When one thinks of passion, one doesn’t generally think of investment bankers. But the admissions committees are looking for passion in their applicants; so how are you – a computer guy, an engineer, a biology major, or yes, an investment banker – going to craft a winning application that shows them the passion they’re looking…
Tips for Answering the University of California System Personal Insight Questions [2022 – 2023]
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…
Harness the Power of Storytelling in Admissions and Job Interviews
“Tell me about a time when you disagreed strongly with your supervisor. ” “How would you do things differently now?” “What draws you to this program more than to any other?” If you have interviews coming up, whether for a seat in a college program or a job opening, will you be ready to answer…
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…
9 Secrets to Telling an Attention-Grabbing Story
You’ve completed most of your application. Now it’s time to write your personal statement. You want your statement to stand out from the rest, and the way to do this is to tell a compelling story – the tale of your greatest achievements, dreams, and challenges. You can tell a compelling story by tying together…
Writing About Your Experiences Abroad
You studied, worked, or volunteered abroad. Now you want to include part of this in your personal statement as part of an undergrad, AMCAS or other application. Maybe you want to show that you’ve experienced a different culture and expanded your perspective through your eye-opening experiences meeting new people, mountain-climbing, assisting in a rural community,…
10 Tips for Better Essay Writing
Let’s take your writing up a notch–or two! Ready to up your game in the writing department? Since you’re probably eager to show the adcom that you’ve got the “write” stuff and can relate your significant experiences and insightful ideas eloquently, these 10 tips are for you: Think about writing as a conversation on paper….
How Personal is Too Personal?
The personal statement is a terrific opportunity to share an intriguing and unique aspect of your life with the admissions committees. How much should you tell? At what point are you crossing the line into TMI? When I applied to college, I wrote a personal statement describing some challenging family circumstances I’d had while growing up….
3 Reasons Why Writing About Overcoming Obstacles Strengthens Your Application Essays
Why do obstacles matter to the adcoms? Applicants love to write about their accomplishments, whether in personal statements for graduate school or in b-school essays that ask for greatest achievements, challenges, and the like. And when they do, they are not shy about coming up with tangible accomplishments: driving innovations that led to revenue boosts…
The College Application Process: A Survival Guide for Parents
Is there a college-bound senior in the house? If so, you may feel the ground shifting beneath you. When this high school senior becomes a college freshman next year, it will be a transformative time. With so much riding on where students will end up attending college, it’s no wonder that the relationship between applicants…
The Essay Whisperer: How to Write a College Application Essay
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…
‘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!”…
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,…
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…
6 Tips for Getting Started on Your Application Essays
Sometimes the hardest part of writing a personal statement or application essay for college or grad school is finding the discipline to sit down and focus. Often, once you accomplish that, the ideas begin to form and the words begin to flow. The following 6 tips will help motivate you to start writing, and then…
How Much Overlap Can There Be Between My Resume/CV and My SOP?
When submitting an application for college or graduate school, it’s important to view the application holistically. The application includes multiple elements, such as a CV/resume, a personal statement, and grades, among other things. Because this application is key to receiving an admissions offer, it is important to be selective and strategic in choosing which elements…
How to Make Your College Application Stand Out: Beyond Test Scores and GPA
Assuming your test scores and GPA are in the competitive range for your top choice schools, what else can make you stand out in a positive way? In my five years of reviewing undergraduate applications for admission to the University of Michigan, I considered a number of additional factors in determining overall fit. 4 ways…
How to Get Started on Your Personal Statement with One Easy Technique
Okay, you’ve calmed down after your initial essay-writing anxiety, and you still don’t know where to begin. How do you capture your whole life in the meager number of characters allotted? What is clustering? Whether you’re feeling stuck or feeling overwhelmed by all the ideas bouncing around in your head, a stellar technique to start…