Graduate School Admissions Essays

The next bit of pre-professional writing I like to discuss with you is graduate school admission essays.

So for those of you that aside you’d like to continue on school rather than jumping straight into the

workforce.

This essay is absolutely critical in writing it well could determine whether or not you get into a graduate

school of your choice.

The purpose of a graduate school admissions essay is first to set you apart from all the other candidates.

Remember all these candidates are going to have impressive test scores great grades and on their transcripts

and most likely really positive letters of recommendation.

In other words no matter where you apply for graduate school it is very likely that the pool of applicants

will have similar academic achievements and this admissions essay is the first thing that’s going to

set you apart.

Most graduate departments agree that the graduate school admissions essay is often the deciding factor

in your admission into the things that are most exciting about your essay is how it demonstrates your

knowledge of the program you’re applying to and in what ways you highlight experiences that demonstrate

your accomplishments and qualifications.

So let’s talk first to a house how to prepare to write an effective graduate school admissions essay.

First you need to read about the school’s program description mission statement and the professor’s

specialties within the program.

After researching your program you need to ask yourself what makes you a good fit for this program or

which experiences and qualities best illustrate how I can contribute to the program.

The more specific and in detail you can speak to the program itself and how you fit into this program

the better.

Remember also that just like any other writing assignment you need to outline.

OK so these two questions that I’ve asked Are your pre-writing free right idea map do whatever you need

to do to prove you right and then begin to outline them.

And then let’s go on to the drafting stage in your introduction.

You need to describe what you want to study why you want to study it and why the chosen school is a

good fit and you do this by identifying specific aspects of the program.

For example specific professors you would like to work with and why it’s so important to avoid general

statements and essential information and cliches.

For example for as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to be a doctor.

So has everyone else that’s applying to medical school right.

So just avoid all those types of general statements and information and cliches.

Instead let your own personality in a very professional way show through your writing.

One of the most important parts of your essay is deciding which experiences to use.

So if you remember just a few lectures back we talked about personal essays and how important it is

to choose an experience that you can dig deeper into in order to derive some type of meaning out of

that experience.

The same can be said in choosing which experiences to highlight in your admissions essay but it’s also

important to know how to incorporate those experiences.

So the first way is to know how to transition quickly and clearly from your introduction into your experiences.

Here’s an example one opportunity that prepared me for the medical program at Harvard is and then describe

the opportunity.

So the thesis of your graduate school admissions essay is simply where you ought to study why you want

to study there.

Right.

And then a transition is to jump straight into those opportunities and experiences that highlight why

you are a good fit.

When it comes to the number of experiences it’s also best to be narrow and specific rather than listing

a bunch of achievements and a bunch of experiences.

So describe one or two experiences.

Usually no more than two.

That clearly illustrates some of the qualities you already identified.

For example your intellectual curiosity or your commitment why you do this.

Be concise specific and focus on highlighting your own qualities more than narrating the story.

So in other words discuss what you learned how you grew how this has shaped who you’ve become and the

qualities that you now possess rather than focusing on the story itself.

Remember though however when you do do this and you’re focusing on your own qualifications here your

growth in your development never exaggerate or embellish the facts.

So worst thing you can do don’t exaggerate.

Instead choose experience like research or work internships and so on that demonstrate your knowledge

of an interaction with the current field you want to study and then use those to demonstrate or to highlight

the individual qualities that you possess in order to be a good fit within that current field and within

that specific program.

Finally move on to the conclusion where it is OK to assert yourself as a qualified candidate based on

the experiences that you’ve shared.

In other words my experiences in geological research and field work make me a capable candidate for

your geology program.

OK so you don’t need to beat around the bush in this section.

It’s time to assert yourself based on the discussion that you’ve just provided in the body as a capable

candidate for whatever graduate program you’re applying for.

And then like everything else when it comes to writing you need to revise.

This is so important this needs to be one of the best pieces of writing you’ve ever done.

One of the cleanest most error free pieces of writing you’ve ever done.

So follow the steps we’ve already talked about over and over again.

Check for the overall unity.

The unity of body paragraphs the effectiveness of each paragraph.

The correct use of citations if you’ve included any sentence style sentence level word choice spelling

and finally spell check.

My biggest piece of advice is to ask one or in best cases Moe multipole trusts the professors to read

it and to give you feedback.

Most of them would be usually also be happy to read multiple versions so get the best draft you possibly

can revise it yourself and then ask some trusted professors to read it to give you some feedback and

then revise it again and ask them to give you a final read.

OK and then revise it again depending on their final comments before you submit it.

Remember to also do things like reading it aloud reading it in different formats.

Paper and digital everything you have to do in order to make sure this is the best and most solid and

clean piece of writing you’ve done.

And if you need some extra I ascended on my way and I’ll give you I’ll give you some feedback as well.