How To Write a Personal Statement

Graduate School Personal Statement

A personal statement is an essay in graduate school application form whose purpose is to familiarize the applicant to the admission panel. It enables an applicant to articulate their unique reasons and qualifications for wanting to pursue a given course and affords the selection panel an opportunity to evaluate whether the student will fit into the specific programme.
A personal statement focuses on the character and personality of the applicant. It will therefore focus on experience gained from volunteering, internships and attachments. It should be differentiated from a statement of purpose whose main focus is the academic qualifications and career goals. They vary in form and content but depending on the academic programme they can serve the same purpose.

Writing a Personal Statement: What To Consider

Personal Interest in the programme

State your personal interest in the programme. Use scenarios to give reasons for your choice. Show how given the opportunity you will improve lives and conditions with the knowledge and experience gained in school. Bring out the specific aspects of the school that made it appeal to you.

Relate with school and Programme

Relate with the school and programme applied for. Your narratives and examples should be centered on the specific programme. Avoid deviating from the topic and discussing matters that do not shed light on the area of interest, instead they should be about how ready and qualified you are and how well the school is positioned to further your potential.

Respectful Tone and Attitude

Maintain a respectful tone and attitude all through the essay. This brings out your maturity and bares open the seriousness with which you perceive your studies. Bringing out your personality in the essay should not prevent you from treating the exercise with the formality it deserves. Avoid jokes and gimmicks in trying to stand out because they can backfire.

Demonstrate the Aspect of Honesty

Be honest with the admission panel. Bring out the real and authentic you and avoid trying to say things that you think the panel wants to hear. The admission panelists have read many essays now and in the past and can therefore tell a fake from a real. The consequences for these are that other prospective students will have an edge above you.

Review Your Personal Statement

Go through your final essay. Check for spelling and punctuation errors. Make sure that you observed the writing instructions like the number of words in the essay. Some institutions give specific formats and contents to be included. It won’t matter how good your essay is if it disregards given instructions.

Let the Third Person Evaluate Your Personal Statement:

Submit your essay to external scrutiny. Let a teacher, friend or family member go through your essay and weigh their feedback. Different viewpoints of your work will tell you a lot about its readability, organization and whether it’s engaging.
In conclusion, a personal statement offers you an opportunity to demonstrate how you developed interest in a particular programme, express your strength and address your weaknesses. This is the only part of the application where you get to state the reason you think qualify you for the programme.

By admin in Blog on July 24, 2020