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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
Three Ways Writing About Obstacles Strengthens Your Application Essays
Applicants love to write about their accomplishments, whether in a personal statement for graduate school or in a b-school essay that asks about one’s greatest achievement, challenge, or the like. And they are not shy about sharing their accomplishments, such as driving innovations that led to revenue boosts for their firm, conducting original and meaningful research…
Three Don’ts When Asking for Letters of Recommendation
The individuals who agree to write your letters of recommendation (LORs) are doing you a favor, so the least you can do is make their job easier by following proper LOR etiquette. Breaking the rules we outline in this post could result in your recommenders deciding not to write a favorable recommendation letter for you or…
How the Team Approach to Admissions Consulting at Accepted Benefits You
If you are a current Accepted client, you’re likely familiar with our firm’s practice of conducting peer reviews as part of our service. Peer review is a crucial step in our process, one in which Accepted consultants seek input from their colleagues in the firm, asking them to help evaluate and enhance our clients’ essays…
Four Ways to Show How You’ll Contribute in the Future
Schools are looking for and will actively contribute not only to their student/alumni communities but also to the greater community and society. Many applications include an essay question with some variation of “What would you contribute to your future campus community?” or “How will you contribute to our program?” If you are invited to interview, you’ll…
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…
Three Must-Have Elements of a Good Statement of Purpose
What are the essential components of a strong statement of purpose essay? Very simply, you’ll need to include your MAP: your Motivation, Aspiration, and Perspiration. At Accepted, MAP has a double meaning for individuals writing statements of purpose and goals essays. It illustrates the road one should follow when writing one of these essays. Here’s…
Are Scholarship Databases a Good Way to Find Scholarships?
Scholarship databases are an attractive idea for most applicants – after all, who wouldn’t appreciate an easy way to find scholarships when searching can be so difficult and time-consuming? However, search databases, such as Unigo or Cappex, are only as effective as the person doing the searching. These databases work best when you have a…
Make the Most of Your Experiences for ERAS
The 2024 ERAS (Electronic Residency Application Service) application has some big changes for residency and fellowship candidates. Some of the most significant are a limit on the number of experiences one can list, a new section for one’s most meaningful experiences, and a chance to explain “impactful experiences” that have affected one’s career path. This…
CASPA: Everything You Need to Know about the Experiences Section
CASPA, the Centralized Application Service for Physician Assistants, is the primary application service for graduate physician assistant (PA) programs. The CASPA application has four primary categories within it: Personal Information, Academic History, Supporting Information, and Program Materials. There are lots of documents you will need to gather, prepare, and write to complete the application, but…
Leadership in Admissions
Maria was a pediatric oncology nurse who tenderly promised each child she cared for that she would always tell them the truth about what was about to happen to them in the hospital. Ben was an army captain who joined his troops cleaning bathrooms in the punishing heat of Iraq. Amy was a social worker…
Advice from Successful STEM Applicants
I was thinking about how best to advise my clients who are applying to STEM graduate programs. Since I have had many clients who gained admission to their target programs, I decided to send them some questions about their experience. I’ve compiled most of their responses into the following summary. If you were starting the…
Graduate School Options for STEM Candidates
Do you want to If you answered yes to any of these questions, this might be the perfect time for you to apply to graduate school. According to Crunchbase news, in 2022 and 2023, almost 225,000 employees were let go from technology companies. Yet technology workers are still very much in demand. Companies are seeking…
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