Grad's Guide to Graduate Admissions Essays

Examples From Real Students Who Got Into Top Schools

Colleen Reding

• Editore: Routledge
• Anno: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000493177
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Pedagogía
• Categoria: Educación general

Grad's Guide to Graduate Admissions Essays provides more than 50 successful admissions essays straight from the source—recent college graduates making the transition to earning advanced degrees at highly selective graduate programs. Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, and Northwestern are just a few of the universities to which these students were admitted. Each of the essays contains designated segments highlighting the particular characteristics that make them outstanding admissions essays. Additionally, the essays are interspersed with segments labeled "Writer's Words of Wisdom, " which contain statements from the author of the particular essay with advice on the admissions process. By receiving guidance from successful graduate school applicants, readers can glean advice from a variety of perspectives, while still obtaining the critical information as it relates to well-written essays for programs within a variety of fields including law, business, medicine, education, and humanities.

PART 1
LAW

DOI: 10.4324/9781003235361-1

CHAPTER 1
University of Houston Law Center

DOI: 10.4324/9781003235361-2

Each successive door required a unique key. Buzzers sounded, signifying that the previous door was secured and the next could be opened. Two guarded driveways, one metal detector, and seven locking doors later, I was standing in Ward 10 on the top floor of a criminal mental hospital in the roughest area of Washington, DC. In what is certainly an intentional metaphor, the maximum-security patients are housed on the highest floor—a constant reminder of the distance to the doors to freedom. The words of the hospital psychologist were still ringing in my ears. "Never let a patient stand behind you," he warned, "And always wear closed-toed shoes because you could pick up a disease off the floor that you might never get rid of." With those intimidating words and a healthy dose of curiosity and adventure, I began my 4-year relationship with the men of St. Elizabeth's Hospital.

SETTING THE SCENE

The importance of using powerful descriptions cannot be overstated. Rather than simply stating that the author found her volunteer experience to be rewarding, the author takes time to give readers a glimpse into her weekly trip to St. Elizabeth's, allowing her personal statement to really come alive and create a memorable experience for readers.

In my experience, the only way to discover my true capacity is to step outside my comfort zone. With 4 years' worth of Friday afternoons spent playing board games alongside, writing poetry with, and generally just listening to men who have pled "not guilty by reason of insanity," I learned that my will to serve others is stronger than fear and stereotype as I have put a face—many faces—to the term "mental illness." These men were diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and sexual psychopathy, and committed crimes including rape and murder. Unlike a civil mental hospital where patients might only stay 2 weeks, most patients in this maximum-security forensic mental hospital stay upwards of 30 years, which allowed me to develop a rapport with certain patients over my college career. If the patients had family who visited when they were first institutionalized, they had long ago stopped coming, and we were generally the only visitors any patient received all week.

WRITER'S WORDS OF WISDOM

You don't have to have some out-of-this-world, once-in-a-lifetime experience to write a good essay. You can start with the seed of a small personal anecdote that doesn't seem to have any Earth-shattering significance and then grow it into a universal theme that is important to you or show how that anecdote is representative of you as a whole. Additionally, unless the prompt specifically asks, my gut feeling is to avoid the "why I want to be a lawyer" or the" I've wanted to be a lawyer since I was a kid" essay because admissions will read 10,000 of those. They know you want to be a lawyer—that's why you applied. Tell them something about you as a person.

I understood when a student joined our club one week but was scared off and never returned. I do not claim that this is the Friday afternoon activity for everyone, but I found my niche in St. Elizabeth's and I am glad the psychologist's warnings did not scare me off that first day. By my fourth year, the patients saw me as more than someone with whom to play Jenga, but as someone with whom they could confide. Some patients wanted to tell me about their crimes. Others spoke of their rediscovered faith and wanted to discuss Bible and Koran passages about repentance and forgiveness. One amazed me with his knowledge of the philosophies of Plato and Locke. Another studied the dictionary all week long in preparation for our weekly game of Scrabble and took great pride in beating all of the Georgetown students. Still there were others who did not interact with us at all except to stand and receive us with a handshake as we entered and exited.

Above all else, reflection on my time at St. Elizabeth's is a constant reminder of the tangible influence one person can exert on another's life. A patient once told me I was "the best part of his week," and I will never forget that. While I did not have the power to release patients from the mental hospital, petition to have their sentences reduced, or quiet the voices in their heads, I did have the power to commit to being there every Friday with a positive attitude and an open mind.

I do not claim that writing poetry with these men relates to law school or that it can speak to the kind of lawyer I will be, but this experience has forever changed what kind of person I am. Watching one man tenderly hold a picture of a 2-year-old little girl—his daughter—whom he hadn't seen in more than 15 years, I became more attuned to the loneliness of others. After hearing their stories of mental illness triggered by drug use, childhood abuse, and war, I became slower to judge and quicker to listen. When certain members of the staff suggested that we cease all physical contact with the patients, I became painfully aware of the inherent human need for the dignity that comes from a respectful handshake. I looked forward to most Fridays, but knowing how much they eagerly awaited our visits pushed me to make the trip on icy cold days or afternoons when I felt overwhelmed with schoolwork and, in the process, I noticed myself getting better at following through on all of my commitments. In 4 years, I witnessed verbal and physical altercations between patients, I was evacuated after a cryptic coded announcement, I saw the instability and felt the anxiety in the new arrivals, and I celebrated with those who were being moved down to medium security, only to watch them return to maximum security a few weeks later. In seeing the rawness and vulnerability of mental illness and incarceration in the men of St. Elizabeth's, I became more aware of my own humanity.

REALIZING CHARACTER COUNTS

In the author's account of this particular aspect of her life, readers not only learn about the author's interest in volunteering but also discover the author's other qualities of being humble and authentic without the author coming out and stating it.

CHAPTER 2
Fordham University School of Law

DOI: 10.4324/9781003235361-3

"Attention on the concourse: Continental Airlines flight 1285 to Washington, DC will be delayed an additional hour due to technical difficulties. We thank you for your patience." I found myself sitting in the Houston airport, waiting for the flight back to DC that now signaled the end of my workweek. The delay meant missing a friend's birthday party and spending my Friday night alone in an airport. Working as a paralegal in the Department of Justice hadn't exactly turned out the way I had anticipated.

This wasn't the first time that I had questioned my decision to leave my former job managing a cupcake shop. At that moment, I would have traded anything to worry about whether or not we had enough chocolate cupcakes to make it until closing instead of lying awake and wondering if I had made enough copies of our exhibits to publish to the jury the next day. It had been difficult leaving an exciting job at a rapidly expanding business where I managed more than 50 employees. But here was an opportunity to work in a field that I had become passionate about, having been exposed to both the judicial and the legislative sides of the law in several internship roles during my undergraduate years, at both the federal and state levels.

STAYING HUMBLE

The author conveys the ability to overcome difficult circumstances without bragging or coming across as overly confident.

Traveling each week was but one of the unforeseen challenges my new role would bring. My team was understaffed and underresourced and it quickly became apparent that I would not receive any training. I took it upon myself to learn the ropes, determined to excel quickly. After working for 6 weeks, I prepared my attorney coworkers for a 3-week trial with nine defendants. In addition to being away from home every week, having the weight of a federal trial on your shoulders was, to say the least, a bit overwhelming. However, I found that my organizational skills and ability to assess any issues or obstacles that arose in a logical and timely manner were essential to achieve what seemed to be an impossible goal. I learned quickly to adapt to last minute changes and to pay attention to the details, no matter how seemingly insignificant.

Despite the incredible stress inherent in working on a federal trial for the first time, the experience of sitting at the counsel table and watching the prosecutors firsthand was inspiring. My respect for our justice system, which at times still frustrates and disappoints even the truest of believers, grew tremendously, as did as my respect for the attorneys I worked with night and day to ensure we presented our case in a manner worthy of the federal courtroom where we spent each day I gained an enormous appreciation for the gravity of our work and its potential for impact on society as a whole.

Through many late nights in the courthouse, my motivation never faltered. In retrospect, I believe that the isolation of living in a strange place for five nights each week, and yes, even the anxiety of the entire experience, was perhaps the best thing that could have happened to help my concentration as I was transitioning into a new job that involved matters of such enormous consequence. After the guilty verdicts were read, and our chief litigator wrote to DC claiming that my drive to succeed was an indispensable part of the end result, my exhaustion was replaced by exhilaration and a profound motivation to do it again.

As I prepared myself to board my flight back to DC that Friday night, I considered all of the events that I bad missed back home and the friends and family members that I hadn't seen in months. Despite the sacrifices I'd made, I knew there was no going back from this invaluable experience. I had found a challenging and unique position that kept me driven each day and inspired me to work harder. As I boarded the plane, I knew that I would be on the flight back to Houston on Monday morning, eager to begin work on our next trial.

WRITER'S WORDS OF WISDOM

Before you apply to law school, make sure that practicing law is something that you are passionate and excited about. Spend some time working in or observing others in the legal field. If so, trust your instincts and stay driven.

CHAPTER 3
University of Chicago Law School

DOI: 10.4324/9781003235361-4

For a split second, the rat and I locked eyes. The critter casually continued gnawing at a crumb from my dinner before disappearing into my host Cindy's bedroom. I was indifferent and continued playing paper, rock, scissors with Cindy's three kids. Cindy was one of the women I worked with closely on the women's empowerment program I was interning for an international NGO in Malawi. She was a hefty-sized, incredibly jolly woman who commanded respect from whomever she met. About halfway through my time in Malawi, after my fondness for children had become painfully obvious, she invited me to her home so that I could play with her own kids.

WRITER'S WORDS OF WISDOM

If your grad program allows you to defer enrollment, seriously consider doing it. Deferrals give you an opportunity to do things you might not be able to do after grad school with the security of a spot at a grad program waiting for you. There's no rush to start school right after undergrad in the grand scheme of things.

That's when I found out that she was a widow. Guiltily, I realized I was not even surprised. In a country where one out of every 10 people is HIV positive, the devastating effects of one of recent history's most destructive and ruthless endemics somehow haunted practically everyone I had met. Everyone has a story. One more tragic than the next.

Strangely, I left Malawi not crippled with despair and grief, although I certainly fought such emotions throughout my stay, but filled with hope and inspired by the strength of the people of Malawi. I desperately wanted to return to Malawi; little did I know how soon that day would come.

While I was in Malawi that first summer, I became friendly with some of the teenagers who lived in the neighborhood I was staying in. At first, they were only eager to ask me if I had ever met Jennifer Lopez or Madonna, but they eventually began to share their personal lives with me. Most had lost a family member to AIDS. Many lived in poverty. Yet, they spent the most time recounting familiar teenage problems with their peers: gossip, boyfriend/girlfriend issues, jealousy, and petty theft. It dawned on me that these kids were facing the same growing pains every teenager experiences. When I asked them how they dealt with these issues, they said the teachers would usually punish them, occasionally beating or whipping them. Although I was disappointed with how these conflicts were handled, I understood that the teachers were overworked, underpaid, and understaffed and probably did not possess the time or resources to handle student conflicts in a more effective manner.

MAKING IT PERSONAL

Good essays will utilize an example of a meaningful experience to pinpoint interest in a given field. Great essays will go a step beyond and show how the author internalized the experience. Here, the author offers insight into why Malawi was so significant and how it continues to impact the author's life after Africa.

When I was back in the United States, I began thinking about my experiences as a peer mediator when I was in middle school. A group of students and I had been trained by a professional mediator in conflict resolution, listening, and communication skills in order to serve as peer mediators and assist fellow students in devising their own solutions to conflicts. My peers could come up with their own solutions, their own contracts, and their own laws to govern their relationships. Could this model be applied to Malawi? Initially, I was apprehensive. Who was I to go into an African country and impose a program that has only been tested in the West? Yet, the idea kept nagging at me. As someone who hopes to work toward advancing social justice in the world, I greatly value empowerment as a tool for change. Peer mediation is a fundamentally empowering concept for all involved, in that it provides students with agency over their own lives and trusts them to resolve their own issues without the intervention of an authority figure. Malawian students could be involved in something they could be proud of, something they could call their own, and something that would tangibly improve their direct community. When I saw the opportunity to apply for funding through a special grant, I went for it, pledging to myself that I would make every effort to make sure the project was contextually and culturally catered.

When the funding came through, I contacted every conflict resolution center and expert I could find and madly searched for a curriculum that had been successfully implemented in Africa. Although I found no such curriculum, I amassed valuable advice before heading back to Malawi. I worked with the NGO staff to change the role-plays and examples to situations familiar to local life. The staff and I identified two community schools that we thought would benefit from the program. The director of one of the schools was incredibly receptive. He explained to me that his teachers were tired of disciplining their students and that his students needed more leadership opportunities.

SHOWING INITIATIVE

The author does an excellent job of identifying a problem and detailing her proactive approach to tackling the implementation of her program.

As I stood in front of the students on the first day of training, I felt uncomfortable. Here I was, a White girl from America about to "teach"

students only a few years younger tha...

Indice dei contenuti

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• NOTES
• Introduction: Mastering the Admissions Essay
• PART 1: LAW
• PART II: BUSINESS
• PART III: MEDICINE/NURSING/HEALTH
• PART IV: GENERAL GRADUATE STUDIES
• Conclusion: Starting the Writing Process
• About the Author