Personal Statement. Guidelines for Writing Personal Statement

Personal Statement

The personal statement goes by many names including application essay, admission essay, personal essay, reflective essay, and narrative essay. Regardless of the term, your goal is to represent your full potential, describe hopes, goals, and talents that make you a perfect fit for that college. When writing the personal statement, it is necessary to demonstrate how your values, non-traditional educational background, and other factors have influenced the academic career.

Guidelines for Writing Personal Statement

The personal statement requires a lot of thinking and analyzing. You have to evaluate your own hopes, dreams, passion, motivation, academic success, or even high school education.

To make this process easier for you, follow the guidelines listed below:

1. Take a few moments to think of information you want to include;

2. Create a draft without focusing on word count, just write whatever comes to your mind;

3. After you’ve written the first draft, start editing and proofreadingto ensure your personal statement meets required word count.

4. Don’t rush, take your time. You don’t have to complete your personal statement in an hour or a day;

5. Use a dictionary because your personal statement should also demonstrate vocabulary skills;

6. Focus on your strengths, but mention specific examples;

7. Avoid general commentary;

8. Write in an enthusiastic, concise, and natural style;

9. Try not to overdo it with humor;

10. Don’t compare your personal statement to someone else’s. Two people have different experiences and views of the world around them;

11. Read it out loud to see whether it seems right.

Now you know what to include in your personal statement, here are some things you should leave out of it:

Don’t copy and paste your old personal statement;
Too personal and irrelevant information;
Over-used clichés;
Unproven claims;
Vague expressions;
Exaggeration;
Negative comments or excuses.

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