Need help deciding if law school and a legal career are right for YOU? [Show summary] Christopher Melcher, a celebrity family lawyer and teacher of law, offers an unvarnished look at a lawyer’s day-to-day and what a career in law can look like. Considering law school? Read on to learn what a career as a lawyer can look like. [Show notes] What's being a lawyer truly like? Our guest today, a divorce attorney to the stars, is going to tell us. Some of you may wonder, what does celebrity family law (which almost seems like an oxymoron) have to do with admissions? That's a very good question. Listeners considering a JD may want to learn what lawyers really do, what the career is really like. Christopher Melcher got his JD in 1993 at Pepperdine Law, went initially into criminal law and personal injury litigation, and has been with the family law firm of Walzer & Melcher since 2002. He's also an adjunct professor at Pepperdine Law. How did you decide that a career in law is for you? [1:55] That was easy for me because my dad was a lawyer. He was a deputy district attorney in the early 1970s, and when I was really young, he would come home and talk to me about his cases. These were serious cases. I might've been six or seven years old when he started talking to me about his cases. He would explain what he was working on, and then he would ask me, "What do you think?" That got my legal mind started because he was genuinely interested in my opinion. I don't know what I had to share at that age, but we would have these conversations. As I got older, they, I'm sure, got better, but I remembered that he really wanted to know what I thought. I had the feeling like he would maybe use some of that input for his cases and arguments and trials that he was in. That helped form this legal, analytical mind. As I got older, I got into some trouble in grade school, and I remember being in the principal's office and my buddy, Don, was there too for some unrelated offense. He would ask me like, "I got in trouble. What should I do?" I would give him advice. I was like a little jailhouse lawyer there as a kid, helping my buddies craft their stories for the principal. That's how it started in getting those legal juices going in my brain. hbspt.cta.load(58291, 'c5572014-0b54-4e12-acd9-91a66e31a013', {}); Did you test that thesis as you got older? [3:38] I wanted to be a lawyer from that early age, but I really didn't want to do the work. I wanted to grow up too fast, and that really was a mistake. I had a lot of fun, but I didn't want to put the work in, and that held me back. I think back then it was easier to slack in school and still survive. I don't know what I would do now. I feel the pressure on students now is so much greater than it was. I'm talking about in the 80s, for me, because I could get by as a C student without studying or reading or doing anything and somehow got into college and somehow got into law school. I had it easy because, I think, of the times. Things really clicked for me probably in the second or third year of college when I decided, "Okay. I have to actually do this and take it seriously." Then I kicked it into high gear and finished off college and got into law school. You initially started out in criminal law and then switched to family law. Why the switch? [4:54] When I was in law school, I had my whole future mapped out. I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to become a corporate securities lawyer because I had met somebody doing that, and they made a ton of money. I was like, "Wow, this is for me." I like corporate law. I liked all this with the investing angle. Some of these lawyers were taking a piece of the action, basically, for these companies that they were helping to form and getting paid quite a bit of money if the company was successful. That was my goal, and I figured I was going to go out of law school, work at the Securities and Exchange Commission,

Admissions Straight Talk

What a Law Career Is Really Like

Can the lessons of 2020 help us forge a better 2021? [Show summary] For Admissions Straight Talk’s 400th episode, Linda Abraham reflects on a turbulent year and identifies the most important trends in higher ed admissions to watch in 2021. Applying to graduate school: A journey of self-improvement [Show notes] We’ve reached Episode 400! I feel it's a milestone, and I've decided to do a little bit of a different kind of a show. I'm going to discuss two important developments of 2020 and their impact on applicants, their implications for you as you apply, and how you should deal with them.  I also want to speak at the very end on a more personal and, hopefully, thoughtful perspective, a little bit higher level, more strategically, and share some thoughts as we are starting to see the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. This is a brand new year. The other perspective that I'm going to share will reflect a little of what I've learned from Rabbi Lord Dr. Jonathan Sacks, a favorite writer, thinker, and teacher of mine, who sadly passed away in November. His writings have relevance to many people and many situations, but specifically to grad school applicants, and I'm dedicating this podcast in his memory. The rising number of graduate program applicants [2:16] The first development that folks need to be aware of, and I'm sure you are aware of, is the surge. And no, I don't mean the surge in COVID cases that we are tragically experiencing. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the surge in applicants to graduate programs across the board that is occurring this fall and winter. What do I mean by that? Let's give some examples. In December, NPR reported that 18% more applicants applied via AAMC to medical school than did a year earlier. Some school-specific numbers: Stanford, which also went test-optional, reported a 50% increase in applications. Boston University reported a 27% increase in applications. And when I spoke with Paul White of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in October, for Admissions Straight Talk's 392nd episode which you can find at accepted.com/392, he reported at that point an increase of 25% in applications to Johns Hopkins. Business schools are also experiencing a surge in applications. They were experiencing a decline in applications that seemed to end for most schools with round two of last year and the recession’s onset in March of 2020. They have also seen a surge in applications this cycle. The stats for last year revealed 67% of MBA programs reporting increased applications per GMAC. The stats for this year aren't out yet, but news reports, whether from The Wall Street Journal, Poets&Quants, or my conversations with admissions directors, all indicate increased application volume. Law school applications have also soared. Through December 15th, LSAC reports a 38% increase in applicants (not applications, but applicants) year over year, a whopping 57.4% increase in applications year over year, and an almost 62% increase in applications over two years ago. Twelve out of 200 law schools reported a 100% increase in applications, and 106 out of 200 law schools reported an increase of between 50 and 99%, which means that well over half of law schools are reporting more than a 50% increase in applications. LSAC, conservatively, warns that it's too early in the cycle to draw conclusions, since at this time last year, 34% of applications had been counted. However, I am concluding that with roughly a third of applications in, or presumed to be in at this point in time, the file numbers may not be this eye-popping, but there will be a marked increase in applications to the nation's law schools.  Various graduate specialties are also up: for example, Master's in Public Health. ABC News, citing data from the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health, which has over 100 MPH programs participating in its Common Application service,

Application Trends to Watch in 2021, and a Look Back at 2020

How this non-traditional medical student transitioned into medicine as a second career [Show summary] Efrat Bruck is an M4 at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, as well as a parent and MCAT video creator for Khan Academy with a nontraditional path to medicine. She shares how the program has given her the flexibility and support to balance these responsibilities and thrive in medical school. Listen to the show >> A career-switcher's journey from teacher to medical student [Show notes] What's it like to attend Mount Sinai's Icahn School of Medicine? And how does this M4 juggle the responsibilities of parenting, med school, serving on the Mount Sinai Student Admissions Committee, and being an MCAT video creator for Khan Academy?  Efrat Bruck is a non-traditional medical school student  who attended medical school as a mom and had a successful career as a teacher. Now, she’s an M4 at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. Can you tell us a bit about your background outside of medicine? Where did you grow up? What do you like to do for fun? [1:45] I grew up in Brooklyn, New York in the neighborhood of Borough Park. My parents immigrated to the US about one year before I was born to seek medical treatment for one of my older brothers who has congenital kidney failure, and much of our childhood revolved around his medical situation. I think, by the time I was in high school, he had had three kidney transplants. My dad is a rabbi and a teacher in the community. My mom was mostly a stay-at-home mom, but also taught intermittently, so I come from a family of teachers. I'm one of 10 children. I have seven brothers and two sisters, and I am seventh, part of the younger crew. After high school, the expectation was to get out there in the real world and become financially independent, so I went to a one-year program that trained me to be a teacher, and then I got a job as a high school teacher. At the age of 18, I started teaching high school and started what would be an almost decade-long career in education that I really, really enjoyed. In my last year of college, I started working at Columbia University Medical Center in a research lab in nephrology. I had a really personal connection to nephrology because of my brother. I think my work at the lab was the springboard that eventually led me to go to medical school. When did you go to Columbia? [3:20] To backtrack, I went to college a few years after high school. Maybe three years into teaching, I went to Touro College in Brooklyn, New York. And then in my last semester of college, as part of one of the honors projects, I started working at a lab at Columbia, a lab in nephrology. The principal investigator was Dr. Jonathan Barasch. That was, as I said, the springboard for applying to medical school. You mentioned that because of your brother's situation, you were drawn to nephrology. When you went back to college, were you thinking of getting more of an education-oriented degree and staying in that field, and then you decided to make the switch? Is that how it worked? [3:49] I'll backtrack a little. I really always wanted to be a doctor from a pretty young age. I love the sciences. I think all of us, when we sort of look back at our school years, there were some classes that felt like a burden and some classes that maybe felt a little more natural, or you looked forward to it. That's how I felt about the sciences. I always looked forward to those classes, and I didn't feel that burden of studying, at least when I was a kid. It gets burdensome later on! But as a kid, I really loved it, and I was just fascinated by this link between science and medicine. I knew science existed and that somehow this translated into medicine, which I knew kept my brother alive all those years. So I was really fascinated from a young age, but as I said, it wasn't really on the radar for me right after high school to go to college.

What Life at Icahn Is Like as a Med Student, Parent, and More

I am swamped at this time of year with clients facing early January deadlines so I decided to end 2020 with one of our most popular shows of the year, my interview with Accepted’s own Esmeralda Cardenal. For you MBA applicants applying during this very tough cycle or planning to apply in the next cycle- take advantage of Esmeralda’s experience, both as an MBA admission director and experienced MBA admission consultant for Accepted. Here are a few of the questions she addresses: What are your top tips for dealing with a low GPA?What do you wish applicants did before they come to you for assistance with their applications?What are some of the differences between applying to a typical MBA program and applying to a Master's in analytics program?What can applicants do to learn about a school since they can't visit now, and fairs or receptions are pretty much nonexistent?What advice do you have for MBA re-applicants, both as an admissions consultant and former admissions officer? The interview actually took place last March. It’s also interesting to hear what the concerns were less than a year ago. What’s the same, and what’s changed. As we put away or throw out our calendars from 2020 and turn to 2021, I also want to share a few thoughts. For most people it’s been a really tough year. Health challenges. Financial pain. Social isolation. Restrictions galore.  Social unrest. A divisive election in the U.S.  I think most of us will be glad to close the books on 2020. Even though it has shaken our world and maybe our confidence in the future, I hope that AST’s listeners will muster their courage and determination, their positivity and ability, to pick themselves up and plan to create a better year, a better future for themselves and the world. To paraphrase Stanford GSB’s motto “Improve lives. Improve organizations. Improve the world.” Again, thank you for listening to the podcast. I wish you much success in this brand new, exciting year ahead.   Now the interview with Accepted Senior MBA Admissions Consultant, Esmeralda Cardenal. >> For the complete show notes, check out the original blog post. Related Links: Work with Esmeralda CardenalFitting in and Standing Out: the Paradox at the Heart of Admissions, a free guide How to Answer MBA Application and Interview Questions about COVID-19 and Other Major Events of 2020 [Video]School-Specific MBA Application Essay Tips Accepted’s MBA Admissions Consulting Services Related Shows: Is the MBA Worth It, or Is the Sky Falling Down on the MBA Degree? How to Address COVID-19 and the Events of 2020 in Your ApplicationAn Insider’s Look at MBA AdmissionsHow to Prepare for a Successful Round 1 MBA ApplicationMBA Insider Shares His Secrets in New BookHow to Get Accepted to a Top EMBA Program: The Experts Speak Subscribe:       hbspt.cta.load(58291, 'e7be6bd8-39d0-451b-8ad8-f0e42036db27', {}); Podcast Feed

Encore: An Admissions Expert’s Top Tips for Business School Applicants

It’s a busy time of year now. We here at Accepted are busy helping applicants with the end-of-the-year application crunch and normally I would be enjoying the company of extended family at this joyous time of year. Thanks to COVID, however, our extended family is not gathering in person. I suspect that your celebrations are also somewhat muted this year.  However, depending on where you’re at in the application process, you may still have a move to plan after hearing of an acceptance, applications to complete, decisions to anticipate or make, interviews to prepare for, and next year’s application plans to start working on.  And you may even have some work to do.  Consequently, now is an excellent time for an encore show. Since it was one of the most popular med admissions interviews of 2020 and is really relevant to anyone having to draft a personal statement or narrative , I decided to replay the  interview with Accepted’s Dr. Mary Mahoney. An English professor, Dr. Mahoney’s specialty is narrative medicine. In simple terms she’s expert in helping you tell your story and that’s the topic for this show.  We’ll run that interview in just a second. Right now I want to take this opportunity to thank you for listening week in and week out, or whenever you find a show you like.  There are lots of different ways for you to spend your time, and it’s greatly appreciated that you choose to spend it with AST’s guests and me. So thank you so much! I also want to wish you a Wonderful Holiday Season and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year, a new year filled with the realization of your educational and professional dreams, and of course acceptances. A year in which COVID and the pandemic become history so that next year, my family and yours can celebrate in person.  Now the interview with Accepted’s Dr. Mary Mahoney. For the complete show notes, check out the original blog post. Related Links: Mary Mahoney's BioFrom Example to Exemplary, a free guide to writing outstanding admissions essaysHow to Answer Med School Questions about COVID-19 and Other Major Events of 2020, a short video9 Secrets to Telling an Attention-Grabbing StoryThe Miraculous 15-Minute ROUGH, ROUGH DraftWhy Should I Spend Money on an Accepted Med School Admissions Consultant?Accepted's Medical Admissions Consulting Related Shows: Writing for Medical School: Personal Statements, Activities, and SecondariesHow This Premed Student Got Accepted to Medical School EarlyHow to Apply to the Best Med Schools for YouWake Up to Your Amazing Career Possibilities Subscribe:     hbspt.cta.load(58291, '1d2df5cf-1a21-4396-91eb-035040f8bc40', {}); Podcast Feed

ENCORE Mary Mahoney Writing a Compelling Personal Statement

The Kellogg MBAi: Where business and technology intersect [Show summary] Kate Smith, Assistant Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at Kellogg School of Management, breaks down the school’s brand-new MBAi joint degree and how it prepares students for careers at the intersection of business and technology. Interview with Kate Smith, Assistant Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at the Kellogg School of Management [Show notes] As if its impressive portfolio of MBA programs (not to mention the pandemic) wasn’t enough to keep Kellogg busy, it also launched a brand-new program at the beginning of this academic year. Let's catch up on what's new at Kellogg and learn about its new accelerated joint MBA at the intersection of business and technology management. Kate Smith is the Assistant Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at Kellogg School of Management. Kate earned her own MBA from Kellogg in 1998, then worked in marketing for leading brands including General Mills, Quaker Oats, and Pepsi. She returned to Kellogg in 2012. Let's start with some basic information about the MBAi. First of all, what is it? Who's it for? What's the structure? And what degree do graduates actually receive? [2:05] Thank you for opening on what is an exciting innovation here at Kellogg. We have just introduced this new program in the Kellogg portfolio of MBA options. The MBAi is a new joint degree. It has been launched by the Kellogg School of Management and the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University. The vision for this degree is that it is at the nexus of business and technology management. The MBAi is building on a long legacy of innovation and collaboration between Kellogg and McCormick. The two schools launched, years ago, a dual degree called the triple M program, which provides rigorous business education integrated with a strong foundation in design innovation. The MBAi is a new specialized program that is meant for students with prior undergraduate STEM experience, and/or prior work experience in the tech sector. Examples could include having worked as a product manager, a data scientist, a software engineer, an R and D associate. We're going to be building what I'd say is a real nice diversity of backgrounds leveraging tech and STEM expertise so that they can contribute that on a journey to accelerating their knowledge and foundational expertise at this intersection of business and technology. It's going to be a fast-paced, five-quarter program, which is (I think) very appealing in terms of the speed at which you can pursue and complete your MBA degree experience and immediately jump into what is a rapidly evolving tech sector. The curriculum will include the entire Kellogg MBA core curriculum, as well as technical courses in topics such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, data wrangling, robotics, computational thinking for business. That will also be complemented with the entire Kellogg MBA core curriculum. Students will have the opportunity to round out their degree with just a few electives, choosing between both Kellogg and McCormick. This program is intensive, with a five-quarter format as opposed to our two-year program, which is a traditional six-quarter program format. There's a little less flexibility on electives and more of an intentional design into the curriculum, integrating the aspects of data analytics, AI, etc., and weaving that throughout the curricular offerings. The graduates will have one degree conferred by both Kellogg and McCormick. It's a joint degree, so it's different than a dual degree. Our current triple M is a dual degree, one degree conferred by McCormick, the MBA conferred by Kellogg. This is a joint MBA degree called the MBAi, conferred by us both together. You're going to be going five quarters straight through, so you're going to start in the fall, and you're going to take courses for five consecutive quarters and graduate the following December. ...

All About the Kellogg MBAi, for Students Passionate About Business and Technology

Learn about The Consortium for Graduate Schools of Management, and how it can help YOU gain acceptance at a top business school. [Show summary] Danni Young, Director of Recruiting for the Consortium for Graduate Schools of Management, breaks down how the Consortium helps hundreds of students from target populations get accepted to top MBA programs each year. Are you planning to apply to top MBA programs? Listen in to discover if applying through The Consortium is right for you. [Show notes] Danni Young, Director of Recruiting for the Consortium for Graduate Schools of Management, earned her bachelor's degree from Lincoln University in Missouri and her MBA from Washington University in St. Louis. Let's hear from her how the Consortium can help you get your MBA. Let's start with the basics. What is the Consortium? [1:41] The Consortium is a nonprofit organization that's been around for over 50 years now. Our mission is to ultimately increase the representation of three target populations in our member schools, MBA programs, and in the ranks of management in corporate America. Our mission is focused on African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans. Our goal is to ultimately increase representation of those three target populations in our member schools. Over the last 54 years, we've offered $510,000,000 in fellowship support. What are the benefits of membership? [2:35] It starts with our common application process. If you're thinking about pursuing your MBA at one of our 20 member schools, we definitely encourage you to use our common application. With that common application, a prospective MBA has the ability to apply to up to six of our member schools with one common application. Obviously, the benefit of that is that you'll save time and money when you're applying to business schools, but you're also having an opportunity to apply for Consortium membership, which is very valuable in itself, and then also to be considered for the Consortium fellowship. The application process is very streamlined. You don't have to apply directly to our member schools. You can apply through us, and your common application will serve as your application to the business school. It will serve as your application for membership as well as your application for the fellowship consideration. It's a one-stop shop. Ultimately, the benefit of Consortium membership is that aside from the fellowship consideration, you'll have an opportunity to be a part of our exclusive network. Our network consists of our 20 member schools, roughly 1000 students across our 20 schools currently. We have 10,000 alumni in the US and abroad, and we also have roughly 90 corporate partners that are part of the Consortium as well. That's our network, and that's what membership entails: being a part of that network. Membership also means that you have access to our online career center. It's called CGSM Online, and it's a platform only for Consortium members. It's a great way to have connections with our corporate partners, upload your resume, look at a job, post job opportunities. That membership means that every new Consortium member has a chance to attend our annual orientation program and career forum. We call it OP. That's the highlight of the Consortium experience. It happens every year in early June. This past year, it was supposed to be in Seattle, Washington. With COVID, we had to transition the conference to virtual, but it worked out really well. But next year, our OP will be in New Orleans. Hopefully, we'll be able to be onsite for that. That's a four- to five-day conference in which new members have a chance to connect with other Consortium students across our schools. They have a chance to attend workshops and seminars on business-related topics. They get a chance to have direct access to our corporate partners and also attend our career forum. So even before they start their MBA program in the fall,

What the Consortium for Graduate Schools of Management Can Do for MBA Applicants

Med applicant Mary Thomas shares her path to medical school acceptance early in this year's application cycle [Show summary] Mary Thomas will begin her medical school studies next summer after receiving an exceptionally early acceptance in October. She shares how she achieved that early acceptance, along with insights into her application process and the personal passion driving her pursuit of a career in medicine. How this non-science major gained a spot in medical school [Show notes] Are you planning to apply to medical school next summer? Would you like to be accepted by November? Mary Thomas did just that. She is happily anticipating the start of medical school after being accepted in October. (Yes, you read that right!)  Mary graduated from Pitzer College in 2019, took a couple of gap years, and applied this cycle to medical school. Let's learn more specifically how Mary got her first acceptance to medical school in October of this most extraordinary year. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and where you grew up? [1:56] I grew up in Edmonds, a suburb outside of Seattle. I grew up with two older siblings. I grew up with my parents being really involved with their jobs, so I spent a lot of time alone growing up. I was a really avid reader, and that was something that led me to become really passionate about social justice in high school. That is how I ended up going to Pitzer College in Southern California, because I knew it was a school that really emphasized social justice in its curriculum. I ended up going down there for college, and it was a really good fit for me, and it was a big part of how I ended up pursuing a career in medicine. How did you decide to pursue a career in medicine? What were some of the formative experiences? [2:39] My older sister, we've always been really close. She's in medical school right now, and that was something that was always in my mind as something that I might be interested in. But I would say I didn't become really driven towards it until I was in college. I started working with a volunteer organization, a grassroots women's mental health group. I was working with these women that came from really challenging backgrounds and faced a lot of really difficult circumstances, and I was a really passionate volunteer for that organization. I was there for the entire three years, starting my sophomore year of college. I was totally devoted. I think I missed maybe three of our weekly meetings the entire time that I worked with them. As a volunteer, what did you do with these women? [3:29] We had our weekly meetings, totally community-led, where we would do a wide range of activities like meditation. Sometimes we did things like yoga. We did a unit on dance therapy. We would do art therapy. We would have a lot of discussions. We didn't really call it group therapy, but discussions where we were able to share a little bit about experiences that other people might not understand outside of that community. My volunteer work was helping plan these weekly meetings. Sometimes we'd have presentations about certain therapeutic techniques and things like that. That was my role with that organization, and I loved working with them. Though I was a super devoted volunteer, I felt like I didn't have that much to offer. That was what made me realize that medicine would be a really powerful career for me to pursue because the women in this group didn't have a lot of access to healthcare. I realized that maybe that's something that I would want to pursue to be able to give even more to this group. I felt as just a college student, I didn't have that much to give, even though I really wanted to help and it was such an awesome organization. Were the challenges that these women faced mostly financial? Emotional? Socioeconomic? It was a mental health group, but specifically a group for Latina immigrants.

How This Premed Student Got Accepted to Medical School Early

Can business school support an entrepreneurial venture? [Show summary] James Chance, a 2019 London Business School MBA graduate, reveals how his experience at LBS impacted his path as an entrepreneur, along with how he’s transforming online privacy protection through his startup, yourself.online. Learn how entrepreneur James Chance launched his start-up while at London Business School. [Show notes] James Chance graduated from the University of Bristol in 2011 with a degree in mechanical engineering. He then worked as a strategy consultant for Accenture UK, until he joined Google in 2016. He earned his MBA at London Business School in 2019, which is where he also launched yourself.online, his startup. We're going to learn more about James's MBA path and experience, as well as about the launching of yourself.online and how it can help you maintain your privacy. Can you tell us a little bit about your background, where you grew up, and what you like to do for fun? [2:03] I grew up in Central London, not too far from the City, the financial district, right in the center, quite close to St. Paul's. That was a real eye-opener in terms of this very fast-paced world, and growing up, I was fortunate enough to, from that experience, see a lot of things, arts, culture, different businesses, all sorts of different stuff as a kid and as a teenager. When I reached the end of secondary school, then I decided I wanted to get out of London and go to the University of Bristol, as a change of scenery. In terms of what I like to do for fun, I've always been really passionate about traveling. I was fortunate enough to have a few occasions where I've traveled for work and worked in different countries, the US, Australia. But then I’ve also done more adventurous travels as well. I was fortunate enough, with a friend of mine in 2011, after I graduated from college, to drive halfway around the world from London to Mongolia in a car we bought on eBay for just under a thousand dollars. It's an adventure called the Mongol Rally, which was great fun. And I've always been trying to find those sorts of, not quite as adventurous, but trips that are a little bit off the beaten track. But unfortunately that's all on hold this year, but big plans for next year, hopefully. Next year, post-pandemic, I'd really like to do more of South America, since it's not really somewhere I've explored much. I'd really like to do some of the Argentina, Brazil, bits of Peru as well. You worked as a strategy consultant for Accenture for almost four years, then for Google as an analytical consultant, and also in e-commerce for a family business in Norway. With all these different experiences, why did you decide you wanted or needed an MBA? [3:50] I first started to think about doing an MBA when I was in consulting. This is something throughout, really: I had come into business coming from an engineering background, so coming from a technical background, where my quantitative skills and analytical skills were good, but I didn't have that much grounding in terms of finance, management, stuff like that. And I was fine for probably, I would say, the first few years of my career. But I found when I was at Google, I was fortunate enough to be brought into some really high-profile meetings with some of our senior clients, the CMOs of some of the largest e-commerce companies in the world, and stuff like that. Fantastic experience, but I was sitting at some of these meetings and I thought, I don't know how you work out marketing ROI. There were things that I just didn't have the fundamental business knowledge around. I could do the maths and things like that, and solve problems, but there were broader things I'd like to expand my skill base at and expand my fundamental background knowledge. LISTEN: Encore: Is an MBA Worth It, or Is the Sky Falling Down on the MBA Degree? >> And then on top of that, I'd always had throughout my business days a kind of back-...

This London Business School MBA’s Startup Is Protecting Your Online Privacy

Learn what the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine adcom looks for in applicants [Show summary] Paul White, Assistant Dean for Admissions and Student Affairs at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, dispels common misconceptions about the program and explains what applicants can expect from an admissions process altered by COVID-19. What makes Johns Hopkins School of Medicine unique, and how can YOU show your fit? [Show notes] Do you want to know how to get into Johns Hopkins School of Medicine? Are you wondering what its curriculum is really like, and how it has adapted to COVID? Johns Hopkins School of Medicine’s Assistant Dean for Admissions and Student Affairs is here with answers. Before arriving at Johns Hopkins, Paul White attended Yale for undergrad and Georgetown for his law degree. He has worked in admissions, both undergrad and med, since 1979. Since 2012, he has served the applicant community as the Assistant Dean for Admissions and Student Affairs at Johns Hopkins and made a previous appearance on Admissions Straight Talk in 2016. Can we start out with an overview of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine program, focusing on its distinctive elements? [1:50] Johns Hopkins has a wonderful educational program. Hopkins is one of the schools that really pioneered prerequisites for medical school, and the Flexner Report, which came out in 1910, said Hopkins was one of the schools that did it right, and we've never sat on our laurels. So we're always asking, are we keeping current? Are we teaching students what they need to know to work with patients? A few years ago, easily 12 years ago now, Hopkins completely revised its curriculum to focus more on the social determinants of disease. We incorporate that throughout the curriculum when our students come to Hopkins. You have a course that begins right after orientation that focuses on healthcare disparities. There are several intersession courses you'll have between major components, like anatomy and so forth. But the very first one focuses on healthcare disparities and brings in someone from the community who talks about their issues, and so forth. We also have our students do an ambulatory longitudinal clerkship later in their first year, which gets them out into the community and working alongside a physician who works with patients from underserved populations.  Continuing with that, we integrate, throughout the curriculum, the social sciences, ethics, public health, and interprofessional education. We give our students opportunities to do research. Many of them have already had research prior to coming to Hopkins. Although it's not required, I would say easily 95 or 96% have had research prior to their matriculation. But by the time they graduate from Hopkins, easily 99% will have research, and nearly 99% will have a publication by the time they graduate from Hopkins. So that has really strengthened the profile of our students, which was pretty strong to begin with, but it has really made students that much more attuned to what's going on in the world and ready to address it using scientific methodology. When you talk about a longitudinal ambulatory clerkship, what are they doing? [4:55] I think of it as advanced clinical shadowing, and actually in the community working with the physician. But rather than being a pre-medical student, they're actually medical students, and it is something which they are evaluated on as part of their curriculum as well. Who they see depends on who the physician is seeing as part of the clerkship. That's why it's several weeks rather than a two-time event. What’s a common misconception about Johns Hopkins that you would like to dispel? [5:36] That the only thing we're interested in is research. That is a misconception that can impact how someone is viewed in the admissions process. Even though I am not a physician, I'm a lawyer by training, I want to make sure that the students who come to Hopkin...

What Med School Applicants Must Know About Johns Hopkins

Learn what's new at Berkeley Haas, as well as tips for crafting admissions-worthy applications. [Show summary] Eric Askins, the newly appointed Executive Director of Admissions at UC Berkeley Haas, explores the school’s full-time MBA program and its admissions policies, as well as how it’s adapting the MBA experience to COVID-19. Interested in applying to Berkeley Haas? Read on for info about special programs and application advice. [Show notes] UC Berkeley Haas has a new Executive Director of Admissions: Eric Askins, formerly Haas’s Senior Associate Director of Admissions. He’s here today to explore Haas’s full-time MBA program, as well as how the school is adapting to COVID-19. Can you give an overview of the Berkeley Haas full-time MBA program for those listeners who aren't that familiar with it and focus on its more distinctive elements? [2:37] The first place to start is our location. Based in the San Francisco Bay area, our program is incredibly close to the center of innovation that exists out here. I think some of that is probably evident if you look at our outcomes. Berkeley Haas has graduates in tech. About 15 to 20% of our students each year are going into startups. But if you were to ask us for the most defining feature of our program, it's likely our defining leadership principles (Question the status quo. Confidence without attitude. Students always. Beyond yourself.). It's a set of culture-forward initiatives that we have here, about 10 years old now, that really hold our core values up-front. You'll find, I think, very few programs that lead with values, and we're certainly one of them. What's new at Berkeley Haas (other than lockdown, the pandemic, and smoky air)? [4:08] Certainly, all of those things are new, and they are challenges. But there's a silver lining in there too. Let's talk about some of our academic programs first. Chief among the things that we launched in pilot mode last year that are truly new this year are a joint degree with our school of engineering, an MBA/MEng program. This program is two years, so no additional time. It is a cohort model that is part of the MBA cohort, so it doesn't operate separately, which is really a great opportunity to continue to stay connected with the broader community here at Haas. Additionally, the students select from among seven different engineering programs to really give you that niche opportunity that you might be seeking and give you the skills that you need to take advantage of some of the great opportunities that exist in the career world. You can go, let's say, into electrical engineering/MBA, artificial intelligence/MBA, all kinds of different engineering specialties, including nuclear engineering, if that's what you're looking for. Chemical engineering. We took a nuclear engineer this year. This program launched in pilot mode last year. We didn't recruit heavily for it. We simply listed it on our website. We are beginning to look at expanding it. We now have a cohort of about 30 students, 15 in each class here. There is a community. Although it's new, it's new with a community, which we think is really essential. Again, we're very community-focused here at Haas, and we want you to be learning alongside others and learning from others as well as from our faculty. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxMWjFryl0g&feature=youtu.be How do you see the MBA/MEng program growing for the entering class of 2021? [6:00] I think 15 feels like a pretty healthy number for us. We may move it up to 20 if we see qualified candidates in and around that space. We probably won't move it beyond that. We have a successful joint degree already with our MBA/MPH, which is a master's in public health. That's been running for about 10 years and has an incredible community around it, and we typically don't go over about 20 students in that group either. The goal here is not to create little segments of the MBA,

MBA Life at UC Berkeley Haas, From Its New Executive Director of Admissions

M2 Sotonye Douglas shares how she never lost sight of her dream to become a doctor. [Show summary] Sotonye Douglas describes herself as an “imperfect” medical school applicant who nevertheless became a student at Quinnipiac Netter School of Medicine, overcoming tremendous barriers in the process. An "imperfect" applicant discusses her path to medical school. [Show notes] There's a myth out there that med students never fail, never drop a class, and all have high MCATs and GPAs. They're perfect. Or they don't get in.  Our guest today is determined and hardworking, but she has also overcome significant challenges on the way to medical school. She doesn't fit the myth of the perfect med student, but she is nevertheless a proud M2. Sotonye Douglas is a second year MD student at Quinnipiac Netter School of Medicine. She was born to immigrant parents from Jamaica and Nigeria and grew up in Brooklyn in New York City. From a young age, she wanted to be a doctor, but working her way through high school and college made it hard to get good grades, much less prep for the MCAT. Yet today, she is an M2. Let's hear her story of hard work, perseverance, and tremendous determination directly from her. Can you tell us a little bit more about your background outside of medicine? When did you start working? What do you like to do for fun? [1:59] To go back in time a little bit, I did start working when I was in high school. I was working, but I was also student body president. I was also a cheerleader. I was very, very busy even then. I think that's when I started learning how to multitask. That's what kicked it off in high school: me learning how to be professional and how to juggle and how to run from one thing to the next. But for fun, I like to spend time with family and loved ones when I can because I do have a lot of family internationally. I love visiting family and trying to get away and travel. That's my release. How did you figure out that you wanted to be a doctor? [2:56] From a very young age, I found this interest in science. It just seemed so interesting to me. I also speak about having a very deep and robust interest in art. As a kid, when people would ask me, I would say, "Oh, I want to be a doctor." But as I started to get older and as I got into junior high school, I had this opportunity: There's this program that is no longer in New York City called the Gifted Program. It was for students who were talented and gifted, basically students that were performing higher on exams and stuff. They had special classes and things worked into our schedule. I had the opportunity to be exposed to a Saturday program for anatomy, and there were models and stuff. They brought different organs. And I had never seen any of that before. I knew what organs were, I knew what a heart was, I knew what a brain was. I knew what these things were, but I had never seen models. I would have been around 11 or 12. And seeing the models, they reminded me of sculptures. The arteries are in red; the veins are in blue. It was seeing the vibrancy and real organs. Since being in anatomy lab, I know that that's not actually what it looks like, at least in anatomy lab, but just seeing it at that age, it caught my attention because it reminded me of a sculpture. And I think at that point, I started seeing the connections between art and science, and that anatomy class solidified medicine for me. That's when I was getting ready to go into high school, and I said, "I need to be in a high school that's going to help me continue this." My old guidance counselor and the high school secretary, they remind me every time they see me: "I remember your first day at school, you came in and you said that you wanted to be a doctor." They remind me all the time now when they see me. It was just something that I felt very strongly. And despite everything that happened, I’ve always remembered having this overwhelming feeling of,

Facing Adversity as a Med School Applicant

How can MBA hopefuls- especially those who are members of special applicant groups- best position themselves for acceptance? [Show summary] A valued and recent addition to Accepted’s staff, Dr. Christie St-John reveals what her career as an admissions director taught her about applying to business school (particularly for veterans, international students, and those from underrepresented groups), plus what’s ahead for the future of MBA programs. MBA admissions advice from an admissions insider [Show notes] Previously, Dr. Christie St-John was a guest on our chats as Associate Director of Admissions for Tuck, and more recently on Admissions Straight Talk as director of Vanderbilt Owen’s MBA Recruiting and Admissions. Now, this MBA admissions veteran just joined Accepted as an MBA and Graduate Admissions Consultant. Today, I'm going to speak with her about MBA admissions and graduate admissions in general, as well as specific subgroups, including veterans, international students, and underrepresented groups. I'm also going to get her insight into the impact of COVID and business schools going test-optional. How did you get into Admissions? [2:10] It was one of those peculiar things about who you know and being at the right place at the right time. I was doing my PhD at Vanderbilt and a friend of mine in the Spanish department had been recruited to the business school to run their program that they were doing in Latin America. When she was promoted to do that, she called me and said, "They're looking for somebody to fill my former job with exchange programs, and they want somebody with international experience, and you'd be perfect." And I thought, the business school, really? I was on my way to becoming a university professor of languages. So I went over and talked with them. I convinced them that I knew the difference between Saks Fifth Avenue and Goldman Sachs. I had worked in the business world before I went back to school and in the U.S. and in Europe. It was not like business was a strange thing to me, but I'd never really known this kind of job was available. Had I known, I would've started it years ago because I had only been in the position at Vanderbilt about a week, and the Dean came down to me and said, "Okay, you're going to go to Miami with Lori on Friday, and then you're going to South America for a month." I said, "Okay, let me just dust off my passport and I'll be ready to go.” That was the start of it. It's been the most fun job I've ever had. It’s almost like not really working, although it is; it's tiring, going through all the time zones. There's a lot of work to do, but it's been great because I love getting to know all the students and seeing where they're from and being able to talk to them about, "Yes, I've been to Delhi." "Yes, I've been to Seoul" or wherever it might be. That helps, I think, create a rapport with them. You have a wealth of experience in MBA and grad admissions. How do you feel about moving to the other side of the admissions desk? [4:30] As you know, when I was at Tuck, I invited a lot of the MBA admissions counselors up to visit us, and I got a lot of flack from schools about that: "Oh, how can you invite those people? You can't do business with them." And I said, "You know what? They're providing a service. And if we want them to talk about our schools to people, they need to know about our schools. And that's why I invited them." And I think it was really good, not only for the consultants who came, but it was certainly good for me to understand more about what you were doing out there. It was all a bit vague. “Why do people need help getting their applications done? It's so simple.” But it really isn't.  It's a terribly competitive area, more so now than it used to be when I first was applying to graduate school. It is something I think that's necessary. People don't realize that you really have to stop and think about what you're doing and why you're...

An Insider’s Look at MBA Admissions

Azan Virji discusses his path to Harvard Medical School, and challenges faced by international medical students [Show summary] Med student Azan Virji explores the unique challenges he faced as an international student applying to Harvard Medical School, as well as his mission to mentor students like himself through the organization he founded,  F-1 Doctors. F1-Doctors: A virtual community connecting international medical school applicants with mentors who are current international students [Show notes] Our guest today is Azan Virji. Azan grew up in Tanzania and came to the U.S. as a student at Yale University, where he studied molecular, cellular, and developmental biology and was a Yale Global Health Scholar. He earned his MPH in 2019, also from Yale, and then went on to begin his medical studies at Harvard in 2019. Knowing all too well the difficulties facing international applicants to U.S. medical schools, which were exacerbated by the corona pandemic and visa policy changes, Azan founded F-1 Doctors in May 2020. Its mission is to provide a network of international medical students, dental students, residents, and attendings to international applicants who are struggling to pursue their med school dreams. Can you tell us a little bit about your background? [2:21] I was born in Kenya, which is neighboring Tanzania, but then I grew up in Tanzania because my mom is from Kenya and my dad is from Tanzania. I think of myself as an East African baby, and I went to high school there as well. I spent 18 years of my life there and went to high school in Mwanza, Tanzania. It was a pretty small high school; my graduating class at the end was almost 24 students. In school, I was the person who would always volunteer to do things. I was always really interested in leadership activities and getting leadership experiences. I was what we called the Head Boy at the time. It's based on the British curriculum, where you're basically the link between the students and the faculty. And then I was also a really big theater nerd. I used to do plays regularly and used to sing a lot. On top of all of that, I was really hard working. I wanted to focus on academics and really wanted to do good in school.  Then, I applied to colleges, mostly here in the United States. The reason for that was twofold. I think it's pretty obvious that some of the best institutions of higher learning are here in the United States. Some of the world-class research happens here, and I really wanted to be a part of that environment. But on top of that, I also come from a very low-income background. I'm a first generation, low-income student, and I really needed financial support to attend a place of higher learning. It's something that I couldn't afford on my own. And in the United States, particularly, a lot of colleges here do have a lot of generous financial aid packages that they offer to attract international students from the rest of the world. I got a great financial aid package to attend Yale. That's how I finally found myself, after never having left East Africa, in the US for the very first time, almost six years ago now. It was definitely quite a cultural shock in the beginning, trying to get used to the different way of learning. I think that was really hard for me, particularly when it comes to writing essays in English. That's something I really struggled with when I first came here because the way I was taught to write essays was very different. I found myself struggling a lot when it came to English writing classes, when I got here. The way you phrase your arguments and the way you structure your paragraphs just really got to me.  And I also found myself underestimating the level of intensity of classes. When I came in, I'd already done organic chemistry before, so I thought I'd be fully well-equipped for sophomore organic chemistry. So I joined a sophomore level course, even though there was a freshman level course that was availab...

An International Student’s Experience at Harvard Medical School

Wondering how to write about the tumultuous events of 2020 in your application essays? [Show summary] Accepted Founder Linda Abraham offers a framework for discussing COVID-19, the events of 2020, and their impact on your life in your undergraduate or graduate program applications. Your application should include information about your experience of and response to COVID-19 and the other events of 2020, whether or not you are explicitly asked for it. [Show Notes] I want to address something that I've been thinking a lot about. I think that my topic is not only of concern to me; I strongly suspect it's of concern to you, too, and something that's on everyone's mind: how to deal with COVID and the tumultuous year 2020. .It's a pretty big topic, isn't it? I'm going to narrow my topic a little bit. I have neither a cure nor a preventive vaccine for the disease. I also don't have cures for the other ills that have struck the world this year. I'm going to suggest how you should address these events in your application, regardless of whether you are applying to undergraduate or graduate programs, or if you're asked about COVID and year 2020 in an essay or in an interview (or in a video interview). How should you address COVID and the other events of 2020 in your application? There's two aspects to the question, to any COVID or 2020 kind of question, or any of the questions that we're dealing with right now. The first part of it is, how have you been affected? And the second one is, how have you responded? In other words, how have you acted to address or alleviate the pain, stress, and suffering of others? How to address COVID-19 in your application [2:37] Let's deal first with COVID, which I think is an overarching theme for this year. There are plenty of lemons with COVID. There're plenty of difficulties. There's plenty of pain. There's plenty of illness, and death. I hope it's not true, but it's quite possible that you or a loved one has had COVID, and maybe you didn't have a light case. Maybe you were sick for several weeks. Maybe you were unemployed or furloughed for all or part of the time since the first shutdown in March. Moving more specifically to admissions, many of you have experienced the inability to take tests when you planned to take them, especially if you were trying to take the MCAT in March, April, May, or most of June. Perhaps you've had planned volunteer activities canceled, or your internships postponed or moved online. Maybe you had classes that you wanted to take for grades to boost your GPA and suddenly, they're pass/fail because that's what happened to a lot of courses in the spring. Maybe you are taking classes online via Zoom when you really would do much better in an in-person, traditional classroom environment. That's certainly happening to tons and tons of people. So there are lemons there. Perhaps you're stagnating at work because of reduced opportunity for advancement and interesting projects. And I think everybody is dealing with loneliness and monotony and the sameness of not going out. I am above the age where I'm not supposed to go into stores and go into public places. But I know many young people, either out of an abundance of caution, concern for their relatives, or their own health conditions, are also limited in where they go. And everybody is more limited than they were a year ago. Is there any lemonade to be made from this? Yes, there actually is. It provides enormous opportunity for community involvement, even with social distancing. What are the opportunities? It can be contact tracing, suicide prevention, an outdoor activity with a youth group that you're very committed to, delivering food to the vulnerable, organizing organizations to reduce food insecurity in a time of high unemployment and homelessness. Any of these activities would show you taking initiative and assuming responsibility in your community or in society for cultural and societal problems...

How to Address COVID-19 and the Events of 2020 in Your Application

Advice on applying to business, grad, law, and medical school.

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Admissions Straight Talk

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