Hey everyone, this is Self Made
Millennial, and it's me Madeline. I am
currently wearing it disguise right now
because we are about to go undercover
into the admissions of grad schools to
understand how these admissions
committees work and exactly how you can
get in. This video will have nothing to
do with your GPA or test scores. There's
so much more to getting into grad school
than that, so I'm gonna walk you through
4 insights and tips on exactly how to
increase your chances to get into grad
school. Alright well my cover's blown
so I'm going to take this off. A few things you
should know is that I was on the
admissions committee of a master's
program so I got to see it from the
inside, as well as I've talked to a lot
of other admissions committees as well.
And know that we're talking about
programs admit about 100 or fewer people.
We're talking about smaller programs not
necessarily the big law schools or MBA
programs. Insight 1 is do your
research. You must do your research about
grad school in such a deeper way than
you did for undergrad. The reason is, grad
school programs with similar titles may
provide you with vastly different
opportunities and experiences, so look
into: Do they have a small cohort or big
cohort? What kind of community do they
build? Is it practicum or research? What
are the classes you're taking? What are
the requirements during the program? You
do all this research for two outcomes.
The first one is to make sure you are
going to a program that really meets
your career aspirations and interests. The
second is that the admissions board can smell
from a mile away if you didn't do your
research and they will reject you. For
example, I've seen programs that are
fully focused on building practical
skills for the workplace in a business
setting, get applications that talk all
about their deep research experience and
how they aspire to get a PhD someday.
That is it completely at odds with the
goal of the program and so either that
person applying just applied to
the completely wrong program or they were
just selling
themselves wrong and they actually would
be a good match for the program. Either
way, they're going to get rejected
because they didn't do their research. The
number one best way to do research on a
program is to find people who are alum
of that program and ask them tons of
questions. You can either do that by
finding them on LinkedIn, or you can ask
the program, hey can you put me in touch
with some alumni who have gone on to
certain careers that align with yours.
Here's some example questions that you
could ask alumni: Who were some of your
favorite professors from the program, and
should I mention certain professors in
my application that I want to work with?
What kind of people were in your cohort?
What kind of backgrounds did they have
and what career direction were they
going in? What's the focus of the
program's curriculum? What classes did
you take? What kind of experience does
the program value? Is it professional
experience, is a research experience, and
so on. I'm planning about talking about
XYZ in my personal statement, do you see
that being relevant to the admissions
committee? And the second best way to
learn about the program is to reach out
to the people running the program and
ask them questions. Which brings us to
insight number 2: persistence and
eagerness goes a long way. I recommend
calling a program and asking them
questions -- genuine questions -- that you
cannot just find the answer on the
website. Reaching out to the program,
attending info sessions, each point of
contact is called in admissions speak,
"demonstrated interest," and this is a real
thing that goes into the admissions
decision at a lot of different programs. The
reason why demonstrated interest is
weighed in admission decisions is
because these programs want to have a
high "yield." Yield
is the ratio of the number of offers of
admission they send out and the number
of acceptances they get back. This ratio
affects their rankings. It's not the only
determinant of rankings, but it does
affect it. For example if the program was
looking at two different applicants:
Applicant A attended an info session and
they called the program 3 different
times to ask questions versus Applicant
B who just simply sent in their
application. Applicant A is showing signs
that they are more likely to accept so
it's a better idea for the school from a
yield perspective to admit Candidate A.
And obviously there's other factors
involved, but it's definitely helped that
Candidate A was so proactive. And we're
moving right along to insight 3:
Apply at the early admission date
whatever possible. The odds that you will
get into a program if you apply earlier
are just so much higher. And the reasons
are is that there's generally more spots
available and 2: again it's demonstrated
interest. If a program has rolling
admissions apply as soon as possible.
Programs do things differently, there's
obviously exceptions to this rule, but I
can't emphasize enough how important it
is to apply early. Let's round out this video
with insight number 4: make sure your
statement of purpose focuses on how the
program fits your aspirations. Grad
school admissions committees want to
hear that you know what you want in your
career and you know exactly how this
program is going to help get you there.
It was disheartening when I was on an
admissions committee and I saw some of
these essays come through and they were
written in the undergrad style. So I
don't know about you, but when I was in
high school I was told that when
applying to colleges I should focus on a
story that is attention-grabbing
and kind of shows how I became the
person I am today.
That style definitely works for undergrad
admissions but do not do that for grad
school. I remember reading an essay of a
guy where his story was all about, "When I
was 10 my parents left me in the forest
to survive..." And he walked us all through
that entire story and how he built
character. And honestly I have no idea
what his career aspirations were or even
if he knew what the program was about.
And I don't think he got in, and it was really
sad because maybe he was a perfect fit
but it went on this totally different
tangent. It was compelling story, but just
not meant for grad school admissions.
Instead of that, show your personality in
your essay
by telling the story of how you got to
where you are in your career, and why
that makes you prepared for this program.
And avoid any adjectives about how you're
driven or detail-oriented or any of that
crap. Make sure to tell stories that
illustrate those characteristics. So
here's an example of my personal
statement, and the whole story was about
moving from journalism to wanting to be
in HR and recruiting. And so I talked about
how I became the Training and
Development Manager of the newspaper I
was at, and how much fun I had creating
recruitment plan and training programs
and creating lots of guides on how to
hire and deliver performance reviews. And
this is all to show that I take
initiative that I'm very passionate, but
I never say that in here. It's all
illustrated by the way I write. And then
in the end I tie it back to how USC can
help me enhance these skills. Those are
my tips for today I have so many others
that get a little bit more detailed, but
do let me know what your struggles with
the grad school application process. Make
sure to click "like" on this video if the
information helped and subscribe to see
these videos coming up every single week.
Thanks for going undercover with me, I
must go into hiding now.
