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Communication Mechanics Episode 2: Applying to Graduate School
73 Plays9 months ago
In this episode, Dr. Jill Fennell has a conversation about applying to graduate school with Dr. Andrei Fedorov, Associate Chair for Graduate Studies at the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech.
Show Notes and Timestamps:
- Introduction and Guest Introduction 00:54
- Purpose of graduate school application documents 02:03
- CRISP acronym for a successful grad school applications 05:42
- C -Creative 06:08
- R - Research 06:41
- I - Integrity 08:25
- S - Specific 09:09
- P - Powerful 10:47
- Documents for Grad School applications 11:45
- Prompt based personal statements at the Woodruff School 12:19
- Prompt 1: Self description and introductions 13:43
- Prompt 2: What sets you apart 17:25
- Prompt 3: Why this school 19:13
- Personal statement deep dive 22:58
- How personal should a personal statement be? 23:39
- Tailoring Yourself to the School 24:19
- Culture of different schools 26:19
- Dos and don'ts 28:21
- When to start application process 33:12
- Return to communication principles 35:55
- Wrap up and outro 37:19
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Transcript
Introduction by Jill Finnell
00:00:10
Speaker
Welcome to Communication Mechanics. I'm Jill Finnell, the Frank K. Webb Chair in Communication Skills at Georgia Tech's Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. In each episode, we'll explore how communication shapes the success of engineers, researchers, and industry professionals.
Impact of Communication on Engineering Success
00:00:28
Speaker
Join us as we share stories of triumphs, challenges, and the strategies that fuel success.
00:00:34
Speaker
Whether you're a seasoned pro, an aspiring student, or simply passionate about engineering, listen as we demystify compelling communication in the world of mechanical engineering.
Graduate School Application Communication
00:00:53
Speaker
Today we're discussing the communication tasks involved in the graduate school application process. However, our focus extends to a broader theme crucial for success in communication, what I often refer to as communicative design or what is classically known as ethos. Regardless of the term, the main idea is that as we communicate, we shape an idea of ourselves in the minds of our audience through our choices.
00:01:20
Speaker
This process happens whether we intend it or not. So to maximize our effectiveness, we should intentionally control this image construction and design ourselves in the way we want our intended audience to perceive us.
Insights from Dr. Andre Fedorov
00:01:34
Speaker
I'm joined today by Dr. Andre Fedorov, who is the associate chair for the graduate studies at the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. Andre is a professor and the Ray S. and Frank H. Neely Chair, as well as a regents entrepreneur.
00:01:51
Speaker
He joins us today to talk about his experience as a recurring graduate application reviewer and to offer some insights on communication best practices. Hi, Andre. Thank you. I really wanted to interview you because I know you work a lot with graduate students and you've been on the Graduate Application Review Committee for quite a while. And writing the graduate school application is a very unique process that I think we can help students better understand how they should go about applying and really how these different statements should be different from each other and serving separate purposes. So first of all I think there is one aspect of any successful
00:02:37
Speaker
statement is to achieve the goal of what the statement is supposed to intend to achieve. Obviously, in the case of printers, you want to get admitted. That's the number one. So that's what you should think through. And the second thing you need to know or design it in the context of a particular degree objectives, there is such whether you're pursuing master's degree or doctoral degree. And the difference is is really all about future career choices and trajectory and how research intensive this experience will be. So this is an important thing. It's going to be generic. And the third thing, especially if you are interested in receiving financial support, in terms of research assistantship for your
00:03:26
Speaker
studies and most of us desire to do so You need to design your statement in such a way that not only you get admitted to the school, but you will be an attractive candidate for faculty. providing funding support and maybe interested in bringing you onboard to their research group subsequently once you admit.
Importance of Goal-Oriented Statements
00:03:50
Speaker
So these kind of three objectives have to be very clearly kept in mind when you design your design and develop your essentially application materials.
00:04:02
Speaker
One thing that I noticed as far as quality of communication and proper management communication flow and the content of your application is that what I've seen over the years that well put together statements could make essentially an average applicant try.
00:04:21
Speaker
you becoming very attractive for multiple reviewers. And they all of a sudden say, well, it's interesting. Where is what could also happen? You would have a stellar credentials kind of on a paper, but only put together statements could create a tank, otherwise extremely successful. what should be a very successful application So, I feel like it's probably even more important sometimes than some of your grades and scores. Obviously, you have to be a very solid student to be a new competitive to program. But 4.0 and a maximum of 98% in GRE would not get you there if you did not actually provide a very competitive statement, application statement. and There's a variety of programs. So, I'm going to stop here and go explore further in detail.
00:05:13
Speaker
Yeah, I think that really gets to the sort of broader theme of what this particular episode gets at, which is your communication is constructing that vision of yourself in the minds of your audience. And you could have an amazing CV, but if your the reviewers can't envision you, envision you in their labs, in their classrooms, it's not going to be as, it's not going to stick in their minds in the way that you really want them to as an applicant.
00:05:42
Speaker
Overall, here's my, I usually, i and I have to talk many audiences about their period of application.
CRISP Framework for Crafting Statements
00:05:51
Speaker
I have developed this new acronym for what is a successful application. E is in grad school. And it all comes, I usually for a successful application is CRISP. CRISP own capital that was sexually abbreviation of five words.
00:06:08
Speaker
start with C, it stands that it should be created. So the application, you can imagine that the people may be reading your application late in the evening after dinner, they may be tired. If it is dull,
00:06:22
Speaker
They will simply skim through or maybe will not proceed very far. So creative, and I emphasize here creative, it's not a creative writing exercise, or creative that should be funny, or that creative, that means it really portrays story and I think that people's interest.
00:06:44
Speaker
The second letter in CRISP is R, and R stands again because there are different obviously greater studies for goals and emphasis, but if it is a doctoral degree at least, research will be central piece of your graduate education. So when you write your research statements,
00:07:05
Speaker
they should be focused, research should be a common threat that goes through everything. It does not have to be necessarily explicitly stated as far as your individual research experience, but you probably need to bring quite a bit of that. But our research aspect being central theme of everything you're going to talk about is very important. And here I would like to contrast and probably experience as many of you had applied to college. These days, especially in the selective colleges, you know, all of the applicants similar to graduate school, they all come in with stellar credentials, you know,
00:07:45
Speaker
scores to the rules, SAT, ACT whatever those scores that they take is a spectacular and will separate those personal stories. So people write those essays.
00:07:56
Speaker
Oftentimes, it can be almost any topic, right? How you help your grandma to you know to raise her chicken. And as long as you do it well and it shines a light on your character features, that will be successful. I would not advise writing a graduate essay focusing on the generic topic just to show your ability to creatively put together a story. and So art is important, Chris.
00:08:25
Speaker
Third letter increase is I, and I stand for integrity. or So all of your personal statements should not be viewed as stand-alone pieces. They all should be integrated in a way that they provide kind of shine.
00:08:42
Speaker
a light and different facet of you as a personality, your personality, your experiences, your capabilities, your character, in such a way that they all fit into each other. It's not just set with just join state. So the integrative statements provide a picture of you as a whole person. So this is a third letter I. And then you go into S in crisp.
00:09:09
Speaker
And S stands for specific.
Specificity Over Generic Statements
00:09:12
Speaker
When I say specific is the worst application that could be there. And unfortunately we have, well, I see way too many of those. Application where this precious room with most of these problems to state that you have to write there is not, you know, five pages, maybe it's for better, but really very confined one or two or three paragraphs at most where you have to get to the point. So it's the means utilize either example or very specific statements as far as what your vision for your graded education. What you plan to do to better yourself, better the world, and it avoid generic phrases. you know I want to study engineering because I want to change the world. Or I want to pursue PhD degree because I want to solve the global climate crisis.
00:10:02
Speaker
We all obviously know that you do want that. We all want that. We want to save humanity. ah You know can treat the cancer. Specifics is very important in showing the maturity of towards ability to put your ideas in the perspective of a bigger team. So I'm not trying to tell you that, you know, just get into a weeds.
00:10:25
Speaker
Specific means it's you and your experience, you view how you will benefit from this and how you or your engagement will benefit the school, the university, the department, the community of greater students and then maybe the world to make a change to improve it in some way. So specific is important.
00:10:47
Speaker
crisp right the last letter is P and the last letter is theory and it comes after you put together all the CRIS If you do this all well, it will come out as power And we all, this is really not as as easy to describe, but we all know when you read a little piece and you feel that it comes out very powerful, it's ah it has this almost awake producing emotional wake or emotional response.
00:11:18
Speaker
So that's really probably already refined, highest level aspect that will indicate that your entire materials are put together very effectively, that they communicate you as a whole, you're the world as a whole, how education will benefit you and what you will do to you know benefit your community. So this crisp, simple way how I usually describe what should be the content of the graduate knowledge.
00:11:45
Speaker
As you were talking, I heard a lot of different words that seemed to circle around the idea that across the application materials, there needs to be some coherence and consistency. You said things like common threads, central themes, integrated, but with different facets. Can you dig into a little bit and tell our listeners what the main or key or expected documents that most people will use when applying to graduate school, what those are and how they're supposed to be different from each other. and Yeah. Okay.
Prompts and Personal Statements
00:12:17
Speaker
So this is a great segue into a specific sport the the kind of proof-based application packages that most of the school these days ah employed. Right. Because today we're talking about graduate school applications in general. And so I think it's important to discuss how different schools may have different expectations and the Woodruff School does the prompt base, correct?
00:12:41
Speaker
yeah and But some schools still use the the personal statement base. What I really like about the way the Woodrow School uses the prompt base is that it's basically leading the graduate students to produce the content that should be in a good personal statement. Yeah, yeah that's kind of the other account exactly to guide the students into do the best they can to describe themselves. Still though within this prompt system there's unfortunately plenty of variability to do well and for you. So you have to think about that. So we in the Woodrow School also change a little bit those prompts. May not be every year but periodically and it's based on we will look at the kind of responses we get from the students.
00:13:29
Speaker
And sometimes you wonder if our problems maybe were not really very precise, maybe the choice awarded or guides in the applicants to share aspect as we really want to know about that.
00:13:44
Speaker
So I'll give you an example of what we have right now, I think this year, our three prompts. I mean, they're fairly standard. I would not say they're very unique, but the very first one is kind of starts with, this is what you script you I would always refer to this as introduce yourself type of. So describe any research and educational experiences that shaped you as successful student, learner,
00:14:13
Speaker
a researcher and kind of elaborate on a particular sense of accomplishment that you are most proud of. So this is really an opportunity for you to kind of describe in more story-like manner Everything is already written in your resume, right? Your resume is already, you know, talks about, or includes your GPA, all of your experiences work in this lab, so did that, then they and so on. But these are just the statements, whereas the prom kind of makes you to create a story from that and how all of these experiences emphasized or built different aspects of your personality.
00:14:56
Speaker
So in this aspect, I always say when you write this description, don't just recite whatever you with more extended wording, what you have in your resume. Remember, what is the your purpose in this greater student application? Remember, your purpose is to get admitted and potentially in the future get funded through, let's say, research assistantship with one of the faculty members.
00:15:21
Speaker
That means this whole discussion of accomplishments and your experiences will you be read by the Review Committee through the PRISM, they will try to seed all the seeds of would those experiences, or is this person having all of these features of being a successful, greater student?
00:15:45
Speaker
and Especially in a doctoral program which is research for what are those? Aspect that well, you know, obviously we're looking for intellectual maturity So it's not just saying look I have GP 4.0 you know, maybe you want to emphasize a particular and difficult course that you took and reflect on some of them beyond just letter grade A that you received. The second aspect that's so critical ian ah you know in school
00:16:17
Speaker
It's independence. So, emphasizing the description of your experience is how you either demonstrated your independence to those experiences or how you learn and mature in a way that you now... becoming more and more independent in all of that from you know practical work and laboratory or to also independent, maybe emotional sight and such. The of graduate school, which is difficult as someone yeah you need to graduate experience is you need to build stamina for perseverance, ah ability to handle setbacks, failures. so Even though we talked there about all of about accomplishments,
00:17:02
Speaker
But when you talk about your accomplishment, you may want to actually structure this discussion of accomplishments also in a way how that was not an easy, straightforward task, but you actually have to overcome substantial difficulties that you manage, many setbacks, and how exactly you navigate and to achieve those remarkable things that you only discuss. So the second prompt, after we kind of asked you about what's already your account. The second prompt, we are saying,
00:17:32
Speaker
Explain us what distinguishes your applications and why we should consider you as the best candidate for the Buddha school. So now you kind of almost set in the position to reflect on all of your accomplishments, your skills, your unique your background, character,
00:18:01
Speaker
But now in a way that you will be part of many other applicants, essentially you have to be able to set yourself apart in a positive way, not trying to, so obviously this statement should not be written as all other people don't have that. All other people don't have this experience. It's all about your experiences. You don't know what other people have or not, but how they uniquely position what, what,
00:18:29
Speaker
In combination, how they uniquely position you to be really best prepared and most wonderful candidate to be a greater student, a PhD student at the Woodrow School, and that has to be also done in the context of the institutional particular department. Just to give you simplest examples, there will be substantial difference if you apply into a very large department versus a very small department.
00:18:54
Speaker
there Will the substantial difference in this department, let's say the research or application department is.
Tailoring Applications to Fit Departments
00:19:03
Speaker
engineering practice versus fundamental research. Depending upon what you know from this department, that's how you should tailor your applications. And the last prompt is probably the most common prompt that almost every school asks to do, or even if they don't ask, you usually put it in your process statement. It's ah it's a simply why Georgia Tech and Woodrow School? So that is an opportunity for you to research the Woodrow School from all available information it can be maybe ah you know the professor who is who wrote your reference letter who is an alum from Georgia Tech and you discussed the research the website all the faculty what they do how they position themselves usually there's a plenty of information institutionally how they try to describe themselves and
00:19:54
Speaker
This part also, I emphasize importance to be specific. Like for example, you know, example of a bad property response. You know, Woodrow School is highly ranked top five graded program in mechanical engineering. That's why I imp applied to Georgia Tech. Well, you know, we appreciate that, that you apply in the top school, but then, you know, there's other five schools.
00:20:20
Speaker
Why draw the table? Maybe you should go to other four schools. they all you know kind of Academically probably equal foodings. So that's very important to do this research reflection and connect your experiences and project them into a particular school.
00:20:34
Speaker
Right, so it might be a good idea, for example, to connect maybe what you said and prompt to why you're the best candidate to growth that you can foresee in a specific lab or under a specific professor. Yeah, absolutely. Mention specific people.
00:20:52
Speaker
is a great way to make it very personal, specific, and effective way to connect what is unique about you and how it probably benefits this particular faculty member, their research group, and how you can further enhance your capability by being affiliated with this particular group or individual.
00:21:14
Speaker
And it doesn't have to be just one person. That's the other thing. Don't shoot yourself in the hole. Just gotta say, I really want to come here only because of doctor, such and such, doing such and such thing. You don't want to be generic, but you may want to you know have ah at least you know maybe three examples, for example, that can emphasize those points.
00:21:37
Speaker
Right, because you don't know if that professor might be taking a sabbatical or has some different fellowship that's going to have them overseas for five years. Absolutely, or you may not have funding to support you. This is can be as practical as this. The other thing is, you also don't know exactly if, by reading all other aspects of your application, this particular faculty member will say, you know what, it really resonates with me.
00:22:00
Speaker
It may not, right? But maybe the other two, it may be very content. So you have to be, you know, yeah specific, but not overly narrow. So to sum up on the way that the Woodrow School uses prompts, instead of a personal statement, there are usually three that are along the lines of, one, tell us who you are via your accomplishments.
00:22:26
Speaker
Two, tell us why you're the best candidate. And three, tell us why this specific place, Georgia Tech and the Woodruff School. And can you see those prompts as what people should be doing in a personal statement anyways?
00:22:40
Speaker
I think that's what should be there already. So already would be there. That would be a successful personal statement. Because um in the graduate school application process, universities that use prompts usually don't also have a personal statement. That would be very abnormal. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely yeah it's either one way or another, yes.
00:22:57
Speaker
I think that really transitioned as well into the second half of this episode, which is a deeper dive just into the personal statement itself. Because between these documents that you're asked to produce in a a graduate school application, the personal statement is really the one that requires the most labor. It's the most time intensive to produce and it has the greatest communication challenges, I think.
00:23:18
Speaker
And as we're continuing with the second half of the episode and talking about the personal statement, I think it's important to remind listeners that what we say here will also be applicable to those applicants that are prompt-based. What we talk about here, if you can see a way to work it into the prompt that this specific school is asking for, you probably should. My first question as someone who has reviewed a lot of these is how personal should the personal statement be?
00:23:45
Speaker
I probably would say I personally would not necessarily find very compelling reading personal family history in great details that be front and central or of the personal state. On the other hand, anchoring it potentially in some Either your family background, your family's situation is absolutely appropriate and can be very memorable and useful. Let's move on to another topic that I think is is really important and that is tailoring yourself to the school. Why is it important for riders to customize these statements for each school?
00:24:30
Speaker
I would even start by saying, even though it will take way more effort, try to start each of these statements from the blank page. We oftentimes just in nature, optimizing time, you guys, well, I'm going to create a set of templates by doing those statements and then I'll just field a story around them, which is tailored to school A, B, or C. It will come out very unnatural. so that that just It's almost like you mentioned that you are trying to, you go to, you know, I don't know, maybe you'll break, you go for a date with someone and you're planning to, you know, I don't know, to propose. And hopefully I don't propose it to multiple people at the same time, but if you you do that,
00:25:17
Speaker
Probably to be successful in proposing to one person versus the other, this whole statement, the way it will be fundamentally different, even though you will probably say say words, but the way you will approach that will be fundamentally different from one person to another if you want to have any success. So in this regard, I would kind of start by saying is,
00:25:43
Speaker
research the school, have a particular department, understand what they are proud of, what are those specific aspects that are unique and powerful and resonate with you, and then ultimately almost learn how to fall in love with this particular department. Once you do that, it naturally will elicit a response when you're going to describe your accomplishment, rights and days.
00:26:10
Speaker
all from this angular lens how you fit for this school it will be just naturally coming out I guess the, I think a question that our listeners would have would be you're trying to getting ready to apply for the top five. How do you find out what the different sort of culture is between these different schools? Well, it's interesting. Almost all of the departments, not necessarily with the entire university, although it would be useful even to look at the university at the level before you kind of drill down to the individual department. These days have a strategic plan.
00:26:50
Speaker
in place. This is now becoming almost a common aspect of it, of any institutional academic institution. And so typically the those strategic plans have three components. And I think for you, all of those components are extremely useful. They start with providing a context. They kind of look at who are we asking this question they kind of said they indicate the strengths of their institution what are what is traditionally known for what are they excelling in and that will tell you a lot about what this institution care and what you should take kind of think about then the next part of it they actually will talk about
00:27:38
Speaker
what they aspire to be. In other words, with their future trajectory, they they see that. And that must also be useful because you don't want to only speak to the past, celebrate the history, but you want to, in your kind of your personal statement, convey that you will be this wonderful country for the department to accomplish its vision for the future.
00:28:05
Speaker
So this is all, usually those strategic plans are not 100 pages document. They are describing very specific terms, actionable. And so that is a really great preparatory material that's already given to you.
00:28:21
Speaker
Well, I think we're coming down to the end of the episode, so I wanted to close this out by asking you, do you have any do's and don'ts that you want to make sure you convey to our audience any common pitfalls to avoid or anything
Interconnecting Application Components
00:28:36
Speaker
you'd like to add? and Well, you know, a typical, I would, I'll be probably very brief. So I would say one of the don'ts, don't be in a personal statement, don't be general or generic general, whatever is the right word. So remember a specific in crisp.
00:28:54
Speaker
So utilize very specific examples from your personal life story motivations to Highlight a bigger goals that you are planning to do. I'm not suggesting that you should downplay your your aspirations You should be aspiring to do big things, but don't be overly general and nonspecific, you know, so this is one door the second door is is, you know, you're given space of three prompts, for example, you're talking about the personal statement, and your personal statement, those have essentially those three prompts. They are there that you want, you dedicate adequate amount of thinking and right in each of them.
00:29:39
Speaker
don't ignore one of them or just kind of, well, I have a very strong accomplishment part and very strong, let's say, why Georgia Tech or why this institution? In the middle, how I feed? Well, I just write something. So kind of with ignore in one of these pieces just for either.
00:29:57
Speaker
were tired to write and you didn't think of anything can be really very yeah detrimental to your audience, even the other two very strong. So in other words, fill the space be the trots but with with the thinking. They're asked for for a reason reason. Yeah, because they are all part of these applications. I will emphasize again, integration of all of your aspects, having all of these three pieces, accomplishment,
00:30:26
Speaker
your unique feed to the institution and why the institution is, you know, is your choice. And all other aspects, as far as references and so on, we all speaking about different things. These do not have one common thread or coherence. So think about that. Use space for wording very wisely. Many of these prompts or personal statements are fairly short.
00:30:55
Speaker
So they all have to strongly be mapped on your objective. What do you want to portray to the committee? And again, your you can imagine, what does the admission committee look for? Hardworking, competent, driven, motivated, collaborative,
00:31:20
Speaker
Intellectually mature, actually mature ah creative, original, all of these things that they are trying to find the evidence in your life story that you support that. Every single one you write, every single sentence has to be mapped in one of them.
00:31:40
Speaker
If you put a sentence there, just a connection sentence, or you just felt like it's such a unique to your story, but it does not contribute to emphasize any of these things, this was evasive or distracted. me So be careful what you put there, regardless how dicey they sound. Anything that does not contribute is just extraneous cognitive load on your readers who already have a lot of cognitive load because they're looking over hundreds of applications.
00:32:08
Speaker
And the only last thing again is this is probably more difficult to say how you do it. Maybe it requires somewhat, I don't know, do your best as a creative writer. I think I emphasize how important to be creative in your application. This is part of CRISP. Maybe not to be dull, if it is, because remember some, many of these, especially the places which have many, many, many, many applicants.
00:32:36
Speaker
People read this application at the end of the working day, you know, in the evenings. So if you don't get it in a way that they they love to read that things, they may really read between the lines. So ah like first first sentence, the last sentence and skip everything in between. So quality of your rights in a way that's not dull.
00:32:58
Speaker
It's really poor. You gotta grab the attention. You gotta, I think you mentioned, Joe, the beginning has to stick in their mind and it has this kind of, they just have to be, you know, and maybe it's a collective document that produces this sticking memory.
00:33:12
Speaker
When should students start thinking about the graduate school application process in the summer, in the fall?
Early Preparation and Self-Perception
00:33:19
Speaker
yeah My personal belief is typically most schools, <unk> to if you're applying for the fall semester, they will ask you to submit the application December, January, a long copy year ahead. Which means the summer before that is the really perfect time to understand who you are, research the school,
00:33:40
Speaker
start creating these kind of a Key ingredients of your applications. What are those anything that you can create. Who is this persona that you're going to portray for school a versus school B. So because as with most of the endeavors. It takes time.
00:34:02
Speaker
for ideas to fully crystallize. And if you don't, even have enough time to brew in your mind with some things that you put together and some prompts, writings, and so on, and decide to put it all together in a month before the deadline, it will never come out as a good document. So my suggestion is the summer, this is what is, it says pre-senior, at the end of your junior year is the time when you but to dedicate
00:34:33
Speaker
start working on them. Right. Because if you want other people to see you as more than just a good student, as a student researcher, future junior colleague, you have to see yourself that way. And that can take some time. yeah Absolutely. Time in this case is, and and it's remarkable what it can do for you because you you may end up by virtue of starting early.
00:34:59
Speaker
and sleeping on it for so many weeks and days. And think about this, fully even revise what you were planning in the beginning, during your summer. But this product will be, ri you you will just find this product being so much better. You will feel like, wow, that's like a different level of quality.
00:35:17
Speaker
So yeah, give yourself this time you got this is not a This is not just a pro forma exercise that you need to put things together and send it out And especially remember if you are looking for a very competitive school, that means A lot of people, your peers who will be applying, they will all have a lot of credentials similar Similar, probably many experiences in resource settings, very high grades, you know probably strong reference letters. So it's competitive. So you got ah you you have to give yourself and an edge here.
00:35:55
Speaker
Bringing this back to communication at large, I think the this episode today and how we've talked about personal statements really comes down to ethos and purpose.
00:36:08
Speaker
What is the vision of yourself you want to construct for this specific school? And that might be different than the vision of yourself that you want to construct for a different school. That doesn't mean that you're lying to one school or another. We show different parts of ourselves in different communications all the time. And purpose.
00:36:26
Speaker
Why are you including every single sentence? What is the purpose that if you're trying to get across to your audience there? Making sure that you have a strong handle on how you're constructing this vision of yourself, knowing exactly what that vision is and how each anecdote, each sentence is adding to that construction is key for success. And I think that's true in most writing, in most communication. Well, i I have nothing to add here, so I think you very nicely summed up everything I was talking for so long here. I don't know if that does it all to all the key points, you know but I think it's ah it's a great exercise. It's difficult. It's very difficult it's difficult and time-consuming. Absolutely. So you can put the nature of time and expect the multiple revisions that you should do.
00:37:18
Speaker
Thank you so much for coming in and and talking with me today about this. I'm sure all of our listeners really appreciate you sharing your experience and ideas with us. um It's my pleasure, hurry and I hope it will be useful. That's not number one. So I think the the the fact that we made the discussion, and I appreciate the way you structured it, Jill. If you think about this, we talked about many similar aspects.
00:37:46
Speaker
many times over and over, but all the times from very different angles. And I think that's one of the most important part of this conversation. And I understand that you'll be condensed to really the essence of it, but, you know, I appreciate to be able to speak of this, you know, from multiple angles, say it this way, because it's kind of pulls a very different emphasis all the time. And you would not think about this if you were kind of all the time say, well, these are the three things that we will just say.
00:38:15
Speaker
So yeah I appreciate very effective the interview and hopefully it will crystallize and condense in ah in a good, useful mature. That's most important use. Yes, useful. Hopefully our students and students who are interested in applying to Georgia Tech will find this interview useful. I hope it will benefit from reading a wonderful interest in the process statement because of that.