How to Put the "I" in Application

An application tip for the graduate school candidate.

Most of our time writing on this blog is spent diving into the nuance and nitty gritty of GMAT prep and the MBA admissions process. Every once in a while, it helps to take a step back and look at things from a very fundamental, building-block level.

Today we are going to take a crack at some armchair psychology -- thinking about why people have such a hard time writing about themselves in graduate school essays and personal statements. Not just the "what to say" part, but also how to say it. Put bluntly, most people produce fairly mediocre prose when it comes to writing about their own lives and goals.

Think back to the process of applying to college and try to recall the most difficult thing about the applications. No doubt it was writing the myriad essays required by each school. What made those so difficult? After all, surely your high school English classes demanded more of you as a writer. The answer is actually pretty simple: you had to write from the "I" perspective for the first time in many years.

From the time we enter elementary school, we are taught to avoid using the word "I" in our writing. Whether in fiction, research, opinion, or reporting, the use of the word "I" is frowned upon by English teachers and grammar purists everywhere. So it comes as no surprise that the task proves difficult when we are asked to do it after years of neglect.

A graduate school applicant has at least been through this once before, but the transition is still uncomfortable. The best thing an applicant can do is become fully aware of this internal struggle. Once you realize that the nagging doubt in your brain is actually the voice of your eighth grade journalism teacher, it becomes much easier to ignore –- nay, destroy – that voice and tackle the assignment at hand. So embrace your inner "I" and enjoy the rare chance to bombard your reader with the most glorious of all pronouns.

For personalized, effective MBA admissions, law school admissions, or medical school admissions help, give us a call at (800) 925-7737 and speak with one of our admissions experts today. And, be sure to subscribe to this blog and follow us on Twitter!

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Defending Admissions Officers Everywhere

Last week, Michael Kinsley, the editor-at-large for the Atlantic Wire, wrote an op-ed piece on the admissions process that highlighted some of the reasons why things have become so competitive and cutthroat over the years. The piece focused primarily on college admissions, but there are multiple mentions of graduate school and examples of HBS, so it seems fair to consider Kinsley's words from the perspective of graduate school admissions.

And what were his words?

As they pertain to admissions officers, nothing much more than the usual screed about the arbitrary nature of selective college admissions. Make no mistake, there are some good thoughts in here: some interesting and basic (and probably more interesting because of how basic it is) math showcases the rise in competition over the years, and I certainly agree with the idea that in planning out our lives we "obsess about this college versus that only because that's the only factor we can obsess about." Well said and certainly true, as far as I'm concerned. Where Kinsley loses me is in his critique of the admissions process itself, and the accusation that "the decision is essentially random, the process was wildly inconsistent, and I might well have been turned down because the assistant dean didn't care for his lunch that day."

Here, Kinsley simply resorts to the party line of outsiders, media members, and higher ed critics, groaning on about how arbitrary it all is. I half expected to read the phrase "throwing darts at a dart board." And make no mistake, there is an element of chance in the admissions process at an elite institution. There is luck. There is a human element that plays a large role. There are more than enough qualified candidates and it can seem harsh, unfair, and capricious when some get in and some do not. But to dismiss the entire process because of these factors is to fail to understand that process. Yes, there is luck -- but the role that luck plays can be reduced through careful planning and presentation. Yes, there is a human element -- but that human element can be a benefit when you take the time to consider the person on the other side of the desk. Yes, there are more than enough qualified applicants -- does that mean you should just give up?

I can tell you two things, as someone who was an admissions officer at a highly selective college (acceptance rate under 30%) and as someone who now works with applicants to highly selective graduate programs. The first is that admissions officers DO work hard, as they claim in their rejection letters (much to Kinsley's chagrin). An admissions office typically has one "file reading" professional for every 1,000 applications and that personnel is responsible for both recruiting those applicants and then making decisions on their credentials. The process features multiple layers and gets several eyes on the same profile -- decisions aren't made based on what someone has for lunch. That's reductive, throw-away language that people use when they don't want to wrestle with reality.

The reality is that admissions officers work hard, they care about what they are doing, and they want to see applicants who work just as hard and care just as much. This is bad news for many who view the process as more of a sweepstakes and less of a rigorous match-making and interviewing experience, but it's good news for people who want to roll up their sleeves and treat their applications with care.

The second thing I can tell you, given everything I just wrote above, is that I wouldn't want someone who views the admissions process the way Michael Kinsley does to advise me on my own applications.

At Veritas Prep, we both support the work of admissions professionals and believe in our ability to help candidates confront this difficult process. We don't throw up our hands and blame it all on the fates. And neither should you.

For personalized, effective MBA admissions, law school admissions, or medical school admissions help, give us a call at (800) 925-7737 and speak with one of our admissions experts today. And, be sure to subscribe to this blog and follow us on Twitter!

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Online Behavior in Medical School Admissions

Considering the impact of the Internet and social networking sites like Facebook on the admissions process has quickly become a pretty tired story. Yes, students should take care to manage their online presence, but no, admissions officers are unlikely to search every nook and cranny of the Web to "bust" applicants. As it relates to MBA and law school admissions, there's not much to discuss in this area.

However, that may not necessarily be the case with medical school. CNN recently ran an article about a study conducted by the Journal of the American Medical Association that explored online behavior of medical students and presented some very interesting conclusions. In short, the stakes are higher for med students than they are for their business school or law school counterparts, which may have ramifications on the admissions process.

According to the article, there were six medical schools that reported a violation of patient privacy by one of its students, often in the form of detailed blog posts or Facebook updates. According to CNN, most of the inappropriate student conduct reported in the survey was "related to the student's own behavior, including drunken, drug-related, or sexually suggestive images or comments, as well as the use of profanity or discriminatory language." However, that handful of privacy violations is a huge concern, especially considering that some of the violations were reported by the patients, rather than the students.

Obviously, this is going to be a fairly major issue within the medical school community, and you can expect more programs to adopt official policies about the social networking sites. However, a potentially overlooked consideration is how this will impact the admissions process. At the very least, this is a reminder of just how important character and ethics are in a candidate, as the best way to prevent some of these actions is to avoid the types of people who are likely to commit them. Beyond that though, what might we see? All of the old arguments about Facebook suddenly become relevant, because it is more than just a window into a candidate's life, it is a preview of how they will live and behave on the Internet once they become med students.

It is certainly something to watch and at the very least, medical school applicants will want to be more cognizant of their online behavior than their law and business school counterparts.

For more advice on medical school admissions, call us at 800-925-7737 and talk to one of our admissions experts.

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Should Medical School Admissions Requirements Change?

Anyone with even a basic interest in medical school knows that the requirements for pursuing an MD are substantial. Pre-med courses, the MCAT, multiple stages of the application process, interview days -- there are a ton of pieces to the puzzle and it all adds up to a tremendous amount of work. Everyone knows it is a grind. But is it the right grind? This is a question that is rarely posed, but that was both asked and answered recently in an important report called Scientific Foundations for Future Physicians, which was described in detail today on the Stanford News Service. This report makes a series of recommendations that call for subtle-yet-important changes in the way medical school candidates prepare for their graduate work.

The report was produced by a 22-person committee, which was tasked jointly by the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2007. The committee was headed by Sharon Long, a Stanford biology professor and a former dean at the university, and calls for the following changes to the existing medical school requirements:

• Replacing a list of required pre-med courses with a series of "competencies" (knowledge, skill, and attitude).
  
  
• Adding competencies to the med school education as well, to account for increasing reliance on math and physical sciences in everyday medical practices.
  
  
• One example of swapping in competencies for required courses is changing the pre-med requirement of taking calculus with a demonstrated ability to "apply quantitative reasoning and appropriate mathematics to describe or explain phenomena in the natural world."
  
  
• The goal of the new framework is to push development of undergraduate science coursework and create flexibility for pre-med students to take classes outside of the requirements. (Specifically, the hope is that more pre-med students will take courses like Biochem or Stats, without having to add units of coursework, and that more pre-med students will seek out liberal arts majors.)
  

Long provided a salient quote that speaks to the overall philosophy behind these recommendations:

"Think about it this way. You can get from the first floor to the second by going up a ramp or by taking the steps. Right now the medical school entrance exam assumes the only way is the steps, and it tests you on each one. We want the exam to test whether you can get to the second floor, not how you got there—because then faculty can innovate how they teach the principles."

This statement really speaks to the heart of the matter, which is that medical school students need to possess an overall aptitude, skill set, and desire to enter the medical profession, rather than be in possession of a series of merit badges for completing somewhat random steps along the way. Furthermore, the contents of the report have been given an endorsement of sorts by the dean of the Stanford Medical School, Philip Pizzo, meaning that it might very well trigger a broad discussion of medical school requirements. And while the change from required courses to competencies might feel vague or underwhelming, this is a huge step toward providing students with the actual freedom to do what has been asked of them for years - take an interdisciplinary approach to preparing for medical school. If nothing else, the dialogue that results from this report is something to stay on the lookout for.

Visit our web site to learn more about our medical school admissions consulting services, and be sure to follow us on Twitter.

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