Shortcuts to Key Insights from this EpisodeAn overview of both Georgetown's MBA programs and the MS in Environmental and Sustainability Management or the ESM.What distinguishes Georgetown's program in Environment and Sustainability Management from other similar programs.Where graduates of Georgetown's MBA program and the MS-ESM program find jobs.The types of academic backgrounds Georgetown is looking for in applicants to the MBA and MS-ESM programs.What an interviewee can expect if they’re lucky enough to get an invitation.A key piece of advice from Shelly Heinrich to all applicants.A common - but avoidable mistake - seen on resumes.Shelly Heinrich, Associate Dean for MBA and MS-ESM admissions, and Director of Marketing at Georgetown's McDonough School of Business, discusses everything applicants need to know about getting into Georgetown McDonough’s MBA program. [Show Summary]Are you interested in sustainability? Also considering an MBA? Well Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business offers and outstanding MBA program AND an MS in Environmental and Sustainability Management. And today’s interview is with the associate dean of admissions for both programs. Pull up a chair. Interview with Shelly Heinrich, Associate Dean for MBA and MS-ESM admissions, and Director of Marketing at Georgetown's McDonough School of Business. [Show Notes]Are you interested in sustainability? Are you also considering an MBA? Well, Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business offers an outstanding MBA program and an MS in Environmental and Sustainable Management. And today's interview is with the Associate Dean of Admissions for both programs. Pull up a chair.Welcome to the 512th episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for joining me. Before we dive into today's interview, I want to give you a gift, Accepted's free download, Fitting In & Standing Out. This guide will help you navigate the paradox at the heart of admissions. Realize that you need to show in your application simultaneously that you fit in at your target schools, and that you stand out in the applicant pool. It gives me great pleasure to have back on Admissions Straight Talk Shelly Heinrich, Associate Dean for MBA and MS-ESM admissions, and Director of Marketing at Georgetown's McDonough School of Business. Shelly has been leading Georgetown's admissions efforts since 2014 and became Associate Dean in 2017. She earned her BBA from Texas Christian University, her Master's in Educational Administration from UT Austin, and her Executive MBA from Georgetown. Shelly, welcome back to Admissions Straight Talk. [1:52]It's wonderful to be back. Thanks, Linda, for having me.Can you provide an overview of both Georgetown's MBA programs and the MS in Environment and Sustainability Management or the ESM? [2:01]Yeah. Absolutely. I'll start it with the MBA. The good news is our three MBAs are the same in that we have a full-time, a flex in-person for working professionals, and a flex online for working professionals.They are all 54 credits. You get the same degree, and you have access to the same experience at Georgetown McDonough, so it makes it very easy to talk about. Full-time is 20 months, like a normal full-time two-year program would be, and then the two flex programs are anywhere between two-and-a-half years to five years. But you're taking the same classes. You have the same core for the first half of the program, and then you get to choose from electives in the second half of the program.At Georgetown, we don't require you to choose a concentration. We really feel that yoFollow UsYouTubeFacebookLinkedInContact Uswww.accepted.comsupport@accepted.com+1 (310) 815-9553

Learn how to prepare for and practice the Casper test, understand how it is scored, and the recent efforts to make it more equitable. Discover the potential for Casper to expand to other fields, and explore common misconceptions about the test. The podcast also discusses the correlation between Casper and success in health care programs, the shift in admissions processes towards measuring fit, and the importance of balancing community and diversity of thought in admissions.

Exciting changes to the curriculum at the Medical College of Wisconsin. [Show Summary]Dr. Jane Machi, Assistant Dean, Admissions and Recruitment at the Medical College of Wisconsin, explores the MCW Fusion Curriculum – and completing med school in three years.Interview with Dr. Jane Machi, Associate Dean for Admissions at the Medical College of Wisconsin. [Show Notes]Welcome to the 511th episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for joining me today. Are you ready to apply to your dream medical schools? Are you competitive at your target programs? Accepted's Med School Admissions Quiz can give you a quick reality check. Just go to Accepted.com/medquiz. Complete the quiz and you'll not only get an assessment of your chances, but tips on how to improve your chances of acceptance. And it's all free. Again, use a calculator at Accepted.com/medquiz to obtain your free assessment and those tips that I just mentioned.Our guest today is Dr. Jane Machi, Associate Dean of Admissions and Recruitment at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Machi earned her MD at the Medical College of Wisconsin and is a proud alum, as you'll hear shortly.  In her clinical practice she specializes in pediatric emergency medicine, in addition to serving at MCW as an associate professor and associate dean of admissions. Dr. Machi, welcome to Admissions Straight Talk. [1:43]Thank you.Can you give an overview of MCW's MD program focusing on its more distinctive elements? [1:53]Sure. The Medical College of Wisconsin has a campus in Milwaukee, and we have two regional campuses, one in Central Wisconsin in a city called Wausau, and then we have a campus in Green Bay. We're a private institution. Our Milwaukee campus has 50% of our students from Wisconsin and 50% are out of state. And then our regional campuses are really geared towards replenishing the physician shortage that everyone is facing. We're not unique in that regard, and the regional campuses were opened with the hopes that the students that we train there when they complete the residencies will return to Wisconsin.Predominantly, those campuses are geared towards Wisconsin residents, so close to 80% on each campus come from Wisconsin. I think one of the most unique things about our curriculum in particular, which our students rave about all the time, is our scholarly pathways. On the Milwaukee campus, they have opportunities to dive deep into a topic that they're really passionate about. Some examples are we have an urban and community health pathway. We have a global health pathway. We have a patient safety and quality improvement pathway. We have research pathways. The students can choose.They go through a series of orientations to each of the pathways, and they choose and they do a scholarly project typically in their first two years. And then on the regional campuses, they also participate in a scholarly pathway, but there is one, and that is the physician in the community pathway. I should say that our Milwaukee campus is a four-year campus, so our students spend four years with us. The regional campuses are three-year campuses, so you get out of medical school one year earlier. The target specialties for those campuses are really primary care and psychiatry oriented, and those are the types of students that we try and recruit.We know very well that students may change their mind once they get into medical school. They may find another field that they're more intrigued by and want to spend more time in. There is an option for them to do a fourth year if it's necessary, depending on the specialty Follow UsYouTubeFacebookLinkedInContact Uswww.accepted.comsupport@accepted.com+1 (310) 815-9553

Drawing on her knowledge as the Director of Masters Admissions at Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business, Kari Calvario shares everything students should know about CMU Temper’s MS in Business Analytics program. [Show Summary]Welcome to the 510th episode of Admission Straight Talk. Thanks for joining me.Before we dive into today's episode, I want to mention a resource at Accepted that can help you prepare your statement of purpose to masters programs in business analytics and data science. Download Five Fatal Flaws to Avoid in Your Grad School Statement of Purpose to learn how to avoid the five most common mistakes we see in graduate school statements of purpose, as well as how to write a statement of purpose that makes your story memorable and highlights your qualifications for your target programs.Our guest today is Kari Calvario. She is the Director of Masters Admissions at Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business. She earned her bachelor's in English literature and a masters in education. She joined Tepper in 2014 and has been there ever since. [Show Notes]Thank you for having me. I'm excited to speak with you.We're going to focus on the masters in business analytics programs at CMU Tepper. What are they? Can you provide an overview of both the full-time in-person option and the part-time online option? [2:02]Yeah, happy to. Thanks for that first question. The Tepper School, as any school, is always looking to diversify. We're looking to grow. Our MBA program has been our flagship program, but I think one of the really great things about Tepper is we're always looking to innovate. We're always looking for what's relevant. With lots of conversations with employers, with alums, we found that there was this need for professionals who have not only advanced analytical skills, but then the ability to combine that with a business sense and be able to communicate those business needs, to be able to convince about business needs. The Master of Science in Business Analytics program was initially born as our part-time online version, which still exists to this day, but it was born out of that need of wanting to provide students with analytical skills and be able to combine it with the leadership and business skills that they would need. As that program continued to grow over the last several years, it evolved and kind of branched also into our full-time MS Business Analytics program. Now we carry both of them. They are both really successful programs. It started with this need several years ago after the feedback that we got from employers, industry professionals, alums, and has now grown into two really successful programs.Is AI becoming a more important part in the curriculum? I find it fascinating that it's a program that really seems to combine left brain, right brain, that you're highly statistical and quantitative, but it also is very much about communications. With all the publicity about ChatGPT, AI, et cetera, is it becoming a more important part of the program? [3:39]I don't know that it's a more important part, but certainly it's an integral part of it. We wouldn't be CMU if it wasn't something that was a part of our program. I think the lens that our curriculum is taught from even something like a communication class is all taught from this analytical lens, which of course, lends itself to AI, to machine learning. When we talk about this intelligent future, this background that I have, we talk about data informed, but human decisions. Data can't make decisions, but it's such an important part of it.It's data informed, Follow UsYouTubeFacebookLinkedInContact Uswww.accepted.comsupport@accepted.com+1 (310) 815-9553

Test optionality seems to be coming to law school admissions. Top schools have withdrawn mostly from the US News rankings. What does it all mean? We ask a law school admissions expert for his input. [Show Summary]Welcome to the 509th episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for joining me. Before we meet our guests, I'd like to highlight the featured resource for today's show. It is the Accepted Law School Admissions Quiz.Interview with Steve Schwartz from LSAT Unplugged podcast and YouTube channel [Show Notes]Are you ready to apply to your dream law school? Are you competitive at your target programs? Acceptance Law School Admissions Quiz can give you a quick reality check. Just go to accepted.com/law-quiz, complete the quiz, and you'll not only get an assessment, but actionable tips on how to improve your qualifications, plus it's all free. Again, use the calculator at accept.com/law-quiz to obtain your complimentary assessment.Our guest today is Steve Schwartz of the LSAT Blog and the LSAT Unplugged podcast and YouTube channel, which we are going to link to from the show notes at accepted.com/209.Steve graduated from Columbia University in 2008. In high school and college, he tutored students in a variety of subjects and also helped prep test takers for standardized tests, including the LSAT. However, he really began to focus on the LSAT when he was applying for law school. He founded the LSAT blog in 2008 and never looked back. Today, 15 years later, he has helped thousands master the LSAT, get into law school, and sometimes secure scholarships worth tens of thousands of dollars.So Steve, thanks for coming back to Admissions Straight Talk. You've been on the show several times before, and I’m glad you could come back. [1:58]Thanks so much for having me on, Linda. It's great to be back as well.Okay, great. Now let's start first with the changes on the LSAT specifically. The ABA in November moved closer, and it keeps moving closer, to making entrance exams optional for law school accreditation, which means that law schools will be able to choose whether to require the LSAT, GMAT, GRE or any other exam from applicants basically before making an admissions decision. Can you go into that change a little bit more, and what can we expect? [2:07]Yeah, sure, of course, Linda. So there has been a big test optional movement in higher education, of course, for quite a while now, and the legal profession tends to move a bit more slowly than others, a bit more bureaucratic, perhaps, and so it took this long for it to finally reach the LSAT and law schools and the American Bar Association.There have been a few attempts, or at least a few proposals in the past to remove the so-called LSAT requirement, but I'm pretty sure this is the first time it's ever made it this far, and at this point, we're giving it the full rubber stamp to remove that requirement. At this point, it's largely a formality, so we can expect they will remove that requirement in February 2023.It will go into effect when? [3:10]That's a great question. A lot of folks are confused about this. There was a last minute amendment added to the proposed revisions stating that their changes, if they go through, will not go into effect until the fall of 2025. So this is all a rather drawn out process now.Okay, and when it goes into effect, assuming it happens, which is likely, although you said it's going to go into effect until2025, but when it goes into effect, how will law school admissions be affected, and do you think they're perhaps even being affected now or in 2024 and 2Follow UsYouTubeFacebookLinkedInContact Uswww.accepted.comsupport@accepted.com+1 (310) 815-9553

Everyone has challenges when applying to top law schools. But combine non-traditional work experience, a low stat or two, and a growing family, and this applicant faced significantly more than the usual hurdles. He overcame them all and got into his top choice program. Let’s find out how he did it, and how he’s doing now. [Show summary]Hello and welcome. Thanks for joining me for this the 507th episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for tuning in. Are you ready to apply to your dream law school? Are you competitive at your target programs? Accepted's law school admissions quiz can give you a quick reality check and not only that reality check, but an assessment and tips on how to improve your qualifications. Plus, it's all free. You can use the calculator at accepted.com/law-quiz, to obtain your complimentary assessment. Again, that's accepted.com/law-quiz Grew up here in LA. Went to school in New York, Yeshiva University. I met my wife and we got married in LA, but we lived in New York for a couple of years and then the weather was just too much. And you can't compete with the weather out here, so we moved back where our families are.to obtain your complimentary assessment.I'd like to welcome to Admissions Straight Talk, Yitzy Frankel, who is a 1L at UCLA law. Yitzy earned his bachelor's in psychology from Yeshiva University in 2013 and a master's in marketing from Sy Syms School of Business in 2018. Before joining Sy Syms, he worked as the marketing and social media manager for fencing in the schools, and that's fencing as in the sword stuff, not the stuff around your backyard. And while fencing in the schools, he managed fencing programs in 10 states. After earning his masters, he worked at a Jewish boy' high school in Los Angeles as Director of Admissions and Marketing, and he did that from 2017 to 2022, when he left to join UCLA Law.  Yitzy, welcome to Admissions Straight Talk.Can you tell us a little bit about your background, where did you grow up, that kind of thing? [2:11]Grew up here in LA. Went to school in New York, Yeshiva University. I met my wife and we got married in LA, but we lived in New York for a couple of years and then the weather was just too much. And you can't compete with the weather out here, so we moved back where our families are.Before we get into the admissions and law school stuff, what do you like to do for fun? Just a little background. [2:33]I guess I have three main hobbies. Fencing, obviously.Okay. [2:41]I still fence competitively. Having a little bit of time with COVID and studying for the LSAT, but I still consider myself a fencer. I love biking and I'm a Van Gogh enthusiast.Wow. [2:54]My goal is to see every Van Gogh painting in the world.There was a big Van Gogh exhibit here last year, wasn't there, or two years ago? [2:57]There was one in Santa Barbara recently. And actually, for my break, I'm flying to Detroit for a couple of days with my oldest daughter. We're going to go see a Van Gogh exhibit there.Now let's get to law school stuff. How did you get interested in becoming a lawyer? It's quite a change from psychology and marketing or being an admissions director at a high school. [3:12]It's something that I was interested in when I was 16 in high school and then kind of came back. I'm 34 now. So definitely kind of a second career. But basically, I had a teacher, Mr. Wasserman in high school that gave me a John Grisham book, and I fell in love with it. And at the time, I think there were 16 or 17, and I read all of them in two months.Oh, wow. [3:42]Yeah, I know. Since then, I'veFollow UsYouTubeFacebookLinkedInContact Uswww.accepted.comsupport@accepted.com+1 (310) 815-9553

Reflecting on trends that impacted graduate admissions in 2022, Linda Abraham shares her predictions for 2023 and offers an action plan for those planning to apply in the new year. [Show Summary]Thanks for joining me for today's solo show. I'm going to review a few trends from 2022 and also attempt to inspire you for the upcoming year. You can email me at ast@accepted.com when my predictions prove wrong in the course of the year.Predictions: More law schools will withdraw from U.S. News rankings [1:16]I predict that more law schools will withdraw from U.S. News rankings. Will the rankings influence end with the withdrawal of these schools? I actually don't think so. U.S. News will use publicly available data and still rank programs. Its rankings will continue to influence admissions, recruiting, and applicant decisions. But are they going to hold as much sway as they have in the past? I don't know. That's hard to say. I don't think the U.S. News is going to just stop ranking schools. I don't think applicants are going to stop looking at rankings, and I don't really think schools are going to stop being influenced by rankings. Perhaps a little less so in the past, but I think you're going to see changes on the margins in that segment. What about other segments of the higher education market?I don't think medical schools are going to stop ranking or participating in the U.S. News ranking. I also think that the rankings are a little bit less influential in the med school arena than they are in law schools or business schools. It'll be really interesting to see if business schools withdraw from the rankings. Certainly, the admissions directors there have no greater love of rankings than the law school admissions directors and deans.I think if you see the M7 schools withdraw, you might see a trend very similar to what you've seen in the law school market, where it's the elite programs that have largely withdrawn, and the lower-down ones are not withdrawing yet. There are some that have but not that many.We'll link to posts that Accepted has on the withdrawal of specific schools from the U.S. News rankings.Prediction: More experimentation with test options and waivers [3:05]What about test optionality? That has been a trend that's been growing and increasing over the last several years. It really took off with COVID. I don't think you're going to see much change in the law school space this year. I think you will see it if, as anticipated, the ABA approves making tests optional for its accredited programs. I think you're going to see more experimentation in the grad and MBA market with test optionality. And you may also see, throughout the graduate and undergraduate arenas, acceptance for a larger variety of tests.Many law schools are accepting the GRE in addition to the LSAT. In the business school world, you're seeing widespread acceptance of the GRE or the GMAT to the extent that the test is required. You're seeing more waivers. You're also seeing greater acceptance of the Executive Assessment, which was originally designed for Executive MBA programs. And at some schools, you're seeing them basically saying, whatever has an alphabet soup in it is fine.I think you're going to see more and more experimentation. You'll see more waiver options and there's been a lot of experimentation with that in the B school market. I'm not sure you're going to see wholesale test optionality at the elite programs. I think med schools will stick with the MCAT. It has some correlation to performance on the USMLE, which is obviously the test that doctorFollow UsYouTubeFacebookLinkedInContact Uswww.accepted.comsupport@accepted.com+1 (310) 815-9553

Learn what you can do to prepare for your future employment [Show Summary]Diana Economy, former Head of Admissions at Michigan Ross and Senior Talent Acquisition Manager at Vail Resorts, offers her unique perspective on how students can prepare for future employment even while applying to or completing an MBA program. Interview with Diana Economy, former Head of Admissions at Michigan Ross and Senior Talent Acquisition Manager at Vail Resorts [Show Notes]Welcome to the 501st episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for listening. I hope you tuned into our very special 500th episode last week. If not, you can still catch it.You've seen the stats that most people have a great return on their MBA investment, but what about you? Are you going to see that kind of return? How much will it be? How much can you anticipate? We've created a tool that will help you assess whether the MBA is going to be a good investment for you. Just go to accepted.com/mbaroicalc, complete the brief questionnaire, and you'll not only get an assessment but also the opportunity to calculate different scenarios. And it's all free. It gives me great pleasure to have back on Admissions Straight Talk, Diana Economy, Senior Talent Acquisition Manager - Programs and International for Vail Resorts, and formerly the Director of Full-Time MBA Admissions at Michigan Ross. After graduating with a BA in Organization Studies from the University of Michigan, Diana worked in talent management for companies like Kearney and Kirkland & Ellis. She returned to Ross and earned her MBA in 2010, and then again worked for Kirkland & Ellis and BCG before returning to Ross as Associate Director of Admissions. She was the Director of Admissions for the Michigan Ross Full-Time MBA program from 2017 until just this past July when Diana joined Vail Resort. Before we get into the interview, I have to ask how's the skiing? [2:35]Oh my gosh, Linda, I have never thought so much about snow. It's going well so far. It's always kind of fun to hear as the resorts are beginning to get the snow and opening. Especially in the work that we do with talent acquisition, a lot of folks are starting over the course of the next month. It's a really exciting time in the industry.What is the common thread between recruiting MBA students and recruiting talent for Vail Resorts? [3:16]It's really interesting, given the cyclical nature of the admissions cycle and, of course, the cyclical nature of the ski season. A lot of our resorts are open through the summer as well, but no question that we're hitting the Super Bowl timeframe of the operations. As I think about what I learned from my time in admissions, as well as working in talent acquisition and the kinds of things that we look for in our employees, I really find that people who have a good sense of who they are and how they can contribute, those qualities translate both to admissions committees and to our guests.If any of you have been to ski resorts or resorts in general and you think about the people that you interact with, whether it's somebody who's running the lift or doing these other things, they're very engaging, they're very natural in doing that. Of course, an MBA is doing a very different type of work and a different skill set is required to get into the MBA program. But there's something to be said about those who thrive in an MBA program and their ability to build those connections and have the ability to impact and influence those around them that I see as very fluid between both the MBA admissions and recruiting that I did and what we lFollow UsYouTubeFacebookLinkedInContact Uswww.accepted.comsupport@accepted.com+1 (310) 815-9553

Invaluable insights into all aspects of the graduate admissions process [Show Summary]In celebration of Admissions Straight Talk’s 500th episode, Linda Abraham invites Accepted consultants to pose and answer the questions that students should be asking – and frequently don’t ask. This conversation is filled with invaluable insights that will benefit anybody preparing for graduate school. Accepted consultants share invaluable insights into the questions that students should be asking [Show Notes]Welcome to the 500th episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for joining me. This is a very special episode. It's the 500th, and I am very proud of that. We've been working hard to present a particularly informative show. I've invited different Accepted consultants over the course of the past few weeks to respond to one question that each one believes applicants should ask and know the answer to. And they frequently don't ask and, therefore, never learn the answer. So this is a collection of clips with different consultants – all experienced experts in their area of admissions – addressing different issues. I think you'll find it invaluable as you apply. I've been finding it very interesting to hear what they're asking and also what they're answering.I'm going to start with a question right now. What is the paradox at the heart of graduate admissions? I'll tell you, you need to fit in and stand out. You can learn how to master that paradox by downloading Accepted’s free guide, Fitting In and Standing Out: The Paradox at the Heart of Admissions.____________________________________________Let's start with our first guest, Cydney Foote, who is one of Accepted’s most experienced and, consequently, most beloved consultants. Before joining Accepted in 2001, Cydney was an administrator at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She has also written three ebooks on med school admissions, and she's guided hundreds, if not thousands, of applicants to acceptance, mostly in the healthcare field. The question for Cydney is: What's a useful tool that applicants can and should use no matter what stage of the application process they're in? [2:57][Cydney Foote] I think one of the most useful things that someone can do before they even start to write their application materials is to keep a journal. It sounds very simple. It sounds like something a little kid would do, but so many people will sit down to write their first question and they don't know what to write about. If you keep a journal for the months, or even the years, before you start writing [applications], you can flip back through it and see what you've done. Often, you'll see patterns arising from things that you enjoyed and things that you did well. It’s kind of the way that the universe is nudging you towards a certain area. A lot of that can just slip by you in your daily life as you're running from one event to the next. If you'll write it down just five minutes a day, then you'll have a whole wealth of material to go back on and look through later. Another really good reason to journal is that it helps you support your claims. This is one of the most severe flaws that I see in a lot of people's writing in their first drafts is they will make claims about things that they did like, “I am a great team player,” “I'm a great leader,” or “I am a great communicator,” but without the examples to support that, there's nothing that will help the person who's reading the application believe that you are that. It's not that they necessarily disbelieve you, but they don't have anything Follow UsYouTubeFacebookLinkedInContact Uswww.accepted.comsupport@accepted.com+1 (310) 815-9553

Find out the latest admissions news and what it all means [Show Summary]It was a very newsy November and in this episode, Linda Abraham is covering the most notable updates in the graduate admissions world: law school test waivers, top school withdrawals from US News rankings, accommodations for laid-off workers, and more!In this bonus episode, Linda Abraham, Accepted founder and CEO, talks about the latest admissions news and what impact this can have on applicants [Show Notes]Thanks for joining me for this bonus episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Last month was indeed a very newsy November. It was full of admissions news and I just decided I'd be remiss if I didn’t touch on it for Admission Straight Talk listeners. Hence this bonus episode.In the meantime, if you have any thoughts or feedback for me on this episode or any other episode, feel free to email me at ast@accepted.com.American Bar Association Ceases Requiring Admissions Tests From Law Schools [0:55]All right, the first news item that I'd like to touch on is the American Bar Association. It looks like it will cease requiring that law schools require admissions tests which would mostly be the LSAT and the GRE. (A couple of schools accept the GMAT) And they're going to do that as of 2025. If this change is finally approved, as is very likely, law schools can individually choose whether to require an admissions test or not. Based on the experience of business schools that have gone with a lot of test optionality, most law schools will either require it of all incoming applicants, or they will require the test, but offer applicants the opportunity to apply for a waiver. Or they might say, "Those who meet certain requirements can automatically get a waiver."How will this apply to you? If you have good grades and tend not to test well, optionality is fantastic news for you, because you won't have to take the test if you apply to schools where the test is optional after 2025. However, schools do want to know that you can do the work. If your academic record leaves something to be desired or doesn't convey your abilities adequately, it would probably still be wise to prepare for and take the test so that it will better show your abilities.It's too early to tell, but in the business school realm, I think it's true that a high test score can enhance somebody's chances of getting a scholarship. As I indicated, it's my gut feeling in the B-school world, and it may become true in the law school world as well.If a scholarship is important to you, even if you have the grades, and particularly if you test well, it may make sense for you to take the test, even if it is optional. Whatever it is, just keep in mind that schools want to admit people they believe can thrive in their programs. Make sure that somehow, you're providing them that confidence.Top Schools Withdrawing From US News Rankings [3:08]Newsy November item number two is that top-15 law schools are withdrawing, with two exceptions, from the US News rankings. It all started when Yale and Harvard withdrew from the US News rankings on November 16th. They were followed by Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, Columbia, Penn, University of Michigan, Duke, Northwestern, Georgetown, UC Davis, and UC Irvine. Today I read about the University of Washington, and there may be more by the time we get this recording posted. The University of Chicago and Cornell Law announced that they currently intend to stay in the rankings.For the schools that decided to withdraw, what's their motivation? They say that the rankings simply don't jive with theirFollow UsYouTubeFacebookLinkedInContact Uswww.accepted.comsupport@accepted.com+1 (310) 815-9553