In your senior year of high school, the pressure is on to write your college application essays. Your mission: to present yourself in a way that is real, substantial, and authentic, and thereby boost your chances of getting accepted to the school of your choice. But the anticipation of writing your college application essays may…
How Should I Choose Which Essay Questions to Answer When I Have Choices?
You’re sitting down to face your application, and you are glad to see that you can choose which essay questions to answer. You’re not stuck answering a particular set of questions. It’s good to know you have options. After all, you are determined to answer the questions that allow you to portray yourself at your…
5 Tips for Writing About Extracurricular Activities You Started at the Last Minute
You are this close to finishing your application, but in the section that asks you about your extracurricular activities, you freeze up. I don’t really have any extracurricular activities, you think. What should I do now? How will I be able to stand out from the competition? We’re glad you asked. Team Accepted has worked…
4 Sure-Fire Ways to Ace Essays Showing Resilience in the Face of Failure
Recently we worked with a client applying to MBA programs who had experienced a failure that could have been the kiss of death for his job. Not only could it have gotten him fired, it also risked ending a lucrative business relationship between his employer and a major customer. How one applicant transformed a failure…
Can You Use the Same Personal Statement for Different Schools?
One of the questions we are asked most often by applicants to college and graduate programs is this: “I’m applying to six different schools, and each one requires 2-7 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 out…
3 Must-Have Elements of a Good Statement of Purpose
What are the essential, absolutely must-have components of a strong statement of purpose or goals essay? Very simply, you’ll need to include your MAP. At Accepted, MAP has a double meaning for individuals writing statements of purpose and goals essays. It stands for Motivation, Aspiration, and Perspiration, and illustrates the road you will follow when…
4 Ways to Display Teamwork in 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! There are more ways than you may realize to prove your chops in this area through an essay about teamwork. Consider the following 4 options: Remember: No man…
How Do You Write an Accomplishment Essay?
Build a better accomplishments essay by following this recipe. Accomplishments are the bread and butter of personal statements and application essays. That may sound straightforward, however, a fascinating brainstorming session of Accepted admissions consultants reveals that applicants don’t always know what an accomplishment is. What goes into this application staple? And how can you analyze…
Got a Criminal Record? Here’s How to Address It in Your Application
If you have ever engaged in disorderly conduct, petty theft, gotten a DUI, been arrested during a political protest, or have any other infractions (minor or major) on your record, we hope that you have learned important lessons from those experiences and won’t repeat them. But if you are applying to a grad program, you…
“I’m Smart, Really I Am!” Proving Character Traits in Your Essays [With Sample 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 prove your worthiness for acceptance at your target school. Second, you also need to show the adcom that you have the desirable character traits that your program values. But how do…
Bring Your Personal Statement to Life With Vivid, Active Verbs
Your personal statement and essays are essential elements of your application and allow the adcom great insights into who you really are aside from your stats. However, no matter how extensive your experience or how accomplished you may be, all that can be lost if presented in plodding prose that no one has the energy…
‘Twas the Night Before Deadlines: A Cautionary Tale of Cliches
‘Twas the night before deadlines, and all through the world, Our consultants sat cramming, coffee brewing, brows furrowed; Though the essays were written with effort and care, There were still a few things that were cause for despair! The clichés! Oh, forsake! Terrible, were they – That all our consultants could think was “oy vey!”…
College Admissions: Mining Identity for College Essays, Personal Statements
Langston Hughes begins his poem “Theme for English B” this way: The instructor said: Go home and write a page tonight. And let that page come out of you- Then it will be true. I wonder if it’s that simple? “Tell us about yourself” When colleges instruct you to “Tell us about yourself,” it may…
Oh No! A Typo!!
Will that lonely typo doom your otherwise perfect application to the great round file in cyberspace, putting the kibosh on years of effort and nixing your attempt to walk through the hallowed halls of your favored institution? No. A single, minor typo will do nothing. So don’t sweat one minor spelling mistake, a missed comma,…
4 Ways to Show How You’ll Contribute in the Future
Schools are looking for applicants who can show that they have strong leadership qualities and experiences and can demonstrate that they will actively contribute to their student/alumni communities, not to mention to the greater community and society. Many applications include an essay question with some variation of “what would you contribute to your future campus…
Expert Advice for 2020-21 College Applicants [Video]
Wish an admissions guru would tell you how to write successful college application essays? Accepted college admissions guide, Marie Todd, speaks to Jessica Wan from Magoosh to share the secrets of what makes a strong college application essay. In this video, Marie draws from her 20+ years of college admissions experience to answer 9 essential questions…
Tips for Answering the University of California System Personal Insight Questions [2020 – 2021]
![Tips for Answering the University of California System Personal Insight Questions [2020 - 2021]](https://sp-ao.shortpixel.ai/client/to_auto,q_lossy,ret_img,w_700,h_350/https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/University-of-California-application-tips.jpg)
The University of California System or UC’s, as they are commonly known, consist of 9 campuses that utilize the same application. They are: UC Berkeley (Cal), UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis, UC Merced, UC Santa Barbara, UC Los Angeles (UCLA), UC Irvine, UC Riverside, and UC San Diego. You will use the same responses for…
How to Project Professionalism, Positivity, and Confidence in Your Statement of Purpose
“Tone” is often one of the aspects of writing that applicants find most difficult to pin down. And yet, when you’re writing, it is also one of the most important to control so that you maintain an appropriate tone for your purpose. Tips for becoming aware of your tone One way to think about tone…
First Drafts of Personal Statements: Let Yourself Go
Writing the first draft of your personal statement is probably the hardest part of the whole application process. And it makes sense – it’s not easy to capture so much of your experience onto a single page. Transforming your first draft from just OK to simply spectacular I’ve read hundreds of first drafts over the…
7 Simple Steps to Writing an Excellent Diversity Essay
What is the diversity question in a school application, and more importantly, why does it matter when applying to leading programs and universities? A diversity essay is an essay that encourages applicants with minority backgrounds, unusual education, distinctive experience, or unique family histories to write about how these elements will contribute to the diversity of…
