Ideas for Application Essays

How to Brainstorm Topics for Graduate Application Personal Statements

Coming up with a sharp and catchy application requires planning and plenty of thought. These tips will help you come up with essay ideas.

After you have done your preliminary research like any essay writer on the schools you are interested in applying to, the types of answers they are looking for, and have asked any questions you have to friends and advisers, you are now ready to start coming up with the ideas for your essay.

It is important to make a list of everything you wish to include in your essay before you start. You can always take things out later if it is too much. Although, this should not be a problem considering some schools have a personal statement cutoff at one hundred pages.

9 Tips for Brainstorming Ideas

These tips will help you organize your thoughts to write a successful graduate school essay and/ or personal statement.

1. Spend a couple of weeks thinking of ideas. This is not a fast process. Keep track of ideas, experiences, and goals that you want to include in your essay.
2. List your goals. Make a list of your short and long-term goals. Jot a few notes on how different programs and schools will help you achieve these goals. Ask yourself “Why is University X the perfect place for me to help meet these goals?”
3. What is your area of interest? Be specific. Locate your research and your experiences within your desired field. The more specific you can be, the better. You may want to review some of your best-written work to date. Best essays, any published pieces, or just old journal entries you think to showcase your research interests. Many schools will be looking for your writing sample as an essay writer, so this could make your application more cohesive if your statement draws from your writing sample.
4. What are your reasons for pursuing this degree in this field? Academic fields are overlapping more and more these days. Make sure you can make some notes on why this one specific field is the one for you.
5. What are some of your most influential past experiences? Note major turning points in your life, travel experiences, important people, life lessons, etc. One way to approach this question is to go through and update resumes. Many schools will ask for an up-to-date resume and this will be a good way to have your resume complement your statement.
6. Note past successes/ failures. This is related to the previous point, but make sure to jot down major successes, how you accomplished them, and major failures, what you learned. Do not be afraid of writing about your failures. It is sometimes from our failures that we learn the most, and they can make for quite compelling essays.
7. Why is your perspective valuable? Think about what it is that makes your specific perspective valuable and why you would be a valuable contributor to the programs to which you are applying.
8. Thesis idea and funding possibilities. If you could do any type of research what would it be? Can you imagine an ideal project that you could spend a few years on, particularly if you are looking to earn a PhD.? What are some organizations that are funding this type of research? Remember: Universities are businesses. You need to be able to present a clear “business plan” of what it is you are going to do and how you are going to fund it.
9. What is it you most want to do? This is different than long and short-term goals. This is number one. So the essay writer cheap suggests answering the following questions. What drives you? What gets you up in the morning? In many ways, this is the hardest question to answer.

Once you go through these questions, you should have a lot of notes about possible topics, ideas, and themes about you and how you fit into your area of interest. These notes are going to be invaluable to you as you process them and begin writing your statement.

About the author: Bianca J. Ward is a professional online essay writer at EssayWriterFree where she provides people with qualitative works. Besides, she is a passionate photographer and traveler who has visited 52 countries all over the world. Bianca dreams about creating a photo exhibition to present her works to others.