Essays About the Presidential Election in Admissions

By Ross Blankenship

I've had a few people ask me whether they should write about the Presidential election and how it is has shaped their lives. The answer is: if you can do it effectively without it being too clichéd, then yes - it can be an acceptable topic. All too often, however, students let the election season take over their college applications- writing fervently for either Obama or McCain without any substance; they forget to come up with a solid theme about themselves. Don't fall victim to such poor writing.

Writing an essay, whether it be for prep school, college or graduate admissions, requires students take an inimitable approach. You must write with clarity, consistency and care.

For example, the following essay is a sample of bad writing on the election:

"I'm supporting ______ candidate because we need change. Change is a good thing for America. Just look at the last 8 years; when I was in middle school students and teachers thought we were heading in the right direction."

Why does this essay start off bad? Well, for one, it is about a concept, i.e. "Change," which can be difficult to bring down to a tangible level where the audience can see how it has shaped your life. Instead, start broadly and narrow the concept into a form where the reader/audience knows where you're heading with the topic. Further, supplement any political writing with solid examples of your participation in the election process.

Here's an example of a better essay with more substance:

"Having volunteered in a local phone drive for __________ candidate, I have heard the voices of people desiring change; I want to be part of this change. I took part in the electoral process because I feel our government is too large and our individual voices are all too often drowned out by special interests and lobbyists."

These two parallel examples - one bad, one good- hopefully clarify the essay topic of the Presidential election or any election for that matter. If you have volunteered before or been an active part of any local, state or federal campaign, tell the admissions office, be specific and bring any abstract topic such as change down to a manageable level. You don't want to sound clichéd like many political ads airing across the nation. Bring substance, candor and care to your essay and you're bound to connect more with your audience.

Hope that helps... For more information on college essays and application essays, check out one of our programs. Ross Blankenship is an Author and Director of http://www.miroadvantage.com , test prep and admissions. Miro Advantage helps students and parents achieve their admissions goals. Miro Advantage also runs TopTestPrep and AdmissionsControl, and aims to help students and parents throughout the admissions process.

Graduate School Problem Number 1 - Scientific Adviser

By Cornelia Delane

A scientific adviser is the most important person for getting your Master's or PhD degree in time and without too much pain. What is even more important, is that it is a person, who will help you to get your first job, write your recommendation letters, use connections to get you an interview.

This implies that your professors has to be famous enough to have those connections and powerful enough to organize those interviews. Usually such people are well established researchers with their tenure received long time ago. Very often they have big research groups and not so much time to spend doing research. This is also because those famous professors have to attend numerous meetings and conferences and serve as advisers in all kind of committees. Therefore the time left after all those activities is shared among writing papers and grant proposals, teaching and, after all, working with research group members.

If we take all this in consideration, we suddenly realize that this type of scientific advisers can be good for getting your job, but really bad to work with.

On the other hand, young active professors, especially before their tenure, can spend days and nights in the labs working with their students and trying to work on the coolest projects and writing a lot of papers. You PhD will be finished very soon, and with impressive results in your resume. Unfortunately after that connections of your advisor start to play such important role, that you excellent resume may be not enough. This is especially true for academic career, where without calls with support from the advisor it is even impossible to get interview.

So, what to do? Is it better to choose old and established or young and active advisor?

As usually in life, there is no simple answer, but there are several possible solutions. First solution is to get co-advised by two people one of each kind. Second is to approach your famous professor with research questions so actively that you can get higher priority in his or her time share. Third is based on the fact that graduate study takes some time. Therefore if you start with a great young professor, and you together do nice research, at the moment of your graduation she or he will have enough connections to help you find a good job.

More information about relevant topics can be found at http://www.5caps.com