When I was applying to graduate school, the most common piece of advice was: “In undergraduate admission, they are looking for a reason to say yes. In graduate admission, they are looking for a reason to say no.” The reasoning was very practical. Universities and even small colleges have a dedicated department for undergraduate admissions with entire staffs whose full-time job is first recruiting then judging applicants. While many colleges have a central clearing house for graduate admissions, the main thrust of the admission work falls on the professors in the department themselves. Overall this is better, of course, because grad students will work much more directly and intensely with professors, who in theory want to choose their cohorts and likely TAs. But professors are asked to do this work on top of their full-time teaching, researching, and mentoring jobs. So YES, many of them are looking for mistakes in the submission or little oddities that allow them to t...
How to Talk About Your Passions In An Interview (Even If The Interviewer Has No Idea What It’s About)
I use Leslie Knope as a positive example a lot in my lessons. Not just because I’m a Parks & Rec fan or in utter awe of Amy Poehler as a creative person, but because the dauntless positivity and energy of Leslie Knope are precisely what I try to channel as a speaker. But today, I’d like to talk about one of the things she got really, really wrong. Listen, Leslie, slam poetry doesn’t have to be “your thing”, but you are making an aggravating mistake that people in any artistic community go through a LOT. Just because you don’t understand the structure of something, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Just because you never learned the rules, doesn’t mean they don’t matter. Just because you don’t understand what makes something great in slam poetry, or woodworking, or theatre, or giant Charlie Chapman statues, doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter a great deal. Remember this? So no, slam poetry is not “just talking…lik...