Standing Out

Earlier today Amber and I had a conversation with one of our good friends on a subject that is very near and dear to the heart of anyone who has applied to graduate school. It is a subject that is also very much a sore spot for these same people. This subject is of course the graduate school application process. It begins with hours and hours of preparation for the GMAT. After this necessary unnecessary task of taking the test is completed, (sometimes taken many times!) the search for the perfect school has to be preformed. Once the list has been narrowed down to a few choice selections the application process must be completed. A large part of this task is the essay writing process. The questions usually sound something like this:

• Why our school?
• What are your short and long-term career objectives?
• How and why will a degree from our school, combined with your past experiences, enable you to achieve objectives?
• How would you make the world a better place?
• What are your strengths and weaknesses?
• Tell us about a time that you failed at something that was important to you.

Response can have require lengths ranging from 100 up to as much as 1500 which means that it can be very difficult to stand out from the crowd. The answer to this one involves getting help from people who have gone through the same process because guess what: they have probably all gone through the same thought process. It's reading the questions and then staring at the blank screen. You find yourself wishing that the essays would write themselves but unfortunately they won't. It can get very discouraging. It can feel as if you're spinning your wheels; you can feel like you getting nowhere fast.

My only advice is this: don't be afraid to read other essays so as to explore different writing styles and ideas -they can really get the creative juices working. Once written have your friends read them over for you and be ready and open to criticism remembering that it is all constructive. It was you after all who asked them for the help. If this is impossible to accept their input without taking offense then try not to use someone that you live with.

Happy writing!