Dear Applicants,
Consider this a healthy suggestion. A lot of you spend time in shortlisting
schools, talking to students while preparing the "Why this school?" spiel.
However, I have seen a lot of very shallow Brochures in many recent "Why this
school?" essays. I call them brochures as they do not offer any specific
information related to "Why did YOU pick that program?", and can be easily
picked by the adcoms if they had to design school brochures for the mass
audience. ( Note: they are not going to make brochures from your essays, and I
am just saying this to make a point that a "Brochure Level Input" is not going to
make you an accepted applicant � )
It is not even about putting the names of some electives or throwing reference of
the conversations you had with the alumni body or the students. Do you really
think the school is interested in only finding out HOW HARD have you worked to
research about them? I can sense that a lot of applicants end up having irrelevant
conversations with the student body as well while researching about the
programs.
The right way to start the research is- Dive deeper into yourself to identify
"Where is it that you need help?" - What are your handicaps that have been
stopping you from doing whatever you want to do?
Once you have a solid framework for "What are some of the things that are
missing for you?" , you will know where to beging your research.
Think about it this way- if you do not know what you want, you will never get to
finding out "Why is their school a great school for you?" . You will just end up
repeating bits and pieces you gather from various sources. It will be noise- Just
noise on your essays.
Go deep into yourself! Find out what will it take to accomplish your goals. Not
just the steps but the skills you need to accomplish those goals, and figure out
why can't you get those skills from Coursera.
Regards,
Jatin
Consider this a healthy suggestion. A lot of you spend time in shortlisting
schools, talking to students while preparing the "Why this school?" spiel.
However, I have seen a lot of very shallow Brochures in many recent "Why this
school?" essays. I call them brochures as they do not offer any specific
information related to "Why did YOU pick that program?", and can be easily
picked by the adcoms if they had to design school brochures for the mass
audience. ( Note: they are not going to make brochures from your essays, and I
am just saying this to make a point that a "Brochure Level Input" is not going to
make you an accepted applicant � )
It is not even about putting the names of some electives or throwing reference of
the conversations you had with the alumni body or the students. Do you really
think the school is interested in only finding out HOW HARD have you worked to
research about them? I can sense that a lot of applicants end up having irrelevant
conversations with the student body as well while researching about the
programs.
The right way to start the research is- Dive deeper into yourself to identify
"Where is it that you need help?" - What are your handicaps that have been
stopping you from doing whatever you want to do?
Once you have a solid framework for "What are some of the things that are
missing for you?" , you will know where to beging your research.
Think about it this way- if you do not know what you want, you will never get to
finding out "Why is their school a great school for you?" . You will just end up
repeating bits and pieces you gather from various sources. It will be noise- Just
noise on your essays.
Go deep into yourself! Find out what will it take to accomplish your goals. Not
just the steps but the skills you need to accomplish those goals, and figure out
why can't you get those skills from Coursera.
Regards,
Jatin
