Tips for Preparing the Essays

(compiled with the input and advice of Warren Ilchman, Director of the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans Program)

	The essays should be in your own words. While it’s often helpful to get feedback on your work from teachers and friends, the essays should be entirely your writing, and they should be uniquely and identifiably your own. Selectors don’t expect grammatical perfection, especially for New Americans who speak English as a second language.
	Quality, not quantity. You cannot explain everything about your life in 1,000 words. Carefully select the best information and anecdotes that you feel illustrate your most important attributes, particularly in regard to the three selection criteria.
	Tie your essays together with common threads. Emphasize certain patterns or themes that you think are important for anyone trying to understand you. Common themes that run through your application help to organize it and make it memorable for the selection committee.
	Make your application a coherent whole. The two essays should fit together in order to give the reader a full picture of where you've been and where you're going, as well as where you are in your life now and how you got there. Make sure to explain how your graduate school plans will aid you in your ultimate goals. Also, use these essays to fill in gaps or question marks in the application (e.g., a semester of low grades).
	Revise, revise, revise. Revise your essay until you have made it as concise and vivid as you are capable of.
	Try to make your narrative as active and engaging as possible. Focus on using interesting verbs and nouns, rather than strings of adjectives. Also, stay away from qualifiers and imprecise words such as: very, somewhat, rather, quite, some, often, really, many, far, etc. Do not make sweeping generalizations, and avoid using clichés.
	Prepare your essays with your interview in mind. Write your essays so that they might spark the kinds of questions you can best answer. Don't give so much detail that there is nothing left to ask you in the interview.

back to Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans Resources