signer.

The new program will provide loans to international students who are not eligible for federal assistance in the U.S. and cannot qualify for standard private loans because they do not have a U.S.-based co-signer.

Under the terms of the new deal, JPMorgan Chase will provide financing to qualified international students for amounts up to the total cost of attendance, minus any financial aid received. Exact terms will be announced later this spring, when students will receive more information on the program.

"Almost 20 percent of our students are from abroad, and they add a great deal of intellectual vibrancy and cultural richness throughout the University and our community," said Kimberly Goff-Crews, Vice-President for Campus Life and Dean of Students, in a release on the school's site. "We have focused our attention on finding loan programs that will meet the needs of this important segment of our student body."

For more information on applying to Chicago Booth, visit the Veritas Prep Chicago Booth information page.

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GSB is Now the University of Chicago Booth School of Business (and for good reason!)

The University of Chicago announced yesterday that David Booth (in conjunction with his wife and family) has donated $300 million to the Graduate School of Business. Considering this is the largest donation in the history of the university and three times bigger than the previous business school donation ($105 million from Nike's Phil Knight to the Stanford Graduate School of Business, it comes as no surprise that the university will be renaming its business school the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

This obviously comes as great news to all of the Booth School of Business (has a decent ring to it) student, past, present, and future. Fresh off of completion of a brand new building (which, rest assured, is the envy of all other U of Chicago graduate students), Chicago's business school is poised to continue moving forward by offering state-of-the-art facilities and innovative programs.

Chicago's business school is still not for everyone, given its focus on hard finance and quantitative skills, but future MBA applicants would not be unwise to trust in the words uttered by Deep Throat to Bob Woodward in All the President's Men and "follow the money." Something tells me $300 million will tend to make a difference.

For more advice on applying to the Booth School of Business, visit the University of Chicago information page at Veritas Prep.

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Addenda Advice (from U Chicago Law)

The University of Chicago Law School's increasingly helpful blog A Day in the Life has posted a particularly interesting bit of advice regarding addenda and supporting materials in the application process.

There is a great deal of confusion in the law school community as to whether addenda items are allowed as part of the application. Some schools welcome them while others forbid their inclusion and will refuse to review anything outside of the required components.

So whenever a law school comes out and makes a clear statement on this issue, it is extremely helpful. Here, Chicago is stating that addenda items are allowable and seem to actually be encouraged as a device to explain inconsistencies or weaknesses. The value of this stance should not be overlooked.

For starters, having the opportunity to mitigate a weakness outside of your personal statement preserves valuable space to tell a positive story in your application. Minor weaknesses are often best left alone and major weaknesses demand a forward approach, so there is almost no downside to being frank and forthright in a separate document. Again, even though addressing the issue in addenda calls more attention to the weakness in question, that isn't a problem since the issue in question will stand out regardless (otherwise you wouldn't be writing about it). Dealing with the negative factor (examples could include a wide gap in LSAT scores or low letter grades from an exchange program that was pass/fail for your program) on its own allows you to address it, move on, and deal explicitly with your strengths in the actual personal statement.

Additionally, it is helpful to note that Chicago Law is open to the idea of addenda because it may serve as a way to update your application should something eventful transpire during the review process. Addenda items are often a great waitlist tool and knowing that a school is open to the instrument allows you to position yourself aggressively should you land on the waitlist.

Chicago's stance should not be assumed at other programs, but it provides clarity on that particular application and it establishes a baseline of inquiry at other schools. The most important thing is to discover how each program handles this component of the application process so that you can maximize every available resource in telling your story.

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Chicago GSB Announces Curriculum Changes

Yesterday the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business announced changes to the school's curriculum to increase the program's flexibility and to add a leadership development component to the evening program's requirements.

The school's graduation full-time MBA requirements remain unchanged: It still includes nine required courses, 11 electives and a leadership course. The important change is that more approved substitute classes have been added to satisfy the nine required courses. Chicago GSB continues to offer several hundred courses (across the GSB and the rest of the U. of Chicago) to satisfy the other 11 elective courses.

Dean Edward Snyder attributed the changes in part to the increasing quality of the students entering the class. "We have added a hybrid finance class containing five weeks of corporate finance and five weeks of investments that will allow all the standard corporate and investment classes to be taken up a notch in difficulty," said Dean Snyder in a release on the school's web site.

As for the evening students, the new leadership development course requirement means those students will take 21 courses, the same as the school's full-time students. The faculty cited the importance of giving all Chicago GSB students tools for self assessment and opportunities to improve their interpersonal skills -- no matter what Chicago GSB program they attend -- as the reason for the change.

If you are considering applying to Chicago, visit the Veritas Prep Chicago GSB information page.

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More Advice from U Chicago Law - Letters of Recommendation

The University of Chicago blog, A Day in the Life, which was detailed here yesterday, has also posted a helpful missive on the elusive letter of recommendation.

The big takeways here are A) to find someone who knows you well enough to write substantively on your academic qualities and B) to "feather the nest" (so to speak) by providing a packet of information to the recommender in question, allowing that person to do a thorough job. Chicago also makes it clear that recommendations should be from academic sources whenever possible, so applicants would be well served to cozy up to a few professors during their junior year or (worst case) during the fall.

Furthemore, Veritas Prep is pleased to see our own tips and suggestions mirrored throughout the post. The client always wins when consultants and law schools see eye to eye.

The following is from Veritas Prep's Application Tips page and features many of the sentiments included in the U Chicago blog post:

One of the most egregious misperceptions regarding letters of recommendations has to do with the credibility of the source. While you do want to ask credible people to pen these letters, that doesn’t mean you want to ask famous people to perform the task. It is far better to have your anonymous history professor eloquently detail your passion for learning, your collegiality, and your desire for social justice than it is for a famous politician to deliver a canned letter about what a promising future you have. Admissions officers have many talents and chief among them is the ability to sniff out a cut-and-paste letter of recommendation.

Most law schools ask for either multiple academic recommendations or a combination of scholarly and professional references. The authors of these letters should be able to produce a nuanced recommendation that speaks to at least one of the five most important attributes in a law school applicant and they should really, truly know you.

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Law School Personal Statement Advice: U Chicago

The University of Chicago is considered by some to be the most "old fashioned" of the elite law schools - quick to ban Internet use in classrooms, slow to add cutting edge cirriculum additions (although it is clear that Justice Scalia would prefer they move even more slowly).

So it might come as a surprise to many in the law school community that Chicago actually features one of the most student-friendly and transparent admissions blogs out there.

A recent post was particularly helpful for law school applicants, as it provided some insight into the law school's perspective on the increasingly tricky personal statement component of the application.

The advice contained within is not exactly groundbreaking, but still offers some nice commentary on the difficulty of the assignment (hopefully providing some peace of mind to applicants) and seems to invite worthwhile and honest feedback, which is a departure from a recent post on the Yale Law School blog.

Among other tips, the blog's author - Sarah Arimoto-Mercer, Director of Financial Aid - stresses that applicants do not have to describe post-graduation legal practice goals, details some major "don't" items (grammar errors, unconventional personal statements, naive statements, and "big words"), and hammers home the point that a personal statement is about the applicant.

The best news for client's of Veritas Prep's Law School Admissions Consulting services is that we see eye-to-eye with the University of Chicago. Consider the following phrases:

From Veritas Prep's "Personal Statement" page:

One of the most difficult things facing an applicant during the law school admission process is the lack of control. Many application components are set in stone or out of a student's hands entirely. This makes the personal statement of paramount importance. Students can control their own story in this critical writing sample.

And from the U Chicago blog post on the subject:

The personal statement is your chance to go above and beyond the numbers. Your LSAT and GPA are pretty concrete by the time you apply to law school. The personal statement is an element of the application where you can still make a difference. Since you cannot request an interview with the admissions committee, you can think of the personal statement as your chance to say what you would have wanted to highlight in an interview.

For students who would like to receive more insight into the personal statement component of the application, consider reading the following application tips on the subject.

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Justice Scalia Slams University of Chicago

The Internets are alive with chatter about United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's comments regarding the University of Chicago's loss of conversvative street cred.

In a Tuesday speech before the Federalist Society, Scalia expressed dismay and regret over the fact that Chicago had "changed considerably and intentionally" from a "rigorous and conservative law school" to ... well, a rigorous and less conservative law school, apparently. He complained about the addition of more nuanced classes, stating: "I took nothing but bread-and-butter classes, not 'Law and Poverty,' or other made-up stuff."

Of course, it wouldn't have been a Scalia speech without a bit of controversy and we're guessing that the University of Chicago Law School isn't terribly worried, given the fact that today's law school applicants aren't exacty taking their cues from Justice Scalia. Far be it for Veritas Prep to say, but our take is that classes like Law and Poverty are probably a good thing and will keep Chicago in good stead with the best and brightest law students.

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Chicago GSB Application Deadlines for 2008-2009

While we earlier posted Chicago's application essays for 2008-2009, we wanted to get the word out about Chicago's deadlines for this season:

Chicago GSB Application Deadlines
Round 1: October 15, 2008
Round 2: January 7, 2009
Round 3: March 11, 2009

To get a feel for your chances of gaining admission to Chicago and other top MBA programs, try the Veritas Prep Business School Selector. And for more information on business school application deadlines, visit our MBA application deadlines page.

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Chicago GSB Application Essays for 2008-2009

Although Chicago GSB hasn't yet released its full 2008-2009 application, the school recently announced its admissions essays for the upcoming year. Our comments are in italics:

Chicago GSB Application Essays

1. Why are you pursuing an MBA at this point in your career? (750 word maximum)


(This is similar to last year's first question, although the maximim word count has been cut in half vs. last year.)


2. Please select one of the following two questions to answer. (1000 word maximum)
   
   Option 1
   
   a) Please provide an example of a time when you had to make a choice between two equally important obligations. How did you decide which obligation deserved your attention?
   b) Did you try and predict other people's reactions to your decision? If so, how accurate were you? Why do you think you were or were not accurate in your prediction?
   c) Reflecting on this experience, how do you think an MBA from Chicago GSB might have aided in your decision making process?
   
   -or-
   
   Option 2
   
   a) Have you ever made a decision that caused you to go against popular opinion? Please describe that situation and your rationale for you decision.
   b) Did you feel at any point that people misperceived your motives? Explain.
   c) In retrospect, how do you think an MBA from Chicago GSB would have affected your decision?

(These questions replace last year's "If you could step into someone else's shoes for a day" question. We wouldn't be surprised if they weren't quite getting the information they wanted -- i.e., true introspection on the part of applicants -- and so they've replaced that with questions that are more explicitly about the applicant. We think this was a good change. The takeaway for you is to remember to keep the focus on YOU, how you've grown, what tough decisions you've made, what setbaks you've faced, etc. This is what the admissions committee needs in order to evaluate your candidacy, not a bland statement about being in some world leader's shoes for a day.)


Chicago GSB PowerPoint Presentation

We have asked for a great deal of information throughout this application and now invite you tell us about yourself. Using four slides or less, please provide readers with content that captures who you are.

We have set forth the following guidelines for you to consider when creating your presentation.

• The content is completely up to you. There is no right or wrong approach this essay. Feel free to use the software you are most comfortable with. Acceptable formats for upload in the online application system are PowerPoint or PDF.



• There is a strict maximum of 4 slides, though you can provide fewer than 4 if you choose.



• Slides will be printed and added to your file for review, therefore, flash, hyperlinks, embedded videos, music, etc. will not be viewed by the committee. You are limited to text and static images to convey your points. Color may be used.


(This is a tiny change, but "Color may be used," is new this year. Don't go crazy with color, though.)


• Slides will be evaluated on the quality of content and ability to convey your ideas, not on technical expertise or presentation.



• You are welcome to attach a document containing notes if you feel a deeper explanation of your slides is necessary. However the hope is the slide is able to stand alone and convey your ideas clearly. You will not be penalized for adding notes but you should not construct a slide with the intention of using the notes section as a consistent means of explanation.


(Stick with the PowerPoint presentation. Resist the urge to spill your story into a verbose extra essay. The challenge here is to present yourself succinctly. Rise to that challenge!)

Optional Essay

If there is any important information that is relevant for your candidacy that you were unable to address elsewhere in the application, please share that information here.

For more advice on applying to Chicago, visit the Veritas Prep Chicago GSB information page.

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Surviving the Rankings Game

The U.S. News & World Report grad school rankings for 2009 came out a few weeks ago and revealed some interesting developments. (By the way, what is with the "2009" rankings coming out in April of 2008? Have academic rankings gone the way of automotive companies?).

For me, the most interesting development of all could be found in the Law School Rankings, where the 5-10 spots continue to undergo a major transformation.

First, a quick note to say that I am a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, which helps explain my attention to this sort of detail and my concern over some recent trends that pretty much boil down to two things:

1. Chicago does not care about rankings

2. Everyone else does.

These two trends have, obviously, led to significant changes at the top of most ranking systems, with U.S. News being no exception. While Chicago has continued to keep the ranking process at an arm's length, other programs have embraced it, even staffing positions that deal exclusively with ranking services. Not only that, but many law schools have made strategic decisions to boost their profiles by pouring scholarship dollars into securing the best GPA/LSAT yields they can muster.

The combination is an effective one indeed. Schools are influencing public (and private) opinion in order to score higher in the subjective areas, while increasing their academic profile in order to score higher in the more quantitative ranking components.

Meanwhile Chicago is going the other direction. The administration has taken an "anti-rankings" stance that is both admirable (in that they refuse to game the system) and destructive (in that it is hurting the school). The problem with refusing to engage in the rankings world is that everyone else cares about this. Employers, investors, voters, and pretty much any other "er" is going to put some stock in rankings like U.S. News, which means that students will care about it. They have to, because it is their future on the line. Students can't afford to rest on their laurels or sleep easy knowing how great the faculty is. They have to think about the rate of return on their educational investment. And if that return isn't as promising at Chicago as it is at Columbia, then the student is going to Columbia. Period.

As recently as this decade, Chicago was ranked third in the country among all law schools by U.S. News. When I was admitted for the fall of 2004, the school was fourth (Stanford had moved up), just ahead of Columbia and NYU. By the time I reached my 3L year, the New York schools had moved ahead and dropped U of C to sixth. Last year, Penn moved into a tie for sixth.

Now, Berkeley has vaulted into the #6 spot, leaving Chicago in a tie for seventh with Penn.

No matter how you feel about academic rankings in general, or U.S. News specifically, going from third to tied for seventh in under 10 years is a pretty terrible.

Even worse, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. As the school slides in the rankings, it starts to lose out on the top students. Then, the quality of each class starts to drop. Before long, the school is sliding down the charts, not because of an aversion to "The Rankings Game," but because they simply don't have the same caliber of students.

And that's what I fear for Chicago. It is a school with a lot of great qualities and a very pure approach to academia. But it is also a law school with a crappy old building, an increasingly archaic approach to education (one of the last schools to cling to the Socratic Method, one of the first to turn off wireless Internet in the classrooms), and a stodgy campus setting. If the University of Chicago starts to lose its level of prestige - which is derived largely from rankings - then what is left to keep the best and brightest from going elsewhere?

[- Read the rest here -]

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Loan Forgiveness Programs: Should Applicants Consider Them?

Obviously, one of the primary factors that govern a graduate school applicant's enrollment decision is The Almighty Dollar. As in: how much will this cost, what kind of aid can I get, and what sort of earning potential am I looking at once I finish? Analyzing educational cost is a complicated task because students must first identify actual numbers (sticker price - available scholarship and grant money) and then put those numbers in the proper context by understanding loan repayment and properly estimating future salary figures.

See, complicated.

One thing that is further complicating this financial aid stew is the addition of loan forgiveness programs. Popularized by elite law schools, the concept is a relatively simple one: eschew the big paychecks (and long hours) of a big law firm in favor of public interest work and, in exchange, you will get help paying back your enormous graduate student loans. Law schools have discovered that an attractive loan forgiveness program is a terrific marketing tool. This is primarily due to the fact that a huge number of law school applicants (especially those who are qualified to land admission spots in the elite programs) are highly optimistic people who view themselves as truth-seeking, freedom-fighting altruistic beings. In other words, everyone thinks they are going to do public interest work when they first apply to law school.

This poses an interesting question: how much stock should a top-flight candidate put in a school's loan forgiveness program?

A quick look at any reputable survey (I'm too lazy to find one at present) will tell you that the number of law school graduates who ultimately do public interest work is far, far less than the number of law school applicants who say they will one day do public interest work. There are many factors that play a role in this phenomenon. It is easier for a student at an elite law school to secure a summer associate position at a law firm than with a cutting edge public interest entity. Public interest firms and groups have fewer recruiting resources. The pressure to work in the big legal markets like New York or L.A. force students to search for an accessible path that will also pay the costs of relocating and then living in those cities. There are also simple (and often perverse) economic incentives, career-building considerations, and personal preference factors to consider. But the simple truth is that the number of actual public interest lawyers is so much lower than the number of hypothetical public interest lawyers because - pay attention now - people have no idea what they want to do when they are applying for law school! In fact, it is safe to say that the "actual" number for any subset of the legal profession is substantially lower than the suggested numbers generated by surveys of law school applicants.

It is human nature to change one's mind, especially after being exposed to hundreds of hours of logical reasoning and critical analysis.

So this takes us back to our initial question, framed in a new way: if students think they might want to do public interest law, but know they probably won’t, should they put much (or any) stock in each school's loan forgiveness program?

My answer to this - perhaps surprisingly - is yes. But it comes with a caveat. Students who see themselves doing public interest work after law school should still take that aspect of a program into account, but must do so with an understanding of human nature and the likely evolution that will take place in law school. This approach will help applicants identify those programs that offer a more realistic possibility of providing a future benefit.

Take, for instance, the different loan forgiveness programs at both Harvard Law School and the University of Chicago Law School. Both have interesting and competitive loan forgiveness programs that work in very different ways. Harvard has introduced a new program that subsidizes a public interest student's education by picking up the tab on the entire third year of law school ($45,000). This will, no doubt, catch the eye of more than a few applicants. However, it comes with more strings than John Cusak's puppet show in Being John Malkovich, as students who receive this subsidy are then required to work at least five years in a qualified public interest position. Five years! If students do not meet their end of the bargain, Harvard has to come and ask for that money back.

Chicago's program, on the other hand, is more modest in scope but less fraught with peril. Students who do post-graduate work in the public interest sector are eligible to receive up to $10,000 for each year that they do so, for as many as seven years. This might not be as enticing to an applicant as the promise of a free third year of tuition, but it comes at no risk and is still a very nice way of rewarding people for using their legal educations to make the world a better place (presumably).

Law school applicants everywhere, consider loan forgiveness programs if you see fit, but be sure to analyze them with the proper lens of perspective and rational expectation. And just know that whatever school you are analyzing and whatever program they are offering, the whole thing is primarily a marketing concept brilliantly designed to play on your own idealized view of your eventual career.

[- Read the rest here -]

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Business School Showdown!

It’s a rather well-known fact that sports do wonders for increasing a school’s national visibility. However, athletic events are tied to the main campus; they don’t ever really get tied the business schools. Enter CNBC and their “Fast Money MBA Challenge” game show.

This show will pit teams from eight business schools across the country against each other in a variety of rounds. As the teams answer questions correctly, they’ll get more money in their team’s “portfolio”. This virtual money is then “invested” (wagered) in subsequent rounds, with the most successful team being the overall winners. The winning team gets $200,000 to split amongst themselves, to pay for education costs.

When: Tonight @ 9:00pm
Participating Schools: UCLA, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, MIT, NYU, Chicago, and Texas

Source: 'Fast Money Challenge'

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Who Loves PowerPoint?

The University of Chicago does! In fact, they now require it as part of their business school admissions process.

There are a few potential benefits to this new change. First and foremost, it shows that prospective students are technologically savvy enough to create four pages of PowerPoint slides. Because such presentations are so ubiquitous in the business world, this is crucial knowledge for any prospective business student to have.

Secondly, this provides a more "free-form" aspect to the application. This provides applicants a way to compensate for less-than-ideal test scores by showing off their creativity. Rose Martinelli, Chicago’s associate dean for student recruitment and admissions, points out that this also serves as “a free-form space for students to be able to say what they think is important, not always having the school run that dialogue."

Personally, I hope this leads to some far more exciting PowerPoint presentations than what one might normally sit through...

If you are interested in seeing more interesting ways to tackle admissions essays, take a look at these sample MBA essays.

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Business Ethics - Not an Oxymoron

Business schools are working hard to instill a sense of ethics into their students, especially in the wake of recent corporate scandals. Many programs have some kind of business ethics class as a requirement for MBA students, though they admit that teaching ethics is the easy part; it's much more difficult to ensure that students will actually practice these values once they venture into the business world. Still, schools are taking this requirement very seriously. The University of Chicago even has their "Guide to Business Ethics" course taught by a Nobel laureate (Robert Fogel).

Let's hope all their efforts can ward off any Enron repeats.

Source: Money Scandals focus minds on need for ethics

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