currently wearing it disguise right now because we are about to go undercover

into the admissions of grad schools to understand how these admissions

committees work and exactly how you can get in. This video will have nothing to

do with your GPA or test scores. There's so much more to getting into grad school

than that, so I'm gonna walk you through 4 insights and tips on exactly how to

increase your chances to get into grad school. Alright well my cover's blown

so I'm going to take this off. A few things you should know is that I was on the

admissions committee of a master's program so I got to see it from the

inside, as well as I've talked to a lot of other admissions committees as well.

And know that we're talking about programs admit about 100 or fewer people.

We're talking about smaller programs not necessarily the big law schools or MBA

programs. Insight 1 is do your research. You must do your research about

grad school in such a deeper way than you did for undergrad. The reason is, grad

school programs with similar titles may provide you with vastly different

opportunities and experiences, so look into: Do they have a small cohort or big

cohort? What kind of community do they build? Is it practicum or research? What

are the classes you're taking? What are the requirements during the program? You

do all this research for two outcomes. The first one is to make sure you are

going to a program that really meets your career aspirations and interests. The

second is that the admissions board can smell from a mile away if you didn't do your

research and they will reject you. For example, I've seen programs that are

fully focused on building practical skills for the workplace in a business

setting, get applications that talk all about their deep research experience and

how they aspire to get a PhD someday. That is it completely at odds with the

goal of the program and so either that person applying just applied to

the completely wrong program or they were just selling

themselves wrong and they actually would be a good match for the program. Either

way, they're going to get rejected because they didn't do their research. The

number one best way to do research on a program is to find people who are alum

of that program and ask them tons of questions. You can either do that by

finding them on LinkedIn, or you can ask the program, hey can you put me in touch

with some alumni who have gone on to certain careers that align with yours.

Here's some example questions that you could ask alumni: Who were some of your

favorite professors from the program, and should I mention certain professors in

my application that I want to work with? What kind of people were in your cohort?

What kind of backgrounds did they have and what career direction were they

going in? What's the focus of the program's curriculum? What classes did

you take? What kind of experience does the program value? Is it professional

experience, is a research experience, and so on. I'm planning about talking about

XYZ in my personal statement, do you see that being relevant to the admissions

committee? And the second best way to learn about the program is to reach out

to the people running the program and ask them questions. Which brings us to

insight number 2: persistence and eagerness goes a long way. I recommend

calling a program and asking them questions -- genuine questions -- that you

cannot just find the answer on the website. Reaching out to the program,

attending info sessions, each point of contact is called in admissions speak,

"demonstrated interest," and this is a real thing that goes into the admissions

decision at a lot of different programs. The reason why demonstrated interest is

weighed in admission decisions is because these programs want to have a

high "yield." Yield is the ratio of the number of offers of

admission they send out and the number of acceptances they get back. This ratio

affects their rankings. It's not the only determinant of rankings, but it does

affect it. For example if the program was looking at two different applicants:

Applicant A attended an info session and they called the program 3 different

times to ask questions versus Applicant B who just simply sent in their

application. Applicant A is showing signs that they are more likely to accept so

it's a better idea for the school from a yield perspective to admit Candidate A.

And obviously there's other factors involved, but it's definitely helped that

Candidate A was so proactive. And we're moving right along to insight 3:

Apply at the early admission date whatever possible. The odds that you will

get into a program if you apply earlier are just so much higher. And the reasons

are is that there's generally more spots available and 2: again it's demonstrated

interest. If a program has rolling admissions apply as soon as possible.

Programs do things differently, there's obviously exceptions to this rule, but I

can't emphasize enough how important it is to apply early. Let's round out this video

with insight number 4: make sure your statement of purpose focuses on how the

program fits your aspirations. Grad school admissions committees want to

hear that you know what you want in your career and you know exactly how this

program is going to help get you there. It was disheartening when I was on an

admissions committee and I saw some of these essays come through and they were

written in the undergrad style. So I don't know about you, but when I was in

high school I was told that when applying to colleges I should focus on a

story that is attention-grabbing and kind of shows how I became the

person I am today. That style definitely works for undergrad

admissions but do not do that for grad school. I remember reading an essay of a

guy where his story was all about, "When I was 10 my parents left me in the forest

to survive..." And he walked us all through that entire story and how he built

character. And honestly I have no idea what his career aspirations were or even

if he knew what the program was about. And I don't think he got in, and it was really

sad because maybe he was a perfect fit but it went on this totally different

tangent. It was compelling story, but just not meant for grad school admissions.

Instead of that, show your personality in your essay

by telling the story of how you got to where you are in your career, and why

that makes you prepared for this program. And avoid any adjectives about how you're

driven or detail-oriented or any of that crap. Make sure to tell stories that

illustrate those characteristics. So here's an example of my personal

statement, and the whole story was about moving from journalism to wanting to be

in HR and recruiting. And so I talked about how I became the Training and

Development Manager of the newspaper I was at, and how much fun I had creating

recruitment plan and training programs and creating lots of guides on how to

hire and deliver performance reviews. And this is all to show that I take

initiative that I'm very passionate, but I never say that in here. It's all

illustrated by the way I write. And then in the end I tie it back to how USC can

help me enhance these skills. Those are my tips for today I have so many others

that get a little bit more detailed, but do let me know what your struggles with

the grad school application process. Make sure to click "like" on this video if the

information helped and subscribe to see these videos coming up every single week.

Thanks for going undercover with me, I must go into hiding now.