Pre-Grad – Page 5 – Penn & Beyond

By the Book: New Additions to the Career Services Library

by J. Michael DeAngelis, Information Resources Manager

The Career Services library is open during our regular business hours, Monday – Friday from 9am-5pm. It’s a great place to come and study during finals and to take advantage of some of the amazing print resources we have. Here are a few of our latest acquisitions:

The Ten Day MBA by Steven Silbiger (3rd edition) – Billed as “a step-by-step guide to mastering the skills taught in America’s top business schools,” this is an extremely popular book for those about to enter the world of business but don’t have an exclusively business background. The book covers everything from understanding finical statements to developing corporate strategies. Easy to read, this book will help anyone get on the same page as those with an advanced business degree.

Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR) 2012-2013 – from the Association of American Medical Colleges.

The preeminent and reliable resource on medical schools just got better. MSAR’s printed guidebook includes abridged profiles of each medical school, while comprehensive listings of U.S. and Canadian medical schools, and baccalaureate/MD programs appear online. (The guidebook includes a unique code which can be entered for one year of unlimited access to the web site.) On the MSAR web site, you’ll be able to perform advanced searches, sort data, browse schools at a glance, save favorites, compare schools, and access more data and information than ever before. MSAR is the only resource fully authorized by medical schools and is a must for anyone interested in perusing a medical degree after graduation.

The NALP Directory of Legal Employers 2010/2011 – from the Association of Legal Career Professionals. NALP’s most widely used Directory features information on more than 1,500 employers. The front of the book includes indexes by location and practice area keyword. For the most up-to-date version of this Directory, including employers who listed after the print edition was published, visit www.nalpdirectory.com. (The entire nalpdirectory.com database is replaced annually — at about the same time the print edition is released — but employers can continue to change their online listings throughout the year.) While the online version allows searches, comparison charts, and creation of mail merge lists, the print edition remains a valuable companion resource.

Accelerating on the Curves: The Artist’s Roadmap to Success by Katharine T. Carter & Associates – The definitive guide to self-marketing and career advancement for artists. The 363 page volume is anchored by Katharine T. Carter’s detailed roadmap approach to building an exhibition record and advancing from local and regional success to a path toward national recognition. Also included are numerous practical guidelines and approaches to marketing and presentation–sample pitch letters, artist statements, press releases and résumés, as well as protocols and advice on the best ways to effectively approach and communicate with professionals in each sector of the art world. In addition, individual contributions by the company’s distinguished Associates cover a broad range of issues and professional development topics. And finally, a comprehensive, up-to-date Information Resources index provides a wealth of useful research tools, publications, contacts and professional services essential to artists. A perfect companion for fine artists at both the BFA and MFA levels.

Who Are You?

by Anne Reedstrom

Whether this phrase immediately brings to your mind the classic sounds of The Who, the world of CSI (Las Vegas version), or simply sessions with your therapist, it is an important question to ask yourself when preparing to write a personal statement for your application to a health professions or law school.

Your personal statement is a chance to answer this question and give admissions committees insight into your personal qualities, abilities, characteristics, and skills which might be relevant to your field. I don’t mean that you should write an autobiography along the lines of “My name is Anne, I am X years old (I’m so not going to tell you the actual number), I grew up in Minnesota and studied Modern Languages as an undergraduate.” That’s not particularly helpful to anyone and will likely make you sound like a much more boring person than you are. That sentence certainly doesn’t do me any justice!

Dig a little deeper and provide the reader with more than a list of facts or accomplishments; these are the kinds of things that you can showcase on the actual application or the résumé you submit. Give them something they can’t get from your other application materials – you can’t really convey compassion, determination, meticulousness, organizational or communication skills on a résumé. But you can in a personal statement if you relate an experience, something in which you were an active participant, which demonstrates how you developed or used those qualities in a real-life situation.

When I talk to people about this, some know immediately what they want to write about – either the qualities they want to emphasize or the story they want to tell. Others struggle a little more, I think, for a couple of reasons. You have been doing a specific kind of writing since you came to college and only rarely has it been expressive or personal in any way. We’re actually taught to remove ourselves from academic writing and it can be a challenge to now be faced with a situation in which you are the subject of the essay. Some of us find it difficult to write about ourselves in an overtly positive way or even to identify positive traits we have – after all, our mothers taught us not to boast or be conceited (some were more successful than others).

These are the reasons that Peter, Todd, Carol and I are here to help you. We’re happy to help you reflect on your experiences, read what you’ve written and fill the pages with red ink. No, wait, that last one’s just me. Seriously, we are an excellent resource and hope that you will let us help you answer one of life’s great questions:

Well, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
Tell me, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
‘Cause I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)*

*Words and music by Pete Townshend

The Revised GRE

by Peter M. Stokes

As any of you who have heard me speak may have guessed, I hail from the United Kingdom, a magical land where Harry Potter casts his spells, entire summers pass without the sun appearing, and graduate schools don’t require the GRE[*]. Here in the real world of the USA, however, most of you planning on applying to graduate schools that don’t have their own kind of standardized test will need at some point to take the Graduate Record Examination. In fact, though, if you take the test after August 1^st, 2011, you will take the GRE Revised General Test.

The test is changing this summer, both in the way that questions are structured and in scoring. Scary as change can be, this actually looks like a good thing. Gone from the verbal section will be, for example, antonym questions that permit allow test-takers to succeed purely through memorization. Instead the test will emphasize things like text completion and reading comprehension that require a more global understanding of the English language in context. In the quantitative section the emphasis will be on data interpretation and problems explained in terms of real-world scenarios. There will actually be an on-screen calculator so as to de-emphasize basic calculation in favor of the ability to reason through problems.

In terms of scoring, the 200-800 scale with 10 point increments will be replaced by a 130-170 scale in 1-point increments. The idea, evidently, is that small differences in scores aren’t really very significant, and they want to make that clear by having differences of, say, 2-3 points instead of 20-30 because the zero makes the difference seem big (really, no kidding here). Presumably this won’t provide problems in comparing scores across the old and new tests since schools will also be able to look at percentiles as well as the raw scores.

For much more information on the revised test, see: http://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/know

But what should you do? Take the test now? After August 1^st? Run screaming in panic down Locust Walk?

One concrete reason to take the test before August would be if you need your score before mid-November (which is before most grad school deadlines—but that’s something to check). I assume they want to wait that long before giving scores so that they have a big batch of scores and can make sure they’re scoring equitably. In any event, they won’t release any revised GRE scores until November.

A concrete reason to take the test after August 1 is that between then and the end of September, they sweeten the deal by giving you 50% off (and the thing costs $160).

More generally, though, I don’t see a particular reason to rush to take the current test this year if you weren’t already going to do it that soon. As I say, the test looks like it will actually improve. However, you might want to take the test this summer, perhaps because you’re planning on applying in the fall and the summer is when you have time, or because you’re graduating and just want to make sure you have the test done before applying later. In that case, you might consider shooting for before August 1 just because there are plenty of preparation materials and practice tests available for the current, soon-to-be-superseded test.

Having said that, though, there are already some materials and practice tests for the revised GRE too, and you’ll find some available for free by scrolling to the bottom of the page linked above. And as always, if you’re perplexed about the GRE or any aspects of planning for graduate school, please make use of the pre-grad advising services here in Career Services.

[*] OK, a couple programs at places like LSE might just ask for it, so if you want to apply to programs in the UK, do check, and buy an umbrella.

A Day in the Life: General Counsel of a Non-Profit Corporation

Read Brandon Fitzgerald’s archived tweet feed here: http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/BrandonFitzgerald_Feed.pdf

Next Tuesday, February 8th, we kick off our Spring edition of @PennCareerDay on Twitter! Brandon M. Fitzgerald (SAS ’93) will post throughout his day as the Vice President, Secretary & General Counsel of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, Inc. (MCCA). If you’re interested in a career in law, life at a non-profit corporation or diversity issues, then follow @PennCareerDay on the 8th! Learn about Brandon’s background below.

Brandon joined MCCA in March of 2008 and he handles all legal matters for MCCA including those related to its internet presence and MCCA’s Diversity & the Bar® magazine. MCCA’s mission is to advocate for the expanded hiring, promotion, and retention of minority attorneys by corporate law departments and the law firms that serve them. Since its founding in 1997, MCCA has emerged as a thought leader on diversity issues in the legal profession, and its expanded platform addresses diversity management issues involving generational diversity; women; the physically challenged; gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender lawyers; and lawyers of color.

Brandon spent the first portion of his legal career as an associate in the DC offices of several large, national law firms– including Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP. In private practice, his focus was on corporate transactions, securities, and finance.

Brandon has also served as in-house counsel to several multinational companies where he reported to the General Counsel and worked directly with senior management. His focus in-house was in the areas of finance, copyrights and trademarks, and corporate governance.

He is also the co-chair of the Washington Metropolitan Area Corporate Counsel Association’s Diversity Forum and is one of the originators of WMACCA’s Corporate Scholars Program. The Corporate Scholars Program began in 2004 and provides paid internships at WMACCA member corporations to diverse students attending law school in Baltimore, Maryland, Washington, DC, and Richmond, Virginia.

Brandon received a B.A. in History from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from the University of Virginia.

Student Perspective: The Job You’ll Remember Forever

by Nick Raport, CAS ’12

So you’re looking for a job.

But not just any job. You want a job that will impress future employers, develop skills, pay you, and will be fun.

However, you know that those jobs don’t exist.

You’re wrong.

I’m a Team Coordinator for the Office of New Student Orientation and Academic Initiatives. When translated from the Penn jargon, that means I am one of the student workers who helps to put together and run New Student Orientation every fall, along with the events for the academic theme year the Provost’s Office sponsors.

During the summer, I plan all of those events you remember with fondness from your time as a freshman. Last fall, I personally oversaw Late Nights, the Penn Reading Project, and the Toga Party, to name just a few. Through the process of planning these, I built working relationships with Penn faculty and administration, both local and national businesses, and student leaders from every kind of organization imaginable. I learned how to properly compile budgets and file them within the University system, gained a working knowledge of the entire Adobe and Microsoft Office software suites, and how to run a virtual orientation using current social networking sites. I learned what to tell building administrators in order to let my event go longer without an extra charge, what to tell a caterer to get a few extra items, and how to ensure that vendors donate items for events like Pennfest.

I also maintain two major Penn websites, NSO and the Theme Year, constantly updating them and making sure they are both accurate and composed of the newest features. Before I started this job, I just assumed that websites made themselves and were just for my viewing pleasure.

During NSO, you’re going to work. A lot. And you’ll be frustrated. You’ll want go home and sleep. Instead you’ll keep going beyond what you thought was possible. But the satisfaction of seeing all those students having the time of their lives at something that you have overseen from the moment it was proposed until the doors opened is worth it. Months later, you’ll pass people on Locust and they’ll be talking about how they want to go back to NSO, to dance amidst the statues of the PMA, to dress in togas with their entire class, and you’ll smile. Because you will know that you made that happen, that you are the reason those memories exist in the first place.

This job is very real, and not your imagination at all. This is the job you want on your resume. This is the job you will remember forever.

To apply to the NSOAI Management Internship Program for this year, search Penn Link for job #745101. For more information, contact Troy Majnerick , Assistant Director of New Student Orientation.