Will it doom your otherwise perfect application to the great round file in cyberspace, putting the kabosh on years of effort and nixing your attempt to walk through the hallowed halls of your favored institution?

No.

A single, minor typo will do absolutely nothing. So don't sweat one minor spelling mistake, a missed comma, or a couple of transposed letters.

You have cause for worry if you find any of the following after you have hit SUBMIT or put the envelope in the mailbox:

1. You find several typos or mistakes. If the readers see a lot of mistakes they will assume you are careless and sloppy. Not exactly the impression you are aiming for, and one that will definitely hurt you.
2. Your typo changes the meaning. For example, a client years ago submitted a draft to me in which he wrote, "Through research I exorcised my mind... " I have never forgotten this one because I almost fell off my chair laughing. He meant "exercised." If this only happens once, I don't think it would necessarily be fatal, but you don't want to be remembered for rib-splitting typos either. In his case, I just had a good laugh and it was never submitted.
   
3.  You forget to change the school's name somewhere in the essay. Ouch. Adcoms universally hate that. It isn't really a typo either, and it usually results in rejection.

What should you do if you find any of 1-3 in your application after submitting. It's a tough spot. If you find the error(s)--especially if you find 1 or 3 -- soon after hitting SUBMIT, you can contact the school and say that you accidentally submitted the wrong draft of your essay(s). Maybe, just maybe, someone will have mercy on  you and let you submit the corrected draft.

The mainstream media has reported widely that the average scores on the new SAT dropped suddenly and unexpectedly for the class of 2006 despite the College Board's repeated assurances that scores for the longer SAT given for the first time last year are equivalent to those for the exam given in prior years. On average the scores dropped 7 points in total after climbing steadily for several years. The College Board, which administers the SAT, said the drop is insignificant.

 The College Board's critics say otherwise. They point to the unanticipated drop and the SAT scoring error last year, along with general College Board heavy-handedness, as evidence the SAT in particular and testing in general should go. 

And those critics are gaining followers. The New York Times today has an article, Students’ Paths to Small Colleges Can Bypass SAT, which discuses a growing number of colleges that no longer require the SAT or its mid-west cousin, the ACT. These include prestigious, smaller schools like Mount Holyoke, Middlebury, Hamilton, Union, Dickinson, Bates, and Bowdoin. The NYT reports, "Admissions officers said eliminating the testing requirement had increased both the size and diversity of their applicant pools, and bolstered their reputation as places personal enough to consider each application."

UCLA Anderson's MBA essay questions are available now. I'm posting the questions here and will post advice later.

The Admissions Committee considers your responses to the following essay questions extremely important in the selection process. We endeavor to admit an interesting and diverse group of students who will both benefit from and contribute to UCLA Anderson. Therefore, you are encouraged to prepare your essays with great care. Any personal insights you can offer us concerning the qualities and experiences you believe distinguish you from other applicants would be especially helpful.

All applicants must answer questions 1 through 3; question 4 is optional.
(Note: Uploaded essays should be double-spaced.)

1. Please provide us with a summary of your personal and family background. Include information about your parents and siblings, where you grew up, and perhaps a highlight or special memory of your youth. (Limit to 2 pages.)

2. Discuss a situation, preferably work related, where you have taken a significant leadership role. How does this event demonstrate your managerial potential? (Limit to 1 page.)

3. Discuss your career goals. Why are you seeking an MBA degree at this particular point in your career? Specifically, why are you applying to UCLA Anderson? (Limit to 2 pages.)

4. (Optional) Is there any other information that you believe would be helpful to the Admissions Committee in considering your application? If you feel the application already represents you well, do not feel obligated to answer this essay question.

If you would like help with your UCLA Anderson MBA application, please consider Accepted.com's MBA essay editing and admissions consulting or a UCLA Anderson Comprehensive Package, which includes essay editing, interview coaching, consultation, and a resume edit for the UCLA Anderson MBA application.

 

 

Yale SOM's application is now available. I am posting the essay questions now and will post tips later this week:

 Yale SOM 2007 Deadlines

Round 1:    October 25, 2006

Round 2:    January 10, 2007 

Round 3:    March 14, 2007 

Yale SOM's Essay Questions 

1. Why an MBA?
Please describe your short- and long-term goals and how your previous experience and an MBA will help you to achieve these goals. 500 words maximum
2. Personal statement
Please develop a question/topic of your choice and answer it in essay form. Please state the question/topic at the beginning of your essay. 500 words maximum

Some example questions/topics include:
• Describe a situation in which your leadership and/or teamwork had a significant impact.
• What personal achievement are you most proud of and why?
• What activities/interests do you enjoy outside the office and/or classroom and how would you integrate these activities/
interests into the Yale SOM community?
• What is the most difficult feedback that you have received and how did you address it?
• Where is the most exciting place you have ever been and what did you learn from being there?
• Describe a situation where you questioned your values and/or beliefs.
• What does accountability mean to you?
• If you are reapplying: How has your candidacy changed since your last application?

Optional essay
If any aspect of your candidacy needs further explanation, please provide any additional information that you would like the
Admissions Committee to consider. 200 words maximum

If you would like help with your Yale SOM MBA application, please consider Accepted.com's MBA essay editing and admissions consulting or a Yale SOM Comprehensive Package, which includes essay editing, interview coaching, consultation, and a resume edit for the Yael SOM MBA application.

Federal judge John P. Fullam has ruled that Multistate Legal Studies Inc., a company that prepares law school graduates for the bar in a number of states under the name "PMBR," illegally copied questions from different bar exams and  ordered it to pay more than $11.9 million to the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE).

The NCBE claims that MLSI employees and principals attended bar exams solely for the purpose of learning the questions to include in material that it then sold to prepare students for the exam. Fullham wrote, ""By exposing its students to questions likely to appear on the MBE, [the defendants] undermined the integrity of the bar examination, possibly causing the admission of unqualified applicants. That the victims of this harm are impossible to identify and the injury impossible to quantify underscores the need to deter would-be copyright infringers."

This ruling has consequences beyond bar prep. It is widely believed that test prep companies have employees take tests like the SAT, LSAT, GMAT, etc so that they can "study" the questions and then draft new and better preparation materials. Currently Microsoft is suing Testking.com, alleging that it copies questions off its certification exams. AMCAS sued Princeton Review in 2003 for copying questions from the MCAT for its test prep material.

Obviously if Judge Fullam's ruling becomes precedent, test prep companies would either have to license the questions in order to use them or would be blocked entirely from using them. Life should remain interesting in the test prep space.