Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, what's up, welcome back to my channel, welcome back to my channel. Okay, how are you guys doing? I want to talk about Applied Graduate School again. I get so many questions and I think I want to address those questions properly and in more depth. So let's go. Okay, I am wearing my Harvard t-shirt because I want to inspire some of you. Some of you deserve to be in Harvard, some of you should be in Harvard, some of you should apply to Harvard, but you're too scared to apply. Why? You deserve it. So apply. So if you feel like you're smart enough, if you feel like, you know, you're worth it and we're all worth it, but if you really have this urge like, man, I should be in Harvard, like why not? Why not? Apply. I'm wearing my Harvard t-shirt in this video to inspire some of you to go for your dreams and go to that school that is on your wishlist. Apply. I've applied to Harvard twice actually, I applied to do my master's and my PhD at Harvard and I got denied twice, but I visited Harvard a couple of years ago and I got my t-shirt. I got a lot of their stuff. I got a hoodie and people always ask me, oh, what class? I'm like, what do you mean what class? You're like, uh, Harvard, like what class did you graduate and I'm like, I just bought your stuff. But what I say is I just visited and I love Harvard. So I mean, who doesn't? I admire Harvard. Okay. So this video is about giving you tips on how to create a standout graduate application. If you hear some noise, I'm outside in my yard and so there's a lot of cars, you know, moving around. So sorry about that. So graduate school often serves as a practical pathway to better job opportunities and higher salary potential. However, completing a graduate school application can challenge even the most dedicated students, even the best, best students. I consider myself a very dedicated student, a very, very meticulous person. But when I was applying to graduate school, I was like going crazy. Careful research and planning is actually key to creating a graduate school application that will stand out. So most graduate school applications require students to synthesize the different dimensions of their academic and professional experience into a cohesive, cohesive submission. Okay. So my first tip into getting into achieving that is to give yourself time, start the process of applying to graduate school at least one year, one year beforehand. Okay. You need to apply early. You need to start early. Okay. Because it takes a long time. The process is really drawn out. So give yourself time. If you give yourself time, you're less likely to feel like, you're less likely to feel the burden of the application or feel burnt out or, you know, or just applying halfway and dropping off and saying, Oh, this is not for me. So start early. Okay. Give yourself time. Number two, make sure you're a good fit for the program. Your recent interests align with what's going on in the department. So a lot of times people are so obsessed with a particular school or a particular program or a particular city. You're not doing the research you need to do to make sure that your research interests or your interests in general is a good fit, applies to the department. Okay. So for my department, before, in fact, before a graduate student is admitted, you have to have approval from a professor. So many of you, some of you, not many, but some of you have emailed me to work with me. If you don't have an approved letter from one of the professors, they wouldn't even take you. So a lot of graduate schools are like that now, at least for PhD students. For masters, it's a little bit different, but just make sure that your interests align with the school because you can be a fantastic candidate, but be rejected, which sucks. You can be rejected because your interests, because they feel like, Oh, this person is great, but your interest is not really what the department is interested in or, or what the departments, where the department sees themselves going, they don't see you as being a part of, right? So they can reject you. So yeah. So that's important. Make sure you're a good fit. Number three, contact the department, overdo it, over contact the department. Make sure that you're boring the department. You want them to mention your name at admissions committee meetings. Like, Oh, remember Nneka, there's a girl named Nneka. She's always emailing. Like you want to be that person. So obviously you want to make sure that your emails are short, sweet, nothing long and informatic, but make sure that you're, you're contacting the department, contacting and graduate academic advisor, asking questions. If you have any questions, let them know your name. Okay. Be careful. So here's the thing. Be careful not to ask questions that you can easily find online. I know sometimes, Oh, this drives me nuts. And this drives a lot of my colleagues nuts, right? Because you're asking, you're emailing a professor or emailing a graduate coordinator, graduate advisor, asking questions about admission that is on their websites. Why are you doing that? Am I scolding? I'm scolding. It just, it gets me fired up, right? So here's an important tip. Never ever email to ask questions that you can find online. And I'm guilty of this. I'm not even, I'm guilty. I was there asking questions, you know, and people are saying check online and then you feel dumb because it's right there online, right? So make sure that when you email, it's not, you're not asking questions that can be found online. Another tip is to follow the application directions to a T. T, T, T. Perfectly. Just follow it. Why don't you? Here's it. Put in the comments. Why don't people follow application directions? What's the reason? What is it? Cause I don't know. Cause a lot, I'm already thirsty. You guys are stressing me out. Okay. Why don't, why don't you guys, why don't people follow the application directions? A lot of, all application directions of any good department is online. Okay. It's all online, all online. So all you need to do is go online, do your research, write out the application directions and follow it to a T. That's it. Just do that. Really do that. Number five is help your references write good letters. Okay. I know some of you, some of you, one of the things that has held you back is no reference letters. And I'm going to put a link in the description box to my, to my video, to a video I made on how to get reference letters. That is very important. Help your, help your professor, help your, your boss, whoever you're going to ask to write you a reference letter, help them. If you want to get them to actually write the letter, write it for them to the best of your ability and send it to them to approve. Okay. That cause the work they have to do by 80%. Okay. And that is helpful at least for me and for many people, many professors, I know many other people I know if I write reference letters, it taught like constantly, like I'm constantly sending letters, at least three letters every week, two to three every week. Right. But I never write any letter from scratch. I always tell people, Hey, draft the letter, send it to me. I'll read it, edit it, change it, make it mine. And put it on my letterhead. But I never do the work, like I never write from scratch. And so yeah, consider doing that, consider helping and watch the video and that will help you a lot. Okay. So number six is check if the department you're applying to for your master's or your PhD, if they have specific classes they require before you can get admitted. There's nothing worse than when I'm reviewing application materials for school, for grad school. And I see that, Oh, we require this course before you can be admitted into the program. And this person has submitted all of this, all of their work, all of their documents, but they're missing that one class that we require, you know? So you want to make sure this is a very common problem. You want to make sure that the class, if there's, if there is a class, if there are a group of classes that your school, the school you're applying to requires that you have maybe from your undergraduate before getting admitted into your master's program or your PhD program, you want to make sure that you have those classes before you waste all that money and all that time applying. And then they reject you because of a little, little, little thing, mistake that you overlooked. Okay. So think about that. Here's, here's another tip at first, if you don't succeed, try again. Okay. Never, ever give up. Never give up. And that's what, that's what my husband would say, honestly, I'm very persistent. Don't give up on your dreams. Don't give up on your dreams. You have to keep going. You're not allowed. If you're a subscriber to my channel, you're not allowed to give up. Okay. And on demand people, we're not allowed to give up. You know, if you're subscribing, if I'm inspiring you somehow, some way, we're not giving up. We're not, we're not, we're not people that give up at all. Okay. You've got to try again. Okay. So you have to keep trying. If your application to graduate school was not successful, it's important to ask for feedback. Okay. So if I tell you, Oh, we're sorry, you know, this wasn't a successful application. Um, please try again next year, immediately you need to email and say, Oh, thank you so much for getting back to me. This is unfortunate. I'm so sad. Blah, blah, blah. Can you kindly give me some feedback? What did I do wrong? How can I do better next time? Get some feedback, re-evaluate your application and apply again, right? Because we're not giving up. Me and you. Okay. We're not giving up. Keep applying. It's not expensive. So maybe the next time you apply, you fix all the things that were problems. And then you ask for an application fee waiver since you already paid that in the past, you can ask for a waiver. Okay. So yeah, so that is something that you could do. You should do. Okay. Number eight, your statement of purpose needs to be right. Make sure the admissions committee come away from your statement of purpose thinking this makes sense. I know why she wants to do this program at the time and I know what her goals are, what his goals are, whatever your gender is. When your committee reads your statement of purpose, you want them to read it and leave your application saying, I know this person and I'm impressed. Cool. Do you understand? Like you want to convey yourself. You want them to feel like they know you and they know your goals and they like you. Okay. You want to try to convey that. And I will put a link to my statement of purpose video in the description box for you guys to watch and learn from. I call my, my, my tip, the five paragraph statement of purpose. And it's probably one of my popular videos, my most popular videos, because it actually works and you can read when you go to that video, read on that. It comments a lot of people are cutting, just cutting into grad school. So check that video out. All right. Tip number nine, utilize LinkedIn. Find current graduate students in the program and ask them questions about the program before you apply. During your application, you want to find students in the program, I'm spitting, find students in the program and talk to them. LinkedIn is a great way to do that. So type, you know, I hope you can use LinkedIn. I hope so. Get to LinkedIn, find current graduate students in the program, ask them questions, get tips and tricks, all that good stuff. That will help you a lot. And number 10, relax, relax. The application process is a major, major, major learning experience. And applicants often learn as they go. You're going to learn as you go. So stay positive. That's one of the greatest things I've learned in life. You have to stay positive. If you don't stay positive about your own life, who's going to stay positive for you? Nobody, not anybody external, it has to be you. So you have to stay positive. You have to be reflective. You have to re-evaluate. If it doesn't go as you planned, if it goes as you planned, great. If it doesn't go as you planned, still stay positive, re-evaluate and apply again. So when you worry and obsess over the application process, you just stress yourself out because you can't do anything about it, right? There's really nothing you can do about it. So you have to just stay, you have to relax. Just relax. Okay. Trust me. Relax. Relax. Relax. I am wishing you the best of luck, the best of blessings and keep me posted in the comments how things are going and I will catch you in my next video. Love you guys so much and thank you for subscribing and being part of the Anne on Demand family. Mwah.