How to Write an Application Letter for University Admission pdf: College reputation and degree is in the palm of your hand. It is a rise or fall of your professional future. It is important that you choose the best college that suits your degree and academic record that you have.
When you write a letter or personal statement as part of applying for graduate or professional school, you make your case as much by the way you write as by what you say. Here are some qualities to aim for.
Be focussed: Take your cue first from the prompts given in the application form; also research the program widely, looking for hints about its values and identity. What is the main stated question (e.g., why you will be a good researcher or lawyer, what experience you can bring to the program, whether you can stand the pressure)? If the prompt is very general (or lacking), choose an overall point you want to make: that you are a proven achiever, that you thrive on challenges, that you have something special to contribute to the profession. . . . Don’t just write about law or medicine or anthropology: write about yourself as a lawyer, physician or anthropologist.
Be coherent: Being “together” is a quality of writing as well as of character. A clearly organized letter can create a picture of a clear-minded and sensible person. You might want to write from an outline or a diagram of main points. At least check the topic sentences of each paragraph in your finished piece to see if they make a logical sequence. Ask a tough-minded friend to give her impression.
Be interpretive: You need to make an impression concisely, so don’t use your letter just to repeat the facts set out in other parts of the application. Provide explicit answers for the question that arises in the mind of any reader looking at a hundred or more similar documents: “So what?” Use nouns and adjectives that name qualities (outgoing, curiosity, confident) and verbs that show action (coordinated, investigated, tried). Make an effort to find the exact right words to suit the evidence you are offering.
Be specific: There’s no point making claims unless you can back them up. Refer to the fact lists in other parts of your application (“as my academic record shows”), but offer enough examples so that your letter can stand on its own. Say that they are just instances, not your whole proof (“An incident from last summer is an example….”). The concrete language you use for these specific references will also balance the generalizing words of your interpretive points.
Be personal: Your letter substitutes for an interview. In effect, the readers have asked you to tell stories, mention details, expand on facts. So mention things you might not have put into the rest of the application—your ethnic background or political interests, even, if they’re relevant to your academic interests. Don’t be afraid to mention problems or weaknesses if you can show how you overcame them and what you learned from the experience. Use I rather than evasive phrases like “this writer” or “was experienced by me.” A stylistic tip: to avoid monotony, start some sentences with a subordinate clause such as “While I scrubbed floors” or “Because of my difficulties”—then go on to I did or I learned.
Options for Organizing an Admissions Letter
Judge by the clues on the application form and by the nature of the profession or discipline what kind of logical structure you could use to tie your points together into a coherent whole. You may see indications you are expected to demonstrate your personality, or be self-analytical, or enter into discussions in the discipline. You will probably use one or more of these standard expository patterns.
Narrative: A chronological order is easy to organize. It progresses from a beginning to an end, and you can divide up the middle into manageable sections. But beware of overworked openings like “I have always wanted to be a dentist,” and of excessive detail. Select relevant and interesting stories and make sure that the readers know why you are telling them.
Analytic: To deal with the central question why you are a good match for the program, give an overall answer about yourself and then discuss the elements that contribute to your engagement with the discipline. Discuss your interests in terms of key issues and theories in your discipline. To balance the dryness of this approach, break into memorable stories at times, using specific details, and use verbs to put yourself into action. Show what you intend to do after you have completed the program.
Technical: To indicate your research or professional interests, show your involvement with a specific issue. Don’t just outline the topic you want to work on; write about your summer research job or independent-study project, or even your program on student radio or your volunteer experience. Outline specific undergraduate projects as examples. Emphasize what you learned from these
activities, and indicate how your studies will extend that learning.
Writing a School Application
- Address the prompt. If you’re writing for a college application or an internship, there will almost always be a short prompt for you to respond to. These are often quite short, which means you’ll have some room to get creative.
- Common prompts include things like, “Outline your qualifications for this position” or “In writing, explain how this position would affect your career goals.” Sometimes, the prompt will be as short as, “Tell us something interesting about yourself.”
- If there is no prompt, but you still feel the need to introduce your application with a letter, it’s usually best to keep it as short as possible. Explain what you’re applying for, why you’re applying, and thank the contact for their consideration. That’s it.
- Tell your story. College applications are a unique opportunity to make yourself stand out beyond the numbers of your resume and your transcript. Lots of applicants think the letter should make them sound “smart,” but it’s better to stand out and make yourself unique. What makes you the unique person you are? Don’t worry if it sounds “smart”—this is your chance to let the admissions officers get to know you better, so be authentic.[5][6]
- Often, college prompts will ask you to describe a time you struggled, or a time you overcame some obstacle. Write about something unique, a time that you actually failed and dealt with the consequences.
- The board will get thousands–literally, thousands–of letters about someone’s first mission trip, and letters about the time someone’s sports team was beaten, then overcame the odds, and won again. Avoid these topics.
- Write about your future. Where do you want to go next? Employers and college admissions want to hire people who want to succeed and want to go places. If you’re writing an application letter, it’s important to stand out by describing that you’re an ambitious person who’ll achieve at a high level. Describe where you want to go.
- Be specific. If you’re writing to a college board, don’t say, “I want to go to this college because I need a degree.” That’s obvious. What do you want to do with it? Why? If you’re applying to a business, don’t say, “I just need a job.” That’s obvious. Why this specific job?
- Don’t include stuff that’s also on your resume. Your application letter is your one chance in an application to stand out. Listing off the number from your GPA and the boring list of achievements from your resume isn’t the best way to do that. The purpose of the letter is to get a sense of who you are, not a list of accomplishments. Don’t use the letter to describe the list of schools you’ve attended, your GPAs, and a list of extra-curricular activities, unless it relates to some anecdote in the letter.[7]
- Demonstrate that you’re familiar with the school you’re applying to. Lots of people carpet-bomb the same letter to a bunch of different places, because that’s a lot easier than actually writing a separate letter to every place you’re applying. Research a little bit about each place, and take some time to make each letter unique, even if you’re going from a template.
- If you’re applying to schools, what do you like about the school? What faculty are you interested in? Why this school, instead of another?
- Be sure to explain how you see yourself fitting into the campus—that’s what will really make you an ideal candidate for a school.
Conclusion
The applications letter for university admission is one of the important documents that are required when applying for colleges. It should describe the applicant’s reasons for choosing the host school, his background, experiences, interests, and educational goals.