I reviewed some great feedback on Michigan interviews yesterday. You can find it (and much more) in the MBA Interview Feedback Database for Michigan Ross.

I also want to mention that Accepted.com's It's a 10! contest is in full swing. Share your MBA interview experience, and you can win "It's a 10!". Every tenth MBA applicant who fills out an interview feedback questionnaire before January 31, 2006 will win a $10 gift certificate. Just fill out a questionnaire after your interview for admission to an MBA program, and you are automatically enrolled in our contest. For additional information and contest rules, please visit our contest details page.

A little over six months ago I wrote about my lousy mood after the departure of my daughter, son-in-law, and worst of all, one and only grandchild. I'm in the same funk now for the very same reason. After a wonderful four-week visit in Los Angeles, where I live, my children had the audacity to return to their faraway home with our grandson.

During their all-too-short visit I enjoyed watching our 13-month-old grandson, Avi, communicate --something he does quite well considering that he doesn't talk at all. I couldn't help but notice that he loves to give speeches complete with gestures, hand motions, facial expression and changes in volume and tone. He clearly thinks he is conversing because he has the forms and seems to make the right noises.

Sometimes in writing essays, applicants make the right noises, including "leadership" "communications skills," "teamwork," and "analytical abilities." They may even embellish their essay with a rhetorical flourish or two, but their essays are as empty and occasionally as nonsensical as Avi's baby talk – and a lot less cute.

5 Fatal Flaws:

• Lack of substance – nothing demonstrating the qualities claimed.
• Failure to answer the question.
• Clichéd.
• Superficial.
• Muddled thinking.

So if you don't want your essays to read like Avi's gibberish, you have a few options:

1. Subscribe to this blog, the Accepted Admissions Almanac, where I will teach you over the next several weeks how to protect your essays from these flaws .
2. Purchase Submit a Stellar Application: 42 Terrific Tips to Help You Get Accepted, where I cover these issues.
3. Ask Accepted.com's pros to edit your prose.

The AAMC announced today in AAMC Stats that medical student debt for the four years of medical school has risen an average of 4.4% over last year. Medical students report rise in educational indebtedness

"The average educational debt of indebted graduates of the class of 2005 (including pre-med borrowing) was $120,280. The data, which come from student responses to the AAMC Graduation Questionnaire, also indicate that 67 percent of graduates have debt of at least $100,000. This information is published in the Oct. 2005 "Medical Student Education: Cost, Debt and Resident Stipend Facts Card."

We are a little behind in posting the chats, but will soon be completely caught up. Sorry for the delay. The most recently posted chat transcripts:

• Forte Chat Transcript: The MBA Value Proposition for Women
  
• Haas MBA Admissions Chat Transcript
• USC Marshall Admissions Chat Transcript
  

Here is a sample of the dialogue with Haas Admissions director Pete Johnson:

Linda Abraham (Sep 29, 2005 10:26:17 AM)
A few schools, notably Wharton and UCLA have decided to reach out to early-career applicants, those with less than two years of experience. Is Haas doing so too?

PeteJohnsonHaas (Sep 29, 2005 10:27:29 AM)
Linda, we do not have a minimum work experience requirement. Having said that, our faculty feels strongly that for the case-study method and group projects to be effective, we really need individuals with some significant experience. For this reason, it is rare that we offer admission to an applicant with less than two years of professional experience. We also hear from employers that they are not interested in filling post-MBA jobs with applicants who have no post-undergrad experience. The companies that hire individuals with no experience often do so at lower salaries, too, so they do not realize the same benefits from the MBA.

For more informative dialogue about Haas or USC or the insights of women MBA alumni who are currently in the work force, please visit the transcripts linked to above. 

The Aspen Institute and World Resources Institute last week released "Beyond Grey Pinstripes," their biannual ranking of MBA programs on criteria related to teaching environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and business ethics. The top 10:

1. Stanford, USA
2. ESADE, Spain
3. York (Schulich), Canada
4. ITESM, Mexico
5. Notre Dame (Mendoza), USA
6. George Washington, USA
7. Michigan (Ross), USA
8. North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler), USA
9. Cornell (Johnson), USA
10. Wake Forest (Babcock), USA 

However, more than the rankings, I encourage those of you interested in social responsibility, sustainable development to really use the data collected by Beyond Grey Pinstripesas a great launching pad for your research.

These rankings, like all others, are a collection of data and information. That is their true value. It's your job to use the data more than the rankings, which reflect someone else's view of what's important in a business school. Use the data to find out which school gives you what is most important to you.