Sample Student A 1

Short Essay Samples

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Below is a pdf link to personal statements and application essays representing strong efforts by
students applying for both undergraduate and graduate opportunities. These ten essays have
one thing in common: They were all written by students under the constraint of the essay being
1-2 pages due to the target program’s explicit instructions. In such circumstances, writers must
attend carefully to the essay prompt (sometimes as simple as “Write a one-page summary of
your reasons for wanting to pursue graduate study”) and recognize that evaluators tend to
judge these essays on the same fundamental principles, as follows:

 First, you are typically expected to provide a window into your personal motivations,
offer a summary of your field, your research, or your background, set some long-
term goals, and note specific interest in the program to which you are applying.
 Second, you are expected to provide some personal detail and to communicate
effectively and efficiently. Failure to do so can greatly limit your chances of
acceptance.
Good writers accomplish these tasks by immediately establishing each paragraph’s topic and
maintaining paragraph unity, by using concrete, personal examples to demonstrate their
points, and by not prolonging the ending of the essay needlessly. Also, good writers study the
target opportunity as carefully as they can, seeking to become an “insider,” perhaps even
communicating with a professor they would like to work with at the target program, and
tailoring the material accordingly so that evaluators can gauge the sincerity of their interest

Overview of Short Essay Samples

Geological Sciences Samples
In the pdf link below, the first two one-page statements written by students in the geological
sciences are interesting to compare to each other. Despite their different areas of research
specialization within the same field, both writers demonstrate a good deal of scientific fluency
and kinship with their target programs.

Geography Student Sample

The short essay by a geography student applying to an internship program opens with the
writer admitting that she previously had a limited view of geography, then describing how a
course changed her way of thinking so that she came to understand geography as a “balance of
physical, social, and cultural studies.” Despite her limited experience, she shows that she has
aspirations of joining the Peace Corps or obtaining a law degree, and her final paragraph links
her interests directly to the internship program to which she is applying.