Poets & Quants just shared a checklist for admissions from a longtime admissions director...I thought it was pretty helpful: https://poetsandquants.com/2016/05/30/in ... s-officer/ If you don't want to read the whole thing, basically boiled down to:
1. Can you handle the classes?
2. Are your career goals outlined will in application?
3. Can you communicate well?
4. Will you actually be able to lead other people (both before and after graduation)?
5. Did you make stuff up on your application (and/or are you likely to be an embarrassment to the program when you graduate)?
6. Will people want to work with you?
7. Are you going to be employable (which is sort of a combination of everything else on this list)?
8. Is there a specific reason you want to apply to any given school, or are you just sending applications everywhere?
Admittedly, I probably didn't articulate myself very well on point #8 the first time around, which might have been part of my problem—it's pretty easy to just create a "stock" application and then send it out.
I think this was a guest writer for John Byrne (whose stuff I love). Here's his book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1632990830/?tag=clam08-20 (it was good!).
1. Can you handle the classes?
2. Are your career goals outlined will in application?
3. Can you communicate well?
4. Will you actually be able to lead other people (both before and after graduation)?
5. Did you make stuff up on your application (and/or are you likely to be an embarrassment to the program when you graduate)?
6. Will people want to work with you?
7. Are you going to be employable (which is sort of a combination of everything else on this list)?
8. Is there a specific reason you want to apply to any given school, or are you just sending applications everywhere?
Admittedly, I probably didn't articulate myself very well on point #8 the first time around, which might have been part of my problem—it's pretty easy to just create a "stock" application and then send it out.
I think this was a guest writer for John Byrne (whose stuff I love). Here's his book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1632990830/?tag=clam08-20 (it was good!).
