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Accepted Admissions Blog

Everything you need to know to get Accepted

June 3, 2022

Reading Time: 4 minutes

10 Tips for Better Essay Writing

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…. 

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Article by Accepted / Admissions Consulting, College Admissions, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions, Other Healthcare Admissions / college application essays, essay editing, grad application essays, law application essays, mba application essays, med application essays

February 25, 2022

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Writing a Lead That Pops

Writing a Lead that Pops

How many times have you wandered through a bookstore or library, opening up a book to read the first few lines only to quickly close it again? How often have you tested a free sample on your Kindle only to decide after a paragraph that you’re glad you didn’t buy it? How often have you… 

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Article by Accepted / Admissions Consulting, College Admissions, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions / college application essays, essay editing, grad application essays, law application essays, mba application essays, med application essays

February 14, 2022

Reading Time: 3 minutes

How to Create the First Draft of Your Application Essay

Ex2Ex_4_2022

You now have a clear sense of what makes an essay effective. You have reflected on the questions that helped you identify and develop your theme. Now it’s time to start writing. Before you begin, draft an outline, even if it’s only a very informal list of the main points you want to cover. Based… 

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Article by Accepted / Admissions Consulting, College Admissions, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions / college application essays, essay editing, Exemplary Application Essays Series, grad application essays, law application essays, mba application essays, med application essays

August 11, 2021

Reading Time: 5 minutes

9 Secrets to Telling an Attention-Grabbing Story

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… 

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Article by Accepted / Admissions Consulting, College Admissions, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions / college application essays, essay editing, grad application essays, law application essays, mba application essays, med application essays

April 7, 2021

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Can You Use the Same Personal Statement for Different Schools?

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… 

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Article by Accepted / College Admissions, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions / college application essays, essay editing, grad application essays, law application essays, mba application essays, med application essays

January 17, 2021

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Bring Your Personal Statement to Life With Vivid, Active Verbs

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… 

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Article by Accepted / Admissions Consulting, College Admissions, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions / college application essays, essay editing, grad application essays, law application essays, mba application essays, med application essays

December 24, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes

‘Twas the Night Before Deadlines: A Cautionary Tale of Cliches

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!”… 

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Article by Accepted / Admissions Consulting, College Admissions, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions / college application essays, essay editing, grad application essays, law application essays, mba application essays, med application essays

November 12, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Oh No! A Typo!!

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,… 

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Article by Linda Abraham / Admissions Consulting, College Admissions, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions / college application essays, essay editing, grad application essays, law application essays, mba application essays, med application essays

August 14, 2020

Reading Time: 6 minutes

How to Project Professionalism, Positivity, and Confidence in Your Statement of Purpose

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… 

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Article by Accepted / College Admissions, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions / college application essays, essay editing, grad application essays, law application essays, mba application essays, med application essays

July 5, 2020

Reading Time: 4 minutes

First Drafts of Personal Statements: Let Yourself Go

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… 

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Article by Cydney Foote / Admissions Consulting, College Admissions, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions / college application essays, essay editing, grad application essays, law application essays, mba application essays, med application essays

June 14, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes

6 Tips for Getting Started on Your Application Essays

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… 

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Article by Accepted / Admissions Consulting, College Admissions, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions / college application essays, essay editing, grad application essays, law application essays, mba application essays, med application essays

October 23, 2019

Reading Time: 2 minutes

How to Get Started on Your Personal Statement with One Easy Technique

how to get started on your personal statement

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… 

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Article by Accepted / College Admissions, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions / college application essays, essay editing, grad application essays, law application essays, mba application essays, med application essays

October 10, 2019

Reading Time: 3 minutes

How to Use Powerful Details to Create Strong Essays

create_strong_essays_with_powerful_details

To really draw your readers into your goal-focused essay, you’re going to want to lay the scene for your future accomplishments. After all, what better way to convince the adcom of your ambitions than to illustrate them in your essay? First, identify your goal. When you begin your essay, try showing yourself having reached your… 

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Article by Accepted / College Admissions, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions / college application essays, essay editing, grad application essays, law application essays, mba application essays, med application essays

September 20, 2019

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Generic-itis Prevention [Warning: If Untreated, Can Cause Rejection]

Generic-itis Prevention

Each year, Accepted consultants are witnessing a recurring epidemic. And it’s worse than you can imagine: Generic-itis. What generic-itis looks like Here is an example of a severe case of generic-–itis that I drafted based on several different examples I recently read, along with 25 years of experience in this business: I find Top Choice’s… 

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Article by Linda Abraham / Admissions Consulting, College Admissions, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions / college application essays, essay editing, grad application essays, law application essays, mba application essays, med application essays

August 21, 2019

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Review Your Essays Like an Admissions Consultant and Use the Editing Funnel

Review Your Essays Like an Admissions Consultant and Use the Editing Funnel

Most of you are now — or will be soon — editing your critical application essays and personal statements. When Accepted consultants review and edit your essays, they go through a process I call the editing funnel. When you edit your own essays, you should follow a similar process. How the editing funnel works Here’s… 

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Article by Accepted / Admissions Consulting, College Admissions, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions / college application essays, essay editing, grad application essays, law application essays, mba application essays, med application essays

August 12, 2019

Reading Time: 2 minutes

How to Stay Within Essay Word Limits by Reducing Verbal Verbosity

How to Stay Within Essay Word Limits by Reducing Verbal Verbosity

Most applicants – whether applying to med school, law school, business school, or any other grad school or college program – need to deal with rigid character or word limits when writing their application essays or personal statements. You may start out thinking that you have nothing to write, but generally, once applicants begin writing,… 

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Article by Accepted / Admissions Consulting, College Admissions, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions / college application essays, essay editing, grad application essays, law application essays, mba application essays, med application essays

December 23, 2018

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Your 5-Item Checklist for Submitting Your Applications

Your 5-Item Checklist for Submitting Your Applications

Whether you’re applying to b-school, law school, med school, grad school, or college, this checklist will be the same. Don’t hit that “Submit” button until you’ve checked off the following 5 to-do’s: You’ve made sure that your application presents a holistic, multi-dimensional picture of you. Each section of your application should not just present you… 

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Article by Accepted / College Admissions, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions / college application essays, essay editing, grad application essays, law application essays, mba application essays, med application essays

July 29, 2018

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Common Grammatical Errors: How to Use “Leverage” & “Comprise” Properly

Non-native English speakers (and some native English speakers) frequently make some easily avoidable mistakes. Even if you have excellent English there are sometimes words that get lost among misused prepositions. Here are some tips to help applicants improve their use of two words that are commonly misused: leverage and comprise. 1. Leverage Rule: Do not… 

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Article by Accepted / Admissions Consulting, College Admissions, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions / college application essays, essay editing, grad application essays, law application essays, mba application essays, med application essays

July 29, 2018

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Where’s the Poetry? The Secret Ingredient in Your Graduate Application Essays

Strategy will necessarily guide your selection of essay topics, anecdotes/examples, and structure. Yet an essay built on calculation alone, even if the strategy is spot on, will often disappoint. Logically it all makes sense. But it doesn’t take flight. Poetry can be the secret ingredient to make your application essay sing – right into the heart of its readers…. 

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Article by Cindy Tokumitsu / Admissions Consulting, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions / essay editing, grad application essays, law application essays, mba application essays, med application essays

December 12, 2017

Reading Time: 8 minutes

16 Grad School Application Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make [Episode 237]

The application cycle is in full swing in early December, when I’m recording this podcast. In reflecting on the many applications that my colleagues and I review here at Accepted and the problems we help our clients deal with, I thought it might be a good time to discuss things you shouldn’t do – mistakes… 

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Article by Accepted / Admissions Straight Talk, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions / career goals, college interview, essay editing, grad application essays, grad school interview, law application essays, mba application essays, med application essays, podcast, weakness

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