Please note that if you are applying online, there is no need to mail in a paper copy of your application as well. We already received your application online, so submitting it again just wastes paper--and we like trees, so we don't like to do that.

We strongly agree with one About Grad School suggestion:

Include your name on every page submitted. If your essay is more than one page, place your name as the right or left-hand header on every page.

You'd be very surprised how many people forget to label each page of their application. It usually works out fine, as we can take it upon ourselves to label any materials submitted together. However, it really saves time and can prevent a big headache if you label each page with your name and birth date (another good individual identifier). We don't recommend using your social security number as an identifier--there's no need to broadcast that number in more places than necessary.

Numbering the pages of your submissions is an excellent idea, particularly if you are submitting a long writing sample. You don't want someone to drop your work and then have to go to the effort of deciphering which page goes where--or worse, put your story back together in the wrong order. The horrors!

We part ways with About.com when it comes to a few points:

* Informal school transcript. Each application requires a formal transcript, sent from your university, but also include a copy of your informal transcript.

We do not recommend that you send copies of any documents unless they are specifically requested by the school. In our case, we do not accept or review unofficial copies of transcripts or test scores, so there is no need for you to send them unless asked to do so.

* Do not staple materials as the admissions committee will separate all pages to make copies.
* Use paper clips to attach pages and a binder clip to secure the entire packet.

We don't mind stapling so much (it's better than losing unlabeled pages of your application--which you can avoid by labeling all pages!), and we would caution that paper clips have the unfortunate tendency to get the wrong papers caught in them (shuffle up a stack of paperclipped materials and you might see what we mean). Binder clips offer the best of both worlds.

Finally, we recommend against submitting your materials in a fancy folder or binder. We want all applications to receive the same consideration, so we package them in our own folders. Your academic and professional accomplishments and individual personality should come out in your essays and work samples, making fancy formatting unnecessary.

You can see from this post that all schools have different approaches to the graduate admission process. From your essay to your application formatting, everyone wants something different. This can make it hard to apply to a lot of schools, but persevere. In the end, your qualifications--not your presentation--should speak for themselves.

I write a small travel column for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, the newspaper from my home state, and when my editor wrote to let me know that the people at Mutual Publishing were trying to figure out how to get in touch with me I assumed it was about the column. It actually turned out that they wanted to use a short story that I'd written while at the University of Hawaii Manoa for a new anthology about Honolulu—the newspaper just acted as a convenient means of tracking me down. The short story was a somewhat vague memory, but I was thrilled to be included, so I said yes.

Besides being sold as a trade publication, the anthology—Honolulu Stories—was also meant to be used in Hawaii's classrooms. This excited me because I had briefly taught high school English in Hawaii and there didn't seem to be a single resource from which the students could see the range of our home state reflected. The anthology would be a fantastic opportunity for a vast variety of local literary voices to be sampled.

The anthology is a thousand-page tome that spans centuries of writers who were both native to the islands as well as visitors. It was amazing to find my name pressed between the works of authors and poets I've grown up reading, including local writers like Juliet Kono Lee, Wendy Miyake, Daryl Lum, and Nora Okja Keller. These writers are friends of my mother's—"aunties" and "uncles" in local custom—and the "grown-ups" of my childhood. I felt a bit like a little girl in too-big high heels as I read aloud my short story after the legendary Wing Tek Lum read three of his poems, but it was completely thrilling.

I'm writing this blog post on the airplane as I head back to Hawaii for the holidays. The last trip home sparked something in me—a kind of new appreciation for the literary community of Hawaii—and this time I feel like I'm going back with more love for the nature, the culture, the food, and the people. The anthology made me remember that I used to love to play with fiction, and the trip back last spring made me realize that although there are hundreds of stories in the Honolulu Stories anthology alone, there are still more left to tell.

Every class that I have taken at Emerson has resulted in some form of a group project and I have never enjoyed it more than this past semester. Thanks to my fabulous media management group members: Trinette Faint, Casandra Zobal and Bre McGahey, final group project crunch time has been full of laughter, long hours, cute puppy pictures and lots of candy.

Trinette is a classy lady who never fails to keep the group motivated with her timely quips and hilarious stories. Never short on providing the group with snacks to keep us going, she completes her tasks with effortless grace and often goes beyond expectations. Trinette attended Emerson College as an undergraduate student. She will graduate from Emerson's IMC program this December and intends to run her own consulting company and continue running her photography business. Trinette prides herself on being a "culinary delightress" and enjoys to travel and read.

Known for going above and beyond the call of duty, Casandra (aka Cas) is a steadfast team member with driven dedication unlike many others. Soft spoken, yet strong in character, Cas always provides critical and strategic advice to the movement of the tasks at hand. She majored in Biology and minored in Studio Art at Hobart and William College as an undergrad student and will graduate this December from Emerson's IMC program. Cas loves to ski and travel and she would like to work for an agency that specializes in fully integrated campaigns.

Bre is an outstanding leader, planner and researcher. I have never worked with someone who brings more charisma and tenacity to a project. Her ideas are well thought out and insightful and she never fails to mention the many ways in which we can use Google to better our daily tasks. Bre attended Hawaii Pacific University, as an undergrad, and doubled majored in advertising and public relations. She is not only a full-time graduate student but she also works full-time as well (not as easy task!). She will graduate from Emerson's IMC program in May 2009 and plans to become a marketing manager for an environmentally-conscious company.

Ferociously dependable and responsible, these ladies are truly outstanding teammates and I would be honored to work with them again in the future. Good luck to each of you in your future goals; I know that you will be successful in everything that you do!

The Project

The Media Management class project, taught by Professor Jim Rowean, gives students a unique look into the daily tasks of media planning and strategies. This semester we were assigned to create a custom, integrated media plan for the Companion Animal Protection Society (CAPS) run by Ms. Deborah Howard. The organization's goal, for the upcoming year (and our objective), is to increase awareness, membership and donations.

Our group's (self-titled = Four Femmes Communications) recommended media plan is based on complete situational analyses, which include information on the animal rights and animal welfare issues, the puppy mills industry, the messages and tactics used by other organizations within the category and the target audiences. The plan outlined within the book (our full report) defines two target audiences of the media campaign and lays out a comprehensive, integrated media plan that utilizes the strengths and improves the weaknesses of CAPS. Furthermore, our media plan will allow CAPS to capitalize on opportunities to not only increase awareness of its cause and organization, but to also increase the involvement of its supporters and generate new streams of revenue.

The presentation will be given this Thursday, December 7th, my final class meeting of the semester!

Fortunately, all my work for one class, my workshop, is already done. I submitted my third and final story before the Thanksgiving break and it was worked in class yesterday. I have the option of making a few final edits before turning it in with my portfolio, which I think I'll probably take advantage of.

For my other class, the Seminar in the Novel, I have the option of either two ten page papers or one twenty pager, which I have predictably just started. Additionally, I have a presentation on Irvine Welsh's "Marabou Stork Nightmares" Monday evening. The presentation is largely just leading a discussion and the book lends itself to a number of interesting questions that shouldn't make it too hard to get some talk going. The paper is where the stress lies. I originally planned to just do two 10 pagers, but I figured out what I would consider a good topic and think I might be able to parlay it into 20 pages. Using my film background, I'm breaking down the narrative structure in novels and their film adaptations and comparing how the complexities have to be altered for each medium. A cheap excuse to write about movies I like? Maybe. But an interesting topic that should be better for the teacher than reading yet another dissertation on the monotony of Tristram Shandy? Certainly.

My program also requires a lot of group projects, and because Emerson has a lot of good space, reserving rooms has made things extremely efficient and professional. I have also had great luck finding computers to work on, and in the rare occasion that all open computers and labs are filled, the Emerson Café can be a great place to plug in and do work if you do not mind some chatter.