SELLING YOURSELF TO A GRADUATE SCHOOL:
THE APPLICATION ESSAY

One of the toughest writing assignments many students face is writing that application to graduate school. How much is enough to say about yourself? How much is too much? What makes it boasting, and what makes it good? A good application essay can play a major role in getting you admitted, especially if your grades and test scores are borderline. Graduate schools like organized, clear-thinking students who can express themselves well, so if your essay can show these qualities, you’re helping your cause considerably.

The first step in writing a good application essay is to diagnose the question. Each school is looking for something a little different from its applicants, and the questions are designed to garner that information. So careful attention to the language of the question pays off. A prompt like "Choose one incident from your life experiences that crystallizes why you want to become a doctor" is asking you not for your whole life story, but for one particular story that sums up your dreams of a career in medicine. The admissions staff at that school is looking for your ability to pick a specific episode, and focus on it--then to broaden out from it to predict your future as a doctor.

On the other hand, a prompt like this one wants to see how you organize and arrange a lot of information: "Explain how your life experiences to this point have led you to apply for law school." While you’ll want to avoid the Bill Cosby line about "I started out as a child," answering a prompt like this means that you have to cover a lot of information in a small space. You’ll need to use a lot of sweeping statements like "My ambitions didn’t change throughout high school, and serving as president of the Student Council sharpened my desire to present viewpoints and debate key ideas." (Note that this covers four years, while still adding a significant detail about your past.)

And some prompts are really general, allowing you a lot of room to maneuver. For instance, Winthrop’s Graduate School asks you to "Write a brief statement of your personal and professional objectives. Be sure to include information that will be helpful in the evaluation of your application credentials." This is asking you to talk about your goals--not just for getting into graduate school but for your life beyond--but also it’s asking you to explain anything unusual or unexpected in your transcript (like that D in Educational Psychology).

Once you know what the question is asking, don’t start writing yet; take the time to brainstorm a page or so of notes, words, phrases, names, or dates that might be included. These help your mind come up with concrete details, so that you can show an admissions committee something about yourself, not just tell them the surface facts. Remember that usually the committee members don’t know anything about you other than some numbers (GPA, test scores, class rank), so the details you pick are the first real picture they get of you. First impressions count, so take the time to think of good details to include. When you have your details, then make a scratch outline of your answer. Only then should you begin writing, developing your essay according to the outline, and sticking clearly to the topic you’ve been asked to write about. Use details, examples, names and places to make vivid word pictures of the person you are and why you are applying to this school. Add transition words to give a strong sense of organization to your readers.

It’s important, of course, to be totally honest in these answers. Don’t lie or make false claims; if you can’t speak Swahili, don’t say you can. But you’re entitled to focus on the good things about yourself, and to downplay your weaknesses. For instance, suppose your freshman year was a disaster. You don’t need to dwell on it. You can say, "After some difficulties in adapting to life away from home in my first year, my academic work has improved every semester, and I now am on the Dean’s List." This plays to your strengths, while answering the questions an applications committee might have about that weak year. And talk naturally about your achievements, but with a touch of humility. "I was honored to receive the SC Accounting Association Scholarship" tells not only how good you are, but that you’re not stuck up about your skills. On the other hand, "I won every award offered by the School of Business, much to the dismay of some of my less talented classmates" tells an admissions committee that you’re very self-centered and egotistic.

Another good piece of advice is to use language that comes naturally to you; aim for a conversational style. Talking about "the significant factors and circumstances impacting my long-range developmental growth" makes you look both pretentious and immature; that’s not how people talk to each other when introducing themselves. Lots of high-sounding buzzwords and jargon won’t get you admitted; honesty, clarity, and specific examples will help your admission.

Finally, your essay for graduate school should be perfect; it represents the quality of work you’re promising to do as a student at that school. So get a trusted friend, teacher, or tutor to look over your finished essay and help you find what needs fixing (the Writing Center can help here, of course). Again remember: you’re making a first impression. If you spell "financial" as "finical", what kind of impression will you make on a business school? Not much--no school wants sloppy or careless graduate students. But if your first impression is as a person who can express her- or himself in a clear, straightforward, organized way, you give the impression of a person with both intelligence and self-discipline: qualities that every graduate school wants. A few words can go a long way to convey that impression, so choose them carefully!