I could write now about the aspects of my life I am thankful for: my husband, five healthy children, two delightful, adorable grandchildren, my daughter’s recent engagement, a thriving business, work that I enjoy, and good health. I have done so in the past as I wished you a Happy Thanksgiving, a US holiday that…
Personal Statement Tips
Weakness, What Weakness?
I saw it. The question was looming in an essay and hiding behind a corner in the brain and/or instruction sheet of my interviewer. “So Natalie, tell me about your weaknesses and what you did to overcome them”? Gosh, there are so many, I don’t even know where to begin. Ding! What do you do…
Get a GRIP on Team Questions
I took away a lot of wonderful concepts, frameworks and strategies from my MBA education that led to a successful admission career. In fact, one of the most powerful lessons I learned at Michigan (now Ross) was how to lead and work effectively on teams. Professor Noel Tichy, one of the gurus of Organizational Behavior…
Your law school personal statement…it needs to be, well, personal!
When writing your personal statement for law school, it’s a good idea to include a few school specific sentences about why each of the schools to which you are applying is interesting to you. This is not “why do I want to go to law school?” but rather “this is why your law school is…
Linda Abraham’s Admissions Assortment
Admissions season is going strong and the application questions are pouring in. Listen in as Linda Abraham answers some of the most common questions of the season and shares her formula for giving your application the ultimate last check before you hit submit. 1:31 – MBA applicant dilemma: Round 1 advantage vs. improving credentials and…
I’m About to Make Your Day…
…by giving my essay a catchy opening line that doesn’t turn you away or bore you to tears. See, I could have started this tip post with “Today I am going to tell you how to create a compelling essay opening,” but you probably would have skipped over something as drab as that. How about…
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? Whether you’re feeling stuck or feeling overwhelmed by all the ideas bouncing around in your head, a stellar technique to start with is called…
Write Great College Application Essays and Stay Sane: Part 2
Thanks for joining us as we continue with Staying Sane through the College Essay Writing Process, an ongoing series that offers college applicants and their parents advice on how to stay on track for completing Ivy-worthy essays…without flying off the handle. Enjoy this next part of the series, and STAY SANE! Why students think the…
4 Statement of Purpose Must-Haves: What You Need to Start
You’re ready to sit down and write your Statement of Purpose. Maybe you have a full cup of coffee, some time to write… What do you need to get started? A clearly thought out goal. This is the most important thing. Your statement of purpose, whether for a Master’s or PhD, is a forward-looking statement—you…
“I’m Smart, Really I Am!” How to Prove Character Traits in Essays
When you write an application essay or statement of purpose, you’re trying to accomplish several goals at once: You are trying to prove your worthiness to be accepted to your target school, while also trying to impress upon the adcom that you have desirable character traits that your program values. But how do you prove…
Tips for Completing Your Yale University Application
This is part of a series of posts providing advice you can use when completing The Common Application for 2011. You can find the entire series, including tips for the Common App’s required essays and advice on completing the activities section at https://blog.accepted.com/acceptedcom_blog/tag/2011-common-application-tips. Yale offers both regular decision and single choice early action. Under single…
College Visits: Take a Break on Campus
Whether you’ve been diligently working on your college applications or pretending that fall is still months away, consider a break. Take a day and head to a nearby college campus. If your closest college campus is mere miles and a school you are planning to apply to, that’s great. If you aren’t planning to stick…
Residency Application Tip: Settling, and How To Avoid It
Have you ever “settled” in a relationship? You know what I mean – you’re with someone who’s not perfect, but they’re good enough. You might not feel much passion, but you’re comfortable, moderately happy, and that’s… well, that’s good enough. The thing is, the person on the other end of this deal (and that might…
Epidemic Among Applicants!
Your personal statements, application essays, and statements of purpose are suffering. It’s serious. And could be fatal to your application. This latest epidemic of vacuous, declarative sentences that either state the obvious or make non-credible claims has reached epic proportions in applicant essays, personal statements, and statements of purpose. The cure? Substance and specifics. Stories…
Personal Statement Tip: Setting Scenes
To write a compelling personal statement or application essay, you need to draw readers into your experience without much set-up. You have to get to the heart of the matter quickly and at the same time make the reader care to read on. Visualizing a particular moment from a situation that disappointed or thrilled you…
The Biggest Application Essay Mistake [Video]
What is the very worst thing you could possibly do in your application essays? Watch Linda’s answer and add your own comments below: Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best
How Personal is Too Personal?
The personal statement is a terrific opportunity to share with admissions committees an interesting and unique aspect of your life. However, many applicants are understandably frightened of having to face the “camera” and speak personally about their lives while also trying to impress. So, how much should you tell, and how much is too much?…
5 Keys to Concreteness
I like to apply the principles established in Chip Heath and Dan Heath’s Made to Stick to personal statements and application essays. In this post I focus on concreteness. The third of Made to Stick‘s six key principles, concreteness, doesn’t seem to apply to intangibles like leadership, achievement, teamwork, or character – the topics you…
5 Personal Statement Tips for Residency Applicants
1. Focus on what attracts you to this particular specialty. This isn’t the place to tell your full life story, or to rehash the story of why you decided to become a doctor. Instead, explain how you became interested in your specialty, and show you have the skills and personal qualities to succeed in the…
Two Ways to Reveal Leadership in Your Applications
Leadership is one of the of the most valued attributes in admissions. In this short video, Linda Abraham discusses two main ways you can show the adcom that you are a leader. For more tips on revealing leadership in your applications, check out: • Leadership in Admissions, a free special report. • 4 Ways to…
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