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Rebecca Blustein 3 days ago
Diction, voice, tone, style: the elements of writing. For many of you, we know, sitting down to that blank page can be intimidating, and even talking about terms like “diction” can make you glaze over. But your style—the clarity and readability of your writing—is fundamental to how you communicate. Some of you may fret that your vocabulary won’t be advanced enough to dazzle the adcom. Some of you might be used to writing in a very technical style (or not writing at all). For others, English is not your first language, and you feel uncertain about expressing yourself in it. All of this anxiety leads some people to write in a formal, stilted style. You might recognize the markers: passive sentences; long, convoluted clauses; repetitive constructions. This artificially formal style tends to be impersonal, passive, and indirect. It hides your voice, and can be difficult, obscure, or even boring to read. What’s the solution? Focus on fundamentals. Your goal is to communicate ...
Linda Abraham 3 days ago
Since first starting the Accepted blog in March 2004. I have personally authored 2-3,000 posts on admissions, writing, school news, and occasionally something of a more personal nature, but still with relevance, however tangential, to applicants and admissions. My favorite post is my 2007 Thanksgiving post, a story of appreciation and gratitude. The importance of appreciation hit me over the head last week when I received a call from a father whose son is graduating Stanford with a stellar GPA in a high demand field. (I have changed details in this story for confidentiality.) The father called because his son has 6 job offers and wanted to know which one I thought would be better from an MBA admissions perspective. The job offers were from companies that many would give their eye teeth to work for-- fantastic opportunities for growth and professional advancement with "brand" companies or boutique firms. BUT, the job that the son really wanted wasn't among ...
Linda Abraham 17 days ago
This is Alex. Everyone say “ Hi Alex!”. All her life, Alex wanted to be an astronaut because she thought it sounded cute - "Alex the Astronaut" and anyway, her hometown, Little Creek, South Dakota, was a little boring. She finally made it to graduation (never thought she’d make it that far..) and here she is now, deciding on her career path for the future. Somehow, the astronaut idea had lost its appeal, so she’s actually debating between a combustion engineer (rocket scientist) or entrepreneur to launch her career. So her search began to Choose the Right College. Alex wondered- “Does it matter which college you choose?” Then she read Lynn Mattoon's article What Are You Really Going to College For? posted at myUsearch blog which suggests it is more about what you do than where you go. She realized before you choose, you need to first figure out why are you going to college. So Alex’s combustion engineer goal kind of exploded. Or imploded. ...Linda Abraham 24 days ago
I am almost finished reading Made to Stick by the brothers Chip and Dan Heath. I recommend it highly to those of you in sales, communications, or teaching. Quant jocks? You probably don't need it. The authors researched and identified the factors that cause communications to succeed or fail. They boiled their research down to "six principles of stickiness." S implicity. U nexpectedness C oncreteness C redibility E motions S tories Over the next several weeks I am going to explore these SUCCES principles and apply them to personal statements and application essays. For today let's talk about Simplicity. Your personal statement or application essay needs a core idea. That essence or central point becomes the driver of all content for that essay. When responding to specific questions, your core must directly and elegantly answer the question. When writing a less-directed personal statement, you still need a driving concept; you just have ...
Linda Abraham 36 days ago
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that as applications increase, college acceptance rates, “yield” rates, and enrollment predictability have decreased. A new report from the National Association for College Admission Counseling presents data that explains some of these changes. Some statistical highlights: For the fourth year in a row, 75% of four year colleges or universities saw an increase in applications. However, in 2008, 22% of those applicants applied to seven or more schools, in contrast to 19% in 2007. From 2001 to 2007, the average acceptance rate fell to 66.8%, from 71.3%. From 2001 to 2007, the average yield rate (percentage of students who accept an offer of admission) fell to 45.2% from 49.1%. More and more students are submitting online applications. In 2008, 72% of applicants filed online application, as opposed to 68% in 2007, and 58% in 2006. Increased applications mean more work for admissions staffs. In 2008, admissions ...
