Now that my brain has stopped feeling like a fried egg, I’ll share more about my experience applying to the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. The application was pretty standard for the most part–an online application, three letters of rec, two transcripts, a resume, two personal statements, and NO GRE SCORES!

The toughest part for me was the personal statements, seeing that writing quality and the ability to make a compelling case in few words are weighted more heavily for a journalism program. The prompts were really vague and contradictory to the general graduate division instructions, so it took a while to desipher what I was even supposed to write about. It was only after going to an information session at the journalism school, that I learned that I should ignore the general prompts and focus only on what the J school tells me. However, this is what the J school site told me:

F-1: Statement of Purpose (750 word limit; explain why you are applying)
F-2: Personal History Statement (750 wo