A Letter to the Members of the Admissions Committee, Essay Example

To the members of the Admissions Committee:

My name is John Doe; I am writing to tell you about myself, my educational and career objectives, and my reasons for applying for the Leadership and Communications M.A. degree program at Gonzaga University.

After completing my education and acquiring my M.A. I intend to seek employment in the field of Public Relations. P.R. is a multi-billion-dollar industry, and in the age of the Internet, it is more important than ever. With so much clutter, so many sounds and images and ideas bombarding consumers at every moment, it is imperative that companies constantly find new ways to cut through the noise and reach those consumers efficiently and effectively. Where there were once sharp distinctions, the lines between marketing, advertising, branding, and selling are becoming increasingly blurred. Well-informed consumers no longer take a back seat as a salesperson steers a sales transaction; the key for success in this new paradigm is ensuring that consumers get the right information, the information that puts the company in the strongest position possible.

I wish to cultivate a combination of theoretical and practical knowledge and abilities that will allow me to best serve the needs of whomever I work for. Rather than simply putting the best face on whatever information is provided to me before passing it along to the public, I intend to work closely both with the creative teams and the sales force at my place of employment. I believe it is imperative that advertising, marketing, and sales plans would work synergistically, and the information and knowledge I develop during my time at Gonzaga will allow me to be a part of that collaborative effort. I believe that “communication” between a company and its customers should be a two-way street, and I further believe that the well-rounded course of study offered by Gonzaga will best prepare me for facilitating such avenues of communication.

While it is important for me to have a plan for the future, and to know where I intend to go, it may also be helpful for me to share a bit about where I have been, and to describe how what I have done thus far has prepared me for the rigors and challenges presented in the M.A. program for which I have applied.  I will not recount my entire work history, of course; rather, I will highlight several different positions I have held and explain how they fit in which my educational and career objectives.

The position I held with a company called Trip Advisor was the one that convinced me to pursue a future in the field of Communications. Trip Advisor is a company built on a simple but unique idea: real world travelers are asked to submit their reviews of places and sites they have visited. If these reviews are accepted for publication the reviewers are compensated for their efforts. The position required me to deal with information submitted from reviewers from all different walks of life, and to process that information into a finalized format that was consistent both with the organization’s mission and with all of the other reviews that were accepted for publication.

Of primary concern to the Trip Advisor organization was that the comments from the reviewers were legitimate, and that the reviewers were not employed by or had not otherwise been compensated by the owners or operators of the businesses they had visited in exchange for submitting positive reviews. Because I was processing information from so many different people from such diverse backgrounds during this verification process, I had to learn how to switch gears quickly, adjusting my approach to condensing and editing the information as needed. The writing style and informational content from someone who had spent a weekend at a Las Vegas casino hotel might be very different from that of someone who had just stayed at a Bed and Breakfast in Vermont; in each case, however, there were certain pieces of pertinent information I needed to acquire. My tasks were to make sure I got all the information I needed, and to assure that such information was accurate.

After getting the information from a reviewer, it was then my responsibility to prepare said information for publication. Trip Advisor was a “family friendly” organization; as such, the submitted reviews had to be vetted for any potentially offensive content as well as for typographical, grammatical, and spelling errors. My role at Trip Advisor required me to use a broad set of communication skills, and to do so quickly and efficiently. I do not just wish to enter the field of communication because I believe I have the needed skills; I also simply enjoy meeting or speaking to new people from all walks of life. I feel as if I learn something from everyone I meet.

My time at ABCD Head Start allowed me a different opportunity than did my role at Trip Advisor. Where Trip Advisor requires the ability to switch gears quickly and to use different approaches constantly, ABCD Head Start afforded me the chance to develop a fairly narrow set of skills, but to explore and exploit those skills more thoroughly. My job was to interview and screen the parents or guardians of prospective students for a pre-school program. Despite the fact that these students were very young, the parents often had some pretty strong views about what path they expected to set for their progeny. It was not so much a matter of knowing what career path the pre-schoolers would follow, but rather what sort of upbringing and education their parents planned to provide for them.

The screening sessions typically involved discussions about what the parents did for a living, what sort of schedules they kept, and what sort of resources –both financial and emotional- they had set aside for their children. These were parents who took education seriously, and these sessions helped both the parents and the program. The parents benefited by gaining a better understanding of what we offered and also by having the opportunity to voice any concerns or ask any questions they may have about us. We at ABCD Head Start also benefited by the opportunity to learn about the parent’s concerns; with the right information, we were better able to design individually-tailored programs for each student, as well as assuring that students were placed with the most appropriate groups for larger activities.

With each position I have held throughout my career, I have been presented with different opportunities. I spent some time working in the Real Estate industry before the economic downturn; like my role with Trip Advisor, I had to be prepared to switch gears quickly and often. Adding pressure to the situation, however, was the intensity of the Real Estate Market at the time. It was a seller’s market; home prices were going up, and there were buyers of all types, from first-time homeowners to those who were using equity to move up into larger homes to those who were buying properties for investment purposes.

To excel in Real Estate I had to learn to size up potential buyers quickly, and match them with the right properties the first time. I could not afford to make too many missteps in that regard; if I did, I would likely lose the buyers to another agent. There may be a perception that it was somehow easier to sell in those days, but that is not entirely accurate. While it may be more difficult to find qualified buyers in the current market conditions, it was often difficult in those days to keep buyers satisfied. With so many properties coming onto the market, and with prices shooting up dramatically seemingly every day, it was imperative that I learned to work quickly and efficiently; those are skills that will continue to be invaluable in any future endeavors.

I believe that all the positions I have held have allowed me to develop and utilize different communication skills.  In once held a position as an intern with the Circle Repertory Theater; anyone who has ever interned in any capacity knows that such positions require both communication and diplomatic skills. Interns are usually positioned at the bottom of any organizational hierarchy, and often must put up with the bad moods and endless demands of their superiors. While I would not wish to hold such a position forever, my time at the theater was invaluable. I was responsible for proofreading and approving scripts that had been submitted for consideration, and would also discuss the dramatic elements of the plays with actors and directors. It was during this time that I first recognized the value in knowing how to deal with a wide variety of people and in understanding how to build consensus and mutual agreement.

After much consideration, I chose to apply to Gonzaga University because it offered the best combination of opportunities for my needs. I am seeking an M.A. in Communications and Leadership; based on my research I believe that Gonzaga’s program will allow me to develop skills that will be applicable both in a research setting and in the field, and will teach me the theoretical and practical concept needed to excel in my career. I chose the Gonzaga program over those offered by other institutions largely because they seem to emphasize a more solid base of theoretical instruction versus the more business/managerial approach seen in so many other programs. In addition to the educational aspects of the program, Gonzaga offers flexible study options that are well-suited to my needs.

I believe that the skills I have developed in life make me ideally suited for Gonzaga’s Communications and Leadership program. I have taken every opportunity to learn new skills and to hone those skills I brought with me from one position to the next. While I feel that I have a natural affinity for the field of Communications, I also recognize that I have much to learn, and I am eager to do so. From what I have seen, the information presented in the Gonzaga program is not only academically and theoretically solid, it is also the information that I need to further my career. I believe that I and Gonzaga will be a perfect fit, and I look forward to availing myself of the opportunities and meeting the challenges presented by your program.