It’s hard to write about yourself.
But that’s exactly what personal statements are about! When applying for study abroad programs, as well as graduate, medical, law, or business school, often a personal statement of some kind will be required as part of the application. These personal statements may be free-response style, in which you are simply asked to write a comprehensive statement about yourself and why you would be a good fit for the program you are applying to. Alternately, you might be asked to respond to more specific prompts. These may be about your personal and/or professional goals for the program, skills or characteristics you have which would make you a good candidate, or life experiences you have had which either prepared you for the program or inspired you to apply. Whatever the type of personal statement, I’ve found it’s important to be specific, as you would be on a resume or cover letter. I like to use specific reasons if I’m making a big claim such as “I would be a great astrophysicist.” I think of it like a mini-essay, in which my claim (for example, that I would be a great astrophysicist) is my thesis statement. Everything in that statement should build up your life story in a way which supports your claim, for example, including that I used to stargaze as a kid with a telescope in my backyard, and then in college I was a research assistant for a physics professor, worked at a lab, and presented research to conferences. I always try to write a logical progression to my conclusion: Given my years of experience both personal and professional, I would be a great astrophysicist. A somewhat obvious but still important point that I often have to remind myself of is that a personal statement should also be personal. If a prompt asks you to tell a personal story, then in my experience it’s a good plan to tell a personal story, not write in generalizations about your professional or personal experience as a whole. I think in academic writing this can be really hard to do! We’re so often taught to distance ourselves and our personalities from our writing, but in my experience personal statements are often focused on drawing out your passions, inspirations, dreams, goals, and other very personal things. For example, instead of talking generally about being a research assistant and presenting research, you could explain the personal effect this experience had on you — did it strengthen your desire to be an astrophysicist? How? What particular moments were the most impactful for you — did you have a specific experience with the professor which affirmed to you that you were on the right life path? How about when you presented the research? You could write the anecdotal story the question is asking for, and then explicitly relate it back to the program, but keep in mind that one of the trickiest parts of personal statements (for me, this is definitely THE trickiest part) is that they usually have a word limit. When I start any application, I remind myself that the people reading mine will have read many, many others, so it’s important to be concise and say my piece in as few words possible while (hopefully) still keeping a spark of personal appeal which will make my statement stand out. The goal here is to not bore the admissions committee, but rather to show them that not only are you qualified, you can be focused when answering questions and tell them an interesting story! I’ve found that one of the best tools for grabbing the admissions committee’s attention is the opening paragraph, or even the opening sentence. This is a chance to catch their interest and show them that your statement will be a powerful one. In order to do this, I like to turn to writing a solid “hook.” The hook is the angle you will be approaching your personal statement with. The key to writing a good hook is that you want to make it as original as possible. When I wrote my first few personal statements, it was tempting to use clichés, but I found out pretty fast that clichés will not help you in personal statements, and at their worst can read as disingenuous. Personal statements became much easier for me when I allowed myself to be genuine rather than relying on what other people have said before to make myself shine – your personal statement is about you, so own that! Personal statements can even be fun if you keep this in mind (...or maybe that’s just me). Being creative about your reasoning is a way I’ve found to stay genuine and avoid clichés in personal statements. If I want to be an astrophysicist, saying that I’ve always been inspired by space is both cliché and lacks specificity. Why does space inspire me? What do I hope to do in the future, and how will this program help me do it? By asking yourself questions like these, I think you can come up with some unique, creative answers that might not only impress the person reading your application, but most importantly, genuinely and proudly represent you as a person, because in my experience that’s what can make personal statements really shine.
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January 2024
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