So, you’ve chosen to apply for a specific academic program for your undergraduate degree! Maybe you’re applying to a business school, a school of nursing, or another program. Now, it’s just a matter of writing that personal statement they all ask for.
As you sit down to write the personal statement, it’s important to reflect on what, exactly, the personal statement should do. At its core, this is your chance to tell them why you—yes, you!—are the right person for their program. By giving insight into who you are and your motivations for applying to their program, you can give them more to consider than just your grades or test scores. For undergraduate programs, you will focus on your life story. But remember: when you narrate your life story, you will reflect on what you have learned from those experiences.
To begin your brainstorm, here are some questions to ask yourself:
- Why are you interested in the program?
- For this, it is key to familiarize yourself with the program’s website: their mission, faculty, courses, values, opportunities, etc. Identify keywords you might use when narrating and evaluating your past experiences.
- How have your experiences influenced your career goals?
- Here, think about the experiences that are most relevant to those career goals. You do not need to narrate all these experiences, but show how they entail your goals, interests, and decisions.
- Why do you feel the program is the best fit for you?
- Here, reflect on how their mission, research, and values align with your profile and professional goals. For this, identify keywords you might use when narrating and evaluating your past experiences.
- How would you enhance the program community?
- It is very important to think about how you will contribute to the community of the program: you will be an active participant in the events, activities, and projects imagined, planned, and implemented. Show that involvement!
- What do you feel sets you apart from other program applicants?
- This question allows you to highlight aspects of your profile and experiences that will be more persuasive and more effective for the audience of your application, namely, the admission committee.
Before you start writing, keep these principles in mind:
- Less is more:
- You usually won’t have much space for a personal statement—likely two pages, maximum—, so you’ll want to be efficient. Though you surely have plenty to say, remember that “less is more”: pick the most essential elements of your story to share, and really focus on those. For instance, instead of enumerating a series of past experiences, focus on two or three that are the most representative of your career path and your professional mission. In other words, do more than just repeat resume statement points: go in-depth by tailoring experiences to match the program or the internship, and by elaborating on your few experiences and tell a story of those.
- Show, don’t tell:
- Personal statements that use rich description stand out from those that merely “recite” what happened. In other words, provide sufficient context around your past experience, and think critically about the implications of those experiences. Remember that you are trying to stand out from a group of similarly-qualified students. A story, especially one that “hooks” your reader in from the opening lines, can set your personal statement apart.
- For example, the sentence “I have always wanted to study nursing because I like to help people” is something that any applicant to the School of Nursing could write: this statement is implied by the very application to the School of Nursing. The admissions committee will want to see evidence not only that you like a particular subject, but also that there is something about that subject that can’t be satisfied with any other program or school.
- Further, instead of saying that you “like” something, you can describe an experience that inspired or confirmed your interest in that subject. Explain how and why it influenced you, that is, think critically on the contextual cues and potential implications of your past experience. These details will show your enthusiasm and dedication more effectively than stating that you “like” something.
- Demonstrate that you are on an upward trajectory of growth and success:
- Not everyone knows immediately what they want to do, nor do they immediately perform at a high level in college. One way to stand out in a personal statement is to demonstrate that you are on an upward trajectory as you pursue your education. Don’t be afraid to identify that you started slow in college, or mark notable challenges—but be sure to identify how you have grown and will continue to grow. In other words, you can textually transform an apparent negative information into a positive comment on that upward trajectory by means of contrastive structures. For instance, you can use the following pattern: “Even though I did not perform well in…, I learned that…”. In other words, growth can be shown by how your thinking has evolved and matured over time.
- Follow instructions carefully:
- Make sure that you are responding to the question being asked: the answer to the question might be the very argument or claim that you are building throughout the personal statement. And make sure that you are staying within the word limit, because we do not know the criteria that the committee members might use in terms of the extension of the text.
- Proofread your writing:
- Spelling, typos, and grammatical errors may distract your reader. Remember that readers often have to make quick judgments about potentially hundreds of candidates, so they may be quickly turned off by any errors they perceive and may assume that the writer isn’t fully prepared for their program if a statement seems sloppy. To proofread your writing, keep in mind that the whole process (outlining, drafting, editing, and revising) takes time.
- Personal statements that use rich description stand out from those that merely “recite” what happened. In other words, provide sufficient context around your past experience, and think critically about the implications of those experiences. Remember that you are trying to stand out from a group of similarly-qualified students. A story, especially one that “hooks” your reader in from the opening lines, can set your personal statement apart.
For more information about personal statements required for graduate programs, visit our entry in the Writing Center’s Handbook: Writing Personal Statements for Ph.D. programs.
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