Some schools designate admissions essay questions, and some go a little bit non-traditional by throwing applicants open-ended questions. As an applicant whose goal is to please the admissions panel in every way possible, you have to answer the assigned questions well. Some may think that essays with open-ended questions are hard to write. While it’s true that they could be challenging, that’s also where the fun comes from. Read on and know how to respond to such questions.
Accept the challenge and have fun
Open-ended essay questions are a challenge. Instead of bemoaning your lot, count yourself lucky. This is because such questions provide much room for creativity. Open-ended questions give you more freedom to be creative and free when writing your personal statement. The first step to answering these questions is to determine the things that the admissions panel would want to know about you. Look for the keywords on these questions. They can give you clues or drop hints. After you have determined what to include on your essay, think of a creative way to present them.
Strike a balance on your admissions essay
While it is true that creativity can make your essay attention-grabbing, overdoing it will harm your application. Be warned then. You have to use just enough dose of creativity. You have to keep in mind that you are writing for the admissions panel and not for your creative writing professor. Your primary goal is still to introduce yourself to your readers and make them see you as a good candidate for admissions.
Your admissions essay can give you the best chance to beat other equally qualified applicants. This is why you have to write one that’s well-thought of. Whatever questions are thrown at you, you have to respond to them as best as you can.
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Outline:
I. Introduction
A. Heroic deeds and being a hero
B. Equating hero with the ability/opportunity to save a life
C. Nurses have a calling for compassion, charity, and to save lives
D. Quote from Pettengill
II. How my background is an inspiration to become a nurse
A. In my family setting alone, as the 4th born of seven, I often had the job of taking care of my siblings and my aunt’s children as well.
B. Growing up in Africa, I often saw many people around me in need of medical aid.
C. Unfortunately, not all people could afford medical services, and seeing this forged in me a desire to enter into the field of medicine where I could make a difference.
D. Now I have a calling to gain proper training, experience, and education from the United States in a four-year nursing college, then return to Africa where I can help those in need.
III. Tying in my aspirations and my application
A. I believe that this is the nursing school that can give me the proper preparation I need to become a great nurse.
B. My devotion and drive to reach my aspirations
C. For me, it isn’t just about being a hero, but it is also about doing what you can to help those around you and if I am able to save a life while I’m at it, then I will be one of the happiest and blessed people on earth because of it.
Excerpt:
Though there are many feats that can be considered heroic, I believe that one of the highest and most noble of heroic feats is to save a life. I believe that saving a life is the ultimate form of care and the epitome of what it means to make a difference in someone’s life. This is why it is my utmost desire and my driving passion to become a nurse – someone with the chance to show compassion, give charity to others, and have the opportunity to save lives. I believe a registered nurse by the name of Erin Pettengill said it best: “We often think of nursing as giving meds on time, checking an X-ray to see if the doctor needs to be called, or taking an admission at 2:00 a.m. with a smile on our faces. Too often, we forget all the other things that make our job what it truly is—caring and having a desire to make a difference.”
The details are necessary for your personal statement. The details are the elements that reveal your personality to the admissions panel. E Education can help you generate details for your personal statement. Read the article to know some of these tips.
Pay attention to the prompt or question
Always begin by discerning the criteria of the question itself. Sometimes you’ll just be given a broad sweeping statement such as Discuss those personal qualities you think will aid the committee in making its decision. Such a statement is highly open to interpretation, yet there is definitely a wrong way to go about answering it as well–for instance, discussing your charm, financial hardship, or ability as a magician would be completely off target. More often, you’ll be given a more concrete, clear prompt with criteria imbedded.
There’s no right or wrong in answering the question designated by the school, but there’s such a thing as the best way of answering it.
Include your motivations on your admissions essay
Some writers open their statement with an inspiring quote or a narrative (discussed further in Chapter 3), while others make a comment about their academic discipline. What matters is that readers have clear context through your opening, and that we understand immediately that you are talking about something of motivational meaning to you. Briefly sketch out a positive influence: a memorable self-defining experience, a high school or college project that ignited deeper interest, an inspiring teacher or role model, a relative who followed a career path that you emulate–even a core theme that will carry through the rest of your essay.
Your inspirations and motivations are interesting things that you can use to reveal more about yourself.
Talk about accomplishments
some writers might desire to be creative throughout their personal statement, but a more traditional route is to open the second or third paragraph with a discussion of academic background or research in relation to skills you have acquired. Certainly, work experience could be relevant as well, especially if you were a teaching assistant for a class and you plan on holding an assistantship in graduate school, but you must be careful not to rehearse resume-like details.
Just be careful not to sound boastful when you talk about your accomplishments. You have to remember, however, that there are certain things that need to be left out. According to this site:
There are certain things best left out of personal statements. For example, references to experiences or accomplishments in high school or earlier are generally not a good idea.
This is right since you have to carefully choose the accomplishments that you should mention in your essay.
You have to make sure that the details in your admissions essay are worth noting. If they’re not really life changing don’t include them.
The body of your personal statement is as important as the introduction and the conclusion. If the intro of your essay is excellent but the body is not, the admissions panel would not read your personal statement in its entirety. But how can you structure a body that would serve as an effective bridge between the intro and conclusion? Students Berkeley gives tips on how to make an effective and well-structured body.
Contents of your admission essay body
A topic sentence that expands your theme and makes a transition from the previous paragraph
Development of ideas that support your essay’s theme
An ending sentence that wraps up the paragraph and helps to transition into the next paragraph
The first paragraph is a support for your theme. The other paragraphs also support the theme. But the strongest and most important supporting item is the fist paragraph.
Guide question for the first paragraph of the body
What are my values and philosophies about my theme? What is the basis of these values?
Body Paragraphs 2-4
What accomplishment am I most proud of, and why?
What incident or event provides evidence of my responsibility, and how?
What difficulties or disadvantages have I faced and how did I overcome them? (This is especially important if you are applying for the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP).
What is one area in which I am weak, and how have I overcome it
You have to ensure to ensure that the answers are connected by excellent transitional tools. Avoid using simplistic transitions to connect the ideas.
The body of your essay should be free from grammatical errors. You have to edit it very carefully because it is as important as the beginning and the end of your essay. This site shares some editing tips to free your essays from flaws.
edit the text for clarity, the paragraphs for strength and purpose, the structure for logic, and the completed essay for message and style.
Show your edited draft to a friend or two. Ask them if it sounded engaging, like you, and like you meant it. Listen carefully to their reactions to see if they understood your meaning and to hear their reactions.
Letting others read your essay is better because they can spot the errors you might have missed.
The body of your admission essay should be attention-grabbing like your intro. It should also be filled with relevant content. And you also have to ensure that the sentences on your essay’s body are organized.
Law school is one of the popular destinations of those who want to pursue a graduate study. Pursuing a career in law has several advantages. Aside from this, if you are a graduate of law school, you would surely have a bright career ahead of you. If you decide to take law, you can have a wide range of options for the field which you are going to be concentrating on. These include tribal law, international law, criminal law, and environmental law.(1) To increase your chances of landing that spot in your dream school, here are some things you can highlight in your admissions essay.
Point #1: Highlight what your academic records do not show.
Although your academic records are very important, you still have to remember that these records are not the sole basis for your application. You can still have chances to be qualified for the law school that you want if you submit a notable personal statement. As you can observe in many sample law school personal statements, interesting information about the applicants, which are not found in resumes and test results, are the topics discussed. You have to keep in mind that your essay is your chance to introduce who you really are to the admissions committee.(2)
Point #2: Highlight your role in your family.
Giving the impression that you are responsible and dependable can help you make it to the ladder of success. That’s why mentioning the important role you play in the family is a good topic. You can talk about the contributions you make in order to maintain harmony in your household. Read various sample law school personal statements to guide you in writing your own.
Point #3: Highlight your mistakes and what you’ve learned from them.
Although writing your personal statement means selling yourself, it does not mean you have to portray an ideal side of yourself. You have to remember that the admissions committee wants a sincere and honest applicant.(3) So it is best that you also talk about your mistakes and shortcomings, but never forget to highlight the lessons you have learned from these mistakes.
Read lots of sample personal statements so you will have an idea on how to make an essay that would grab the attention of the admissions officers. You can get personal statement samples from your friends, teachers, and from various sources online.
(1) http://www.law.harvard.edu/index.html
(2) www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/personal_statement.shtml
(3) http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/FS/essays.html
One of the most important steps in getting admitted to graduate school is writing a scholarship essay that will stand out. Unlike your resume, your scholarship essay will provide a more in-depth description of who you are, perhaps through anecdotes and tales that will highlight your values and experiences. To write a winning personal statementm you may want to find a good personal statement sample that will serve as a guide.
Where can you find a free sample personal statement essay?
When stuck on what to write for your admission essay, you can use a personal statement sample to help you in writing your own. You don’t have to go anywhere else just to find a sample personal statement. The Internet is a good source, and you don’t even have to spend a penny for a sample article. You can get tips from these samples, and see how your own essay compares to their creativity, flow, and content.
What should you look out for when choosing free samples?
When you go over the samples, you should observe how these essays were structured. You should try to analyze the questions that the essays are trying to answer.(1) You should note the technique the writers used in order to make their personal statements for graduate school seem more engaging. It is also neccessary to observe how the essays develop a theme and unify several main ideas and sub-topics. It pays to know how authors do transitions from one idea to another to make the sentences run smoothly.(2)
How can you use these free samples as references?
You should use the free samples only as a guide. Remember that you have your own experiences and qualities to tell. Note what makes articles stand out, and see if you can use this technique to your own writing.(3) After you have written your own, try to read it aloud to see how well it sounds and if the admissions officers would be delighted to hear about your application.
(1) http://www.californiacolleges.edu/admissions/university-of-california-uc/personal-statement.asp
(2) http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/personal_statement.shtml
(3) http://www.ilc.cuhk.edu.hk/english/resource/Personal%20Statements/index.html
Your success is not the only thing that matters in your personal statement for college. The admissions committee will also give due consideration to your failures and mistakes as part of who you really are. Admissions officers also note how you deal with disappointments to assess if you can really make it through college. After all, college life is not all about opportunities, it also has its own share of difficulties. Your failure can be an interesting detail in your life that made you learn a valuable lesson.(1) This is why including the mistakes that you made in high school in your personal statement for college can also be a good way to tell the admissions committee what you can do and endure to be successful. There is no need for you to write about every mistake you committed in high school, but you only have to choose one that you think changed you a great deal.
Stating what you did to correct the mistake
“To err is human,” and so failures can be considered as part of the experiences in life that will help you grow into a better individual. If you write your story well, the admissions panel will give credit for your willingness to admit your shortcomings and talk about yourself more openly, aside from bragging what an ideal candidate you are. Writing about your shortcomings can also work to your advantage.(2) All that’s needed for you to do is to highlight the things that you’ve done to make up for these. Just be sincere in stating certain experiences and how these events in your life changed you.(3)
Applying what you have learned from your mistake
A well-written sample personal statement can be your guide on how to make past mistakes seem like a life-changing moment for you. Remember not to dwell on the negative but to concentrate on the positive aspects of this experience. A personal statement sample can be your guide to see how authors made an exceptional piece based on this theme.
(1) http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/642/01/
(2) http://www.grinnell.edu/academic/writinglab/writers/includes/doug_cutchins.pdf
(3) http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/FS/essays.html
