Kisses of Death in the Graduate School Application Process

[BHSUStudent]

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I found a research article (Appleby and Appleby, 2006) on the graduate application process a while back, and thought I would share it with people here.

Basically, the investigators, while implementing a survey among admissions committees for graduate programs in psychology (88 chairs), identified five KODs (Kisses of Death):

(a) Damaging personal statements: personal mental health, excessive altruism, excessive self disclosure, professional inappropriateness.
(b) Harmful letters of recommendation: undesirable applicant characteristics, inappropriate sources.
(c) Lack of program information: program focus, fit into the program.
(d) Poor writing skills: spelling and grammatical errors, poorly written application materials
(e) Misfired attempts to impress.

Here are the following suggestions the investigators provided on how to avoid the five KODs:

Personal statements
• Avoid references to your mental health. Such statements could create the impression you may be unable to function as a successful
graduate student.
• Avoid making excessively altruistic statements. Graduate faculty could interpret these statements to mean you believe a strong need to
help others is more important to your success in graduate school than a desire to perform research and engage in other academic and
professional activities.
• Avoid providing excessively self-revealing information. Faculty may interpret such information as a sign you are unaware of the value of
interpersonal or professional boundaries in sensitive areas.
• Avoid inappropriate humor, attempts to appear cute or clever, and references to God or religious issues when these issues are unrelated
to the program to which you are applying. Admissions committee members may interpret this type of information to mean you lack
awareness of the formal nature of the application process or the culture of graduate school.

Letters of recommendation
• Avoid letters of recommendation from people who do not know you well, whose portrayals of your characteristics may not objective (e.g.,
a relative), or who are unable to base their descriptions in an academic context (e.g., your minister). Letters from these authors can give
the impression you are unable or unwilling to solicit letters from individuals whose depictions are accurate, objective, or professionally
relevant.
• Avoid letter of recommendation authors who will provide unflattering descriptions of your personal or academic characteristics. These
descriptions provide a clear warning that you are not suited for graduate study. Choose your letter of recommendation authors carefully.
Do not simply ask potential authors if they are willing to write you a letter of recommendation; ask them if they are able to write you a
strong letter of recommendation. This question will allow them to decline your request diplomatically if they believe their letter may be
more harmful than helpful.

Lack of information about the program
• Avoid statements that reflect a generic approach to the application process or an unfamiliarity with the program to which you are applying.
These statements signal you have not made an honest effort to learn about the program from which you are saying you want to earn your
graduate degree.
• Avoid statements that indicate you and the target program are a perfect fit if these statements are not corroborated with specific evidence
that supports your assertion (e.g., your research interests are similar to those of the program's faculty). Graduate faculty can interpret a
lack of this evidence as a sign that you and the program to which you are applying are not a good match.

Poor writing skills
• Avoid any type of spelling or grammatical errors in your application. These errors are an unmistakable warning of substandard writing
skills, a refusal to proofread your work, or willingness to submit careless written work.
• Avoid writing in an unclear, disorganized, or unconvincing manner that does not provide your readers with a coherent picture of your
research, educational, and professional goals. A crucial part of your graduate training will be writing; do not communicate your inability to
write to those you hope will be evaluating your writing in the future.

Misfired attempts to impress
• Avoid attempts to impress the members of a graduate admissions committee with information they may interpret as insincere flattery (e.g.,
referring to the target program in an excessively complimentary manner) or inappropriate (e.g., name dropping or blaming others for poor
academic performance). Graduate admissions committees are composed of intelligent people; do not use your application as an
opportunity to insult their intelligence.

Obviously, the advice on avoiding generic statements does not apply to the OTCAS personal statement. Although the researchers surveyed admissions committees for psychology programs, I believe the information is generalizable to OT admissions committees.

Appleby D. C., and Appleby K. M. (2006). Kisses of death in the graduate school application process. Teaching Psychology, 33(1), 19-24.

You can read the article here:
http://psychology.unl.edu/psichi/Graduate_School_Application_Kisses_of_Death.pdf

 

[mgeagle]

I found a research article (Appleby and Appleby, 2006) on the graduate application process a while back, and thought I would share it with people here.

Basically, the investigators, while implementing a survey among admissions committees for graduate programs in psychology (88 chairs), identified five KODs (Kisses of Death):



Here are the following suggestions the investigators provided on how to avoid the five KODs:



Obviously, the advice on avoiding generic statements does not apply to the OTCAS personal statement. Although the researchers surveyed admissions committees for psychology programs, I believe the information is generalizable to OT admissions committees.

Appleby D. C., and Appleby K. M. (2006). Kisses of death in the graduate school application process. Teaching Psychology, 33(1), 19-24.

You can read the article here:
http://psychology.unl.edu/psichi/Graduate_School_Application_Kisses_of_Death.pdf

I agree to an extent, this article is somewhat general, I have already completed several applications and I had some advice from several successful health professionals concerning grad school applications and I must say concerning the letter of recommendations part its somewhat relative, obviously you want letters from people who know you well but what do "you define as "knowing you well", knowing several of your impactful life experiences that demonstrate your character or your prolonged use of professionalism and academic prowess that they have seen you express to them over a good period of time? In cases of shadowing/volunteering and connecting with professors many people even if they go out of their way in these instances years in advance before applying to grad school may not be fortunate enough to spend enough time with the people they are working with to truly express what makes them tick. It is possible but lets face it, life is busy, and spending ample amounts of time with potential letter writers can be very difficult and in my opinion knowing someone well goes beyond just knowing their professionalism and good traits as a student but also their inner qualities that may take some prying to get out, I am an open book so it was quick and easy for my recommenders to know me well from the standpoint of what makes me tick and my true desires in the professional world and in life, but some people who have persevered and made it through so much abuse in life whether it be mental, emotional, or physical, may be slow to express their inner selves and may only give the public the professional and academic side to themselves lest they feel uncomfortable. It all depends on what the grad school holds more important when looking at the letters, some want to know more of the academic and professional traits the applicant brings while some need the letters to go into good detail about the applicant's inner traits. Bottom line its important to research, ask admission offices, and ask successful professionals whats what for letters of recommendation and feel out what will work best for you.