Insights About Admission Essays

The admission process for graduate and professional school is more competitive today than ever before. The increase in applications to business schools and medical schools has been especially dramatic during the 1990s. Schools are flooded with applications from many well-qualified candidates whose entrance-exam scores and undergraduate grades are almost identical.

Admissions officials recognize that the numbers—GPA and entrance-exam scores—don't tell the whole story about any candidate. The schools are looking for more than proficient test-takers. They're also looking for people who are interesting, articulate, and distinctive, with different points of view, ambitions, backgrounds and interests. A diverse an interesting student body enriches the academic experience for everyone students, faculty and administration. And it is interesting and distinctive people, not necessarily those who perform well on exams, who are likely to succeed in the long run in their chosen professions. The admissions and alumni offices are symbiotically connected, and they know it!

How do the decision makers look at the human being behind the application? By scrutinizing a candidate's application essay (personal statement) and letters of recommendation. Some schools also conduct in-person interviews for this purpose.

WRITING YOUR PERSONAL STATEMENT—CONTENT AND THEME

Whether your personal statement makes a positive or negative impression, or no impression at all, depends largely on your judgment in deciding (1) what to write about, (2) how to write about it, and (3) how you present what you have to say to the reader. A good judgment call may result in a distinctive essay that wins over the reader, while an error in judgment may result in a distinctively inappropriate essay that make a negative impression. Consider the following advice regarding content and theme.

The Ultimate Test for Content

Your personal statement must, of course, be tailored to the requirements of the particular application. However, a question might invite you to discuss virtually anything about yourself that you want the reader to know. So what should you talk about, and what should you not talk about? One fundamental point of advice applies in every situation. Put your essay to the ultimate test, by asking yourself: "Is this essay one that only I could honestly write?" Or, is it possible that other applicants could have honestly said essentially the same things that you have said in your essay?

Take a yellow hi-lighter or other pen and mark every sentence of your essay that another applicant might honestly have written. Do you see a lot of yellow? If so, you either need to dig deeper (stay with the same theme but bring it down to a more personal level) or go back to the drawing board and find a different theme or topic—one that you know only you will be writing about.

What Are They Really Looking For?

Any admissions official will tell you: "We aren't looking for anything in particular; there really is no right or wrong response." Okay, that's probably good to know but not all that helpful. Let's dig a bit deeper. After reading the interviews in Perfect Personal Statements, you'll agree that, more than anything else, the schools are looking for some insight into your persona. They're hoping to get a glimpse of the human being behind the data in your file.

Your essay should evoke a mental image of your personality. Remember that the personal statement is an interview of sorts. What is it about your personality that strikes people as particularly attractive or interesting? Is it your sense of humor? Your boldness? Your sensitivity? Your humility? Your imagination? Your spirit? Your way with words? Ask your friends for their impressions, and try to convey your persona through your personal statement, either by the way you write or what you write about.