Personal
The role of personal statement is hard to overestimate because the future of your educations depends on its quality. Writing a personal statement requires not just good writing skills but also creativity and certain level of mental sharpness. Writing skills are useful for every person who wants to become a good professional, but writing skills alone can’t guarantee that you will write a decent personal statement. Creativity, ability to think out of the box and a sharp mind are the necessary elements which in combination with good writing skills can help you to craft an excellent personal statement. It means that you need to understand well what you’re
writing and how exactly you’re planning to do this. These two things are the key to writing a good personal statement.
Personal Statement Writing Guide
Before we proceed to giving you more tips on writing a personal statement, let’s clarify the terminology which people still find confusing:
- Personal statement — is a type of essay that is written in order to demonstrate a college admissions committee why you are a good fit for their college and what is your motivation to enter this particular college. “Personal statement” term is also used for graduate school.
- College essay — means the same thing as a personal statement so I will use both of these terms in this article interchangeably.
- Essay prompt — this is the main question that your college essay is supposed to address.
- Supplemental essay — additional essay beyond personal statement that some educational institutions may require.
Now, as we know the terminology let’s look at the structure of a personal statement:
- What is the angle that you want to use to tell the story?
- What key points do you want to focus on in your story?
- In case you begin your college essay with a thesis statement, you should reinforce it throughout the whole essay and return to it in the end.
- Conclusion should restate your focus in a way that lets the college admission committee know why you’re an excellent fit for their educational institution.
Let’s assume that you have selected the college or university where you want to study. Before you start working on a personal statement you need to learn as much as possible about the requirements to the personal statement in this particular educational institution. Also, it is advisable to do a research on prospective college or university to understand its values and see if they correspond to yours. Knowing a background of the educational institution that you want to apply to will be great for your personal statement because if you mention how your life and your values are related to the life and values of the university it will definitely show the admission committee that you have done your research and you’re a passionate candidate that should be considered very seriously.
When writing a personal statement carefully think what you should and what you shouldn’t mention there. For instance, you shouldn’t mention facts that don’t correlate with your achievements, traits of character and further education. On the other hand, you should mention achievements which are relevant to the spirit of an educational institution that you’re applying for. Never forget that there are hundreds of others who are applying with you. This notion should make you understand that you need to focus on something that makes you special.
College Personal Statement Prompts: The Process of Writing a Personal Statement
- Analyze questions mentioned in the application
- Make a research of the educational institution that you’re applying for
- Write your college essay
- Revise it and make sure that its devoid of grammatical and logical errors
- Ask a faculty member in your area to read your essay and give recommendations
- Make another revision and proofread it one final time
Help Writing Personal Statement: Things to Avoid
- Controversial or too flowery language
- Mentioning your desire to become a part of this particular educational institution since the young age
- Being too proud or too modest
When writing a personal statement be sincere and use a neutral tone. List all your virtues, values and achievements that are relevant to the definition of a good student for this educational institution. Try to think about what you can achieve as a student and where these achievements may take you in your adult life. Think how they can benefit your educational institution, your community, your city, state, country or even the whole world. Use your creativity and write your college essay interestingly so that the members of admission committee don’t get bored while reading it. You may even include a joke or two if appropriate, but be very careful with it, because inappropriate jokes only do harm.
Of course, students don’t write personal statements often, that is why it seems like a difficult task. While it’s certainly not easy, calling it difficult would be an exaggeration because if you follow the tips on writing a personal essay offered in this article, writing this essay ceases to be a difficult task. Feel a deep sense of your being within yourself and try to write out of this sense. Be very sincere and project your authenticity from your heart right onto the paper. Admission committee will definitely notice personal statements written in that manner.
