Grad’s Guide to Graduate Admissions Essays: Examples from Real Students

Book Preface

Grad’s Guide to Graduate Admissions Essays provides more than 50 successful admissions essays straight from the source—recent Georgetown University graduates making the transition to earning advanced degrees at highly selective graduate programs. Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Duke, Stanford, Cornell, and Northwestern are just a few of the universities to which these students were admitted. The goal of the guide is to provide reassurance that you don’t have to write your essay about the successful tech start-up you founded or groundbreaking research publication you drafted in order to be accepted at some of the world’s most competitive and prestigious programs.

At the same time, that essay you wrote for undergraduate admissions about your high school basketball team’s triumph at regionals isn’t going to cut it anymore. Highlighting experiences that give insight into your personality, your life experiences, and your commitment to furthering your education is the key to any successful statement. Admissions officers want to see leadership skills, a passion for the chosen field of study, and sincerity in the writing. In addition to conveying these qualities, it is important to also ensure that your essay is well-written, as this essay serves as a writing sample for the admissions committee. This guidebook gives a multitude of examples of successful essays in terms of content as well as format and provides tips ranging from how to brainstorm effectively to how to structure the essay. Crafting a strong essay is no easy task, and it may be difficult to determine where to begin, but you’ve come to the right place.

While utilizing Grad’s Guide to Graduate Admission Essays as you begin drafting your own essay, be sure to read all essays, not just the ones matching your own desired degree. Whether applying to medical school or to a Ph.D. program in anthropology, the same key elements remain essential to creating effective admissions essays. Additionally, when reading the essays, it is important to keep in mind that the essay is not the only factor that plays into admissions decisions. The authors of these essays were admitted to their programs of choice for a variety of reasons, including test scores, academic achievements, professional experience, and other admissions criteria. The essays are provided as a means for you to begin thinking about what works and where to start, while receiving valuable advice from the essays’ authors.

In business school, you learn through case studies, in law school you learn from previous court decisions, and within the humanities field, you will be drawing on the teachings of scholars. No matter which graduate program or profession you select, learning by example will inevitably be a critical piece of your academic endeavors. Because of that, this guidebook is not structured by a series of lessons on personal statements followed by some samples. Instead, let the successful admissions essays included in this work be your guide. Not only will the following essays assist you with providing insight into best practices, but the authors have also included their own pieces of advice for navigating through the admissions process. From determining how to explain a career shift within your essay to making the decision to return to school in the first place, every graduate school decision you may be facing has been tackled before. Why not take advice from those who have survived the application process and successfully gained admission to the schools of their choice?

Within this guidebook, you will review essays that fall within the category of personal statements, statements of purpose, and those that respond to specific prompts. It is essential that you follow the guidelines of the particular programs to which you are applying to ensure that you are providing the universities with the information that they are seeking. Personal statements tend to offer the most freedom to choose a topic that allows readers to learn something new about you that might not be found elsewhere in the application. Statements of purpose should include details that expand on what you plan to pursue academically and what led you to the determination that graduate study is the next step for you. Finally, when writing within a specific prompt, ensure that you are answering all parts of the question, but remember to think creatively and also use the opportunity to demonstrate your writing skills.