The Wall St. Journal reports on a survey conducted by Payscale.com  showing that the college one attends "can make a big difference in starting pay, and that difference is largely sustained into midcareer."

Personally, I would like to see this study conducted so that it removes the impact of SAT and high school GPA. Are the Ivy League schools simply cherry picking those mostly likely to earn the big bucks, or are they really adding value and enabling people of similar talent to earn more? I suspect it's the former. Nonetheless, the perception is that it's the latter.

Payscale slices and dices its data in multiple ways; you can go to the site to see the variations for yourselves. Here are a few highlights from the WSJ article:

• "...graduates of Dartmouth College, an Ivy League college, earn the highest median salary -- $134,000."
• "Liberal-arts-school graduates see their median total compensation grow by 95% after about 10 years, to $89,379 from $45,747."
• "Engineering-school grads, who earn the highest starting salaries, yet see their paychecks expand just 76% by their career midpoints to $103,842 from $59,058."
• "History-majors-turned-business-consultants earn a median total compensation of $104,000, similar to their counterparts who pursued a business major like economics -- whose grads earn about $98,000 overall the PayScale study shows."

If you’re working toward an associate’s degree and you hope to apply to medical school after transferring to a four-year institution, here’s something to think about:  You may want to delay your medical school application until after you’ve completed your bachelor’s degree instead of applying after your first year at the new school. 

Medical admissions committee members just don’t have the time to educate themselves about the quality of courses and instruction at every community college from which they might receive transcripts.  Some simply assume across the board that the quality is inferior to that of four-year schools.  They may well be wrong, but perception is often more powerful than truth. 

To maximize your chances at the schools of your choice, apply with attending two years’ of courses from your four-year school rather than one.  This extended period will also give you more time to build a record of activities at the new school and develop relationships with faculty members who will be happy to write recommendations for you when you do apply.    

By Joan Davis. She has years of experience in medical school admissions. You can tap it with Accepted's medical school admissions consulting and essay editing.

UCLA Anderson 2008-09 MBA Application Deadlines

Round        Application Due     Decision Released By

    1             October 9, 2008       January 8, 2009

    2              January 6, 2009      March 26, 2009

    3              April 2, 2009             June 4, 2009

Editor: UCLA has moved from four rounds to three rounds this year. It also has added an audio option to its application.

UCLA Anderson 2008-09 MBA Application Essay Questions

Essay Question 1
How has your family and/or community helped shape your development? Please include information about where you grew up, and perhaps a highlight or special memory of your youth. (750 words)

Essay Question 2
What experience has had the greatest impact on who you are today and why? (500 words)

Essay Question 3
Discuss your short-term and long-term career goals. What is your motivation for pursuing an MBA now at UCLA Anderson? (750 words)

Essay Question 4 - Audio or Text
Select and respond to one of the following questions. We would like you to respond to the question by recording an audio response (up to 1 minute) and uploading it.

If you are unable to submit your response via audio, then please upload a written response instead (250 words).

The supported file types for audio files are: .avi,.wav,.mp3,.wmv,.midi,.wma,.aiff,.au,.mp4

    * What does entrepreneurial spirit mean to you?
    * What global issue matters most to you and why?
    * What is something people will find surprising about you?

Columbia GSB September 2009 MBA Deadlines

                                App Review Begins    Notification   Deadline

Early Decision             08/13/08        W/In 10 Weeks     10/08/08

International                01/07/09         W/In 12  Weeks    03/04/09

US Citizens*                 01/07/09         W/In 12 Weeks     04/15/09

* & Permanent Residents

** Applicants who wish to be considered for a merit-based fellowship must submit a complete application by January 7, 2009. Fellowship recipients for the September class are announced between January and May.

Columbia's GSB September 2009 MBA Essay Questions

On BW Forum's "Ask Columbia Business School Admissions" thread,  Columbia GSB's AdCom representative advises that this year's questions are the same as those on the J-Term 2009 application, which has three required question as opposed to last September's four. 

My comments are in red.

The following essay questions are part of the application to Columbia Business School. In addition to learning about your professional aspirations, the Admissions Committee hopes to gain an understanding of your interests, values and motivations through these essays. How you answer these essays is at your discretion, there are no right answers and we encourage you to answer each question thoughtfully and honestly.

1) What are your short-term and long-term post-MBA goals? How will Columbia Business School help you achieve these goals? (Recommended 750 word limit):

This is a forward-looking goals question. While you shouldn't ignore the factors that contributed to the development of your goals, the bulk of the essay should be about the future. What do you want to do immediately after completing your MBA? 5 years later? How will Columbia's program help you achieve your goals? Which of Columbia's strengths and programs are critical to your success? And be specific!

2) Master Classes are the epitome of bridging the gap between theory and practice at Columbia Business School. View link below. Please provide an example from your own life in which practical experience taught you more than theory alone. (Recommended 500 word limit) :

View with Real Player: http://merlin.gsb.columbia.edu:8080/ramgen/video1/faculty/MasterClass-promo.rm
View via Google: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4698876883776961370&hl=en .

I also recommend you read the section of CBS' web site about Columbia's Masters Classes.

To me, the masters classes are CBS's attempt to integrate the various business functions and add a real general management element to a program that tended to keep those business silos distinct.. To respond to the question you need to bring an example from your life when you applied theory successfully. Ideally, you would want to use an example where you used management principles to guide your team, office, company, or club in solving a problem or completing a project.

3) Please provide an example of a team failure of which you've been a part. If given a second chance, what would you do differently? (Recommended 500 word limit) :

When have you been part of a team that came in last. Or that came in second when it should have come in first? Or that failed to close the deal? Or did finish the project, but over budget and late so that your firm lost the client? 

And more importantly, what have you learned from the experience? How would you attempt to change the outcome if you had the chance? When would you seize the initiative? When would you encourage others? When would you sit quietly and let someone with complementary strengths take center stage.

While the particular incident you choose should complement other elements of your essay and ideally discuss some interest, activity, or experience not discussed in other essays, the key part of this question is the second one.

For more assistance, please see:

• Admissions Tip from Dr. Pausch 's Last Lecture (Part 2)
• Flaws Make You Real
• Personal Statement Tip: Our Response Defines Us
• Personal Statement Tip: Failure Questions

(Optional) Is there any further information that you wish to provide to the Admissions Committee? (Please use this space to provide an explanation of any areas of concern in your academic record or your personal history.) :

Obviously you could use this optional essay question to address a weakness in your application, but in my mind, it is also open-ended enough to allow you to discuss a diversity element in your personal background or simply some unique area of interest. Also, tucking a weakness explanation somewhere else would allow you to end the application with a strength and not a flaw.

If you would like help with your Columbia MBA application, please consider Accepted.com's MBA essay editing and admissions consulting or a Columbia Comprehensive Package.

The Scoretop Scandal has rocked the MBA admissions world. It is a messy business. Angst runs high; solid information about the scandal's implications for many MBA applicants has been scarce. Until now.

BusinessWeek has just posted an interview with GMAC's Peg Jöbst that should relieve anxiety for many and heighten it for a few. In Ms. Jöbst's words:

"GMAC is limiting its investigation to those individuals who a) posted GMAT questions they saw on their GMAT exam, and b) posted a message on Scoretop confirming that they saw items from the Scoretop Web site on their GMAT exam. In these instances, GMAC will cancel GMAT scores and notify schools to which those scores were sent."

If you were a VIP member of Scoretop, I strongly urge you to read the interview in its entirety, but the above quote summarizes GMAC's position.

A few other points from the interview.

• An MBA applicant will have  "a right to appeal any decision GMAC makes. Test takers will be notified in writing if GMAC is taking action and will have a period of time to appeal the decision."
• Ms. Jöbst cautioned all test-takers. "Do not purchase, request, or share materials that claim to be 'real' or 'live' GMAT questions in any form. In addition, be wary if you see discussion threads in which test content is shared and real or 'live' questions are confirmed as accessible via the site or any participant(s) of the site (online or offline). Do not share any test content with anyone else after you have taken the test."
• It is "not likely" that a candidate who falls into the categories discussed above and has his or her test canceled will be allowed to take the test again.