sample admission essay

Regardless of whether you’re applying to law school, med school, undergraduate university or college, or other graduate schools, you will be required to submit a personal statement essay. This is why it’s important for applicants to check out sample personal statement essays to get an idea of how to structure their essays and which information to include and discuss. For foreign students especially, looking at sample personal statements will also give them a better idea of what to expect when applying to US academic institutions. Below are more reasons how foreign students can use examples of personal statement essays in their application to universities and graduate schools:

Get an idea of how personal statements for US institutions are structured

Different countries have varying guidelines and requirements for writing a personal statement essay. If you’re a foreign student, browsing through and reading other applicants’ personal statements can give you an idea of what admissions committees of US schools expect to see from applicants’ essays. Granted, not all of the sample personal statements you’ll find online are reflective of the expectations of admissions committees. But at least you will get to have a feel of how most applicants write their personal statement essays and structure yours accordingly.

Know which essay-writing themes are overused by other foreign students

While it’s true that most schools and universities have additional considerations when reviewing the personal statement essays of foreign students, it will still do you well to avoid the themes and topics that are commonly used by other foreign students when they write their personal statement essays. For one, you will find out how to avoid the self-pitying themes that a lot of foreign students use in their essays.

Instead of appealing to pity, you should write your personal statement in such a way that it highlights your strength of character and courage in pursuing studies in a foreign land, with no one to turn to but yourself. Not only will this make for a more touching and impressive read, it can also convince the admissions staff that you want to study in their institution bad enough that you had no qualms about leaving your comfort zone and moving to another country to study.

As you’ve probably read in websites and blogs, the personal statement essay is an important requirement in the application or admissions process of law school, med school, college, and other graduate schools. The personal statement essay you submit can make or break your chances of getting accepted into the school you applied to because this single piece of document is used by admissions staff in gauging your abilities and suitability of getting accepted into the institution’s academic community. So to make sure you don’t submit an awful personal statement, here are some characteristics and styles of badly written personal statement essays that you should avoid:

Idealistic but vague

One common mistake that applicants make in writing their personal statement essay is that they go on and on about how they will use their degree and education for the “betterment of society” or to “contribute to the community.” What these applicants fail to realize is that by simply stating these humanistic aims or desires without providing concrete details and information on how to go about achieving them, there’s a huge possibility that the admissions staff will interpret this as mere insincerity or artificial desire to help.

Use of highfalutin words

Many applicants still make the mistake of using big, polysyllabic, highfalutin words to express their thoughts and emotions in their personal statement essay. There are certain contexts when “big” words can be used to convey a thought or idea, but the rule of thumb in writing a personal statement essay is to stay conversational without being too informal. This means that the language you use in your essay should be easily understood while conveying exactly what it is you want to say. Not only will the use of highfalutin words make your personal statement essay sound robotic and detached, it will also make the admissions staff feel that you’re simply out to impress and not to express.

Student health insurance packages and policies exist to protect students’ health and largely to help them cope with the expenses they might incur if they get sick. If you think being in school makes you safer and less prone to diseases, think again. Every year, many students get sick and fatigued from the workload and demands of college and grad school life. In the US, some states even require full-time students to have student health insurance, which students can get either from the school or university itself or from private insurance companies.

Why student health insurance is important

Having health insurance while in school is beneficial to students because most of them are no longer covered by their parents’ insurance policies. Student health insurance packages are also useful because a lot of students are prone to getting sick while in school due to pressure and fatigue. To be eligible for student health insurance, the student must be between the age of 17 to 29. As for other eligibility requirements, these may differ depending on the guidelines specified by the university or graduate school. If you’re interested in getting a student health insurance policy, you have two options: you can arrange for your own insurance policy from a private insurance company, or get one of those student health insurance packages offered at most universities and grad schools. Those offered by schools and universities are generally cheaper than those offered by private companies.

The student health insurance packages offered at universities and schools are more affordable and come either in group or individual packages. Before you sign up for anything, it’s best that you take a closer look at the insurance policy to make sure that the basic expenses and bases are covered by the policy. Group student health insurance packages tend to be fixed to certain services they cover, so if you have specific medical needs and conditions, you might want to opt for the individual insurance policy.

Even though schools and universities follow pretty much the same processes for selecting and admitting student applicants, there are still pieces of information about the admissions processes of specific schools that you can use to your advantage. This information can range from what the admissions committee find endearing and impressive in applicants’ essays to the usual questions asked during the admissions interview. By doing your research on seemingly little things such as this, you may be increasing your chances of getting accepted into the school or institution of your choice.

Online forums, messageboards, and student blogs

The Internet is such a useful resource for virtually any and every subject you can think of, and this includes inside tips and information on the admissions process of different schools and colleges. To get inside tips on the admissions process of your desired school, you can check out online messageboards and student forums where you can talk to existing students of that school or those who have also applied to your chosen school. You can post topics and threads to ask the forum members about their experience with the whole admissions process — how their interview went, what questions were asked, which admissions staff to watch out for, etc.

Contact existing students, alumni, and admissions officers

Other reliable sources of information on how to make your application successful are of course the people who have actually studied, or are studying, in the school you’re applying to. It is during these times that you have to make use of your social networks to get in touch with people who have successfully and unsuccessfully applied to the same school. Getting tips and suggestions both from passers and non-passers is helpful so that you’ll know what to do and what mistakes to avoid. You can also call admissions officers to ask them questions about the procedures and steps, but it’s better that you contact students and alumni if you really want to get tips and tricks on how to do well in your application.

For some students, being in a romantic relationship is effective in helping them cope with the stress and demands of academic life. There are times, however, when juggling academics and romantic relationships becomes a bit too hard for students – what with the number of reports and papers they have to make and the number of late nights spent working on school demands and requirements. If you find yourself in a similar situation, read on as we give you tips and suggestions on how to effectively preserve and maintain romantic relationships without compromising your studies.

Learn to plan and manage your time

This is a way overused piece of advice, but it’s still effective nonetheless. By learning to plan and schedule your activities way ahead of time, you can anticipate the days or weeks when you’ll be too busy to spend time with your partner. This will at least give you the chance to properly explain to your partner how you’ll have to spend those days and weeks studying, writing papers, and preparing for exams. Effective time management and planning will also help you get a good balance of social and academic life, which is absolutely necessary if you are to stay sane while you spend those long, grueling years in school.

Maintain communication lines even in the simplest ways

Regardless of how busy you are, try as much as you can to spare even just a couple of minutes to email, call, or text your partner. Many couples break up over lack of communication, so to prevent your relationship from going down the drain because of similar reasons, set aside a few minutes of your day just to check on how your partner is doing. Is your head starting to hurt from all the reading and studying you’re doing? Why not steal a few minutes from your studying time to call or text your partner? Not only will this let your partner know that you haven’t forgotten him or her regardless of how busy you are, you can also use these few minutes to take a short break from your intense study session.

Parents and students consider multiple factors when selecting a school. For most parents, the most important thing to consider is the school’s tuition rates, as well as the other expected expenses. For some, what matters most is location and accessibility. There are some parents, however, who believe that the school’s prestige and reputation is the most important thing to consider when selecting schools. Below are some of the common reasons why some parents place prime importance on prestige and reputation when selecting schools:

Prestigious school = more career opportunities in the future

For many parents, the money they’ll spend on their children’s education in a reputable school is a worthy investment because they believe that a degree from a prestigious school will translate to more and better employment opportunities for their kids after graduation. In this sense, the high tuition rates and other big expenses are all well worth it because the academic degree will ensure better careers for their kids.

You see proof of the reality of this belief in the number of companies in the professional world that have certain biases or inclinations toward applicants who hold degrees from reputable universities, med and law schools, and graduate schools. Even if having the name of a prestigious school stamped on the applicant’s resume doesn’t guarantee a job for the applicant, it still lends him or her an edge over all the other applicants.

Prestigious school = higher quality of education

While this belief may not hold true in the case of ALL prestigious schools, providing high quality education is still undeniably one of the top ways through which academic institutions earn a good reputation. Reputable schools invest in the services of highly competent and knowledgeable professors and lecturers to teach at their institution, which means that the students get taught by the best practitioners in the field of teaching. There’s nothing wrong with making prestige and reputation the primary considerations when choosing a school, as long as parents ensure that the money they’ll be spending on their kids’ education is well worth it, and the education their kids will get will be put to good use.