Loric

"My academic interests include.." - everyone assumes you like your interests.

Also, the phrase "committed to lifelong learning" was like nails on a chalkboard. It sounds like a corporate postive-action buzzword... Avoid.

Just work to rephrase sequntial "I..." statements. It makes the flow go better. "I like peanuts." "Peanuts bring me pleasure." -- "I would like to get into your school." "Getting into your school would be enjoyable." -- Silly.. but it works. Don't forget: Also, additionally, consequently, further, subsequently... Try to pair statements and have things flow into each other. "There has always been a keen interest in XYZ in my academic studies, consequently I have found myself attending... While in attendance I was introduced to .... which proved so fascinating that I began to study... and later became invovled in... because of... Further, my career has adapted to involve.. Additionally.. Furthermore.. Also.. Hence.. Wence.. Hithertofor.."

Also, the school i really want into has spent more on me than I've paid in application fees. I know this because I kept track of how much they spent in postage after the first package that was like $8 to send to me arrived. I'm ahead, and this is a private school that's known for bleeding students with tuition and fees (it IS a business.)

I've always seen it moreso as a way to keep people from mass applying.. if this forum has taught me anything, it's that my "apply for one/two schools at a time" tactic is far from the norm. Yeah, you're poor.. but you're in school. You probably have an iphone. You're not that poor.

It depends. I've heard of some people being flown out, paid for, etc.. Those tend to be the people the school is recruiting.. so if you're "applying" you're probably not in that pool. Don't feel bad, almost none of us are. My undergrad had a little fund for such things. They gave it to the students they felt were most likely to succeed. Shipped us off to various places, conference, etc.. See if your school or department does something similar. Hey, you just reminded me of an "award" to list on my app in the section where it asks about awards/honors/etc.. Thanks! Also - try to schedule out any visits of nearby schools. I did the Tour de SoCal in one flight, one hotel, one rental car hitting several schools that were no more than a few hours apart.

*shakes magic eight-ball* "Ask again later." Seriously, no one here will know and is just guessing. Your score for math isn't bad, but it's not compelling for the sciences in general. You need to have very good grades, good essays, good recs... etc.. to have a chance in very competitive programs. Good news for you is that most programs aren't nearly as competitive as people make them out to be. If you want to retake it, because you think you can do better (realistically, can you?) then do so. Otherwise apply with what you've got and make the most of it. I've seen 290 as a combined minimum, other people have said they're seen 310 - so you are scratching at the borderline. Not every school even asks for a GRE though.

A PhD who can't/wont write you a strong and compelling letter is not better than ANYONE who would write you a strong and compelling letter. If the PhD is going to come off as disinterested in you and crank out a generic form letter it wont mean much. The typical protocal is to rate things on a rubric. Your test score, your grades, letters, SOP.. assign it a value, see if the whole (weighted to your major) meets baseline, and then debate amoung the adcomm. A "meh" letter wont rate high. It wont sink you, but it wont rate high. If someone without a PhD can talk more intelligently about you and your work, choose that person.

And this feels relevent..

Also looked over the link.. It's really not about writing a life story.. the author of the article is ironically framing it poorly. It's about good storytelling and engaging the audience. Your audience is the adcom and they need to like you. Write something awful, boring, trite, or uninteresting.. they'll think you're awful, boring, trite, uninteresting.

They want to know who you are. Not just credentials, but who you are as a person. You're essentially transitioning from "student" to "co-worker" for these people (many grad students teach classes.) You'd never hire someone to be your coworker from just their resume, right? You interview to weed out if they're crazy, annoying, etc.. Well, colleges don't typically want all that expense and flying people around and getting the committee to actually meet someone. So, the SOP plays stand in. "Who you is" needs to be expressed. Keep in mind that when a school is looking for an SOP and a "Personal Statement" often the PS is the informal life-story-drivel-blah-blah while the SOP is more academic and "professional." When a school asks for just the SOP, they commonly combine the two into one object.. just be careful to read the prompt and interpet what they're looking for. And most people think the since-childhood-life-story nonsense is just that, nonsense. Most people are awful, awful writers. People who are awful writers still get into grad school though.. so there's a lot of passable essays about people's lives - that the adcom agrees they didnt ask for nor care about but by golly they're gonna see it anyways - that meet the standards. If you've ever interviewed people for a job this all makes more sense. Most people, while they could do the job, havent the foggiest what they're doing to interview.. and if a job high turnover or needs to fill a lot of positions quickly? You're going to start accepting the "meh" applicants. I mention this because you'll see a lot of "great" SOP essays online. Essentially people who got in to whatever school. Doesn't mean it was particularly good, just that they got in. As hard as it may seem, many people do go to grad school.. awful essays or not. So write what you feel comfortable with, but you do need to reflect yourself. Creating some fake persona and made up story is going to be seen from a mile away and treated with contempt. Unless you're some amazing writer.. and i mean really amazing, not "i wrote a grad school essay and got in so that must mean i'm good" type writer. Some people can't write, or their lives are really boring or they just cant express themselves. That doesn't mean you can't get in.. it just means your SOP wont be the strongest part of your application. Some schools weigh it heavier than others. Such is life.

From what I've gathered from my app process is that the 3rd itself is often seem as the "extra, if you're on the cusp" to prove you're suitable. So a 4th is entirely extraneous. Don't tell the person who agreed to the 4th to not bother. If the hard requirement is 3, send/get 3 (omg, it's like pulling teeth to actually have them sent... so you might need that 4th afterall to make a deadline.) Keep the 4th as a possibility. I do know that if you're not stong academically some programs will ask for another letter of rec if they're interested in you but not quite sold.

Something to keep in mind.. "I want to go to Grad School and I want to learn and study and wear a sweater and walk amoung the trees and blah blah blah.." Adcom: "That's great. What's in it for me?" "This goal is so important to my life.. and it'll get me where I want to go.. for me.. and with me.. and by me.. me me me.." Adcom: "Seriously, what's in it for me?" "And you'll be graced with my awesome tree-walking sweater wearing presence..." Adcom: "To heck with this." *tosses it in the reject pile* When you're framing your experience and goals, remember you're trying to convince someone to essentially hire you (give you money.) You need to talk about how you'd be useful and why anyone should be paying real money for that.

Well, my premise was that i will contribute to the design team (it's a design program, and in a form that heavily relies on teams) and used my previous experience as examples/illustrations. Only courses that ever get mentioned, and very vaguely, are my study abroad in Paris/Venice where I pretty much studied art in every museum in the two cities. In general, your transcripts will show your courses and your recomendations will talk of how you did well and touched on certain subjects. In the statement you're talking in "broad strokes" and want to present the future trajectory and past progress that shows this is a realistic trajectory. "I want to study the nuances of word choice as it relates to homosexual identity in Uganda in the novel War and Peace, but English is my second language, I just learned it last week, and I'm not even sure where Uganda is on a map but I like the way it sounds..." is not a realistic goal as framed by past experience.

I've specifically gone through and either gotten the feedback or asked the people not to respond because it's been so long - lol - to avoid agonizing over typos or anything I can't fix. I think I've completely maxed out my favors from my peer reader group. My SOP went through at least 3 complete ground-up rewrites, and then I subjected them to my longform resume/CV hybrid, and a few have agreed to read through my potential writing samples. I started with 5-8 people and now maybe 1 or 2 will even respond to an email from me about it saying "oh, i'm sorry, i'm so busy, maybe by next week?" lol. Eh, it's my life and it's important to me, so I think I get some leeway to be a little obsessive and pushy.

Anyone else find themselves with a seemingly endless ability to revise things in your SOP? Everytime I read through it, I think "What the hell was I thinking?" and rework a paragraph or something. I do think this last read/rewrite grinded down some rough edges and wonky wording, but i'm more concerned that I was happy with it a week ago thinking it was finished before I opened the file today. I guess I'm asking how you get past the idea that it could be improved and just submit the darn thing. How to come to peace with that.

Who is "everyone" exactly..? The prompt specifically asks you to adress "cultural" "familial" etc.. Sometimes ignoring what's crept into your head and going back to what the prompt is actually asking for is what will suit you best.

Also - the best way, I feel, to leverage the real world life experience is to show how it creates a diverse student body. Because you KNOW you're going to be up against and in classes with traditional students. Showcase how you'll bring something to the mix.

Your Statement of Purpose or Personal Statement can reflect the grand journey from barista to bacheloreate (I know that's not what happened but I like the way it sounds and it's my post - you still get the idea.) That said... The way i've been told to structure my resume is likely going to benefit you as well. When you deal with "project work" you end up not fitting into the normal resume format. You don't work for years for BlandCo pushing around McFiles and living in a Cubicle . So putting "BlandoCo - Bland Leader - 2003 thru 2007" and then "MS Office Excel, Word - Proficient" seems completely to miss the point. "Journalism Experience" Important Thing - For Whom - When -Like a published article of importance, piece, etc... -Bulletpoint of why that was important or skill related or goal accomplished -Bulletpoint of the same as above, but same idea, not the same-same.. you get what I mean. Other Important Thing - For whom - When -BulletS! -More Bullets!!! Preferably ones that cover other wonderful things you did, do, can do and accomplished. "Other Journalism Experience" Job-job in Journalism - For who - When -Any longer term positions -Bullet point.. break it down, bullet time.. -Doo doo doo, doo-doot, can't touch this "Related Work Experience" Barista - Starbucks - Since the late 90's -If you can't come up with a reason it's important, don't include it. -Make great coffee, I hear professors like coffee. ---Fin--- See? You also have headings for Education, Volunteering, etc.. as needed, but you cover the important parts of what you did and can do. Not a BlandCo resume that doesn't work for task oriented work roles.

You're going to just have to accept that different people on the adcomm will be looking for different things, and some do see omission as a "sin." Some will see a "3rd masters" and wonder why you're not out in the real world and think they're doing you a favor by putting you there, aka: nonacceptance. Some will see a lifelong learner who has proven they can do masters level work. Some will be looking at you, a mothers of 12 who works 3 jobs from a third world country returning to school, and a fresh out of undergrad "kid" with a perfect record. They will only have a single slot and have to pick one of you. Their whim will be entirely based on th number of *craps they give on the particular day. Just apply, be honest, and don't expect the world since this is your third masters.

Oh, and remember anyone who reads one is likely to read the other, at the same sitting, while also looking at the rest of your folio on file. So paint the big picture of what you want to convey to the adcomm. Then delegate responsibilties between the two papers and also other parts of your app. Don't be repetitive.

I think perhaps the best way for you to look at this is thusly... SOP = What you want to do and why you're qualified. Formal. PS = Who you is, why you is, and how you is. Informal.

Just ask. Come up with some words and send them to these people. If you don't ask, you have nothing. If you ask and they're like "Who's this person? Delete." then you also have nothing. But if they go "Oh, this person! I shall write a reccomendation.. when i get around to it, probably in a few months and well after giving this person an ulcer worrying that I wont actually do it after I said i would.." Well, then you have a rec you didn't have before. Short version: If you don't ask, you have nothing.

Long sotry, but i swear it has a point: Round 1 of grad school for me went thus: Conference with "dance card" type interviews. I was the only student at the conference with a "full dance card" of interested schools who wanted to talk to me. The first 4 slots were 2x as long as the later slots and saved for the "top" schools if they wanted them - for all students they wanted to talk to - and given priority. The same conference gave me the wrong return time so i showed up late.. looking like an idiot and the top schools literally angry at me for blowing them off. The conference "convinced" some of them to even speak to me. During which one of the professors told me "given more time to look at your statement, portfolio, I had time to question my judgement and i decided I didn't like you as much as I thought I did at first.. you're flashy, but under scrutiny your work isn't as good as i'd like..." Seriously, he said that to me - loudly - in front of dozens of other people. I left that conference being like "omg.. omg.. omg.." and this was literally all because i was given a card that said "return at 4pm" instead of "2pm" like everyone else. I still have the card. So, i went ahead forging a new path. I called schools that didn't attend the conference but were geographically where i wanted to be (geography was a big deal with what i wanted to study) and flew out to meet some. Two asked me to apply, I did. I got in. I had to choose. I chose one. Told the other, "sorry, love ya, but no.." 1st call me, "sorry, funding. last one in, first one out.." I called the second.. "OMFG take me!" "Uhh..." "Please..?" "Uhh.. hmm.. We didn't have anyone else apply yet, so.. sure." 1st calls me again: "Great news! You're in and funded!" I sat there hating life for a while. I was like "screw it!" and just let them both ride. They were very similar, geographically near each other (an hour's drive), and one's faculty was the students of the other. Just a generational gap.. and one had newer facilities. Week before, and with classes registered, all my financial aid clearly in the system (for both) I chose the school that threw more money at me. I sent an email to the 1st.. "Sorry 'bout it.." What happened after that puts me where i am today and isn't terribly relevent to the point.. the point being, stuff happens. Funding is weird, and it's not because people don't like you or even want you. Crap just happens. Students come and go, things get sourced, etc.. Don't sweat it. Ride out whatever you need to ride out to see what may come.. keep your options open, and do what's best for you.

Point by point.. Have you ever been suspended, No. dismissed, No. expelled No. or required to withdraw from any high school or college for academic or disciplinary reasons? No. You weren't asked to withdraw, you weren't thrown out of the school. You can't get into higher level classes in my undergrad major without approval of a professor (which is based on their own pure "cuz i said so.") Not getting in didn't mean those people all "failed" as far as the university was concerned. They couldn't get that particular degree - just like you can't/couldn't - you weren't thrown out of the school. Withdraw is a formal thing, it never happened to you. So is dissmal and expulsion. Again, neither happened to you. Don't freak out about "dishonesty" - they never asked that question and no sane person puts on their resume that they "sometimes feel inadeqate" - but everyone does.