Writing the “perfect” application letter for our MA in Communication for Development–insights from the first 2000 letters
As part of our application process for our MA in Communication for Development program we encourage applicants to submit a short application letter together with all the other application documents since 2016. Applications are formally reviewed by Sweden’s University Admission authority and our teaching team only reads and grades the short letters for additional points in the application score. We ask applicants to answer two short questions (about 500 words each) which we call “description of experiences” and “letter of intent” so applicants can write a bit more about their background and why they decided to apply to our program. We receive between 200-300 letters each year and even though we are a team of 6-7 teachers and I have not read each and every letter a few patterns have emerged as to what makes a good, solid letter and what some of the pitfalls are that are best to avoid or address directly. There is probably a bigger lesson to learn here as I think some of the issues not j