Most higher education institutions now promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as core values attached to their institutional mission because doing so is crucial for ensuring a welcoming and inclusive campus environment for all students, faculty, and staff. Best practice recommends that DEI senior officers answer directly to a university or college’s president, thereby ensuring…
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How Service To School Helps Veterans Get Accepted to Grad School [Episode 524]
In this episode, the CEO of Service to School and the Chief Programs Officer at Service to School explore the resources available to active duty service members and veterans through the nonprofit and give practical examples of translating military experience into public sector terms. [SHOW SUMMARY] Are you a veteran considering grad school? Are you…
A Rise in College Applications
Over the years, the number of colleges our clients apply to each season has more than doubled. When I started consulting in 2008, students submitted five to ten college applications. Today, I see students applying to 15-20 colleges, and even more, in some cases. The caliber of applicants might be similar to what colleges and…
Writing an Excellent Diversity Essay
What is the diversity question in a school application, and why does it matter when applying to leading programs and universities? Most importantly, how should you respond? Diversity is of supreme value in higher education, and schools want to know how every student will contribute to it in their community. A diversity essay is an…
Encore: What Does 2022 Mean for Applicants in 2023 [Episode 505]
![What Does 2022 Mean for Applicants in 2023 [Episode 505]](https://sp-ao.shortpixel.ai/client/to_auto,q_lossy,ret_img,w_1024,h_576/https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Episode-505-Linda-Abraham-Blog-Banner-1024x576.png)
Thanks for joining me for the 520th episode of Admissions Straight Talk. I am taking a week off for family time. As a result, I decided to air an encore of our most popular podcast so far in 2023. To my surprise it was the solo show I did in January on preparing to apply…
How Much Does Your Social Media Presence Factor Into the Application Process?
Grad school admissions officers might well be checking out your social media accounts and forming opinions about you based on your profile and content. Will what they see help you or hurt you? The most recent survey of this growing trend – conducted in 2021 by Kaplan Test Prep – involved admissions officers from 247 top…
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 teams 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 when you are writing…
Can You Use the Same Personal Statement for Different Schools?
One of the questions we are asked most often by college and graduate school applicants is this: “I’m applying to six different schools, and each one requires two to seven essays/personal statements. That’s so much writing! Can I reuse the same essay for different schools? How can I keep up the quality and not burn…
Admissions Tip: Be Yourself!
Would you like to know one thing that admissions committee members really want from applicants? Here it is: they wish – really, truly wish – that applicants would not try to write what they imagine the adcom wants to hear but instead just be themselves. Time and time again, admissions committee members tell us they want applicants…
Four Tips for Highlighting Your Strengths in Your Application Essays
One of the most important pieces of advice you can receive regarding your personal statements and application essays is this: Show, don’t tell. But you might have been given this advice before and are wondering how to go about it. Let’s dive into how to show effectively. Here are four tips to help you achieve…
Writing a 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 up the book in a store or library, or tested the free sample on your e-reader, you probably made a pretty speedy decision about whether it would hold your interest. The human…
Resilience: 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…
Revise and Polish Your Application Essays
Check out all of the blog posts in this series: You’ve completed your first essay draft – this is a great milestone! Now it’s time to revise and edit that draft. Outstanding essays are not sprung into the world on the first try. Here’s how to edit and polish your essay until it shines: 1. Let…
How to Start Your First Draft of an Application Essay
Check out all of the blog posts in this series: Now that you have reflected on the questions that helped you identify and develop your theme, you have a clear sense of what will make your essay effective. Time to start writing! First, make an outline. An outline can be formal, with clearly delineated categories…
Writing Your Career Goals Essay
Check out all of the blog posts in this series: The career goals essay demands a laser-like focus. Unlike personal statements that can cover one’s career goals but also allow for more flexibility in content, the career goals essay has a specific and packed agenda. In fact, a career goals essay prompt could actually involve…
Finding a Theme for Your Statement of Purpose
Check out all of the blog posts in this series: All effective essays have a distinctive theme. Referring back to the essays we examined in the previous post, we might say that was her passion for finding answers to significant public health issues. Our law school applicant’s theme was his yearning for greater intellectual challenges while remaining in the…
Identifying the Ingredients of a Winning Essay
Check out all of the blog posts in this series: As you gear up to write your application essays, you might have looked at sample “winning” essays published in books or on websites, only to ask yourself afterward, “Sure, these are great, but what do these essays have to do with me?” This blog series will…
Bring Your Personal Statement to Life With Vivid, Active Verbs
Your personal statement is an essential element of your application and allows the adcom great insight into who you really are aside from your stats. However, no matter how extensive your experience or how accomplished you might be, all that can be lost in prose that does not do a good job of profiling who…
Got a Criminal Record? Here’s How to Address It in Your Application
If you have ever engaged in disorderly conduct or petty theft, gotten a DUI, been arrested during a political protest, or garnered any other kind of infraction (minor or major) on your record, we hope that you have learned important lessons from the experience and won’t repeat it. But if you are applying to a…
Get Off That Waitlist!
Landing on a school’s waitlist can be disappointing and nerve-wracking. And sometimes, waitlisted applicants let their anxiety or disappointment cloud their thinking, which makes it harder to do the work needed to get off that waitlist and earn an acceptance. If you are waitlisted, know this: “waitlisted” does not mean “rejected!” If you play your…
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