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Personality and College Admission

Universities typically have track record for percentage of applicants admitted (Admission Selectivity).

Good Test scores doesn’t get you admission.

Your Application should express personality.

Top Universities have low selectivity.

Did you consider selectivity while selecting the universities?

For instance,  lets look at  Admission Selectivity for few universities

  • Harvard  University – 7.2%
  • Princeton University – 9%
  • Rice University – 21%
  • NYU – 38%
  • Virginia Tech – 67%
  • University of Wyoming – 95%

When you are applying for Graduate School as an International student, did you consider Admission Selectivity into account?

US Universities Strict About Admission

Here is a comment posted by Rahul Today.

Just for the information guys this is my personal experience and 3 of my friends experienced the same.

So I’m not sure of the conclusion i am making but

  • GRE – 319 (1330 1450 in old gre)
  • TOEFL -  105
  • BTech 71%
  • Decent LORS and SOPS.

Got rejects from 3 universities Purdue, UMASS, Amherst and PSU (it really hammered my confidence )

One of my friends got rejects from Syracuse with a similar looking profile.

So what I think is us universities has become a little strict in giving admission these days ..so chose your universities wisely.

Academic Profile vs Admission

There should be a march between Students profile and admission committee expectation from applicants profile.

Having Top GRE Scores, doesn’t guaranty your admission.

There could be 100′s of other applications with similar profile. That’s where your Statement of Purpose comes into play.

Remember – Applicants are not evaluated based on mere numbers like in India ( cutoff).

Lack of personality  + Application to Selective University  =  Likely Admission Rejection.

Have you expressed your personality through your application documents?

Bonus College Admission Tip -

Don’t copy your Statement of Purpose.

If you have started by searching in Google “Sample Statement of Purpose of Computer Science“, you already gave up an opportunity to express your unique personality.

Image Credit

Following tips was posted by Nitin at Sample Statement of Purpose

I just checked out the CS SOP, IMHO its a guide to how not to write an SOP!

SOP is meant to be nothing but the statement of purpose, the purpose of why you are interested in the program offered by the university!

Ideally, the SOPs should be as short as possible (some winning SOPs for law schools are as short as three paragraphs, three lines each paragraph)

How Not to Write SOP

I’d rather not say how to write an SOP, but here are my how to “not” write an SOP hitlist:

  • DONT keep a goal of 2/3 pages of SOP. This often leads to junk getting filled into a an awesome SOP (I did this, and I regret doing it after seeing some real good short and sweet SOPs)
  • DONT try to be melodramatic in any way. No emotional statements/atyaachaar. Most students from India (like me) have a habit of painting a rosy picture, but, think of SOP as a sketch or a wireframe (but not a photograph) that tells the reviewer what your intent is. It should not tell anything other than that (I did it, by almost writing a melodramatic story of a kid from a village aiming high in the sky ;)
  • DONT use rare/exotic words, or DONT go looking into the thesaurus to add intelligent (sounding) words to the SOP that make you “sound” sophisticated. It is one sure shot way of letting the reader know that you are faking it (I used something like “for your perusal”, which was the first time I had ever heard of that word!)
  • DONT go to a consultant for SOPs. YOU can write the best SOP for yourself.

Here are some DOs that I’d suggest:

  • DO mention how your qualifications are well suited, or how you got interested into the program you are applying for
  • DO research the courses offered by the university for the program that you have applied for, after which, you can mention how certain courses being offered by the university are in line with your goals of learning. Although no one expects you to know your future, you can convey how you and the university can help you reach your goal.
  • DO (YOU MUST) use correct english, with no spelling/grammatical mistakes. Consultants who take Rs 15K or Rs 30K need not be the ones with the best english capabilities. Just find a person who can fix all your mistakes, get your version read by any/every person you trust.
  • DO keep it short and simple
  • There’s no reason to have multi page resumes, and the same holds true with SOPs and Cover letters. Even though I had people telling me most of these points, I found it hard to accept these suggestions.
  • Wish I could catch hold of my own SOP (which was much worse than the one posted here) so that I could show it to prospective applicants and tell them how “not” to write an SOP!

PS: If you are wondering why I am so bothered to write such a long comment: I got 10 rejects out of the 11 univs that I applied for, and I can certainly say that my Rosy/TypicalIndianStudent SOP/Essay was among the main reasons to get these rejects. I did everything I have listed in the DONT section, and yet I managed to get into that one university. I lucked out.

Above tips was posted as comments by Nitin (check out his personal blog)

If you want to get admission at your dream university in USA, get naked.

No, don’t remove your pants and shirts. I’m not talking about that kind of naked!

What I really mean is, tear down your protective covering and share the truth about your life in your Statement of Purpose.

Now I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but I’ll tell you how this strategy worked for me.

Being Emotional and Vulnerable

If you look at some of the blog posts here, there are certain topics that are very sensitive and readers comment to those posts with high emotions.

Some of those blog posts are

For such blog posts many readers share their views and come out strong with their opinions.

Why do you think those post attract so many comments, whereas my other equally useful articles didn’t receive any comments?

People are emotional and they wanted to know if those posts will directly impact them. Emotions demonstrate vulnerability.  There were several comment asking not to post such blog posts and encourage such comments. It’s a topic that most people don’t talk about, so when I did, people came from all over to read it.

How can you utilize that emotion and use it to get admission (and your advantage)? Don’t worry, it’s about getting naked, and it’s easy to pull off.

How to Get Naked on your SOP

There are two ways to get naked on your statement of purpose (without taking your clothes off). You could share a personal story about how you overcame a problem. It requires you to share lessons from your own life and relate it how has changed you for good and how you differ from others by overcoming a challenge/problem.

Remember, there are some things we are truly better off not knowing about you. So, be cautious about over sharing. Use good judgment on what personal story you like to share.

Over To you

  • Do you agree to above idea of using emotions in your admission essay?
  • Do you think you have a person story that can be used for your essay?

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Following 5 Statement of Purpose samples were used by students who applied for Graduate school admission in US universities. You can find original version of Statement of purpose sent by them for review. Also, at end of this article, find out  how to your SOP reviewed for free SOP.

I have hand picked 5 sample statement of purpose to show well written SOP to copied SOP. Its easy to identify which SOP is copied, self-written SOP one of best SOP. I have attached a Poll below this article, you can download the SOP, read them and vote for the best sample SOP. Continue Reading…

Few universities have word limit or page limit on college admission essay ( or Statement of Purpose). Following question is from a reader who is the process of submitting online application for Masters program at Missouri ST at Rolla. Continue Reading…

Universities look at Statement of Purpose along with all other credentials you have submitted. Almost every SOP looks and feels the same. Some of you might even copy an existing sample SOP used by a different student. Continue Reading…

What should be the length of the Statement of Purpose (SOP)? This is one of the common question asked by students applying for Masters Degree or PhD in American Universities. Longer the SOP, better the hance to get admission? Continue Reading…

Majority of the students applying for M.S. Degree ( computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical, Civil, Biology, Biotechnology, Bio-informatics, ….) write general statement of purpose for Grad School Application. But, top ranks schools, specify the Essay Topics. So, it will be easy to evaluate the applicants. Harvard Business School have posted the Essay Topics for the Class of 2012. Continue Reading…

Statement of Purpose is mandatory while applying for Graduaet School Admission. Students who come to this blog for the first time usualky leave coments like these Continue Reading…

FSP – Site run by a professor in science. I started reading her blog few days back and some of the articles are interesting. She has written about Graduate School Admission essay with an example.

Only 11 days left to get Statement of purpose, letter of recommendation, universities for your profile for very small fee. If you happen to talk to US universities admission consultants, you will know the fees they charge.  think about how much money you can save.  You can find more details about university review.


I have been providing free review for students  Statement of Purpose (SOP) and Letter of Recommendation (LOR). I have received so  many emails from students applying for Fall 2009 (both Masters and PhD) have submitted their SOP and LOR for review.

I spent good amount of time, reading each and every SOP, Resume, Letter of Recommendation and provides the review. It was very time consuming process. Number of students submitting the documents for review increased dramatically and at any given time, I have 40+ students documents to be reviewed. I like to provide in-depth review for every document.

Statement of Purpose – Review

I have over 6 years experience in reading SOP and preparing documents to help students applying to U.S. Schools. During the review I will look for following details

  • Flow of your Ideas
  • SOP Structure
  • Ideas and personal story presented
  • Does your SOP  have that “WOW” factor schools are looking for?
  • Does your SOP have required attributes to make your application stand-out?
  • Additional skills and qualifications you can include in your SOP.
  • Will SOP help you in getting Financial Aid?
  • Much More….

Letter of Recommendation – Review

Recommendation letter plays a major role when applying to Graduate School. Professors evaluate and get to know you better by reference provided by your professor’s, managers, .. But, there are certain skills that have to be included, that will assists graduate school admission committee to evaluate your application in much better way.

LOR review will include check to see if you have all the required skills and attributes that Graduate school admission committee looks for. Missing one or two key attributes can cost you scholarship. There are certain skills that have to be included in LOR. By reviewing the LOR, I can identify if you have missed any of those skills in LOR.

Resume – Review

Resume templates used in India is much different from the template and format used in U.S. I have seen resume where Fathers Name is included in the Personal Details. Here in U.S. you don’t include fathers name in the resume.

Those small things will definitely lower the impression on students application. With my review, I can identify such small mistakes and make your resume, stand out and create an impression. Resume review doesn’t include re-writing or changing template. I will suggest changes to existing resume you will submit.

How Much Does It cost?

I know very well, applying to U.S. is not easy task and its expensive too. Every student will spend some $50,000 to $80,000 during entire phase of applying to U.S. Schools.

  • Review of  One Statement of Purpose (twice), 3 LOR (once) and Resume (once) for Rs.1500

Many students just wanted to get a better idea about the schools they plan to apply. There are many information you might not be aware. So, I’m adding this package for just Rs500 to give an opportunity for every student. I know applying for U.S. is expensive process and that’s the main reason, for such low fee to get your universities reviewed.  There are many students who just opted for just this package.

Spending Rs 1500 ( ~$25) is very less compared to $100+ you spend on application fee, GRE and TOEFL Score forwarding for each school.

If you are interested, send me an email using the contact form. I will glad to help you with the review process. Good luck with your admission process. If I were you, I would definitely spend Rs.1500 if that is going to improve my admission chance.

If you were to get the same review, you can certainly ask around with other consultancy firms, they charge Rs10,000+ for same review. But, for same review here it costs Rs.1500.  Above all you get the same personalized service as you can see from the blog articles.

Unfortunately there is no one-method-fits-all technique to writing a quality college essay, every topic requires a different approach. However, that being said if you follow this top 10 checklist you can make the process a little easier. Continue Reading…