Graduate Essays: What Works, What Doesn't and Why

Veteran higher-education consultant Donald Asher demystifies the graduate school application process and offers a detailed action plan that has proved successful for some of the most competitive programs in the country. The 50 sample essays-selected from thousands of candidates-showcase the best of the best, while the Essay Hall of Shame identifies common pitfalls to avoid. Sample letters of recommendation and essays for scholarships, residencies, fellowships, and postgraduate and postdoctoral applications cover all stages of the application process.

Teaches how to craft a winning essay with 50 state-of-the-art samples to inspire, instruct, and all but guarantee a top-of-the-pile application. Updated third edition includes an entirely new chapter dedicated to online applications and how they're managed, processed, and considered. Previous editions have sold 100,000 copies.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

• Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning an M.A. or a Ph.D.
• Graduate Admissions Essays, Fourth Edition: Write Your Way into the Graduate School of Your Choice (Graduate Admissions Essays: Write Your Way Into the)
• Playing the Game: The Streetsmart Guide to Graduate School
• How to Write the Perfect Personal Statement: Write powerful essays for law, business, medical, or graduate school application (Peterson's Perfect Personal Statements)
• Grad's Guide to Graduate Admissions Essays: Examples from Real Students Who Got into Top Schools
• The Grad School Handbook
• Graduate Programs in the Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences 2017 (Peterson's Graduate Programs in the Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences)
• 57 Ways to Screw Up in Grad School: Perverse Professional Lessons for Graduate Students (Chicago Guides to Academic Life)