Admissions Directors are human.
They respond to human things.
When an Admissions Director reads your essays, they will have emotional reactions to what you write.
What you say and how you say it determines their response.
Their reaction will be to either resonate in some way with the content you are sharing — or what happens more frequently than applicants probably know, they may react with boredom or disinterest if the content is generic or is very typical, or with actual pain of frustration if the essay is poorly written and difficult to understand.
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It’s safe to say that you don’t want your admissions reader to be bored or frustrated when they read your essay. The “boredom” part you may not understand how to prevent, but you absolutely have control over the “frustrated” part. That’s why we spend so much time talking about writing techniques here, as much as we do about content strategies for specific schools.
Admissions readers are human. They will react to you. You have control over those reactions based on how you present to them. It’s a standard cause -> effect type relationship: you say your stuff, the reader reads your stuff, your stuff is transmitted to the reader’s brain and they react.
The essays are a pitch and if you master these techniques of good writing plus good content, you are setting yourself massively ahead of the crowd.
And yup, if any of this seems overwhelming, we can help!
You may also be interested in:
- But don’t overthink it: It’s not about trying to find the “right” goals to pitch the adcom
- Because: The essays are about more than just the career goals, you’re pitching YOU!
- With some comments on application theme: An essay is an argument
Tell us what you think.