Anna Ivey gives you ruthlessly practical admissions advice
To add to the list of things that can keep you from practicing law: taking on so much debt that you can't pay it back and get dinged by the bar committee.
Today's NYT has an astonishing story about a 47-year-old who started at Hastings Law School back in 2000, decided to throw in a master's degree, and then found himself trying to carry student loans of $230,000.
I'm enjoying a fascinating blog posting in the NYT about the value of a master's degree. Highly recommended.
A number of economists and education researchers say that the student debt problem, while real, has been overblown by the press and loan-forgiveness advocates, and that most students do not graduate with too much debt
But the debate presents difficult questions for young people, who face the most difficult economy since the Great Depression.
As Part II of our series "Rescue Your Round-One Application," Anna Ivey and Marlena Corcoran continue their Q&A. (Read Part I here.)
Couldn't people put this all off for a while, and apply in Round Two or Round Three? Do they really need to go for Round One?
Marlena: Round One, hands down.
I recently finished reading this article that describes a research report commissioned by the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
In my role as a law school career advisor, I spend a lot of time discussing job applications with students and assessing resumes and cover letters. Below I list my top five tips for resumes and for cover letters. Later this week I will follow up with tips for interviews and internships. Do you agree with my advice? Do you have other suggestions or are there critical tips I neglected to provide? Please post your tips, too!
1. Use action verbs to highlight the transferable skills you have developed.
I did an online Q&A recently with Dr. Marlena Corcoran, one of our educational consultants who counsels international MBA applicants. Marlena is based out of Boston, Massachusetts, and Munich, Germany.
They do not allow enough time to compose a convincing application.
Social networking at work: Gen Y thinks it's a birthright, Boomers frown on it, and Gen Xers are stuck in the middle. NPR has a great story about this clash of generations over appropriate use of technology in the workplace.
I'm curious to hear what you think.
I just read this fascinating article in the New Yorker.
Read Part 1 of David's story here.
All 29 teams chosen to move onto Phase II were required to take the New Venture Challenge (NVC) class.
Just two weeks ago (a Tuesday to be exact), I was in my law school class, constantly stealing glances at my computer screen to check if there were any new messages. I was anxious.
"Any news?" I typed, then clicked send.
"Nope, not yet." Rohini replied within seconds.
Rohini and I are part of a five-person team.
There's a nice collection of articles in today's WSJ for aspiring lawyers and JD/MBAs:
Creating a Shorter Path to a JD/MBA: This is a good discussion of the pros and cons of the 3-year joint degree.
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you. I think you gave me the confidence I needed to aim higher than I thought was really possible, with my 2.99 GPA, as well as giving me the incentive to put off law school for an extra year and gain some life experiences I wouldn't have had otherwise.
- Georgetown Law
LSAT tutor and blogger Steve Schwartz sends me this intriguing email. Check out his series of postings.
Hi Anna,
Hope you've been well.
I just published a series of posts about LSAC.
In this series, I report on the fact that certain LSAT PrepTests are only available to students who take prep courses. These exams are not available to students who choose to self-study.
The series includes excerpts of email and phone conversations with LSAC representatives, as well as emails from prep companies, verifying this.
One of the questions I am asked most frequently is to provide advice for parents and students choosing between the SAT and the ACT. As my responses to the questions regarding the differences and similarities have become more polished and concise over time, I’ll share them with you in a Q&A format, because it seems like the most efficient way to answer them. Or maybe because I like talking to myself. You be the judge.
A:Â Well, it depends on what type of a student you are.
Could you tell me if schools gives applicants time to visit if they are admitted from the waitlist or hold category? Also, when do they make this decision?
Some schools give an option to visit (or at least give you a little time to decide), while others will give you only a short window to accept or decline the offer.
To kick things off here with my new column at the Ivey Files, I wanted to share an idea that's been going through my head recently: the idea of efficiency in test preparation. Â
As a tutor, I would sometimes get calls from parents who wanted to find out more about what kinds of "services" I offered. More than looking for a specific answer, they seemed to be trying to assess whether I sounded competent. Â
Well, having spent many years thinking about the tutoring process, I wanted to answer this question a little more completely and give an idea of what it is a tutor actually does (or is supposed to do).
Most people think of standardized tests as a necessary evil and really boring to think about. Charles Williamson is not one of those people, and we're excited to bring him on board as an Ivey Files blogger.
For the past eight years, Charles hasn’t met a standardized test he didn’t like, helping hundreds of students in everything from the SAT and ACT to the SSAT to the GMAT to AP Calculus.Â
A longtime student of the thought process that defines performance on standardized tests, Charles got off to a good start, receiving a perfect score on his SATs in high school.
As the college admissions season starts to wrap up, I wanted to share some observations from another very interesting year:
I sat on a number of college admissions panels this past year (seminars and workshops for applicants and their parents), and one exchange in particular stood out for me.
As we were discussing school visits and the best ways to go about picking a college, one mom raised her hand and launched into a discussion about her son's grand passion for rock climbing.
From LSAT tutor Nick Eddy of Mentor Test Prep:
To all students:
The LSAC has quietly slipped an important (and unfortunate) change into their regulations regarding the deadline to change the test date once you have registered for the exam.
The deadline to change the June 8th exam test date (in other words, postpone) to September is now May 17th (online); May 15th (mail/phone/fax):
http://www.
