I just finished Seth Godin’s Poke the Box, an ode to initiative, innovation, and overcoming fear of risk and failure. In this short book, which Godin alternately and accurately refers to as a “manifesto” and a “rant,” he motivates the reader to just do it. Get going. In Godin’s words, “I’m merely encouraging you to start. Often. Forever. Be the one who starts things.”

I have had an idea percolating in my head for several months. But I hadn’t started. The idea has to do with MBA careers and MBA students, but inertia, and fear of rejection and failure were winning. I had more palatable and less honest excuses too: I was moving cautiously. I was busy. I had to check my email, Facebook, Twitter. Go to the gym. … You can probably imagine the list yourself.

As I finished Godin’s book, I decided to just do it. And I have started. I haven’t finished or “shipped” in Godin’s terms, but hopefully you will see the fruits of my start in a few weeks right here.

I poked the box. Now it’s your turn. While I am not sure Godin is a big fan of grad school or graduate business education, despite his MBA from Stanford GSB, Godin’s message is particularly pertinent for 2012 applicants.

Yes. You should start. This week. Today. Now.

Here are a few suggestions for 2012 graduate school applicants:

1. Register for the GMAT, MCAT, LSAT, or whatever test is required of you, as well as the relevant prep course, if you haven’t already done so. You want to get the test out of the way and you want as high a score as possible. (See the video below “3 Action Items for 2012 Graduate School Applicants” from Eye on Admissions for a my mild rant on this topic and other suggestions to start your 2012 application. Now.)
2. If you are an MBA applicant who will need to write a goals essay or someone who will need to write a statement of purpose for grad school, research your goal/purpose. Email 3 people to request an informational interview about your field so that you can clarify your reasons for pursuing graduate study and your intended path for achieving your goals.
3. Assess your qualifications and begin to shortlist schools based on your goals and qualifications.
4. I wouldn’t start writing application essays or personal statements yet, but I would create a file where you can jot down ideas for topics to include, notes from your informational interviews, and thoughts about schools and possible essays topics.

As I read Poke the Box, I also thought of the many programs, especially top MBA programs that ask applicants about times they took a risk or their response to failure. Understandably, applicants squirm when they have to respond to these questions.

Stop squirming. Godin has something empowering to say on this point too. “Change is powerful, but change always comes with failure as its partner. ‘This might not work’ isn’t merely something to be tolerated; it’s something you should seek out.” Failure is a tough partner to embrace, but embrace it nonetheless. It is Initiative’s significant other.

So whether you are facing memories of failure or fear of failure, just start. And consistently plow forward. Poke your box.

By Linda Abraham, Accepted’s founder and president.

Should you kick back on a beach? Or go for a latte with a colleague? Find out why both may be in order in this video from Eye on Admissions where Linda Abraham outlines four action items that should be on the to-do lists of all accepted graduate school applicants matriculating this fall.

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Students will spend their first and third years taking courses at Columbia Law School and their second year at Columbia Business School. Elective courses will be available throughout the three years at both schools. Students will take a heavier load throughout the programs, but will be able to work during the summers between their first and second years and their second and third years in the program. There are optional late-August intensive courses through the law school that are designed as to not interfere with summer work.

There is already an existing four-year dual-degree JD/MBA program which will continue to run “for students interested in a broader course curriculum.”

One benefit for three-year students is the opportunity to enter the workforce a year earlier than were they to complete the four-year program. Students in both the three- and four-year programs are considered full students at both the law school and business school and have access to all facilities and services at each, including career services, networking opportunities, and academic options.

Worried about preparing for the LSAT? Choose the LSAT prep course that’s best for you after reviewing Accepted.com’s special report, LSAT Prep Companies: In Their Own Words.

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

As I followed this first African World Cup, I marveled at how close many of the games were, and how relatively minor plays decided the outcomes. Spain beating Germany on a header off a corner kick was all that mattered. Then there were the refereeing mistakes and questionable judgment calls that seemed to affect whether a team advanced or was eliminated. Did that obvious goal by England against Germany that was missed affect the player’s spirits, thus contributing to their eventual loss? What really was the impact of that clear offside by Argentina against Mexico, or the phantom American foul on a US goal against Slovenia?

As exciting as the games have been, you might be wondering what they have to do with the admissions process. Several parallels strike me.

First, being heavily favored going into the games doesn’t mean making it to the final one. Germany, Brazil and Spain were favored by many at the beginning of play; Spain is the only one that survived. Essentially they had “good stats.” Similarly, a candidate might have outstanding credentials and qualifications for admissions, but the application process seeks people of achievement, leadership, initiative, and impact. Stats are not enough and may not determine the winners.

Second, the ability to take full advantage of opportunities is crucial. Spain’s goal against Germany showed the importance of being fully prepared to use an opportunity to score, just as making it to an interview round in the application process demands that a candidate be fully prepared to beat out other closely qualified candidates in that crucial step of the process.

Finally, each of the 32 initial World Cup teams was talented and well qualified, but each had to prove it had the ability to make it to the final game. Applicants must similarly understand that admission decisions are made by people doing their best to put together a class that is balanced among many different metrics. Using your application, especially your essays, to showcase why you are qualified to “win” can make all the difference.

P.S. Having lived in the U.S., Japan and Mexico – none of whom made it to the final – and having good friends and relatives in both Spain and The Netherlands, I claim neutrality regarding Sunday’s game.

Robbie Walker is a writer, columnist and editor who received her MBA from Chicago Booth. She is happy to assist you in targeting the right schools and identifying the details that best highlight your candidacy.

The third of Made to Sticks six key principles, concreteness, doesn’t seem to apply to intangibles like leadership, achievement, teamwork, or character – the topics you typically need to cover in your essays. Yet, even when discussing abstractions, if your essays are concrete they will communicate more effectively and more memorably.

Here are five tips to make your personal statements and application essays concrete:

1. Use sensory language when appropriate. Write in terms of sights, sounds, smells, touch, and taste.
2. Break down large ideas into smaller sub-topics and concepts. (For more on this idea, please see “Fatal Flaw #4: Superficiality.” ) The grand summary or platitude won’t cut it.
3. Quantify when possible. Did you increase membership a lot when president or did you increase membership by 50%? Did you lead a team or did you lead a 10-person team?
4. Without using clichés, relate events, entities, and concepts to ideas that the reader already knows and trusts. For example if I say that “Accepted is the McKinsey of admissions consulting firms,” clients will expect top-notch work and a strategic approach to admissions.
5. Think about the human beings you are addressing in your essays. You have read interviews of and met with admissions committee members. Perhaps create a character that represents Chris Adcom for you. For me, Chris is usually smart, professional, and hard-working. Typically a “people-person” with a genuine interest in others, she also has a well–practiced nose for baloney and doesn’t like the odor. She is always short on time and consequently ends up skimming essays if they are boring or don’t answer the question, even though she doesn’t like to do so. She is dedicated to helping her school create a diverse, talented class of students who will be happy to attend her school, contribute to campus life as students, and add to the school’s reputation as alumni. That’s her job. Write your essays for Chris.

Use these five keys to concreteness when crafting your essays to make them more compelling.

Additional Resources:

• MBA 5 Fatal Flaws
• Med 5 Fatal Flaws
• Law 5 Fatal Flaws
• Grad 5 Fatal Flaws
• College 5 Fatal Flaws

By Linda Abraham, President and Founder of Accepted.com.

* In the State of the Union address, President Obama urged colleges to “get serious about cutting their own costs.” To assist in the goal of making higher education more affordable to the greatest number of students, Obama plans to increase federal support for education by 6% in 2011. Obama also supports the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act which, if passed by Congress, would eliminate bank-based federal student loans. This bill, according to the presdient, “will finally end the unwarranted taxpayer subsidies that go to banks for student loans.”A more lenient payback plan is also being discussed. (The Chronicle)

* According to The Chronicle last week college endowments have declined by about 23% in the last two years. In fact, the investment return for 2009 was the worst return recorded in the history of the endowment study, at -18.7%. According to John D. Walda, president of the National Association of College and University Business Officers, however, “the picture for endowments is a lot cheerier than it was a year ago.” Optimism for the future, though, doesn’t help the fact that certain schools that had been dependent on endowments are now in pretty bad shape, especially considering the sizable loans they’re now forced to take out. The only reason why these schools didn’t go under was because of fortunate investment returns from previous years.

* The Moscow Times reports that “Russia’s business education market was among the world’s worst hit in 2009.” In some cases, admissions fell about 50% from last year. Some schools are even dipping into their own funds to create lending programs for students in order to maintain adequate student enrollment. Besides the fact that students (or their sponsoring companies) can no longer afford to pay for business schools, students in general seem to have lost interest in pursuing an MBA, at least for the time being. However, despite the decrease in MBA program enrollment, interest in EMBA programs in Russia is on the rise.

* Women are equally represented in medical and law schools, but still lag well behind in numbers in the b-school sphere. “Business Schools Sweeten Lures for Women,” a recent article from WeNews, suggests that in order to increase female enrollment in America’s business schools, MBA programs are forced to lure women in by their sweet teeth, both figuratively and literally. Recruitment events for female MBA prospects are popping up all over the country, including a private party at New York City’s Dylan’s Candy Bar.

* Do students benefit from being in a diverse educational climate? Is affirmative action, or “race-conscious admissions,” justified? Will diversity improve education? These are questions raised by Peter Schmidt, author of a recent Chronicle article on campus diversity. The answer: It depends (of course). If situations are handled optimally then educational benefits will increase and the inherent problems of affirmative action will decrease. Most agree that affirmative action is not a policy that can be accepted on its own, but most be implemented along with other educational and diversity initiatives and even at that, with caution. Still, many universities are skeptical of the educational benefits derived from race-conscious admissions and believe that accepting more qualified students will benefit the students and the school, both long- and short-term, more than were they to focus on boosting classroom diversity.

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

Bingo! That’s relevant to applicants. One of the most commonly asked personal statement questions I see on Twitter is “What should I write about?”

You need to write about when YOU made a difference.

So if you are a Michelangelo, Einstein, Gates, or Buffett, you may be able to write about your incredible talents and how they propelled you to achieve, although you may appear arrogant if you take this approach. In any case, you geniuses can stop reading this post.

For the rest of you, please continue.  Think about those times when your participation in a project, organization, business, team, or club made a difference.

• What was the situation? the problem? the challenge?
• What was your role in meeting that challenge?  What did you do?
• What was the result?

You may or may not want to tie this story explicitly to your educational and professional goals. That decision will depend on many factors, but one evergreen topic for your personal statements and application essays remains: times when you made a difference.

Related Resources:

• “PAR” or “CAR” Anyone?
• MBA 5 Fatal Flaws
• Med 5 Fatal Flaws
• Law 5 Fatal Flaws
• Grad 5 Fatal Flaws
• College 5 Fatal Flaws

By Linda Abraham, President and Founder of Accepted.com.

Some people appreciate the challenge; some people despise it. Some people don’t have much to say and never need to worry about writing too much; some will have to spend hours trimming their thoughts and words down to stay within the limits. Some people naturally write clearly and concisely; others need constant editing to rid their writing of abundant verbiage.

However, most applicants who hit the “word count” button are surprised to find that they’ve exceeded the word limit. “How is that possible?” they’ll muse. “Didn’t I start this essay with no clue as to what I would write?”

So how do you deal with the challenge of word limits when editing your MBA application essays, law school personal statements, college essays, and graduate school statements of purpose?

The following is a list of resources that provide helpful tips about tightening language and trimming down your word counts:

•    UGH! THOSE @!#$* WORD LIMITS!!!, a blog post.
•    Personal Statement and Application Essay Tip: Tightening Language, a blog post.
•    Yikes! My Essay is Too Long!!!, a blog post.
•    Submit a Stellar Application: 42 Terrific Tips to Help You Get Accepted, an instantly downloadable ebook.
•    5 Fatal Flaws in Your Application Essay, a free email course.
•    The Roadmap to Bold and Brilliant Essays, a free webinar.
•    Application Essays Do’s & Don’ts, an article.

A Beautiful Mind, we hope you successfully cut your essays down. We wish you (and all Round 2 applicants) the best of luck!

• The debate continues over the value of an MBA versus a one-year Master’s in a business-related field. The Wall Street Journal reports that many students are switching their plans to include the shorter, less expensive, M.A. alternative, rather than pursing an MBA. Specialized business degrees require only one or two years of prior work experience, run only 12 months long, and often cover a lot of the same material covered in a two-year MBA program, although usually more focused on the technical and less on general management. In the post-graduate job search, an MBA (for now) is still preferred among most businesses, although the edge an M.A. holder provides for being highly skilled in a particular subject is quickly gaining recognition and respect in the job search.

• How much is a college diploma worth these days? The Wall Street Journal tackled this hotly debated question as well this week. As tuitions become more and more pricey every year, students and parents are growing increasingly wary about the value of the college experience and the college degree. There are, however, still benefits to holding a B.A., despite the high price tag that comes along with it, says WSJ reporter Sue Shellenbarger. These benefits include a higher paying job (up to 60% higher) upon graduation, the benefits that a rich, well-rounded education contribute to a rich, well-rounded life, and building a strong network.

• College, graduate, and MBA students: You may be paying more than you need to for your education! Learn a little about new tax codes and you could be the proud owner of a lower tax bill, advises BusinessWeek. There are education deductions and credits available to students that few know anything about; even the “quant jock[s] by trade…still might want a little help with [their] taxes.”  Students should look into a wide range of deduction, credits, and funds options, including the Student Loan Interest Deduction, Hope and Lifetime Learning Credits, and Section 529 Funds.

• Another BusinessWeek article of interest this week covers the top business school stories of 2009, a sort of year-in-review piece about how the global financial crisis affected MBA programs and MBA students. The ten most popular topics in MBA news this year according to BW were: Job Market, Loan Crisis, MBA: Public Enemy No. 1?, GRE vs. GMAT, The Best Part-Time B-Schools, The Harvard MBA Oath, GMAT Cheating in China, College Affordability, Deans Wanted, and B-School Cutbacks.

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

One cause for the increase is attributed to the fact that GREs are now accepted by business schools in addition to the traditional GMAT. But as we know from other recent statistics, GMAT volume is also up, as well as b-school applications.

These spikes follow a 20% increase in LSAT tests over the last year, another seemingly strange statistic considering the number of recent reports on how law firms are simply not hiring new associates. Other fields experiencing tight job markets also saw increased graduate school applications; journalism and history are cited in the article as examples.

Why the sudden jumps?

Weinstein explains that the dramatic increase in graduate school interest is simple: Since there are currently no jobs, why not go to grad school until the job drought is over? Tuition may be high, but the opportunity cost is low.

Logical? I don’t know. It depends when the job market comes back—and where. It seems that many applicants assume it will come back when and where they want it to. Hope springs eternal…

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best