GMAT Prep and MBA Admissions: The Best of 2008

There goes another year! As 2008 winds down, we thought we'd share some of our most popular posts and most interesting topics from the past 12 months:

• Financial Times MBA Rankings 2008


• Ace That Interview!


• Introducing the Veritas Prep Business School Selector


• GMAC Addresses GMAT Cheating Scandal


• The HBS 2+2 Program


• Lowest Price on the Official Guide for GMAT Review


• And So It Continues...


• Free Sample GMAT Exam Now Available


• Veritas Prep Provides MBA Admissions Tips for Forbes


• Veritas Prep Quoted in U.S. News Article


• Announcing Law School Admissions Consulting Services


• MBA Admissions Tips from Haas


• Last-Minute MBA Admissions Essay Tips


• BusinessWeek MBA Rankings for 2008


• Our First Annual MBA Admissions Officer Survey Results


• Veritas Prep Featured in BusinessWeek


• Announcing the 2008 Veritas Prep GMAT Instructors of the Year

Thanks for reading, everyone! Best wishes for a terrific 2009!

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HBS Admissions Podcast

Recently the Harvard Business School admissions office posted a podcast interview with Dee Leopold, Managing Director of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid.

The interview started off with the question that Leopold hears most often: "What are you looking for in an applicant?" Leopold broke it down into "qualities" and "experiences," and explained that they look for common qualities but diverse experiences in the incoming class.

For qualities, Leopold highlighted the following:

• Solid values and integrity -- No surprise here. HBS and all other programs won't even consider someone who may seem unethical.


• Ability to thrive in an analytical environment and academic setting -- As described in Your MBA Game Plan, this is one the key dimensions that you must show in your application. We at Veritas Prep refer to this as "Innovation."


• Initiative -- How can you show you how you go above and beyond what's normally expected of you?


• Curiosity -- Another part of what we call "Innovation." Show that you want to learn more about what makes the world tick.


• Maturity -- This is another one of the four important dimensions that we describe in Your MBA Game Plan.


• Perspective -- Do you have self-awareness? How have your experiences shaped your outlook on the world?


• Sense of humor -- Yes, even HBS wants to see applicants who don't take themselves too seriously. We believe this a sense of humor is a clear sign of maturity, humility, and self-confidence.

Note that Leopold didn't mention "leadership." She went on to explain that, "We're looking for leaders who have these qualities (above). We don't think that 'leadership' as a one-size fits all or something that is a list of things on your resume. We think that leadership, and the way you lead, is as exciting a dimension of diversity as any of the other things I mentioned."

There's a lot of great information in the podcast, and this is just a sample. Go here to listen to the entire podcast.

One other note: Leopold mentioned that HBS is visiting a lot of college campuses this year, to open more undergrads' eyes to HBS and the value of an MBA. This is just one more sign of HBS' effort to attract and accept more candidates with very little job experience. Take note of this if you've been out of college for a couple of years and are wondering whether you should apply now or in a couple of years. "We are encouraging people to think about business school earlier in their lives," Leopold said.

While she also went on to say that this is not bad news for more experienced applicants, we believe that HBS' vision of the typical first-year student has permanently changed vs. ten years ago (i.e., it has become younger). If you apply later in your career, expect that HBS will have a lot of questions about why you waited.

Visit Veritas Prep for more information on Harvard Business School and the HBS 2+2 Program.

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MBA Admissions Tips from Yale

Recently the Yale School of Management admissions office posted some admissions tips for those applicant who are working on their Round Two deadlines. Among the tips that they offered:

• Review Your Essays -- Before you submit your application, it's important to review your essays to be sure your goals are well articulated and you've covered all the points you want to convey. You may also want to have a friend or family member proofread them because it's always helpful to have a second pair of eyes to catch things you may have missed. Just remember essays should be entirely your own work.


• Send Your Official Test Score Reports -- If you haven't already, designate Yale SOM to receive your score reports electronically. If we don't receive your report close to the admissions deadline, the review of your application may be delayed.


• Make Your Resume Stand Out -- Instead of just listing your job responsibilities, be sure you've highlighted special projects and new initiatives that have contributed to the success of your office.

Also, the Yale admissions office reports that they have sent out about two-thirds of the total candidates whom they plan on interviewing from Round One. So, if you haven't yet heard anything from Yale about an admissions interview yet, don't worry -- they may just not have reviewed you application yet. And, they may keep sending out interview invitations right up until the decision deadline, so there's still plenty of time to hear from Yale!

Just a reminder that Yale SOM's Round Two deadline is January 7, 2009. If you would like some last-minute help on your Yale essays, take a look at Veritas Prep's MBA essay editing services.

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GMAT Tip of the Week

A Quick First Step

(This is one of a series of GMAT tips that we offer on our blog.)

The year was 1995. Michael Jordan was finishing a lackluster career in baseball's minor leagues, Cal Ripken, Jr. was putting the final touches on his "perfect attendance" record, OJ Simpson was trying on gloves in a courtoom, and Hootie and the Blowfish were, evidently, writing songs about the GMAT (which was not yet being administered via computer).

"Time...you ain't no friend of mine," they sang, in a way that GMAT test-takers know all too well. The GMAT derives quite a bit of its difficulty from the timed component, which prompts examinees to make seemingly-careless errors and to feel undue stress. What is the best way to deal with the timed component?

Years of working with GMAT students has led Veritas Prep instructors to note one common situation that test-takers face - they often spend too much time looking at a problem and agonizing over how they will approach it, and soon realize that the clock is ticking faster, causing more stress. Often times, it's not the time that students spend solving the questions that causes the problem; it's the time they spend before getting started.

How can you combat this? A major key is a quick first step - you should start by noting what you can do immediately, whether that entails assigning variables to unknowns, plugging in numbers, or setting up an initial equation. Simply by getting started, you will build some confidence and be able to work more quickly and effectively.

The second crucial aspect of beginning quickly is to note the errors you typically make when doing so. By beginning quickly, but knowing that, for example, setting up ratios tends to give you trouble, you can properly allocate the time that you save to the concepts on which you are most likely to err, yet still derive the benefit of a quicker overall progression through the exam.

For more help on the GMAT, visit Veritas Prep to find a prep course near you.

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Happy Holidays from Veritas Prep!

All of us at Veritas Prep want to with you a wonderful holiday season. For those of you who are rushing to get your business school applications done before the second-round deadlines take a look at our sample MBA essays for some inspiration and an idea of what works and what doesn't.

Beyond that, take a breather, relax, and treat yourself to some R&R before the deadlines come!

Best wishes,
The Veritas Prep Team

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NYU Stern Searches for a New Dean

Thomas Cooley, NYU Stern's dean, has announced that he is stepping down from the post that he has held since 2002. The school has started its search for Cooley's replacement. While Cooley's announcement may seem somewhat abrupt, it sounds as though he simply wants to get back to more research and teaching.

It will surely take a lot of work for Stern to replace Cooley with someone just as capable. Under his leadership, the school hired more than 90 new faculty members and raised $190 million in its most recent fund-raising effort. Cooley also significantly increased NYU Stern's international footprint, setting up join programs with schools in Asia and Europe.

If you're applying this year, take a look at this year's NYU Stern application essays, and visit the Veritas Prep Business School Selector to see what your chances of getting into Stern are.

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Announcing the 2008 Veritas Prep GMAT Instructors of the Year

And the winners are...

One of the most difficult challenges for the Veritas Prep headquarters staff each December is selecting its Instructors of the Year from an incredibly talented pool of teachers around the world. Veritas Prep GMAT instructors are among the most accomplished groups of people you can find, as the faculty boasts PhD degrees from Ivy League schools, MBAs from all of the top programs, pedigrees in professional music, comedy, and athletic performance, and hundreds of awards won from other professional and academic organizations. From NCAA All-American selections to the Philly's Phunniest Comedian award, Veritas Prep instructors have won countless honors just to be selected as qualified to teach the classes in the first place (in addition to the requisite 99th percentile GMAT score); to be selected as the elite members of that faculty is an honor that must truly be earned.

When selecting the award winners each year, the Academic Services staff at Veritas Prep considers the highest-ranking instructors based on student evaluations - to win, an instructor needs to grade out at over 9.5/10 on the question "I would give my instructor the following overall recommendation" - and factors in the informal, unsolicited feedback that students submit when reporting their successes and satisfaction with the program. This year's winners are:

David Newland - Boston and Virtual Veritas Prep

Much like a rock star, David can possibly best be described using the phrase "back by popular demand", as his students' friends voraciously call the Veritas Prep offices to ask when David will be teaching next. Upon hearing that he had been chosen as Instructor of the Year, David noted that "I had a pretty good year, but really I was just trying to set the stage for a run at the award in 2009".

Burak Powers - Houston and Austin

2008 was a good year for people named Burak/Barack, and like his namesake the co-winner of the Instructor of the Year award was able to impress audiences with impassioned speeches rife with both thorough knowledge and a "yes we can" attitude. Burak sets a new precedent for instructor evaluation score as a frequent recipient of the "write-in eleven", earned when students feel the need to rate their instructor higher than the upper-limit score of 10. Much like Barack, Burak looks forward to an even-better 2009 as he strives to live up to the lofty expectations created by his success.

Congratulations to both David and Burak, and to the entire Veritas Prep faculty for a year of record-setting excellence. For more information on the Veritas Prep faculty, and a complete list of Instructor of the Year award winners, please visit our GMAT instructor profiles page.

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GMAT Tip of the Week

Don't Swing at the First Pitch

(This is one of a series of GMAT tips that we offer on our blog.)

This week, all eyes were on Las Vegas, as the desert oasis town received a whopping four inches of snow. For baseball fans, however, Las Vegas has been the target of much attention all month, as the Major League Baseball winter meetings took place in Sin City, a perfect place for Steinbrenners and other owners to make risky investments with millions of dollars.

Why is this relevant to the GMAT? As many MBA applicants use this month to finalize their applications, including in many cases a last attempt at the GMAT, it may be helpful to remember the old baseball axiom "don't swing at the first pitch", particularly when you face verbal questions.

This tradition in baseball is effective because most batters prefer to get a feel for the pitcher's style before deciding to select a pitch to hit - should they swing at the first pitch without a sense of the pitcher's timing and delivery, and maybe the lighting and other conditions of the ballpark, they could quickly and mistakenly pop out without ever getting a comfortable chance at a quality plate appearance.

On the GMAT's verbal section, students often make a very similar mistake, only in this case "swinging" is akin to "eliminating an answer choice". On many questions, the writers of the exam can sneak a correct answer choice A by you because it's not exactly what you're looking for, but your sense of urgency compels you to hastily cross out the "A" on your noteboard because you are anxious to move forward. By the time you "open up your strike zone," so to speak, with answer choices C-through-E, you've mentally eliminated "A" so emphatically that you won't allow yourself to return to it, and you end up taking a flier on a poor choice toward the bottom of the screen rather than returning to the answer choices you've already eliminated it.

Simply put, if you cannot definitively eliminate answer choice "A", don't cross it out until you've seen other answer choices to get a feel for what the answer choices contain. You may never find the "perfect" answer that you are anticipating, but once you have seen a couple of answers you will be better equipped to see the fatal flaws in the incorrect answers and judge each more fairly.

For more help on the GMAT, visit Veritas Prep.

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Kellogg Mistakenly Sends Acceptance Letters to 50 Rejected Applicants

We wouldn't wish this twist of fortune on anyone: This week about 50 applicants to the Kellogg School of Management received an acceptance letter from the school, only to find out later that it was the result of a computer glitch, and that they in fact had been rejected.

The applicants each received an email message with an attached acceptance letter. Kellogg official blamed the mistake on a "technical glitch" that occurred in an automated mail-merge process. The Kellogg web site always had the correct information, which applicants could see when they logged onto the site to check their status.

Understandably, some applicants prematurely started to celebrate. The Chicago Tribune quoted one applicant who excitedly called his parents and enjoyed a celebratory dinner before learning the bad news on the web site. Kellogg is going to refund his and everyone else's $235 application fee, but of course that's small consolation.

Something tells us that Kellogg won't be doing any more mail merges any time soon...

For more information on applying to Kellogg, read about the 2008-2009 Kellogg admissions essays and application deadlines.

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Congratulations, Code Name Rain Man!

In a closely contested game aired on television last night, Veritas Prep GMAT Instructor George Yates won his initial contest on the popular game show Jeopardy!. Blending his knack for quick, accurate answers under pressure - the very same skills the propelled him to a 99th percentile GMAT score - with an impressive array of knowledge ranging from hard rock melody recognition to prominent literary heroes, George took the lead heading in to Final Jeopardy! and wagered (and answered) correctly to narrowly edge the returning champion.

A former fighter pilot and current flight simulator instructor, George earned the code name "Rain Man" while in the military with his broad knowledge base (and noted affection for Jeopardy!). He currently teaches Veritas Prep GMAT courses in Woodland Hills, California, and can be seen defending his Jeopardy! championship tonight (at 7pm on channel 7 in Southern California; check your local listings for the air time in your market).

Congratulations, George!

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Harvard Law School Snags Another Top Professor

Adding to a faculty that is becoming an embarrassment of riches, Harvard Law School has once again nabbed one of the nation's top legal scholars to come teach in Cambridge. Harvard recently named Lawrence Lessig to its faculty and announced that Lessig will run the Safra Foundation Center for Ethics.

This hire both continues a pattern of aggressive faculty hiring by dean Elena Kagan and also signifies an important wrinkle in that pattern, which is is that Harvard went after a Stanford professor in this instance. Harvard and Stanford have been dueling for some time now as both schools made recent announcements of new grading systems (to mirror those of Yale) and have been taking turns hiring away renowned professors from Yale, Chicago, and other top schools. But this time, one has hired away a monster name from the other.

Lessig has been at Stanford since 2000 and has become a powerhouse in both constitutional law as well as in the ever-evolving intellectual property space. For Harvard to land him now, on the heels of hiring Cass Sunstein away from Chicago, shows some serious resolve.

Harvard's ongoing makeover from a bureaucratic machine to a vibrant, student-centric educational community has been addressed before in this space and is nothing short of remarkable. And though this too has been stressed in previous posts, law school applicants simply can't ignore these types of stories. The faculty hires and departures of today are what impact and define tomorrow's educational experiences and the next day's job prospects. Harvard is winning the battle on all fronts.

For those interested in learning more about law school admissions trends, please visit our law school admissions events page for information on upcoming events.

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Our First Annual MBA Admissions Officer Survey Results

Last week we released the results of Veritas Prep's first annual survey of MBA admissions officers, to uncover what's happening in the field today and to help business school applicants anticipate future trends.

We enlisted the help of an independent third party to survey admissions officers at the top 30 business schools in the U.S. (as defined by BusinessWeek's ranking system). The survey ran in October and November, and covered more than half of the admissions officers at these MBA programs.

Some findings were surprising, while others confirmed what we have been telling our clients for years. Among the most interesting results:

• The biggest challenges institutions face are attracting more, better-qualified candidates, and supporting cultural diversity in their student bodies. Among desired changes that admissions officers would like to see in their applicant pool, diversity ranks first (87%), while 57 percent of respondents would like to see a larger applicant pool at their institutions.


• The number of international applicants to leading U.S. business schools has increased over the past five years. Ninety-four percent of responding admissions officers report a moderate to significant increase in international applicants during the last five admissions cycles.


• The number of admits straight out of undergraduate studies is on the rise. Despite the fact that 63 percent of respondents say professional experience is the most important factor in student selection, almost half (47%) report that the number of admits straight out of college has significantly or moderately increased compared to five years ago.


• Careless errors ranked as the top faux pas committed by students during the application process. Inconsistency between institutional choice and students' educational objectives and ambitions ranked second, and the inclusion of unrequested items and inappropriate interview conduct tie for the third most commonly witnessed application blunder.


• Admissions officers view students that enlist the assistance of admissions consultants neutrally. While seven percent of respondents said that they view applicants who use admissions consultants positively, 80 percent view such students neutrally. In general, most admissions officers feel that admissions consultants help students identify the programs with which they fit best and clarify their career goals.


• Admissions officers anticipate changes in the student application process in coming years. Most respondents believe the student application process will include more face-to-face or telephone interviews in the next five years (60%). While over half of admissions officers foresee the application process becoming less complex (53%), another forty percent predict the application process will become increasingly intricate in the coming years.

We especially found the learnings around diversity and the trend toward younger applicants to be most interesting. And while we were glad to see that nearly all MBA admissions officers view applicants who use admissions consultants neutrally or positively, we will continue to work to ensure that our clients get a great deal of value from their relationship with us -- but only in a 100% ethical way. As always, we will never write our applicants' essays or tell them what to say.

Visit Veritas Prep to learn more about how we can help you in the MBA admissions process.

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GMAT Tip of the Week

Approach Geometry Questions from the Right (tri)Angle

(This is one of a series of GMAT tips that we offer on our blog.)

As the writers of the GMAT create difficult quantitative questions, one favorite technique is to require test-takers to use skills that would not, on the surface, seem relevant. As examinees struggle to find a foothold on the question with the tools that seem more obvious by comparison, they lose time, make calculation errors, and suffer not only from an incorrect answer but also from a decreased level of confidence that carries on to future questions.

One such seemingly-irrelevant skill that appears on a majority of geometry-based questions is the right triangle, a shape for which you should train yourself to look whenever a geometry question appears. Every shape that the GMAT tests could contain a right triangle:

• The area of a non-right triangle is created by taking a perpendicular line from the base to the angle opposite it; this process divides the original triangle in to two right triangles.
• The diagonal of a square or rectangle is a right triangle.
• The area of a parallelogram or trapezoid is found by taking a perpendicular line between the bases; doing so can create a right triangle.
• Even in a circle, connecting the diameter to a point on the edge of the circle, using two chords to do so, will create a right triangle with the diameter as the hypotenuse.
• In 3-D figures, the longest difference between two points on the item is always a hypotenuse of a right triangle that must be drawn in space.

By training yourself to look for opportunities to use your knowledge of right triangles, even if it doesn't appear to be the obvious skill to apply, you will save time and build confidence on most geometry-based questions.

For more help on the GMAT, take a look and see what Veritas Prep has to offer.

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Dartmouth (Tuck) on MBA Admissions Interviews

Today Tuck's Associate Admissions Director, Karen Marks, wrote a post on the Tuck blog about how the admissions office handles MBA admissions interviews. Her post says a lot about how the schools views applicants and how interviews fit into the overall Tuck admissions process.

Unlike many other top business schools, the Tuck School of Business has an open interview policy, meaning that any applicant can schedule an interview rather than waiting for an invitation from the admissions office. Tuck really looks at whether or not you schedule an interview (and make the trip to New Hampshire) as a strong indicator of your interest in the school. Marks explains that you are by no means ruining your chances of admissions by not scheduling an interview and visiting the campus, especially if you face circumstances that would make the trip difficult (e.g., you live far away, have tight finances, or have other obligations that prevent you from traveling). However, if you're serious about Tuck, know that the most powerful way to show this is by visiting the campus and conducting an on-campus interview.

Regarding interview format, there's a good chance you will be interviewed by a second-year student. Marks makes a point of emphasizing that these interviews carry just as much weight as those conducted by Tuck admissions officers. And meeting a second-year student gives you a great chance to further get a feel for how well you'll fit with the Tuck culture.

Finally, Marks attempts to put an end to anxiety that domestic applicants feel over whether or not they get invited to interview by the Tuck admissions office. She sums up it all up by saying:

The bottom line is that it is definitely a positive sign if we invite you interview, in that it indicates our desire to learn more about you, but don't read too much into it if we don't extend an invitation. Most domestic candidates schedule their own visits, and we are unlikely to prompt you to do so.

So, don't stress over whether or not you're invited to interview with Tuck. But, if you follow their (and our) advice and schedule your own interview with the school, then this should be a moot point!

If you're preparing for your interview with Tuck or any other top business school, Veritas Prep's MBA admissions interview preparation service can help you maximize your chances of success.

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Free Law School Admissions Webinar - Dec. 15

This Monday, Dec. 15, Adam Hoff will host an online law school admissions seminar for those who are considering applying to law school this year.

Adam, who is Veritas Prep's Director of Law School Admissions Consulting, is a law school admissions expert, former admissions officer, and University of Chicago Law School graduate. He will discuss:

• Admissions trends for the 2008-2009 application season


• What law school admissions officers look for in an application


• The increasingly popular JD/MBA dual degree program


• Strategies for dealing with rising applicant numbers


• What to do if you're waitlisted by your dream school


• Q&A and general discussion

This free online event will run this coming Monday, Dec. 15., from 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM PST. All you need to need to access it is a PC or Mac with an Internet connection and sound capabilities.

Register for our online law school admissions seminar here!

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Top Ten Common MBA Application Mistakes from Stanford GSB

Last week LaNeika Ward, Acting Assistant Director of MBA Admissions at Stanford GSB, posted the top ten most common mistakes that the admissions committee finds in applications.

Some of them are pretty amazing (e.g., "Enter your name correctly"), but smart people do indeed make mistakes! Other mistakes are very important things that can be easily forgotten while cramming to complete your applications, such as failing to provide a good reason for leaving any of your previous jobs.

Other than these standout mistakes, several interesting things emerge from this list:

• When discussing experiences, Stanford wants you to only focus on the past three years. In other words, it's great if you were president of your fraternity in college, but the Stanford admissions committee puts much more emphasis on what you've done more recently.



• The admissions committee asks that you explain any period of four months or more when you were not in school or working. I actually find it interesting that they're not interested in ALL such periods. Perhaps they understand that some fresh college graduates may take some time to land on their feet and get their first job.



• Ward makes a point of making sure that your letter of recommendation from a peer truly comes from a peer, not a supervisor whom you consider to be a friend.



• Note the reference to the "application verification process over the summer," which should serve as a clear warning against pulling any shenanigans in your application. Stick to the truth!

All in all, some good advice that applies to any MBA application. But the above points are interesting because they especially shed light on what Stanford GSB looks for in its business school applicants.

For more advice on applying to business school, read about the MBA application process at Veritas Prep.

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Yale SOM Applications Rise 4% in Round One

Take Yale Daily news reported on Thursday that Round One applications to Yale SOM increased by 4% vs. Round One last year.

According to Yale SOM Director of Admissions Bruce DelMonico, the school received 928 applications by its October deadline, compared to 894 received in October, 2007. That puts Yale on pace to pace to receive more than 3,000 applications in the 2008-2009 MBA admissions season.

On top of the growing numbers, DelMonino also reports that the admissions office is "seeing not only greater numbers, but also greater quality." As one indicator of this quality, the average GMAT score of Yale's Round One applicants was 698, two points higher than last year's average.

Yale SOM's Round 1 pool also included 78 applicants from The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, reflecting the results of a push by the school to attarct more minority candidates. And while Yale has actually been shrinking its class size recently, the school has publicly stated that it may take on a few more students to increase tuition revenues to offset declining returns from Yale's endowment. DelMonico expects next year's class to have up to 200 students, up from 193 students this year.

For more information on applying to Yale, visit the Veritas Prep Yale SOM information page. And if you're working Yale essays now, see Veritas Prep's sample MBA essays.

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GMAT Tip of the Week

Factoring - A Crucial Factor

(This is one of a series of GMAT tips that we offer on our blog.)

The quantitative section of the GMAT has been fascinating to follow as it has evolved; with the need to create a more difficult section that remains consistent with its goals, the GMAT authors - who are concerned much more with your analytical ability than your propensity for 'crunching numbers" - have begun to emphasize "number theory" to a large extent.

To avoid losing time on tedious calculations - a common "bait" technique that the GMAT employs regularly - and to confidently answer correctly and efficiently, you can employ factoring techniques to test answer choices for properties that you know must be contained in the correct answer. In other words, if you can prove that a correct answer, for example, must be divisible by 3, you are not simply guessing if you eliminate all of the answer choices that are not.

A few of the quick-checks you can perform to efficiently eliminate incorrect answer choices are:

• Numbers must be even (or divisible by 2) - must end in 0, 2, 4, 6, or 8
• Numbers must be odd (not divisible by 2) - must end in 1, 3, 5, 7, or 9
• Numbers must be divisible by 3 - the sum of the digits in the number is a multiple of 3
• Numbers must be divisible by 5 - must end in 0 or 5
• Numbers must be divisible by 6 - an even number that is divisible by 3 (**this is a favorite, as it doesn't appear to have an easy check, but is actually the combination of two easy checks, as a number divisible by 6 must be divisible by 2 and 3)
• Numbers must be divisible by 9 - the sum of the digits is a multiple of 9
• Numbers must be divisible by 10 - must end in 0

Ask yourself whether you can solve problems simply by using factorization number theory and you will undoubtedly save time over the course of the exam.

For more GMAT practice, try our free practice test and get access to lots of free GMAT practice questions. If you are getting ready to take the exam, register for a Veritas Prep GMAT preparation course.

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The Exodus Continues at Chicago Law

One of the most underrated tools for monitoring and projecting law school rankings is to track the migration patterns of the country's most prominent legal scholars. An influx of elite law school professors is sure to impact a program in ways both subtle and obvious. It can swing a candidate's decision about where to attend (typically unlikely) but more importantly, it will certainly affect the all-important "peer evaluation" component of the U.S. News rankings. The flipside is true as well - when a school starts to lose its most highly regarded faculty members, it is certainly going to generate some negative results.

That's why the University of Chicago has to be pretty bummed right now.

Richard Epstein - prominent legal scholar, prolific writer, king of market theory, and larger than life character - is leaving Chicago for NYU. This comes on the heels of Cass Sunstein (another legal giant) setting sail for Harvard earlier this year. And while Chicago has been effective at bringing in some entry level talent (Lior Strahilevitz and M. Todd Henderson, in particular), this is sure to affect the perception of other law school deans.

NYU, of course, gets a bump for the Epstein add, and their students are sure to enjoy the antics of one of the more interesting classroom forces alive. However, the larger impact of faculty hiring tends to center on cumulative trends. Harvard and Stanford remain the big gainers on this front, while Chicago now joins Yale as one of the schools in jeopardy of suffering a systemic blow due to hiring patterns.

Something to keep an eye on for sure, as anything that moves the needle in the rankings department is sure to eventually effect degree prestige, employment trends, admissions prospects, and everything else that JDs truly care about.

For more advice about law school admissions, visit Veritas Prep.

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Try Sample AWA Essays and Get Paid

For a limited time, the Graduate Management Admission Council will pay you $30 to try out new sample Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) questions.

According to an announcement to registered users of MBA.com:

Participation requires approximately 60 minutes during which you will write two essays online. You may complete these two essays when you register online or at any time within seven (7) days of registration. You can participate from any computer with Internet access and a Web browser comparable to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Participation is on a first-come, first-served basis and is limited to U.S. citizens.

You can register to take the sample AWA exam here. The test makers are only looking for a limited number of participants, so registrations may close quickly!

If you want more practice with sample GMAT questions, try our free sample GMAT exam.

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Only Three Days Left to Register for MBA Admissions Blueprint!

Just a quick heads up to everyone to let you know that there are only three days left to register for MBA Admissions Blueprint and meet one-on-one with a Veritas Prep admissions expert this weekend in New York!

Chad Troutwine, one of Veritas Prep's co-founders, will be at NYU to meet with you and discuss the two questions that we most often hear these days: how the current economic client has affected the MBA admissions process this year, and what you can do to get into a top business school in what is shaping up to be the most competitive year yet.

On Saturday Chad will discuss Veritas Prep's MBA admissions philosophy and what you can do now to significantly improve your chances of success, no matter where you are in the application process. He will review in detail our proven MBA Game Plan methodology and how you can use it to your advantage even if you feel you are facing an uphill battle.

Then, on Sunday you will meet one-on-one for an hour with one of Veritas Prep's best admissions experts. You can use this time however you like: to get a candid assessment of your candidacy, to formulate an overall application strategy, or to get some professional help in polishing your essays. And don't worry if you don't know how to use this hour -- you will be in good hands with your admissions expert, who will coach you from start to finish.

Registration costs only $250 -- that's what it normally costs to work with a Veritas Prep admissions consultant for one hour -- and includes the session with Chad Troutwine as well as your one-on-one meeting with an admissions expert.

Hurry... Registration ends Friday!

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Stanford GSB Announces Social Innovation Fellowship Pilot Program

Last week the Stanford GSB's Center for Social Innovation announced the Social Innovation Fellowship Pilot Program to support social entrepreneurs.

The Fellowship was created for graduating Stanford MBAs who are ready to spend their first year after business school building a nonprofit venture. Starting this coming spring, a handful of second-year students will be selected to receive a stipend for the following year as well as access to the Center's wide range of resources.

All second-year Stanford MBA students in good academic standing are eligible, and teams of two led by a Stanford MBA are also eligible (i.e,. teams can include non-Stanford members).

If you're interested, learn more in this Q&A on the Stanford GSB admissions blog. And for more advice on applying to Stanford, visit the Veritas Prep Stanford GSB information page.

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