Your academic transcript is an important testimony to your intellectual rigor and doctoral program readiness. If you are applying to Ph.D. programs immediately after completing your undergraduate studies, the quality of your undergraduate transcript is extra important. If you don't have a strong undergraduate transcript, consider enrolling in a post-baccalaureate or master's program first. Use the intermediary program to build an alternative transcript that will demonstrate academic excellence to the Ph.D. admissions committee. If possible, enroll in a master's or post-baccalaureate program at the same school that you wish to attend for doctoral studies. This will give you the opportunity to form relationships with faculty on the campus of your choice.
Your resume demonstrates commitment to your academic discipline and your range of professional skills and competencies. If you prefer to disclose your life experiences in narrative form, submit a curriculum vitae instead. A curriculum vitae is a narrative description of a person's skills, professional history and significant personal experiences. Don't make assumptions about how the admissions committee will interpret your life experiences. Admissions committees regularly admit individuals from diverse political and intellectual backgrounds. Focus on your most important professional and academic accomplishments, no matter what those accomplishments say about your political leanings.
Bring new insights to the table with your personal statement. Do not repeat or reinforce information found elsewhere in your application packet. Instead, expand upon an important academic question or area of research. Discuss the reasons you seek doctoral education and describe the ways that you intend to contribute to the school's academic community. Discuss the personal significance of your academic work and the way in which the school's program precisely fits your academic mission. Be specific in describing how you are a good fit for the program to which you are applying.
Faculty recommendations can powerfully sway doctoral admissions committees. The relationship between doctoral students and their professors is more egalitarian than that between undergraduate students and their professors. Faculty members want students that are brilliant, excited and contentious. Choose professors with whom you have a strong relationship. Admissions committees to doctoral programs value research experience, so a recommendation from a professor with whom you have researched will go far.