This month, we had the very special opportunity to be working with a select group of Grad School Admissions Officers for our state.
So hey, that means they’re the read deal behind the admissions process! Who else would you want to get the best advice from?
They were interviewed and we collected a heap of advice from them about what it takes to get accepted into grad school. For the sake of anonymity, they requested their identities to be made anonymous. In this article, we take the best application tips and advice from their interview.
As a disclaimer, there are many other factors that also determine whether you get accepted into grad school. These are simply the most noteworthy ones that we found would maximize your admissions changes.
5 Application Tips From Grad School Admissions Officers.
1. Know Your College’s Website
Yup, you’d be just as surprised as us to know this one, but it’s true: Most people don’t explore the website or know the program that they’re applying for.
Typically, schools would structure their personal statements questions like this.
- Something that reveals a personality trait you have
- How does said thing manifest your personality trait
- How is that trait a good fit for the grad program you’re applying for?
That’s the trick here. People don’t just want to know how your grades stack up to others and who appears most competent. They also want to know who makes a good FIT! This is also another good reason why GPA is not always everything in the college admissions process. Your essays matter because they reveal things about yourself that tells the admissions officers, “I am the right person for this program; this is why you should pick me.”
Here’s an example: if you’re applying to grad school for Vanderbilt University, just go to their website and navigate through their respective pages so you know EXACTLY what you’re getting into. Why would this school’s program be a good fit for you? (Hint: they already know their about their prestige, good faculty, and a more advanced degree’s financial benefits. Say something else!)
Consider talking with a professional for a free consultation if you’re concerned you won’t be able to write your story well enough to sway the admissions officers. We’re here to help!
2. Pay For School With Outside Scholarships
This story is from one of the officers we interviewed and some of her personal experiences as a student who didn’t have the money to pay for a grad program. Here’s what she had to say.
“Financial Aid actually only covered my education for my four years of undergrad. After that, all my expenses had to come out of pocket.
Now, you can always get more loans, but I followed the scholarships route. I think that this route tends to be the path least taken, yet it’s also the most useful. I applied for large handful of scholarships starting from ones hosted locally. I then extended my range and took on a few scholarship applications outside of my local range and by the end of it, I had a heap of scholarship applications finished. The thing about this is that I only won a few scholarships of the many that I applied to.
This was still time well-invested because it wasn’t that hard to apply to a good amount of scholarships and hey, free money is good money right?
The thing about this is that a good heap of my won scholarships actually got boosted. The original winners who ranked first and second actually never claimed their scholarship prizes, so I was given the first prize for a lot of them.
That’s that thing about applying for scholarships: of the few people who actually compete for them, many of them forget that they even won! You can be eligible for a lot more than you think!
As for my routine, I actually only dedicated about an hour a day into looking for scholarships and applying for them. They usually include a written section or you to complete, but these are much easier than what you’d get at a college admissions application.
As an extra note, you may also want to consider taking advantage of the Fullbright program; if you can get a scholarship there, that can help out a bunch.”
The grad admissions officer we interviewed actually had their entire program paid for with scholarships, so she didn’t need to rely on loans in the end. If you’re struggling to decide whether to apply for a grad program because you don’t know if you can pay for it, consider taking their advice!
3. Apply To Many Schools To Cast A Big Net
This rule goes with the regular college admissions rule: apply to many universities. For some reason, many applicants still have this notion that they shouldn’t apply because “they’d never make it.”
Do it. Apply to all schools programs you can.
“But PenningPapers,” you may say, “what if my scores are low and my GPA is far lower than what the average applicant has?”
And to that we would say, “please refer to rule 4 of this article!”
We’d also like to say though that the best chance you have “which is most probably bigger than most people originally think it is” at getting accepted into a great grad program is to cast your net big. If you apply to multiple colleges at once, you’ll be able to take your pick of the ones that accept you into their program and your chances of getting rejected by everyone slims.
And no, don’t worry. Applying to multiple colleges doesn’t make you look desperate and disloyal to other universities. That’s an old wives’ tale.
4. Some Programs Have No Admissions Formula
What’s an admissions formula?
Some of you may be able to assume what it is based on the name, but an admissions formula is just what colleges and admissions officers use to determine who attends and gets rejected from their schools.
It’s also a more cookie-cutter method of processing applications because it implements filters to, well, filter people out.
For instance, a more prestigious university’s program may have an admissions formula that does not accept students with an overall undergraduate GPA of less than 3.0.
This tends to be the most common filter in the admissions process, but don’t worry. There are a lot of admissions factors play a big role in your acceptance chances.
Hey… we meant that. Seriously. That’s not a feel-good pandering statement here.
You might be thinking about that one reddit post on grad admissions where the man ripped into every poor prospective applicant. They said,
“The first thing I do is run through the applications and immediately ignore any with < 3.2 GPA in their last school. You can see the immediate problem here — I’m unlikely to even spend much (if any) time reading your application and looking at the subtleties — I flag your application “no” and move on”
Remember: this is only policy for some application processes. A majority of college admissions and grad programs require an entire committee to look over all aspects of your application. It’s not just your GPA.
Some are as harsh as the above reddit user, but there are plenty of prestigious schools that are generous and look at the rest of your application.
Why? Because this happens ALL THE TIME!
“I was doing well in my four years of undergrad but then my girlfriend broke up with me/ my grandma died/ I had to move states…”
Most admission officers get it. They’re human too, and they know that there are many people who are qualified despite their scores.
For the most part, admissions officers are typically more concerned about the things you’ve done with your time like research projects and side projects you’ve undertaken on your own time.
5. Less WHAT. More HOW.
There’s no doubt that the personal statements for your grad program application is going to be a very critical part of getting accepted. As we stated before, admissions officers want to know how you’re going to be a good fit.
According to to many admissions officers we interviewed, many students were writing only WHAT the content was. They would only answer the question with surface level questions.
Here’s an example.
What is your greatest obstacle you’ve had to face and overcome?
“I suffered through major autoimmune disorders which prevented me from focusing in school. It wasn’t until I strictly cut out very specific foods like gluten and dairy that major symptoms started to calm down.”
This is a good topic: it answers the question and it shows the reader has a sense of responsibility to solve a seemingly impossible problem.
The issue with this is that it is not addressing HOW addressing an autoimmune disorder was difficult and hard. This is where the imagery comes into play.
Yes, we know. Not everyone is a talented writer, and that’s okay! We still encourage you to try your best in showing the admissions officers that there is more personality to your life experiences than just the surface level.
This is also useful part of your application because you can use these sections to imply where the misstep happened in your GPA, and the additional comments section for addressing a lower GPA further.
Still concerned about whether you can get accepted into your goal grad program? Not feeling confident about standing out from the rest of the crowd because your GPA is low and experiences are few? Talk to us for a free consultation and review! We’ll maximize your acceptance chances!
