Graduate School Application Essays

1) Study up on the universities and departments you are applying to. The information you gather will give you a sense of what type of graduate student (interests, background, and abilities) the program may be looking for.

• Read the catalogues and other materials the universities/departments send you carefully.
• Learn about faculty members’ research interests using databases available in their respective fields (MLA for literature and linguistics, ERIC for composition and rhetoric, etc.).
• Visit the departments’ websites. Look for information on courses that have been offered recently. Look for a departmental mission statement or statement of philosophy. Look for pages authored by graduate student organizations in the department.
• Ask faculty or friends who may have contacts at the program you are interested in for information.
• If at all possible, schedule campus visits and meet with the school’s faculty. It will give you a first-hand opportunity to learn more about the goals and interests of the department, and may also enable the professors that review your essay to put a face to the name.

2) Follow instructions. Sometimes applicants are rejected simply for not following instructions.

• If the instructions say “write one page,” then write only one page. If the instructions say “write a statement of purpose,” then write a statement of purpose, and so on.
• Don’t send out one-size-fits-all application essays. Each school asks for something slightly different, and your application essay should be pitched directly to what they asked for.

3) Avoid clichéd responses. You’re trying to sell yourself to this program on your unique qualities. Clichés make you sound just like everyone else.

• Lots of people applying to graduate school in English say that they have “always loved to read literature.” Graduate schools in English are not actually looking for people who “love to read.” They are looking for people who have the potential to contribute to the field through research and teaching.
• Lots of people applying to graduate school in law say that they “want to be the champion of the underdog.” Law schools aren’t looking for people on a mission to save the oppressed. They are looking for people who can dedicate themselves to long hours in libraries and who can master the intellectual and professional challenges of this hierarchically organized field.

4) Answer the question “why should we accept you?” You’re answer should be designed to convince your readers that you are the right fit for their program. Cover some of the following:

• Why this field of study?
• Why this department at this university?
• How do your goals/interests dovetail with the program’s/faculty’s strengths?
• Any personal information you provide should be connected to your professional goals and interests. (They don’t actually want to know your life story, even when they ask for it.)
• Use rhetorical techniques to keep the readers interested. (Remember: sometimes they have to read hundreds of these essays. You don’t want them to fall asleep during yours.)

5) Revise! All successful writers revise, even if it isn’t their favorite thing to do. If you want to be successful, you need to revise too.

• Try alternative organizational patterns, by cutting paragraphs out of your draft and moving them around on a table top.
• Try different discursive styles (organize around a metaphor, lead with an anecdote, focus on an important scholarly theme).
• Get feedback from the Writing Center, from teachers, from the Career Development Center, from friends, and from contacts in the field.