Effectively Discussing in Your Graduate Admission Essay Why You Deserve A Scholarship Spot
Tailoring your admission essay with the goal of getting a scholarship in mind is perhaps a common move of most grad school hopefuls. After all, who would not want to have the chance of going to graduate school for free or for a discount? However, only a chosen few ever get to see an acceptance letter from the graduate program of their choice. Here are a few tips to come up with a winning essay for that scholarship.
Writing a persuasive graduate admission essay
A graduate admission essay needs to be planned with care, all the more so if you are vying for a scholarship. Not only will you be vying for entrance to a graduate program, but your application will also be facing the competition of the many who want to go to grad school on a scholarship.
Most graduate school applicants tend to know what should go into a graduate admission essay. Being unique, creating a coherent structure, emphasizing your strengths, avoiding highly technical terms, using personal anecdotes, and the like are something most graduate school hopefuls already know about. However, making a persuasive pitch for a scholarship in your graduate school admission essay is another thing entirely.
Add a personal touch.
Writing the essay in a personal tone is the surest way to creating an engaging essay. However, you might be tempted to personalize your essay with a sob story in an attempt to get the admission panel to take pity on you. This is the surest way to get the boot. While personal stories can be engaging and will let your panel get a glimpse of who you are, some personal anecdotes can also sound suspiciously like sob stories, even if they are 100% true. Unfortunately, admissions experts dislike sob stories and they can smell one mile away. Avoid using very dramatic sob stories if you can, but if you must, avoid whining and instead focus on how the experience strengthened you or made a positive impact on your life. This will show your panel that you can use even the worst things to your advantage.
How a person tells a story in a graduate school essay, if he or she chooses to tell one at all, is one of the ways panels scrutinize an applicant’s personality. Telling a sad, heartbreaking story in a positive or upbeat tone will give the panel the impression that you are a person who looks at things on a positive note. And any graduate school could always use students with that kind of outlook. However, always make sure that your stories are true. Any hint of a lie will surely make you unqualified.
Cover the basics.
A successful graduate admission essay that is also angling for a scholarship should cover the basics, its parts linked together by a common topic or experience, flows smoothly from one paragraph to another, and must point out your strongest points and assets. In order to get this result, write ahead of time to give yourself more opportunities to rewrite, to think of good anecdotes to share, and to have your essay read by a trusted friend or teacher for opinions.
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As an essential requirement to get into graduate school, it’s expected that you devote ample time in writing your graduate admission essay. As compared to the other documents required in graduate school applications such as transcripts and test scores, your graduate admission essay can be interpreted subjectively. Awkward phrases, ambiguous statements, and misspelled words can be enough to show that you didn’t pour much effort in writing your essay. This is why you’ll find countless articles and books dedicated to providing writing tips and how-to’s.
As mentioned, much has been written on how to write and how not to write a graduate admission essay. Most of the pointers you’ll read emphasize writing your graduate admission essay with conciseness, sincerity, and structure. An example on how to write your graduate admission essay with sincerity and specificity is this: instead of writing about how the program the institution offers is one of the best out there, write in detail about how that program is the best one for YOU – given your specific personal background and experiences.
Familiarize yourself with common graduate admission essay questions.
What do you consider your greatest achievement? What are your long-term career goals? How can you contribute to the school’s community? How will an advanced degree from this graduate school help you attain your goals? Why should the graduate school choose you among all the other applicants? What’s in it for the graduate school if they choose to get you?
These are just some of the graduate admission essay questions commonly asked by admissions committees of graduate schools. If you find such questions overwhelming, try and focus on a specific aspect of the answers that come to your mind. For example, focus on your long-term career goals that are directly connected to the degree or program you’re applying for. Explain in detail your concrete plans of how you will use the degree from the institution to realize those goals.
Keep your graduate admission essay personal and sincere.
A common tendency among applicants is to go on and on about their academic and professional achievements without relating it to their reasons for applying into graduate school. By doing this, they’re merely putting into words the information that their transcripts, resumes, and test scores already provide. What admissions committees want to see on your graduate admission essay is a simplified story of your life – the trials and adversities you’ve faced, your inspirations and how they influence your actions, your dreams and what you are doing to realize them, and your short-term and long-term goals. Your graduate admission essay should reflect who you are as an individual and as a student.
As consultants and committee members will tell you, what they’re looking for in your essay is a glimpse of who you are, the facets of your being, that no figures, GPAs, and records will ever provide.
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College graduation can mean a lot of things to different people; it can mark a student’s entry into the workforce rat race, or the beginning of a quest for higher learning and knowledge. It’s not uncommon for college students to feel at a loss as to what to do next after graduation; this is why most graduates take some time off to travel or think, before they go into their next venture – whether it be scouring the job market, or applying for graduate school.
There are various reasons people go into graduate school; some do it because they’re not sure what their next move is, but they have to keep moving, while some enroll under graduate programs with the aim of getting higher salaries when the time comes for them to enter the globally competitive job market. Here are more of the common reasons a lot of people pursue an advanced degree.
An MA or PhD further hones your research skills.
Research is a fundamental aspect of study regardless of which industry you belong to. In college, you were probably taught all the theories that you need to arm yourself with when conducting research. There were, however, not many opportunities for you to apply the “book knowledge” you gained.
In graduate school, you will be able to further enhance your research skills by providing opportunities for you to apply your theoretical knowledge. A lot of graduate schools employ the experiential learning method, which combines classroom lectures and a significant amount of field work. Through experiential learning, students are taught how to respond and deal with real-world situations in their respective fields.
A graduate degree adds depth and breadth to the knowledge you gained in college.
A lot of college graduates sometimes feel like their knowledge is much too broad and needs focus for them to zero in on the specific field they wish to excel in. Graduate school can provide you with this focus and specialization. Unlike college, graduate school programs don’t require its students to sit through “general education” classes. Grad school students are allowed to choose their classes and tailor their curriculum according to their needs.
An advanced degree provides more employment opportunities and options.
Having an advanced degree in your resume can also open up myriad employment opportunities for you; opportunities that would’ve been inaccessible if you didn’t have that MA or PhD. There are employers who favor applicants who invested in educating themselves over applicants whose resumes boast of relevant work experience. This may be true especially in specialized work industries like computer and technology, psychology, and even in the academe.
With all these benefits of having an advanced degree, you will have to prepare certain documents such as your records in college and letters of recommendations from your former professors. You will also have to study for the Graduate Record Examination or other standardized tests, as these are also required. One requirement that many people take for granted is the graduate admission essay. Often, the quality of the graduate admission essay spells the difference between getting accepted or not into your chosen graduate school. A well-written graduate admission essay creates a significant impact especially if you have less-than-stellar grades in college.
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An economic recession is defined as a period when a nation’s overall gross domestic product (GDP) falls for at least two consecutive quarters, and there is a significant rise in unemployment rates and prices of commodities. During such periods, unemployment rates rise because most companies lay off their employees to lessen expenses. This is one of the reasons recessions are a good time for individuals to evaluate their current career paths, progress, and long-term professional goals.
According to a study conducted by the University of Washington, pursuing graduate studies during economic recessions is a growing trend. During the recession between 2001 and 2003, they found a significant rise in the number of grad school applications. During this time, there was also a nine percent increase in the number of individuals who took the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), as preparation for applying to grad schools.
For college graduates, an economic recession often translates to the postponement of job hunting endeavors because of the unstable state of the job market. It would also be harder to earn a steady income during a recession, so paying off student loans will also become a problem for those who received financial aid for their college education. Instead of doing nothing while waiting for the economy to bounce back, a good option for professionals and college graduates is to pursue an advanced degree in graduate schools.
Graduate studies will help you plan career shifts.
As mentioned, recessions are a good time for professionals to do some introspection and evaluate their current career paths. If you’re not happy with your current job, you can try shifting careers and going into an industry that you feel is more suitable for you or one that is more adaptable to the changing business and economic climate. Graduate studies will help orient and train you on the industry you plan on entering when you shift careers. By the time you graduate, you’ll already have that MA or PhD which can translate into a higher income for you.
Invest in yourself so employers will invest on you.
Economic recessions often don’t last very long, and it may only take two to three years for an economy to bounce back and fully recover from the fall. When this happens, companies will again need employees to fill the posts that were vacated during the recession. If, by this time, you’re well on your way to earning that master’s degree or PhD, you’ll already have an edge over the other applicants you’ll be competing with in the rat race. See, getting into grad school is a way of investing in yourself to improve your marketability when the time comes that employers are ready to invest in their people again.
Getting into graduate school means that you have to prepare several documents such as your records during college (transcripts). You also have to keep in touch with your college professors so that they can write letters of recommendation for you. You also have to take the needed preparations for the GRE or other standardized tests, which usually comprise three areas – verbal section, quantitative section, and analytical writing section. Also, you should write an excellent graduate admission essay. Coming up with a well-written graduate admission essay is important especially if some of your grades in college are quite low.
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