Ploymint How-To: Writing a Letter of Intent for Graduate School

Graduate school is a stressful time, but applying for graduate school might be even worse. Not only are you facing the daunting prospect of rejection, at best you’re signing yourself up for years of studying and exams with a pile of intimidating paperwork. But at the same time, graduate school is a productive career move, and by now it’s become a de facto requirement for many positions.

If you’re thinking about grad school, there’s probably a couple of reasons to worry about the application process: the application letter itself and taking the GREs (or GMATs or MCATs or…you get it). As far as the test goes, you’ll have to study your tail off, and there’s no real way around that. But when it comes to the letter of intent for graduate school, there are some helpful pieces of advice worth adhering to.

First, it’s important to remember that your letter of intent, as it’s commonly called, is often the foundation for all of your future graduate work. Especially if you’re applying to a program heavy on independent study or research, your initial application letter for graduate school will signal to an admissions committee what it is you’d like to pursue academically. Of course, you’ll also have to account for your background, and as is the case for any formal written self-promotion, you’ll want to run through your bragging points carefully: detail your previous education, your work history as it relates to the field, and why you’re pursuing an advanced degree.

One of the most common pieces of advice about writing an application letter is also the least helpful: grab the reader’s attention! People will tell you that admissions committees are reading dozens if not hundreds of application letters, so you need to somehow wake them up from a slumber. The advice is halfway productive, but instead of trying to grab attention by going too far into left-field or sharing a zany story, make sure the quality of writing is your first priority. And the truth is, sometimes application letters are boring. It’s better to write a good, slightly stale letter of intent than to write a shoddy one that jumps off the page. (This probably isn’t the place to experiment with funky narrative writing unless that’s specifically called for.) The main point here is that you want to stick out for the right reasons and not for the “how crazy was that letter?” feeling your admissions officer might be stuck with after reading.

As a matter of fact, just like a good defense is the best offense, avoiding red flags should be your primary concern. In 2006, Indiana University’s Psychology Department published an academic paper called “Kisses of Death in the Graduate School Application Process.” Some of the findings might seem obvious—the aforementioned attention to quality writing is a major point—but the paper also lists some overlooked mistakes that could seep into an application letter. For example, avoid “damaging personal statements.” Again, seems clear, but personal information should be shared sparingly, and you don’t want to appeal to your personal well-being as it relates to the program in any way. (In other words, don’t argue that you’d make a great psychologist because you grew up with crazy parents or have had to deal with mental health issues yourself.)

The most important part of writing a good application letter though is the intent itself. If you’re applying for grad school, you should know exactly what it is you want to study and precisely what kind of work is being done at your program of choice. Before you apply, you can and should be doing research about the specifics of the program: learn as much as possible about the directors and professors, understand what type of research work graduate students usually undertake, and read up on the history of the program itself. Most of all, you have to make sure you want to belong in a place before you begin arguing you belong, otherwise it’s gonna be a long few years no matter what.