这本书是我在申请季时，负责管我的zf学长推荐给我看的，让我修改自己的ps，我看完之后的确感觉大为震撼，感觉自己的ps一无是处，全部删掉重写。虽然我后来申请美国全部把我拒了，我仍觉得这本书写的非常好，可以说是同类书里写的最好的一本了。
“If the reader does not know of the quality of your undergraduate college, or the specific nature of an honor, award, or program for which you were selected, you may need to inform them, gently, about its awesomeness.”“Be careful with your language. You can’t refer to something as “elite,” because self-referential claims of eliteness fall flat, but words like “rigorous” are quite effective”
- 自夸项目尊荣，但是注意用词，如不能用elite，而应该用rigorous。可以凡尔赛的表述“I was honored/lucky to get engaged into a rigorous program”
What do you know about the city, geographic region, or state where you will be applying? Have you ever visited? Did you like it? Is the weather there like the weather where you have lived in the past? Do you have close friends or relatives living near there now? Did your family live there in prior generations? How can you establish any kind of geographical connection with the location of the graduate schools you have targeted? Write down your responses to these questions.
- 书写中必须提及地理原因。NYC招生官说，如果一次都没有提NY，直接挂人。这还是我第一次听说要提及这个。
What classes are you going to take between now and your arrival at your targeted graduate school? What laboratory or research skills will you learn? What research projects will you complete between now and when you begin graduate school?
- 尾段提及从现在到入学期间的打算。这也是我第一次听说。
Be ready to describe your level of participation in the research. On one project, you may wish to point out that you “designed experimental methodologies, scheduled and conducted experiments, analyzed the data, and drafted preliminary conclusions. Be ready to describe the hypothesis, methodology, findings, and so on, or you should not be talking about the research in your essay!
- 关于一段研究经历的书写的真知灼见。按照 实验设计，实验施展，分析数据，起草结论 介绍自己的工作。别忘记介绍清楚 自己的研究的 猜想，方法，发现，以及潜在影响。
Another type of “name dropping” involves minority-related organizations.
Your list may include the following:
- Influential undergraduate professors
- Specific professors at the targeted institution who interest you
- Major writers and thinkers in the field who have influenced you
- Professors with whom you have visited or corresponded or spoke
- Any other people you may have in common with the targeted institution
- 可以写具体人名/机构名的情况：supervisor，少数群体相关的任何组织，以及上面list列出来的情况。
Don’t be afraid to use vivid detail to make points. Avoid using words like these in your essay: meaningful, challenging, beautiful, wonderful, invaluable, rewarding. Say what you mean; either describe the event in question, or report your emotions and thoughts in more basic detail. Replace these vague words with a personal statement, something from your own unique point of view. If you have difficulty with this, start sentences with “I”: “I felt…” “I realized…” “I saw that…”
- 总之把要夸自己的品质放在细节里，具体的细节里藏着上帝，而不是直接用形容词夸人。世界最蠢模版开头““I always wanted to be a doctor because I like science and I want to help people.”
Hint that there is far more to you than you have room to discuss in this short essay. Tie your essay to the rest of your application with notes like these: “See letter of recommendation,” “See resume,” “See bibliography for additional articles,” “See awards.” You will notice this technique in many of the essays selected for this book.
- 不要重复其他申请材料里的内容。多使用引用，引用到其他申请材料里。
I want to enroll in the program at [major university] because of its excellent reputation in real estate and urban land economics; I have not found such strength at other MBA programs. I am also familiar with the admirable work of the Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics, and I particularly look forward to working with Profs. Edelstein, Rosen, and Wallace.
- 强调自己和对方学校的共同点！见上方的例子。而且写的时候不要在一个教授身上吊死，至少提及三个。
I like reductionism: (1) it is efficient, (2) it shows clarity of thought, (3) it is accessible to the reader, and (4) it makes for an easy transition from notes to paragraphs.
- 推荐局部小段使用这样的list点名。比如在尾段说明自己和项目多么match。
Whether they ask you to or not, substantiating your dedication to your career goal often makes for a strong essay. Similarly, it is a good idea to demonstrate that you understand the real challenges and drawbacks to both the course of study and the eventual career you have chosen. Admissions committees are reluctant to admit candidates to rigorous programs leading to demanding careers if the applicant seems not to have a clear idea of what lies ahead. If you have a real understanding of what your life will be like (1) as a graduate student, (2) as a trainee in this new profession, and (3) as a skilled practitioner, then convey this to the admissions committee.
- 无论有没有要求，都要说自己的职业规划。体现出自己充分明白这份事业之后的困难险阻以及要求。
Instead, give the kinds of specifics that can only come from in-depth knowledge of a particular topic—ideally, one closely related to the professor’s own area of specialization
- 某些有taste的招生官希望从ps中获得知识，读到in-depth并且unique的来自你的工作的科普。
Your image of your future career goals and anticipated contributions to your field and to society in general may be of interest to admissions readers, especially when you seem to have a mission. All essays have topics, but few have themes. A topic is what you are going to write. The topic of your essay is you: your intellectual preparation, your future goals, your rationale for picking a particular program. A theme is why you are going to write, the message or concept or point that strings all your paragraphs together into a comprehensive whole. Themes can include the high cost of medical services in a modern technological world, white-collar crime, the role of the teacher, how dance and physics are one discipline, and so on.
- 如果你有人生使命，不要不说。
If you have faced a particular challenge in the course of your life or your education, it may be to your benefit to let the admissions committee know about it.
- 有独特的人生困难，也可以写。
absolute minimum—a sentence if possible, a paragraph at most. Do not make long, involved excuses; keep it simple and devoid of drama; again, no whining and no feeling sorry for yourself.
- 申请材料有什么肉眼可见缺陷，在ps中一句带过什么意外导致的。
Although you should never just follow a formula, you can draw from a set of key ingredients that many successful essays share. They have great opening lines or paragraphs. They convey at least a glimpse of the applicant’s personality, substantiate specific academic preparation and knowledge of subject matter, and demonstrate an understanding of the challenges as well as the rewards of a chosen career. They often give a sense of the candidate’s maturity, compassion, stamina, teamwork skills, leadership potential, and general likability, usually without addressing these issues directly. They clearly catalog the student’s technical skills and abilities; they prove that the student has the background and skills needed to excel at the graduate level. They name specific professors at the targeted program with whom the candidate is interested in working, and specific directions they expect to take with their studies. Then they go on to show how the applicant plans to use the graduate education in her planned career, and establish that the student has an understanding of her place in the “big picture.“
- 尽管没有固定模版，但是成功的essay通常都会包括：完美的开头，展现出申请人的性格特点，展现充分的学术准备，展现对于选择之路的困难的理解。申请人应该具有的特点包括：成熟，韧性，合作能力，领导力，令人感到亲近，拥有学习研究生课程的能力。申请人提及了具体的他们希望能够合作的教授，申请人说清楚学校在他们职业发展中的作用，体现他们对于自己在世界的位置的理解。Essay并不是要提供新的信息，而是使得你所有的申请材料逻辑相洽。
“Errors and sloppiness, misspellings, inconsistent style. You have to wonder how they made the grades on their transcripts.“
“Spelling errors, poor English.”
“Anything that starts out, ‘I’ve always wanted to be a __________.’”
“Sometimes they don’t really answer the question. We ask each question for a reason.”
“When they just seem to be saying what they think we want to hear. We can pick up on that right away.”
“Our application is a little different. We want original work. I hate it when I can tell that they’re recycling material they wrote for other schools.”
“The essay sounds like they want to be the next Mother Teresa, but there’s nothing in the rest of the application to back up any claims of altruism.”
“We ask for dates on activities. It’s a red flag if all the activities are brand new.”
“A whole essay on deep personal problems or excuses for past performance. It’s amazing how common that is. The essay should be upbeat, convincing, persuasive.”
“Too long. It shows no discipline.“
“Sometimes they don’t really answer the question. We ask each question for a reason.”
“When they just seem to be saying what they think we want to hear. We can pick up on that right away.”
“Our application is a little different. We want original work. I hate it when I can tell that they’re recycling material they wrote for other schools.”
“The essay sounds like they want to be the next Mother Teresa, but there’s nothing in the rest of the application to back up any claims of altruism.”
“We ask for dates on activities. It’s a red flag if all the activities are brand new.”
“A whole essay on deep personal problems or excuses for past performance. It’s amazing how common that is. The essay should be upbeat, convincing, persuasive.”
“Too long. It shows no discipline.”
“Every year there is always at least one essay from someone who tells us how proud he would be to be admitted to __________, but this isn’t that school.”
“Students are so afraid to take a risk that they don’t really tell us anything. That throws us right back on the numbers.”
“Don’t tell me what __________ is. I know what[…]”
- 研究生院招生办公室常见吐槽见上。请对照这些吐槽进行初稿修改。据书说，顶级法学院看到essay有语言错误就直接挂人。
“I would love to become a tireless and valuable contributor to your program”
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语气委婉而不是粗鲁感觉良好。
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避开politics动机，money动机，xie教动机。
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Using both detail and accomplishment to avoid mundane and onerous
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You have not always anything. 不要说自己always任何事情。相比之下，不如描述自己开始感兴趣的瞬间。
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注意言外之意的倾向。比如过度劳累的形象，过度negative的倾向。
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建议自己已经改到无处可改时，再找语言专家改，因为语法修改会 edit the life out your writing
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全名以及申请的项目信息放在所有提交pdf的header上。
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24.作者说，可以写给 don@donaldasher.com，让他修改。
之后就是要通读的55篇精选PS。