How to Write a Personal Statement? Read This Simple Guide and Find Out
A personal statement is an essay you write about yourself, explaining the admission committee reasons why you are the best candidate for a college you are applying to. This is an important part of your application package and tutors will not only base their decision on your grades but on this paper, too. What we are trying to say is that your application letter is very important and you should try hard to compose a really good one.
Therefore, we have written this article to give you a clear guidance through this complicated process.
What is a purpose of a personal statement?
Many other students will apply to the same college or university as you. They might have the same scores as you, but they don’t have your personal experience, skills, and thoughts. The main purpose of a personal statement is making you stand out from a crowd as an individuality.
Your personal statement is a chance to distinguish yourself from the others and leave a real impression that makes the officers want to invite you for an interview.
Pre-writing tips
- Get your thoughts together
You should have a clear answer to the question “Why are you choosing this particular college and course” before you start writing. To evoke some creative thoughts, you may try making a small scheme: take a piece of paper and write the course title in the center. Then draw five branches titled as follows: what, who, where, when, why, and how. Think about every point in detail and this will be your starting point.
Take another piece of paper and write down a list of achievements and activities you want to tell the admission committee about. This may include everything relevant and meaningful to you. Have you been a skipper at a college team? Maybe, you have mastered a foreign language? Are you involved in volunteering? Include everything that makes you different.
Also, you should include information about the following questions:
Reasons to apply for this course backed up with your previous experience and thoughts
Career plans
Previous courses, projects, and fields of interest
Extracurricular activities
Part-time job
Prizes
Interests and hobbies
- Structure
There are no strict rules about structuring your personal statement and this mostly depends on your writing style. The best way to come up with a structure is to create an extensive outline.
You may want to stick to a three-paragraph structure. If so, then come back to the ideas you have listed before and divide them into the following categories:
Course/college
Include everything that relates to the reasons why you have chosen this particular course. Don’t be afraid to appeal to personal experience like your childhood episodes if they relate to the subject.
Work
If you don’t have any work experience to share yet, then you may write about your career plans.
Interests
Hobbies and extracurricular activities should be included here.
Writing a personal statement
- Make a draft of the body paragraphs
Write about the ideas you have listed before and show their various aspects that explain your degree choice with a connection to your personal traits. Be attentive, because these qualities are the heart of your paper.
- Write an introduction and conclusion
Now when you have body paragraphs, you may easily bring it all together by adding a remarkable conclusion and an eye-catching introduction. Don’t go into details here, because your personal statement is pretty limited in length. An introduction should state the degree you are applying to. As for the conclusion, this is your last chance to formulate your reasons for choosing this course or college in a few words. Remember, that you shouldn’t include any new facts in these paragraphs.
- Be strict
Reread your personal statement and remove everything that is not related to your unique traits and a chosen degree. Your personal statement should be strict and clear, therefore reword it until you delete all unnecessary parts. The admission committee doesn’t have to waste their time reading something they don’t have to.
- Ask someone else to read it
Give your paper to someone else and ask for a feedback. The best option is to get a tutor, who has an experience with similar papers, to check if your work is good enough. If you don’t have such an opportunity, then ask your friend or a family member for a review. These people know you as a person and they can evaluate whether your paper is a clear and relevant representation of you.
If you think that you are done with your paper, then come back and revise it for a couple of times. Use these simple steps to be sure that you have covered everything.
