Graduate Admissions Essays: Write Your Way Into the Graduate School of Your Choice

by Donald Asher

Book Overview

The fully updated fourth edition of the go-to guide for crafting winning essays for any type of graduate program or scholarship, including PhD, master's, MBA, MD, JD, postdocs, DDS, DVM, Rhodes, Marshall, Fulbright--you name it. Based on thousands of interviews with successful grad students and graduate admissions officers, Graduate Admissions Essays deconstructs and demystifies the ever-challenging and seemingly more impersonal application process...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1607743213
• ISBN13: 9781607743217
• Release Date: July 2012
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 8.0" x 9.9"

Customer Reviews

I got into my first choice program with this

In the fall of 2003, I applied to 7 top PhD programs in my field (in the sciences), including the 5 best. Although I had graduated from the top Ivy League university, I had worked for 5 years and wasn't sure how I'd present myself to the graduate programs. I had reasonably good GRE scores, but all of my recommendations were from industry, so I needed to massage my personal statement to reflect strong industrial experience. Using this book as a guide, I completed great personal statements. This book helped me through the writing and revising. In total, for the 7 programs, I had the following #s of versions of my PS: 13, 10, 14, 8, 6, 6, 7, in order by submission date. So, you should plan on being serious about writing your PS and revising it carefully! 64 revisions of my personal statement may seem like a lot of work, but why would I want to be lazy and take chances with the graduate applications? I was accepted into my first choice program (I only had 1 rejection - from my second choice program), which is ranked #1 in the country. The chair of at least one department told me I was the best candidate, and many faculty remember reading my personal statement. Am I really that great a candidate? Well, I was fortunate to have great work experience, but I also owe this book a lot of credit in helping me communicate some of the insights I gained during my years of working. I strongly recommend this book. It's a bargain and its advice is invaluable. If you're going to spend the time and money to go to grad school, why not submit the best application you can? As for specific comments on the book: I think one thing many may overlook is the fact the book covers a lot beyond just essays. It addresses issues like communications with the faculty and department before you apply, while the application is being reviewed, and discussions you should have with your recommendation writers. This book covers many, many useful topics outside of the essays, and was invaluable in my overall preparations. Regarding negative comments: I can't think of any. The book was extremely helpful for me and others, and I can't think of anything to change. I also recommend "Getting What you Came For", which addresses a few things that you should consider while you're applying to grad schools, and a lot of things you need to think about when you're in grad school. As further testament to the strength of this book, I've given 2 copies to friends, and they've since gotten into the best programs in the country in their fields. I have recommended the book to scores of others. Good luck to you!

The Best Graduate Admissions Book Out There!

This book is by far the best book out there for those applying to graduate schools in the social sciences (I'm planning on getting my Ph.D. in Anthropology with a specialization in Archaeology). I followed his strategies carefully, and have received multiple funding offers from well known universities. Coming from a family where no one has ever attended graduate school, this book was essential. Definitely buy it now if you're considering applying in the fall!

The best book I bought for my application process

This is definetely worth every penny you spend on it. It helped me a lot in my application process, and the tips I got helped me a lot to get into all the top Canadian universities I applied to with full scholarships. This book explains why it is important to go to grad school, who should go, how you should plan your application process, and it guides you through writing your essay. It also gives information about what a reference letter should contain, which is very useful as well. It has 50 samples of essays in a wide variety of grad programs, from history and anthropology, to medicine and molecular biology. I applied in biochemistry, and I found a couple of good related samples. It includes samples of post doc applications as well. It is very methodical, and it contains the experience not only of applicants, but also of the people in the admission committees who read the essays. I would pay 100 dollars for this book, because with it I got 6 offers with scholarships each of about 30,000 canadian from both the chem and biochem departments of Toronto, McGill and UBC!!!

A Complete Reference for a Graduate Application!!

This wonderful grad admission essays book not only explains writing an essay for graduate school, but also covers the topics of choosing a program and financing it, planning your application, requesting recommendation letters, and dozens of samples of essays and recommendation letters. Just from looking at the cover, I didn't expect a book with such a large content when I bought it. This book was written as a complete reference for the applicants of the top grad schools. Contains internet links and many helpful examples. I didn't have oppurtunity of viewing the other books in this subject, but I think this book would be adequate by itself to the prospective grad students.

A book for everyone

Wow! What a great resource! Every word in this book helps, regardless of where you are in the application process. It definitely helps to calm you down, and get you focused...not to mention its positive tone that ameliorates those last minute doubts, etc. Probably its best asset is that it doesn't mince words... I read it from cover to cover in one night, unlike most books on the subject that I usually put down after chapter 2.