Many business schools use open-ended essay prompts, which are usually variations of “I wish the admissions committee had asked me…” or “What is a question that you wish we had asked?” The most common among these open-ended questions is the optional essay, where you have free rein to discuss anything you feel is important, something…
Make the Most of Your Common App Activities Summary
Your high school extracurricular activities are of great interest to the college admissions committees. Whether you played sports, volunteered at an animal shelter, played in a band, or were part of a religious or community youth group, such involvements show the adcoms what matters to you and where you have chosen to invest your free…
Four Things to Do over the Summer before Applying to Graduate School
It’s summertime, and we hope you’re enjoying a well-deserved school break or possibly a more relaxed work schedule. Maybe you’ve got a vacation planned and will be firing up the BBQ with friends on a regular basis. This kind of recreation helps you recharge for the busy months ahead, so enjoy! But if you are…
Four Tips for Displaying Teamwork in Your Application Essays
Teamwork – and its close cousin leadership – are highly prized by graduate programs and universities. But if you haven’t worked in a team on any regular basis, don’t worry! You’ve probably got a number of examples of teamwork in your back pocket that you didn’t even realize were there. Consider the following four ideas…
Admissions Tip: Be Yourself!
Psst! How would you like to know the one thing that admissions committee members really want from applicants? Here it is: they wish – sometimes they even dream – that applicants would stop writing what they imagine the adcom wants to hear. Instead, they want candidates to just be themselves, presented articulately, of course. We…
Four Ways to Highlight Your Strengths in Your Application Essays
One of the most important pieces of advice you will ever learn regarding your personal statements and application essays is this: Show, don’t tell. It’s a classic writing lesson, and you’ve probably heard it before, perhaps many times. But how do you actually “show, not tell,” in your essays? Simply “telling” is ineffective, because it…
Writing an Essay Lead That Pops
How many times have you sampled the first few lines of a book and decided, “Nah, this isn’t for me”? Whether you picked the book up in a store or library, or downloaded free sample online, you probably made a pretty speedy decision about whether it would hold your interest. The human tendency to rush…
Writing Your Career Goals Essay
Check out all the blog posts in this series: Your career goals essay demands a laser-like focus. A personal statement, by contrast, allows for some flexibility in its content, though you can – and often should – discuss your career goals. But a career goals essay has a particular and packed agenda. In fact, the…
Finding a Theme for Your Statement of Purpose
Check out all the blog posts in this series: All effective essays have a distinctive theme, and it can take time and careful thought to identify what yours should be. If you go back to the essays we examined in the previous post in this series, you will see that the public health program applicant…
Starting Your Application Essay: Three Tips
If you haven’t yet read the other blog posts in this series, go ahead and check them out: Once you have reflected on the questions that helped you identify and develop your essay theme, you should have a clear path to writing an effective essay. Here are three essential steps to help you achieve that…
Revise and Polish Your Application Essays
Check out all the blog posts in this series: You’ve completed your first essay draft – this is a great milestone! Outstanding essays are not sprung into the world on the first try, however, so now it’s time to revise and edit. Here’s how to get the job done: 1. Let your essay rest for…
The Resilience Factor: How Flaws and Failures Can Strengthen Your Application
A speaker recently told a story about traveling in Asia, where he saw a stunning emerald. Enchanted by the stone’s beauty, he decided to buy it on the spot. He returned home and took the emerald to a jeweler for appraisal. The jeweler began examining the stone through his magnifier, and as he did so,…
Proving Character Traits in Your Essays
When you write an application essay or statement of purpose, you’re trying to accomplish two equally vital goals at once. First, you need to establish your worthiness for acceptance at your target school. However, as part of that task, you need to show the adcom that you have the character traits that their program values….
Strategy for Writing an Accomplishment Essay (with examples)
Maybe you’re familiar with macros – the nutrients your body needs to function. Achieving the proper balance of macros leads to optimal health. When it comes to writing your MBA personal statements and application essays, it might be helpful to think of your accomplishments as the carbohydrates, protein, and fat – in other words, the…
Law School Letter of Recommendation Sample and Quick Guide
At this stage of the law school admissions process, you probably have Application Season Fatigue Syndrome. You just feel done. So corralling people to write your letters of recommendation (LORs), a nagging and seemingly redundant task, might be the last thing you feel like doing. After all, haven’t you already proven your worth through your…
Get Off That Waitlist!
Landing on a school’s waitlist can be disappointing and even nerve-racking. As a result, waitlisted applicants sometimes let their anxiety or disappointment cloud their thinking, but if you’re waitlisted, try to stay calm and focused. Remember, if you’ve been waitlisted, you have not been rejected. If you play your cards right, you still have a…
12 Reflections on Teacher Recommendations
Teacher recommendations are an important part of your college application at many schools, with most requiring one or two letters in support of your application. What these recommendations offer are additional insights into your personality, intellectual curiosity, and potential impact on your college community. These letters of recommendation (LORs) are only one element of your…
Will Your Target B-School Accept the New GMAT Focus?
Say goodbye to the old GMAT exam! Starting in early November, say hello to the new, slimmed down, and reimagined GMAT Focus. Manish Dharia, director of product marketing at the Graduate Management Admission Council, told Accepted Founder Linda Abraham in a recent podcast that the GMAT Focus reflects current needs and realities for business schools,…
Get Ready for the New GRE
The GRE has been a staple in graduate school admissions for more than 75 years, but big changes are coming to the test beginning on September 22, 2023. In this post, we’ll cover what you need to know. The new GRE will be considerably streamlined and updated; the four-hour window to complete the exam will…
Three Tips for Parents of Applicants
Today’s parents tend to be much (and sometimes, much, much!) more involved in their children’s lives than parents from past generations, and this involvement often extends to the college – or even grad school – application process. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Parents can provide vital support for their kids during the admissions process…