![Stand Out! A Critical Goal for Your Application [Episode 181]](https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Linda-Abraham-Standing-Out-Application.jpg)
I covered the importance of showing fit in Episode 162 “Focus on Fit,” the second most popular show of 2016 and the most popular show of the second half of 2016. But there is a second focus you need if you want to apply successfully to highly competitive programs. You need a corollary to fit….
Personal Statement Tips
Female Medical School Enrollment Reaches 10-Year High (and Other AAMC Report Findings)
According to a report by AAMC, the number of women enrolling in medical school in 2016 increased 6.2% over the previous year to 10,474. This is the largest increase since 2006. 2016 also represented an all-time high in the overall number of medical school applications, with 53,042 students applying, 38,782 of whom were first-time applicants….
Review Your Essays Like an Admissions Consultant: Use the Editing Funnel
Most of you are now — or will soon be — 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. Here’s how it works… 1. Start…
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….
Writing About Your Experiences Abroad
You’ve done it – you studied, worked, or volunteered abroad and now you want to include part of this in your personal statement. Maybe you want to show that you’ve experienced a different culture or that you’ve managed to go outside of your comfort zone. Maybe you’ve had interesting experiences – met people, climbed mountains,…
4 Ways to Display Teamwork in Application Essays
Teamwork, and its close cousin, leadership, are highly prized by graduate programs and universities. 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. Consider the following 4 options: 1. Remember: No Man is an Island Unless you’ve been living alone…
Writing a Lead That Pops
How many times have you wandered through a bookstore, opening up a book to read the first few lines only to quickly close it again? How often have you read one of those free samples on your Kindle, only to decide after a paragraph that you’re glad you didn’t buy it? Similarly, how many times…
What Adcoms and Admissions Consultants Share
While going through security at the airport recently, I had a TSA agent examining my ID suddenly… said, “I know you. You’re Linda Abraham from Accepted!” Surprised, I replied, “You’re right. How did you know?” Accepted is not on my ID. “I’ve attended your webinars.” Why should I have cared, or actually been pleased, that…
4 Statement of Purpose Must-Haves: What You Need to Start
You’re ready to sit down and write your statement of purpose. You’ve got a cup of coffee and chunk of time to think and write. Now, how do you get started? Here are 4 things you need to write a great statement of purpose: 1. A clearly thought out goal This is the most important thing. Your statement of purpose, whether…
UGH! THOSE @!#$* WORD LIMITS!!!
Now, now. Don’t get angry. Deal. First and foremost, focus. And use writing techniques that convey your message and stay within the word limits. What writing techniques are those? Glad you asked! 1. Minimize use of the passive voice. • Passive: Experience A has been complemented by experience B. (8 words) • Active: Experience B…
5 Pointers for Projecting Professionalism in Your Statement of Purpose
In my previous post, I discussed the importance of maintaining an appropriate tone in your admissions essay, and provided tips for checking your tone, specifically for finding a confident tone and avoiding arrogance. Once again, “tone” refers to a writer’s attitude toward their subject (and their reader). Your tone comes across in your choice of…
Tone Up Your Writing: Confidence vs Arrogance
“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. One way to think about “tone” is to understand it as conveying your…
Generic-itis Prevention [Warning: If Untreated, Can Cause Rejection]
![Generic-itis Prevention [Warning: If Untreated, Can Cause Rejection]](https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Generic-itis.png)
Each year, Accepted consultants are witnessing a recurring epidemic. And it’s worse than you can imagine: Generic–itis. The symptoms: • Mind-blowing, meaningless, and grand generic declarative statements, related to why an applicant wants to attend a certain program. • Irritation to admissions readers, causing them to believe that you know nothing about their school and don’t…
Writing Techniques From a Pro
I like to read biographies and personal profiles (that’s one of the reasons I like my work so much). I recommend that you check out Tom Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation, in which he clearly demonstrates the journalist’s ability to engage — you can learn from these techniques when you sit down to write your personal statement. Here…
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…
Personal Statement Tip: Less is More
Most of us have heard the saying “less is more,” but how many of us put it into practice when it counts? Your application essays are the perfect forum for reaping the benefits of this deceptively simple principle. First, what does “less is more” really mean? It’s the idea that we must resist our natural tendency…
Add Detail to Your Social Enterprise/Community Service Goals
Whether you’re applying for an MBA, a PhD in Public Policy (or many other doctoral fields), or a Masters in Social Work, you’re likely to talk about social enterprise, or community service, goals in your application. For some, this will be your primary objective – those of you seeking careers in the non-profit sector, for…
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…
Ten Do’s and Don’ts for Your Application Essay
The Application Essay Do’s: 1. Unite your essay and give it direction with a theme or thesis. The thesis is the main point you want to communicate. 2. Before you begin writing, choose what you want to discuss and the order in which you want to discuss it. 3. Use concrete examples from your life…
4 Must-Haves in Residency Personal Statements
To get into medical school, you explained why you wanted to be a physician. Now that you’re an M.D./D.O., you need to show them you’ve got what it takes to be a valuable addition to a medical team. To that end, your personal statement should give the residency committee a taste of what you’re all…
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