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Grad's Guide to Graduate Admissions Essays

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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.

Chapter 4: Sample Personal Statements and Application Essays

Easy writing makes hard reading.

—Ernest Hemingway

As a graduate student taking fiction writing workshops many moons ago, I recall what was most motivating to me as a creative writer. It wasn’t the reading of published or award-winning work, and it wasn’t the classroom critique given on high from the professor nor the scribble from my classmates on my manuscripts. All these things were helpful and valuable, but nothing motivated me more than comparing my fiction to the work of my peers. As I read their work carefully, both objectively and subjectively, I found myself thinking at times that I was sure I could write better than the others around me at the seminar table—then I’d read an artful, poignant story that made me wonder whether I could ever even compete.

Perhaps somewhere between these two attitudes is the most profitable approach when studying the work of your peers. In critiquing the work of others who essentially represent your competition, you should take a respectful stance both critical and kind, just as selection committee members are likely to do. The sample essays in this chapter represent personal stories that are intriguing, diverse, complex, honest, and humanizing. These samples present opportunities for you to study, admire, question, emulate, reject, and—most importantly—consider how to present the best, truest, most effective picture of yourself, carefully refined for the eyes of others.

Websites with sample personal statements abound. Here are two:

Sample personal statements from indeed.com

Sample personal statements including reader comments from studential.com

Short Essay Samples

Below is a pdf link to personal statements and application essays representing strong efforts by students applying for both undergraduate and graduate opportunities. These ten essays have one thing in common: They were all written by students under the constraint of the essay being 1-2 pages due to the target program’s explicit instructions. In such circumstances, writers must attend carefully to the essay prompt (sometimes as simple as “Write a one-page summary of your reasons for wanting to pursue graduate study”) and recognize that evaluators tend to judge these essays on the same fundamental principles, as follows:

• First, you are typically expected to provide a window into your personal motivations, offer a summary of your field, your research, or your background, set some long-term goals, and note specific interest in the program to which you are applying.
• Second, you are expected to provide some personal detail and to communicate effectively and efficiently. Failure to do so can greatly limit your chances of acceptance.

Good writers accomplish these tasks by immediately establishing each paragraph’s topic and maintaining paragraph unity, by using concrete, personal examples to demonstrate their points, and by not prolonging the ending of the essay needlessly. Also, good writers study the target opportunity as carefully as they can, seeking to become an “insider,” perhaps even communicating with a professor they would like to work with at the target program, and tailoring the material accordingly so that evaluators can gauge the sincerity of their interest

Overview of Short Essay Samples

Geological sciences samples.

In the pdf link below, the first two one-page statements written by students in the geological sciences are interesting to compare to each other. Despite their different areas of research specialization within the same field, both writers demonstrate a good deal of scientific fluency and kinship with their target programs.

Geography Student Sample

The short essay by a geography student applying to an internship program opens with the writer admitting that she previously had a limited view of geography, then describing how a course changed her way of thinking so that she came to understand geography as a “balance of physical, social, and cultural studies.” Despite her limited experience, she shows that she has aspirations of joining the Peace Corps or obtaining a law degree, and her final paragraph links her interests directly to the internship program to which she is applying.

Materials Sciences Student Sample

For the sample from materials sciences, directed at an internal fellowship, the one-page essay has an especially difficult task: The writer must persuade those who already know him (and thus know both his strengths and limitations) that he is worthy of internal funds to help him continue his graduate education. He attempts this by first citing the specific goal of his research group, followed by a brief summary of the literature related to this topic, then ending with a summary of his own research and lab experience.

Teach for America Student Sample

The student applying for the Teach for America program, which recruits recent college graduates to teach for two years in underprivileged urban and rural public schools, knows that she must convince readers of her suitability to such a demanding commitment, and she has just two short essays with which to do so. She successfully achieves this through examples related to service mission work that she completed in Ecuador before entering college.

Neuroscience Student Sample

The sample essay by a neuroscience student opens with narrative technique, telling an affecting story about working in a lab at the University of Pittsburgh. Thus we are introduced to one of the motivating forces behind her interest in neuroscience. Later paragraphs cite three undergraduate research experiences and her interest in the linked sciences of disease: immunology, biochemistry, genetics, and pathology.

Medieval Literature Student Sample

This sample essay immerses us in detail about medieval literature throughout, eventually citing several Irish medieval manuscripts. With these examples and others, we are convinced that this student truly does see medieval literature as a “passion,” as she claims in her first sentence. Later, the writer repeatedly cites two professors and “mentors” whom she has already met, noting how they have shaped her highly specific academic goals, and tying her almost headlong approach directly to the National University of Ireland at Maynooth, where she will have flexibility in designing her own program.

Beinecke Scholarship Student Sample

The Beinecke Scholarship essay is written by a junior faced with stiff competition from a program that awards $34,000 towards senior year and graduate school. This student takes an interesting theme-based approach and projects forward toward graduate school with confidence. This writer’s sense of self-definition is particularly strong, and her personal story compelling. Having witnessed repeated instances of injustice in her own life, the writer describes in her final paragraphs how these experiences have led to her proposed senior thesis research and her goal of becoming a policy analyst for the government’s Department of Education.

Online Education Student Sample

Written during a height of US involvement in Iraq, this essay manages the intriguing challenge of how a member of the military can make an effective case for on-line graduate study. The obvious need here, especially for an Air Force pilot of seven years, is to keep the focus on academic interests rather than, say, battle successes and the number of missions flown. An additional challenge is to use military experience and vocabulary in a way that is not obscure nor off-putting to academic selection committee members. To address these challenges, this writer intertwines his literacy in matters both military and academic, keeping focus on applications of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), his chosen field of graduate study.

Engineer Applying to a Master’s Program Sample

This example shows that even for an engineer with years of experience in the field, the fundamentals of personal essay writing remain the same. This statement opens with the engineer describing a formative experience—visiting a meat packaging plant as a teenager—that influenced the writer to work in the health and safety field.  Now, as the writer prepares to advance his education while remaining a full-time safety engineer, he proves that he is capable by detailing examples that show his record of personal and professional success. Especially noteworthy is his partnering with a government agency to help protect workers from dust exposures, and he ties his extensive work experience directly to his goal of becoming a Certified Industrial Hygienist.

Sample Resumes

Frequently, graduate school or scholarship applications provide an option or requirement for you to submit a resume to complement your other written material. The two sample resumes provided in the link below offer good examples of what graduate schools and scholarship committees look for in a resume (or “curriculum vitae,” which is typically a lengthier resume with an academic and research focus).

Overview of Short Sample Resume

The writer of the short sample resume in the pdf below wisely excludes the usual “Objective” section (needless for a graduate application) and focuses instead on his education. Note how he briefly discusses his thesis research and lists his key courses—information he hopes will be of special interest to the selection committee. With little meaningful work experience in the field, the writer simply summarizes his experience briefly and lists activities, some of which relate to his field of study. Standing alone, this resume will not help the student rise above other applicants, some of whom are bound to have paid work experience in the field. However, it will be helpful to the application, particularly when joined with the student’s corresponding personal statement.

Overview of Lengthy Sample Resume (Curriculum Vitae)

With curriculum vitae tailored to graduate school or scholarships, the category headings can be determined both by the writer’s strengths and by the selectors’ needs. Thus, the sample three-page curriculum vitae in the pdf below focuses on languages, international experience, and leadership positions. Note how the writer effectively uses subcategories to underscore a diversity of experience, ranging from political involvement to research. She describes volunteer positions as thoroughly as one would describe a job. Also, she uses various formatting strategies, including ample white space, selective indentation, and boldface of parallel headings to allow for easy visual scanning of her credentials. Clearly, this student has a lot of offer in her chosen field of political science.

Lengthy Essay Samples

The lengthy sample essays in the pdf link below showcase writers who, to varying degrees, took chances or simply reached higher. Not only did these writers compose lengthy essays (still within prescribed word-count limits), but in many cases they did something bold with content, form, or personality.

In these samples, length can readily be justified by the fact that these are writers who don’t necessarily fall into “typical” student categories but nevertheless are applying to graduate programs or for scholarships. To be competitive, these writers decided to stand out by telling their stories in a way that they hoped would set them apart from, and above, the crowd. A common thread linking these diverse writers is their obvious confidence that:

• their essays matter to the selection committee, and
• their essays will be both noticeable and noticed.

Overview of Lengthy Essay Samples

Mechanical engineering student sample.

In the first sample essay from mechanical engineering, what stands out immediately are the length and the photographs. In this case, the student was applying for an engineering scholarship, so he was given room to flesh out technical material as well as address issues such as personal motivations one would expect to read in a personal statement. Much of the essay is given to a discussion of his thesis work, which involves the examination of “the propagation of a flame in a small glass tube.” The figures depict the experimental work and represent the success of preliminary thesis results, visually indicating the likely point at which the flame reached detonation.

Liberal Arts Student Sample

The three-page personal statement by the liberal arts student is interesting in that it is often intentionally abstract and a bit philosophical. This student attended a small liberal arts school that promotes a “Think, Evolve, Act” theme to its students, and this student reflects on this theme and embraces it in his own life from the beginning of the essay. In his curriculum, he has taken a course on Gandhi and Nonviolence, studied abroad in Belgium, and self-designed a program of “Peace and Conflict Studies with an emphasis in Technological Revolution.” He has also taken a ten-day service learning trip to Costa Rica, studied at the Institute of Gandhian Studies in India, served part-time as an assistant to a member of the European Parliament, and written a paper entitled “A Knowledge-Based Society and the Digital Divide.” Meanwhile, he plans to graduate with distinction in both of his majors. In jazz terms, this student certainly does seem to have the chops.

Film Student Sample

One way to get a sense of the daring of this personal statement, written by a student who aims to study film at Columbia University, is simply to consider the allusions he makes throughout his statement. With neither apology nor obvious humility, this writer makes references to Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean Vigo, Terrence Malick, and David Gordon Green. Further, this writer takes the unusual step of using section headings in his personal statement, including, on his first page “Poetry,” “Plastics,” and “Children.” But no matter how creative this writer is, of course, we must ultimately judge him on his evidenced ability as a filmmaker. In that regard, he showcases his ease with talking about films and directors, posits an analogy about student filmmaking (“directing your own material is like parenting”), and discusses the success of his nineteen-minute senior project, “Burying Dvorak”—a film he promoted by taking a year off after graduation, successfully landing it in more than 20 film festivals. As he closes his essay, he makes a specific pitch for Columbia University, where he hopes to continue “to discover my own voice, my own poetry.”

Biological Science Student Sample

For the lengthy sample essay from the student in biological science, the extensive length and scientific depth are necessary because the student is applying for the highly competitive STAR Fellowship. The STAR (Science to Achieve Results) program offers graduate fellowships through the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), funding several years of study. Given the competitiveness of the process and the EPA’s mission of environmental protection, it is vital that this student presents a viable, environmentally important project in a persuasive, professional manner. To achieve this, the writer successfully approaches the essay as she would a thesis proposal, using science-related section heads, providing original figures and data, focusing heavily on future research goals, and essentially performing a literature review, citing 19 sources ranging from basic textbooks to refereed journals. The result is a powerful essay with scientific depth.

Professional Essay Samples

Sample essays for professional school—written by students applying for business, law, or medical school—are abundant online, and they also can be highly specialized. Many medical schools require two separate applications: one directly to the target school itself and one through the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) , both of which usually require essays. Both law and business schools also often require multiple essays of their applicants, with questions ranging from details about your personal background to questions asking you to write an essay exploring a controversial issue. Therefore, I provide just a few samples of professional essays here in the pdf link below, referring you to online sites in the “Self-Study” box below for further study and targeted samples.

For students applying to professional schools who desire further advice and samples, I do recommend three books throughout this manual, all available for purchase online:

• Mark Alan Stewart’s How to Write the Perfect Personal Statement .
• Donald Asher’s Graduate Admissions Essays .
• Richard Stelzer’s How to Write a Winning Personal Statement for Graduate and Professional School .

In addition to these books all having a well-established and positive reputation, they offer insights from the admissions officers themselves at professional programs, thus giving readers an inside track as to what will be expected of them in both the application essays and the overall application process. With each of these books costing less than the price of most professional school application fees, they’re all well worth the investment.

Overview of Professional Essay Samples

Pharmacy student sample.

The sample essay from a pharmacy student was written during the student’s sophomore year and before she had experience in the field. Therefore, she chose to highlight her attitude towards and seriousness about her future path of study.  She also discusses pre-pharmacy courses she has already completed and stresses her academic success.

Law School Student Sample

The student applying to law school to study environmental law immediately persuades readers of his commitment by telling a personal story of how environmental law affected his family business. He also traces his educational path from community college to a bachelor’s program, where he completed a technical senior thesis with ties to a government agency. With law schools just as interested in recruiting students with a diverse background and life experience as they are with seeking pre-law majors, this student builds a strong case for himself as a candidate in just one page.

Business School Student Sample

The two business application essays, written by the same applicant, are in response to questions posed by an MBA program, which is especially interested in how candidates take risks and overcome challenges. The writer handles the first question, which allows for one page to describe a personal risk and its impact, by vividly recounting a life-changing 3500-mile bike trip he took across the US with his brother at the age of 21. The second essay gives applicants two pages to describe a challenging team experience and their contributions to its success. Here, the writer has the advantage of having already worked in business for a few years after completing his bachelor’s degree, so he wisely turns to his most successful team experience at his company, where he was a project leader.

Short Medical School Student Sample

With medical school applications sometimes asking very focused questions with short answer responses, this student uses the small amount of space allotted to explain why she’s applying to med school by describing how she applied creative thinking to working with a disabled patient in a clinic. Here we recognize that the writer has the sensibility to respond individually to her future patients with respect.

For advice specific to writing essays for professional school, turn to targeted websites such as these:

The website thedoctorjob.com, which includes blog articles on writing personal essays for medical school

“Law School Personal Statements Advice” article from top-law-schools.com

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Graduate School Essay

Graduate school essay generator.

There are people who have plans to go beyond a bachelor’s degree. I salute you for going beyond just a bachelor’s degree, while others prefer to stay as it is. Which is really fine. For those who do want to go back to school by taking up a master’s degree, they have to go back to basics. Which means, they have to go and apply like they did when they were taking up their bachelor’s degree. Yes, this means that it’s going to be another round of essays. Hear me out, writing an application essay is not at all that bad. Let me explain.

When we want to be admitted to a school or a university, we are told to write an essay . This essay is our key to getting that spot. So writing an application essay for graduate school does not sound all that bad. It’s basically the same thing, and yet it’s not. It’s so much more. What do I mean? What I mean is, there are some things that you need to know when you want to write your own graduate school application essay. Stick around for more. Trust me, this article will help you get there.

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What Is a Graduate School Essay?

First of all, I did mention that writing an essay is not as bad as it looks. I am serious about that, and with that in mind, let’s start off by defining what a graduate school essay is, the purpose and importance. So a graduate school essay is basically your key to getting a spot in the school you are hoping to enroll in too. Your essay is going to be the requirement that they need from you. So this means that your graduate school essay is going to be about you, your goals in life which could be short term or long term. In addition to that, the interests that you have and the reason as to why you plan to take up your grad school in that school.

Lastly, a graduate school essay should follow the format of a regular application essay. This means that you have to watch what you write. Focus more on who you are so that the committee would be able to get even a glimpse of you as a person. As for the purpose, it’s like an autobiography that you write to introduce yourself to the world. Your essay is not just a requirement but in a way defines who you are and if you are the right candidate for this grad school.

How to Write a Graduate School Essay?

Now that we know what a graduate school essay looks like as well as the purpose of a graduate school essay, you may be anticipating on how to write a good graduate school essay that could seriously knock those committees out. I know I am. Here we have five ways to write a good graduate school essay. Excited? Check these out now .

1. Do Your Research

I know what you are going to say, why do I need to do my research? What this means is that get to know or at least have an idea as to what the committee may be looking for. If you have even just a general idea as to what they may expect from your admission essay, you’re good to go. However, if you have no idea as to what they may ask of you or what they want you to write, you have to do your research. It’s better to be safe than sorry and you won’t have to waste your time rewriting your essay.

2. Make It Personal as You Can

Not to the point wherein they would know where you live, rather make your essay as personal as you can get. This means that it does not sound or look generic. It does not look as if you just copied something down and changed some words to make it look like your own. They can tell the difference, besides, writing a personal admission essay is quite rewarding. You get to pour out your feelings which are basically personal. This way the committee is able to know that you are quite serious with what you are doing and this is not just what others may call a phase. You are really committed to your graduate school, so let it show through your writing.

3. Get To Know Your Graduate School Degree

It goes without saying, the school committee may ask you a trick question, and often than not the trick question usually involves why did you choose this school over the other schools that offer the same thing. Be careful how you answer this kind of question, as the committees are going to be reading your answers and will assess how serious and true what you wrote. You can always add that you have been interested in their school since then and say a few nice words that do not sound forced either.

4. Add a Short Anecdote to Your Essay

The short anecdote for your essay has to fit with your essay as well as it has to contain something that can give you an upboost. Do not however add an anecdote that may contain any misinformation or misunderstandings. As well as do not add an anecdote to your essay if it only makes your essay look unprofessional.

5. End Your Essay With a Positive Note

Lastly, end your essay with a positive note. End the essay with hopes and dreams filled out. Not only is this a good chance for you to get in to the school of your choice, but it also shows the committee that you trust them with your goals and aspirations.

What is a graduate school essay?

A graduate school essay is a kind of essay that a student or a potential student writes to get admitted to the school they choose. It focuses on the career, hopes, goals, aspirations and dreams of the student in question.

Why is it a requirement to write an admission essay?

It is a requirement of a school to ask students to write because from the essay, they are able to get to know the person. To get a glimpse of who this person is and their goals in life.

How long is an admission essay?

An admission essay can be as long as a whole page or two. Depending on the writer and how many words are required from the committee.

You see it now? Writing an admission essay is not that bad at all. It’s just about who you are as a person, your goals and dreams. The next time you are told to write an essay, think about it. Do your research, understand what is being asked of you. Make it personal but not too personal. Make it happen.

Text prompt

• Instructive
• Professional

Write a Graduate School Essay on your motivation for pursuing further education

Discuss your research interests and how they evolved in a Graduate School Essay