Buddhist Marketer

Budding Entrepreneurs Go Back To School

Three clarifications of an article in which I was recently quoted

As some of you may know, currently I am the director of marketing for GradSchools.com, the best directory of graduate programs on the planet.  As part of these duties, I was recently interviewed by Amy Byrnes of Business News Daily for an article, “Budding Entrepreneurs Go Back to School.”  Of course, journalism’s a tough gig, and the rapidity of my speech on occasion approaches hog auctioneer status.  So it’s no surprise that there are a few clarifications I’d like to offer up:

“We see two sets of people with a renewed interest in grad school: The unemployed and the underemployed,” said Anittah Patrick of Gradschools.com. In the past two years the site has seen a general uptick in traffic from those interested in going back to school, Patrick said.

Education, urban planning and pharmacology are among the most researched programs on the web site.

1.  The “unemployed and the underemployed” actually comprised, together, of one subset of graduate degree seeker that I discussed.  And it’s this subset that’s grown as a share of our audience composition, joining our perennial ranks of college upperclassmen, “business as usual” career changers, and traditional “it’s time to go to graduate school” prospective students who are researching graduate programs (and would have independent the economy).

2.  Perennial field of study favorites include Education & Teaching master’s and doctoral programs along with Business & MBA.  However, graduate programs for which there is a delta between “student interest” and “graduate program availability” include:

• Physician assistant graduate programs
• Social work MSW programs
• Speech pathology graduate programs
• PharmD programs
• Urban planning graduate programs

These are the subject areas for which enterprising graduate school deans may want to consider developing graduate programs if none yet exist at their university: the market wants these programs, but there aren’t enough programs out there to satisfy prospective graduate student interest.  As it relates specifically to urban planning:

The downside, however, is a dearth of programs to meet the demands of those interested in this specialty.

“Academia has been slow to respond to the market,” Patrick said. As an alternative, prospective students should also consider landscape architecture as well as urban affairs and planning graduate programs that are similar in nature and also earmarked for expansion in the next five years.

For what it’s worth, I also suggested forestry and environmental studies programs.  What can I say; I’m a Yalie!

One final clarification:

Increasingly, business schools are offering more specialized degrees to increase admissions. Technology and leadership MBA’s are drawing the most interest, according to Patrick.

3.  Actually, the specialized MBA programs that are recruiting the hardest are the Technology MBAs and the Leadership MBAs.  So if you’re thinking about an MBA and are being strategic about your chances for getting in, you may want to investigate these programs.

However, the MBA programs for which there is the most prospective b-school student interest include:

1. Online or hybrid MBA programs
2. Sports management MBAs
3. JD - MBA dual degree programs
4. Health care MBAs
5. Non-profit administration MBAs

If you’re the dean of a business school and you don’t have a program that specializes in these kinds of interests (or don’t actively market them) you may want to consider your strategies for taking advantage of increased demand in these areas.

And, that’s a wrap!  Thanks to Ms. Byrnes for on the whole capturing all the pertinent info correctly.

You can read “Budding Entrepreneurs Go Back to School” in its entirety by clicking here.

I’m Hiring Freelance Writers

GOT SUMMER PLANS?

Write stuff. Help people. Make money.

• We’re the #1 graduate school directory on the planet
• We help prospective graduate students sort and filter 60,000+ graduate programs by field of study, subject, location, degree type, and more
• We want more great content on our site!

This summer we’re writing a ton of articles to help future grad students figure out

• Should I even go to grad school?
• What should I study?
• Where should I apply?

and more. The articles will be engaging, thoughtful, fun, and perhaps a bit provocative (insofar as the unvarnished truth may provoke).

But we need your help.

We can’t crank out interesting, well-written articles on our own. We need diverse perspectives, unique voices, and people who haven’t yet been ground down by The Man. We need you!

• We’ll pay you $50 per article for your first two articles
• If your voice is a good fit, we’ll buy ten articles for $75 a pop
• Some articles will have a very specific topic; some won’t
• Flexible: work whenever; wherever
• Possibility to continue during the fall semester

Interested?

Send your resume, a writing sample, and an article pitch within your cover email to

anittah at gradschools //dizzot// com

with subject line = “I’m the best stringer on the planet.”

GOOD LUCK!

Flatiron Office Space - $1,790/month

I no longer need my office.

• I accepted an in-house gig with one of my clients (see paragraph four)
  
• I am moving to a ginormous loft in New Jersey (read the last sentence)
  
• I realize I am entrepreneurial, but not an entrepreneur (see point five)

Is my evolution your gain?  Peut-etre; here’s the deal:

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This is a great raw space with

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Located at 29th and Broadway, this is a great space that I honestly love, but know that someone other than me will be able to make more of it than I can.

Interested? Email me and/or call (317) 4 - ANP - ANP / (317) 426-7267.

Considering Grad School?

If so, please click here to take an anonymous survey.  Pass-alongs welcome.  THANKS!

2009’s Most Poopular Posts

Fifth place actually went to a post in which I skewered a former roommate for ruining my curtains, but since he reached out, I have since password-protected the post.  So the new fifth place goes to:

#5. Free Universal Healthcare. Doctor’s Orders.

my commie pinko friend Cameron on Fox Biz as he drops some knowledge regarding why we need universal healthcare at no cash cost.

#4. Fresh Air Fund Taps Bloggers To Spread The Word

let’s pretend that the campaign’s goals were to drive donations (which it isn’t, but I’m being generous): the donation page has no clear “call to action”. Give us a form, people! Create a stand-alone splash page! Too! Many! Places! To! Click!

#3. Collaborative GRE Analytical Writing Scoring

Perhaps, then, the way to approach matters of happiness prerequisites is:  “Only once one stops looking for it can one feel true happiness.”

#2. Marketing Is Still Marketing

So, a year ago, The People wanted Hot Sex On A Platter, and that’s what American Apparel served up.  But now, The Moody People consider that untoward.  A recent cartoon in The New Yorker captured this mood swing nicely: “I’m trying not to flaunt my employment, so I’m not carrying a briefcase these days.”  What do The People want today? They want to feel like the companies with whom they transact aren’t a bunch of greedy douchebaggy corporate welfare recipients.

#1. (Situational) condescension is a moral obligation

the language I speak is often at odds with the language spoken by the dominant status quo — and by definition, the middle chunk of the Bell curve is the dominant status quo. And the dominant language is one that makes others feel good about themselves, gently persuades them to agree that 1+1=2, and blows sunshine up their grade-inflated, “Hooray For Everything”, if-it-weren’t-for-Spanx-it-would-occupy-four-zip-codes backsides.

Oh dear.  What goodies shall 2010 bring?  Will people even read blogs any more?  Or all we all too busy crafting clever replies to our friends’ status updates?

In Other URLs

Other stuff by yours truly:

• Music, memory, and British chicks
• How to organize your AdWords keywords
• Pretty notebooks; Neruda’s “Childhood and Poetry”

Let us wish 2009 a gentle good bye.

Dear Santa Claus

I have worked very hard this year and despite the fact that I don’t grow as rapidly as I used to, would still like some new toys for my non-denominational Christmas celebration.  I have conducted extensive research and a thorough needs assessment in order to whittle my list down to three items:

1. Redken Real Control Conditioner.  Because cranky, difficult-to-manage ethnic girls with cranky, difficult-to-manage hair need intensely nourish and moisturize our high-maintenance hair.
2. Redken Extreme Anti-Snap leave-in treatment.  Because, as you know, a dark-haired girl who gets highlights will have difficulty growing out her hair if it keeps breaking off and stuff.
3. Redken Dandruff Control Leave-In Treatment.  This way, if my scalp feels itchy in a spot but I just got my hair did, I don’t need to ruin my ‘do by washing it with Pureology’s DandruffScalpCure for color-treated hair.

By the way, you may want to get your mitts onto Redken for Men’s mint rush hair and body wash to detoxify your skin after flying around in the air all night long …

Love,

Anittah’s hair

Help Me Rebrand Socialism?

I enjoyed a talk by Chris Hedges, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and author of Empire of Illusion, yesterday evening.  During the Q&A, he explained Socrates’ concerns about the book (Socrates was worried about the written word’s negative impact on society versus the oral tradition):

Striving for a moral life is ambiguous.  It cannot be codified.  It becomes orthodoxy when these discussions are written down.

Yes.  Yes of the Stephen Carter “bumper sticker democracy is bad” variety.

His talk was so thought-provoking that I may have to noodle on a marketing campaign for socialism.

Incoming

Took a moment to kick the tires of Google analytics just now; here are some amusing searches that have lead seekers to this blog:

• do buddhists sleep on the floor
• how would a buddhist fix health care
• how to solve social awkwardness
• little debbie donut sticks weight watcher points
• joe jaffe idiot
• oh you can’t get to heaven verses
• what does katherine newbegin shoot with?

Mmmm…  Little Debbie Donut Sticks ….

1. You do not have to sleep on the floor if you are Buddhist
2. But please take your shoes off at the door
3. And don’t point your feet at me

:)

Elsewhere: Gubmint, Career Nirvana, Slothy Content

Killing time while waiting for the cops to show up so that I can fill out a police report.  So, here you go!

• How should governments use web 2.0?  Add your ideas!
• Are you happy to be doing what you do, professionally?
• Content creators:  is your content lazy?  Click here to fix!

Just called them AGAIN and they haven’t even dispatched anyone yet.  I mean skeeriously.