Tips on Writing a Grad School Application Essay

Before you can set foot in the door to pursue a masters, doctorate or other advanced degree you must first accomplish one of the most dreaded initiation rites known to man: The Application Essay. Getting into college was relatively easy: get good grades (or moderately good grades), and you’re accepted at most schools around the nation. Grad schools care about your college grades yes, but almost as important as them is you proving that you have the character, intestinal fortitude, and academic nature required for them to try to educate you to the next level - they determine these through references you provide from teachers and employers and from your application essay. For some people with a natural inclination toward writing, the essay will seem a piece of cake - a minor inconvenience to spend a few hours on one weekend. For others, it can be a major undertaking and something of a life-changing event. So what are the best ways of going about writing your grad school application essay?

Take Your Time

Start early. Months early, in thinking about the things that you might want to put into the essay. This is kind of like writing a rough draft, only you will do most of it in your head. Think about yourself: your strengths, your weaknesses, your likes, your dislikes, your life-changing events, the things that have happened that make you who you are. This is the stuff that will make up the bulk of your essay. Take the time over several weeks to truly ponder; Who are you? This isn’t a time to brag so much as it is to self-explore why you are the way you are and why you want the career you want (which requires the school you are applying to). If you have trouble figuring out who you are, speak to your friends, family and co-workers (if any), or fellow students and ask them. They’ll gladly give you a (too) frank analysis of the strengths and weaknesses they see in you. You can also review other essays online. Write down the basics of everything you learn about yourself. It’s not essay time yet, though.

Prepare to Write

There are some dos and don’ts to writing college essays that you should keep in mind before you get started:

• Don’t get cute- because you’re very likely not as cute or funny as you think you are. Write straight, professional text without fancy prose, limericks, or useless anecdotes that are in the essay for no other reason than to elicit a laugh.
• Don’t duplicate information in your essay- Your GPA is obvious to the person picking up your essay to read it. It’s all over your application and school records - don’t bother. They know if you graduated from school as Valedictorian already so don’t mention it unless there’s an important reason (story) behind it.
• Do- Answer every question that may have been put to you in a topic selection. Carefully study what is being asked of you and address each question clearly and directly.
• Do- Be sure to include whatever it is that you feel makes you unique from the thousand or so other applications that person has to read this admission term, but only if you can do it concisely and clearly and within the last few years of your life. Those reading your essay are not really interested in hearing about things that happened to you when you were a child unless it was a major (and obvious) life-changing event.
• Do- Keep it relevant. Remember your goal as you are writing: You are separating yourself from other students who want the same type of career as you, possibly for the same reasons. You have to stand out from them somehow through your words.
• Don’t ‘fill space’- If you find yourself repeating information in your essay or writing just to write, STOP. Take a break from the essay and go back to the first step of brainstorming and thinking of ideas and things in your life that make you, you. Talk to family and friends again and come up with more relevance and ideas that you can add that make logical, reasoned sense with what you’ve already written.

Most of all when writing an essay, do not put off starting on it until the last minute. A hurried essay, compiled in a few hours by someone without a gift for writing is easy to spot. It is likely the reviewer will not get past the first few paragraphs before putting the essay down and rejecting your chances for admission that term. Think about your essay early, think about it often, solicit help from those that know you well, and stay on topic. You’ll be a grad student in no time.