Many of my clients who are applying to graduate programs in STEM fields ask me, “What is the most important part of my application?” They want to know where they should exert the most effort, and if you are a STEM applicant, you might be wondering the same thing. The Most Important Part of Your…
Personal Statement Tips
First Drafts of Residency Personal Statements: Let Yourself Go
For many residency applicants, writing the first draft of their personal statement is probably the most difficult part of the entire application process. And the most difficult part of writing that first draft is often getting the first few words on the page. Don’t fret – even accomplished novelists and famous journalists struggle to get…
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,…
Admissions Tip: Thanksgiving Appreciation
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
How to Edit Your Application Essays
In an exclusive interview with… well, herself, Linda Abraham shares some advice that she’s learned over the course of almost two decades of application essay editing. Listen to the full recording of this excellent episode to learn concrete steps you can take right now to ensure that your essays are working for –and not against…
In your medical school personal statement, do not generalize, criticize doctors
Do not forget that physicians will be reviewing your application; therefore it is probably not a good strategy to suggest that most physicians are incompetent and you are going to be the ideal doctor and will rescue our health care system. Also, be mindful of the fact that the people evaluating your application have many…
Do not make Excuses for Poor MCAT Scores
Right after the MCAT scores are released, phones go wild in medical school admissions offices. It will not help to panic over disappointing scores, or to call or e-mail blaming your scores on “bad sushi” the day of the exam. Take responsibility for your disappointing scores, and be honest with yourself and the medical schools…
Plagiarism in Residency Essays: Just Don’t
The WSJ’s Health Blog recently posted “Study: Medical Residency Applicants and Plagiarism” which cites a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine by a team of researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The researchers found “evidence of plagiarism” in 5.2% of residency application personal statements by comparing the essays to publicly available material…
Do Not Blame Your Professors For Your Poor Grades
Do not try to make excuses for your poor grades or try to defend them. If you are invited for an interview, be prepared to discuss those grades, but instead of placing the blame on someone else, focus on the positive and perhaps highlight your academic performance since then. Emphasize what you learned from the…
Do Not Quote Robert Frost in Your Med School Personal Statement
Be original. Quotes from Robert Frost are very popular on medical school applications. You should probably leave him out of the process. You can be serious or use a bit of humor, but be creative, original, and yourself. One student, with research experience in entomology, began his essay by comparing the different roles of ants…
Haas New MBA Curriculum–Interview with Pete Johnson
I recently chatted with Peter Johnson, Director of Admissions at the Haas School of Business, about the new curriculum that Haas announced a couple of weeks ago. Peter clarified specific aspects of the new curriculum and also discussed with me its impact on applicants. This post is a summary of our discussion. Linda Abraham: How…
Law School Admissions: Yale Law Admissions Blog
I am a fan of Yale Law’s admissions blog, 203. An Admissions Blog, but I have to take issue with a recent post, New Questions, specifically the author’s response to the question, “Is it still okay to have an admissions consultant give me guidance on my application?” The author, Asha, states clearly that applicants who…
Accelerated Two-Year JD Program at Northwestern University Launches in 2009
Northwestern University will offer an accelerated two-year JD degree program beginning in 2009, hoping to attract highly motivated students who might otherwise have considered a two-year MBA program or others interested in fast-tracking a law degree. The two-year program will require the same number of credits as the traditional three-year program, relying on a compressed…
Personal Statement Tip: Once Upon a Time…
Once upon a time there was a wedding (actually yesterday). The father of the bride wanted to give a speech. His wife (me) worried that he would bore the guests. Mildly insulted and not wanting to forgo an opportunity to praise the bride, his new son-in-law, his son-in-law’s parents, and to share a few words…
Personal Statement Tip: History vs. Memory
Over the weekend I went to a talk focused on the difference between history and memory. The two are clearly related, but not the same. History is what you read in an encyclopedia or newspaper timeline. It is facts, dates, statistics, and data, impersonal and frequently very dry in isolation. Memory consists of vignettes, stories,…