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Graduate Admissions Essays: Write Your Way into the Graduate School of Your Choice (Graduate Admissions Essays)x$5.70
  (25 reviews)
Best Price: $5.70
Veteran higher-education consultant Donald Asher demystifies the graduate school application process and offers a detailed action plan that has proved successful for some of the most competitive programs in the country. The 50 sample essays--selected from thousands of candidates--showcase the best of the best, while the Essay Hall of Shame identifies common pitfalls to avoid. Sample letters of recommendation and essays for scholarships, residencies, fellowships, and postgraduate and postdoctoral applications cover all stages of the application process.
UPC: 028195080423
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Customer Reviews
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A Complete Reference for a Graduate Application!!
By A1TDK6RIT1MB5X on 2001-04-10
This wonderful grad admission essays book not only explains writing an essay for graduate school, but also covers the topics of choosing a program and financing it, planning your application, requesting recommendation letters, and dozens of samples of essays and recommendation letters. Just from looking at the cover, I didn't expect a book with such a large content when I bought it. This book was written as a complete reference for the applicants of the top grad schools. Contains internet links and many helpful examples. I didn't have oppurtunity of viewing the other books in this subject, but I think this book would be adequate by itself to the prospective grad students.
The Best Graduate Admissions Book Out There!
By A1L3527IKJPF64 on 2003-03-27
This book is by far the best book out there for those applying to graduate schools in the social sciences (I'm planning on getting my Ph.D. in Anthropology with a specialization in Archaeology). I followed his strategies carefully, and have received multiple funding offers from well known universities. Coming from a family where no one has ever attended graduate school, this book was essential. Definitely buy it now if you're considering applying in the fall!
I got into my first choice program with this
By ALQ09C7HJ2UXX on 2006-06-06
In the fall of 2003, I applied to 7 top PhD programs in my field (in the sciences), including the 5 best. Although I had graduated from the top Ivy League university, I had worked for 5 years and wasn't sure how I'd present myself to the graduate programs. I had reasonably good GRE scores, but all of my recommendations were from industry, so I needed to massage my personal statement to reflect strong industrial experience.
Using this book as a guide, I completed great personal statements. This book helped me through the writing and revising. In total, for the 7 programs, I had the following #s of versions of my PS: 13, 10, 14, 8, 6, 6, 7, in order by submission date. So, you should plan on being serious about writing your PS and revising it carefully! 64 revisions of my personal statement may seem like a lot of work, but why would I want to be lazy and take chances with the graduate applications?
I was accepted into my first choice program (I only had 1 rejection - from my second choice program), which is ranked #1 in the country. The chair of at least one department told me I was the best candidate, and many faculty remember reading my personal statement.
Am I really that great a candidate? Well, I was fortunate to have great work experience, but I also owe this book a lot of credit in helping me communicate some of the insights I gained during my years of working.
I strongly recommend this book. It's a bargain and its advice is invaluable. If you're going to spend the time and money to go to grad school, why not submit the best application you can?
As for specific comments on the book: I think one thing many may overlook is the fact the book covers a lot beyond just essays. It addresses issues like communications with the faculty and department before you apply, while the application is being reviewed, and discussions you should have with your recommendation writers. This book covers many, many useful topics outside of the essays, and was invaluable in my overall preparations. Regarding negative comments: I can't think of any. The book was extremely helpful for me and others, and I can't think of anything to change.
I also recommend "Getting What you Came For", which addresses a few things that you should consider while you're applying to grad schools, and a lot of things you need to think about when you're in grad school.
As further testament to the strength of this book, I've given 2 copies to friends, and they've since gotten into the best programs in the country in their fields. I have recommended the book to scores of others.
Good luck to you!
Not Helpful for B-School
By on 2002-09-26
I found this book to be a waste of my time and money. Its a complete book in that it offers a lot of essays, however only 5 of the essays were for business school, and 2 of those were were somewhat bazarre. I am surprised by all the people that loved the book. I found it to be very elementary and not targetted to professionals with more than one year of experience. Thereby, making the examples impractical.As for the letters of recommendation, again not helpful. He talks a lot about getting LORs from professors...that's great if you are in your senior year of undergrad....again impractical. If your're going to a competive B-School, you will be disappointed with this book.
The best book I bought for my application process
By AJFDAWZ36THJB on 2002-04-09
This is definetely worth every penny you spend on it. It helped me a lot in my application process, and the tips I got helped me a lot to get into all the top Canadian universities I applied to with full scholarships. This book explains why it is important to go to grad school, who should go, how you should plan your application process, and it guides you through writing your essay. It also gives information about what a reference letter should contain, which is very useful as well. It has 50 samples of essays in a wide variety of grad programs, from history and anthropology, to medicine and molecular biology. I applied in biochemistry, and I found a couple of good related samples. It includes samples of post doc applications as well. It is very methodical, and it contains the experience not only of applicants, but also of the people in the admission committees who read the essays. I would pay 100 dollars for this book, because with it I got 6 offers with scholarships each of about 30,000 canadian from both the chem and biochem departments of Toronto, McGill and UBC!!!
- A book for everyone
By on 1999-09-22
Wow! What a great resource! Every word in this book helps, regardless of where you are in the application process. It definitely helps to calm you down, and get you focused...not to mention its positive tone that ameliorates those last minute doubts, etc. Probably its best asset is that it doesn't mince words... I read it from cover to cover in one night, unlike most books on the subject that I usually put down after chapter 2.
- An Unusual Guide
By on 2002-01-05
Chris, a perpetual graduate student, January 5, 2002,
An Unusual Guide
The strength of Mr. Asher's book is not, necessarily, the writing Mr. Asher inserts at the beginning and the end of the book. Rather, Mr. Asher's book is ingenious because the bulk of it is composed of writing done by other people. That is, actual exemplars of good to down right excellent specemens of graduate personal statements. I'm not the kind of person who typically uses a book like this: I consider myself a writer and I like to write. When it came to this damn statement, I felt like I needed to see what other people did, how they succeded in selling themselves to a prospective program. Mind you, the portions that Asher writes are good and helpful if you can make the excercises yours. The great thing, however, is seeing others transform themselves and their goals through their writing. Whenever I have to write a personal statement (grant, fellowship applications, etc.) I look through the sample essays to see the elements that others have used as inspiration for my own. I can see this book would not be for everyone but if you have a talent for squinting between the lines and letting your writing take off, this book may help you chart a strategy.
- Concise aid about how to survive the application process
By on 1998-10-29
This book covers most of the admissions process in a general manner but really gets specific when it comes to the personal statement and essay portions of the book. It really helped me prepare my essay and application.
- A comprehensive "how-to" book!
By on 1999-01-31
Ranging from the verbally-challenged to the most ardent of writers, this is a great source for those students who dread the thought of preparing the ubiquitous personal statement. Included are a number of examples; a perfect reference to get the gray-matter flowing. If you're applying to graduate school, this IS the book for you!
- Helpful & answered questions
By A2PJQV3MO8JQVB on 2002-12-02
This book was helpful in that its beginning chapters dealt with answering questions about the application process and how to sit down and start writing the essay. The example essays were not especially helpful to me, although they did help get the juices flowing and gave me a great idea on an opening paragraph. I can see how they might be very helpful to people writing essays for very competitive programs in the medical, legal, or business worlds. I would recommend this book to people who have questions about the application process and having trouble starting their essays.
- I got accepted!
By A141MEXGB0O3TY on 2003-04-11
Applying to graduate school can be a daunting task - especially if you have not attended college for a number of years.
How should I present myself? How do my experiences stack up against the competition? What are others saying about themselves?Asher's book gives you insight into the graduate admissions process like no other book on the market. Asher provides real life examples of successful personal statements. You can see first hand how others succeeded in selling themselves to a prospective program and respond appropriately. Don't be intimidated by the graduate admission process. Get Asher's book. It worked for me! I got accepted the MBA program of my choice.
- Not for serious b-school applicants
By on 2003-10-29
I don't know the process works for applying to other grad school programs, but if you're trying to get into a top tier b-school, this book has little to offer you.
- Closest thing to "secrets" of Grad/Professional school admissions
By A29BS11DHLD9E4 on 2007-01-22
I read this book many times in preparation for my own grad school (social science Ph.D.) applications. I've got my degree, and I'm an Assistant Professor at a large research university. I've now read many graduate admissions essays. From my experience, it seems most essays are not as effective as they could be. Most are just poorly conceived, and the authors seem to misunderstand the point of a personal statement. This book will help you not only to write and revise your essay, but to do so with a clear understanding of the essay's purpose and its intended audience. This book really is a must read for anyone applying to grad school. I recommend it to all my undergraduate students who ask me for a grad school letter of recommendation.
- A fun and easy guide
By on 2002-01-07
This book is a welcome change from text and boring how to books, that only give you half the answers. In addtion to being fun to read it was easy to use. As a first generation college graduate Asher's book is full of wonderful suggestions and tips.
- Huge help in writing law school personal statement
By A382XJFNRT4Y9G on 2005-09-30
I found this publication extremely helpful. It was recommended to me by a PhD candidate who had to write multiple essays for admissions applications. There are all kinds of examples of essays and what admissions committees liked and did not like. I found it essential in thinking about and starting my personal statement.
- Like Having Your Own Personal Advisor
By A2QYURMLRIBWPM on 2007-02-17
When I was thinking about writing my personal statement, I didn't even know where to begin so I picked up this book and I'm glad that I did. It guided me through the essay writing process from brainstorming to final draft. This book also discusses what to look for in a graduate program, financial aid options, how to follow up on an application and more. Using the advice in this book, along with having a good academic record, I was able to get into my first choice school. Reading this book is like having your own personal advisor to guide you through the application process. It's also easy to read and very engaging. I'd recommend this book to anyone who is thinking about applying to graduate school.
- To someone who wants to apply graduate school
By A3BK2BBK2IKR65 on 2006-03-18
Summarize the important information from graduate school! To student who wants to apply graduate school, especially for non english speaking students. Author has good sense of humor. He also gives us key points in applying schools and how the schools cope with different students' application.
- The best book I read on this subject.
By ATLK7JIIHTFE on 2006-11-05
Excellent book, with a lot of helpful essays samples. Being a foreign student, this book really helped me to understand the American concept of personal statement letters and what the Universities admissions committees are really looking for.
- Good for Examples
By A590UX28UG27W on 2007-06-11
I rated this book a 3 for two reasons. First many of the essays are from people with extraordinary circumstances or experiences that inspired them to apply to grad school. Secondly I thought many of the examples were longer than the 1 page max allowed by some graduate schools.
- A good choice for anyone applying to graduate school
By A15HBNNDNLA23 on 2007-01-04
This book helped me get started and to organize my thoughts. I used it as a jumping off point and it really helped. I would recommend it to anyone who is trying to get thier essay written and needs some help getting thoughts organized. There are lots of essays from other students that help give you an idea on how to write your own.
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