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Recent Posts

  • Highlights of NAAHP Regional Meetings

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    In early March I wrote a brief piece on the many benefits of attending the National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions (NAAHP) Regional Meetings this spring. Two months and four meetings later, I’d now like to share two of the most prevalent highlights from the meetings for those who were unable to attend.

    Pre-Medical Competencies and the Admissions Initiative

    One of the most attended sessions at each of the four regional meetings was the Association of American Medical Colleges’ presentation on updates in the world of medical school admissions. Read more ››

  • The High Cost of Law School and the High Rate of Underemployment

    file0001679856317Over the past several weeks and months, the unemployment rate of law school graduates has been carefully examined. Bloomberg Business Week took another perspective on employment statistics of students graduating from law school: they looked at 20 of the most expensive law schools and 20 of the cheapest law schools, and contrasted the underemployment rate of students graduating from those schools. Bloomberg Business Week defined underemployment as part-time or underutilized workers.

    At the top of the chart, titled “Even an Expensive Law Degree is No Guarantee of Full-time work as an Attorney,” is  Columbia University, with the highest law school tuition projected to be $300,000 for a student graduating in 2016; at the same time Columbia University has the lowest underemployment rate at just about 0%. Read more ››

  • The Process of Relocating

    file0001207444674We devote a lot of entries in this blog to the graduate school admission process, and how to navigate it successfully. Today, we’d like to focus on those lucky folks who have received their acceptance letters, but who have one final hurdle to face before beginning school: The process of relocating.

    U.S. News’s Education section recently published an article containing a series of tips to help make the transition to a new city smoother. The key takeaways for anyone moving this spring or summer area:

    -Plan as far ahead as possible (like, as soon as a final decision about which school to attend has been made). Read more ››

  • MBA Applications on the Rise

    FAN2014393Are the days of wine and roses for business school application numbers on their way back? At the top ranked business schools, the answer is a cautious yes. Bloomberg Businessweek reported earlier this month that half of the top ten bschools saw an increase in applications this cycle, with three of them seeing double-digit gains.

    While this may not represent a big sea change, it does signal that something is afoot. Last fall, as the article explains, the Graduate Management Admission Council, the makers of the GMAT, found that about two-thirds of full-time MBA programs experienced a drop in applications for the 2012 admission cycle, many of many of them top-ranked. Read more ››

  • Free MCAT Boot Camp for Your Students

    Summer is full of great opportunities to take the MCAT.  Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, the exam will be administered nearly 20 times. Your students who are planning to take these exam may have already begun studying for days, weeks, or months – or their college final exams may have just ended and they are ready to kick their MCAT prep into high gear. While it’s certainly not too late to take a comprehensive course, students just beginning their prep may be looking for an appetizer before the main course, and students coming up on Test Day may be looking for that final boost. Read more ››

  • LSAT Bootcamp for Your Students

    GM 34- Bootcamp FB Pin Graphic 803x803As of today, the June LSAT is just about four weeks away. Your students may have already been studying for days, weeks, or months – or their exams may just have ended and they are ready to kick things into high gear. It’s certainly not too late to take a course, but maybe they are self-studiers. If that’s the case, then there’s no excuse not to attend Kaplan’s free (yes, you read that right!) LSAT Boot Camp. Read more ››

  • Upcoming Event: GRE Bootcamp

    GM 34- Bootcamp FB Pin Graphic 803x803We love hosting events for intrepid GRE® preppers worldwide: We regularly run full-length practice GRE tests so that students can be exposed to the exam and build up their stamina, classes on how to strategically approach the test, seminars on how to write compelling graduate school personal statements, and much more. I’m happy to announce that next week, one of my favorite events is happening on Tuesday, May 14th, at 7:30 pm ET: our GRE prep Bootcamp. Read more ››

  • 5 Important Business School Interview Tips

    file7281263254407While not every business school requires an interview, for many, it is an important requirement for admission.  Some schools use interviews to evaluate borderline cases. Whatever the reason for the interview, it’s important that you schedule with the admissions officer early.

    Here are 5 important business school interview tips that your advisees should be aware of.

    1. The advisee’s application.  In some cases, the interviewer is likely to ask specific questions about it.  The applicant should be ready to relate several stories on taking initiative, participating in a leadership role, or solving a complex problem. Read more ››

  • Review is a Key Part of Improvement

    IE263-091Professional athletes review game tape to improve their performance. Students review professors’ notes on papers to get advice on how to better present arguments and ideas—and to improve their grades. Business people constantly review new strategies to determine how well they’re working.

    What’s the common theme? No matter what you do, a major component of success is getting consistent feedback and using it to adjust your approach as you proceed. This rule applies to your advisee’s GRE studies as well. Read more ››

  • Research Yourself: Dig Deep and Write Compelling Personal Essays

    CreatasMB_02According to Kaplan Test Prep’s 2012 survey of graduate school admissions officers, 20% said an applicant’s personal essays are the most important admissions factor, placing it third in importance.  How does that stack against other factors? Well, 29% of admissions officers said an applicant’s GPA was the top factor; 27% said an applicant’s GRE score was the top factor. Not exactly a three way tie, but relatively close.  But compared to other graduate level admissions processes like business school, law school, and medical schools, where test scores and GPA overwhelmingly reign supreme, an applicant’s personal essays in the graduate school admissions play a much more critical role. Read more ››

  • Helping Students on Waitlist

    iStock_000005888817SmallDid you know that one of the most common questions asked during the ever growing in popularity Multiple Mini Interview is “How would you console a friend who has been placed on the medical school acceptance waitlist?”

    At this time of year, students have received acceptances and rejections, but some have received the limbo response of the waitlist – and that’s a tough spot to be in. By May 15th, accepted Medical School students for the Fall Class may only be holding a spot at one medical school, so the time of students getting called off the waitlist is approaching us (if not already here). Read more ››

  • Preparing for the Cost of Graduate School

    file000895510278When many students apply to graduate school, their sole focus is on being admitted – a common sentiment among applicants is “I’ll get in first, and figure out how to pay for my degree later”. There are actually myriad benefits to considering funding sources as soon as possible, as U.S. News discussed in a recent article on strategies to pay for graduate school.

    The article provided valuable advice for anyone applying to graduate school, including:

    -Apply early: The earlier a student applies (we’re talking months before the application deadline), the more scholarship money will be available, and the more time to network with professors and admissions officers from the department to which applying. Read more ››

  • The 2014 US News and World Report Law School Rankings: Employment Data

    2433943We looked at the US News and World Report Law School rankings a few times over the past 2 months, as well as a new system of rankings by The Jurist. Of course, there is much to say about how these rankings are decided and the pros and cons of each. One key factor used in both rankings is employment data: the number of students who have full-time jobs after graduation.

    Paul Caron, a Straus Distinguished Visiting professor at Pepperdine University of Law looked at the US News rankings and crunched numbers with respect to seeing which schools had good employment statistics. Read more ››

  • Smart Venture for MBA Applicants: Compelling Personal Essays

    FAN2024843According to Kaplan Test Prep’s 2012 survey of business school admissions officers, while applicants’ personal essays are not nearly as important a factor as their GMAT scores (or GRE scores, in some situations) or undergraduate GPAs, they should be under no false illusion that they doesn’t matter. Most b-schools require 4-6 essays on leadership, skills, strengths and weaknesses, career goals, and why they want an MBA. As you know, admissions officers are interested in getting to know them as individuals  - beyond their GPAs, standardized test scores, etc. Read more ››

  • Getting Effective Letters of Recommendation

    FAN2024846Getting effective letters of recommendation can be one of the toughest parts of completing grad school applications – it is the one component over which students do not have total control. Given the important role that recommendations play in helping admissions committees evaluate applicants, students are best-served by proactively managing the process. Here are some best practices to ensuring that students receive recommendations that strengthen their applications as much as possible:

    - Choose recommenders well.

    Schools have a relatively limited amount of information with which to evaluate candidates, and recommendations give admissions committees a valuable outside perspective on an applicant. Read more ››

  • Paying for Business School

    Chicklet-currency“How am I supposed to pay for this?”

    Now, I am no advisor to aspiring MBAs or other graduate management degree contenders, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the above might be one of, if not the, most common question admissions advisors get thrown at them. Business school is anything but cheap and the proposition of quitting a paying job to go spend hundreds of thousands of dollars during a two-year term of unemployment sounds like the mad ravings of a lunatic. Read more ››

  • Does State Matter? – Examining the Connection between State and Bar Exam Passage

    Blank_US_Map.svg-1Over the past several weeks we have examined “business as usual” statistics, namely the US News & World Report law school rankings and application trends. Professor Robert Anderson, Associate Professor of Law at Pepperdine University School of Law, has entered some new stats into the equation: he studied the bar exams of different states and found that the passage rates were affected, by among other things, “the choice of state.”

    Anderson’s study of passage rates includes data based on the passage rates of ABA-credited law schools and the GPA and LSAT scores of bar exam takers to determine which states have the toughest bar exams. Read more ››

  • Good Prescription for Med School Admissions: Compelling Personal Statements

    FAN2014394According to Kaplan Test Prep’s 2012 survey of medical school admissions officers, while an applicant’s personal statement is not nearly as important a factor as their MCAT score or undergraduate GPA, they should be under no false  illusion that it doesn’t matter. In fact, at a time when medical education is placing a new emphasis on the empathy skills of doctors-in-training, it can be vitally important for applicants to show a side of themselves that quantitative factors, like their MCAT score and GPA, don’t reflect. Read more ››

  • Event announcement: #MBAchat on Twitter, mbaMission to host

    GM-351-Twitter-Chat-for-Road-300x300Date: Wednesday, April 24, 2013

    Time: 1:00pm EDT

    What: #mbachat

    Host: @mbaMission

    Why: To learn how to find the right fit for business school

    mbaMission is a highly respected business school admissions consulting firm. Kaplan GMAT initiated a relationship with the organization’s founder and president, Jeremy Shinewald, in 2010 and we have worked closely with this outstanding company ever since.

    We are very excited to spread the word about an upcoming Twitter event mbaMission is hosting next week on Wednesday, April 24th. Read more ››

  • Tips to Help Your Advisees Formulate a Summer Study Plan

    HammockAs the end of the semester gets closer, your advisees are hopefully finalizing their summer plans. For many students, this will involve preparing for the GRE. To ensure that they make the most of their time and put themselves in the best possible position to succeed, here are some tips to help your advisees formulate a summer study plan:

    - Months 1 – 2: Set a target score, and then take a full-length practice test to provide a baseline score and to serve as a diagnostic tool. Read more ››