Personal Statement - Guide to Write a Convincing Statement

Planning to apply to college or university for higher education?

Have to submit a personal statement to complete the process of admission for graduate school?

Don’t know how to write a personal statement?

Explore and learn all the details and technicalities of writing an awesome personal statement.
Let’s get started!

1. What is a Personal Statement

If you have heard the name for the first time and wondering what is a personal statement, I hope you can get all your answers here.

It is actually an essay, which details the skills, accomplishments, and aspirations of the student giving a hint of their life experiences.

It is meant to provide a little overview of the student to the college, or university, where they are applying for higher education.

It is quite important that you learn to write a good and authentic personal statement essay; it is your voice and it is your only chance to get your foot into your desired institution. Through it, the authorities not only try to get an idea of the personality of the student but also try to judge their capabilities from their writing style.

It also serves the purpose of explaining the preference of the student for that particular college or university to which it is addressed.

It informs them about the reasons why the student chose a particular course or degree and how will it be a good fit for them.

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1.1 Personal Statement Outline

Here is a suggested outline that you should look at and apply to your own situation.

1. Paragraph 1: Motivation for the course choice
2. Paragraph 2: Interests and achievements
3. Paragraph 3: Background information and experience
4. Paragraph 4: Restate motivation

2. How to Write a Personal Statement

Most of the students find writing a personal essay more dreading and nerve-racking than sitting in the exams.

Fair enough because either law school or medical school, they all require the student to submit a personal essay when applying for admission.

The pressure of writing something impressive to highlight your abilities and convincing enough to make a mark on the authorities, is quite demanding and confusing.

If you are among such students who are confused and don't know what to do to get into a graduate program, then we are here to guide you on how to write a personal statement.

First of all, stop thinking about being rejected and focus on describing yourself honestly, and in your personal tone.

Don't forget that the proof of your academic achievements will play a much more important role in your entry to the college or university of your choice, so be confident and focus on the work at hand. Follow the points mentioned below to make things easier:

• Make notes of the important things that you think are worthy of being included in your personal statement.
• An introduction is the most important part of the personal statement, so pay special attention to it.
• Do not forget to share the details of your accomplishments in your personal statement as it is one of the ways to show off your capabilities and get the attention of the admission committee.
• Before sending or submitting the personal statement on the mentioned website, do not forget to proofread it for any possible errors.

It is similar to writing a college application essay. Both of these application essays follow almost a similar pattern. However, a college application includes other aspects as well. If you are struggling to write your application essay, here is a detailed guide on how to write a college application essay. It will help you get a bigger picture as well.

3. Do's of Personal Statement

Wondering what to specifically include in it?

We are basically here to guide you through such confusion.

So, don't waste too much time and concentrate on the do's of the personal statement, which will help you to leave a strong impression on the people who will read it. Follow the pointers mentioned below:

• The very first and the most important thing to include in your personal statement is the reason for applying in the particular institute.
• Next, after talking about the reasons for preferring the institute, the most important section of the personal statement is talking about your capabilities that make you a suitable candidate.
• Talking about the relevant skills is one of the most important and essential things which definitely needs to be included in it.
• In addition to mentioning the relevant skills, you can also talk about relevant work experience, if you have any.
• Another important thing to include in your personal statement is the list of your accomplishments.
• Lastly, you can talk about your hobbies which are related to the subject of your interest in one way or the other. Talk about anything interesting that can grab the reader's attention
• A key part for writing a perfect personal statement is to put across the skills that make you the perfect fit for the role.

4. Don'ts of Personal Statement

Just like the do's, there are some don'ts as well.

You have to take special care to not include them in your personal statement, if you want to make it more appealing and attractive.

Do not forget that the purpose of the personal statement is to depict you as a person to the college or university authorities and not as a machine that states your achievements only to make it impressive, make it personal.

Follow the points mentioned below for better understanding:

• One of the most important things that the students need to consider while writing their personal statement is to not focus on their lacking or failures.
• Another important thing to avoid in your personal statement is making spelling or grammatical mistakes, or, in the worst case, both.
• Always remember that quotes or references are not necessary in the personal statement; in fact, you should not add them at all. A personal statement is about you and how you present yourself.
• Another important thing to keep in mind while writing the personal statement is to keep your tone formal and clean.
• The biggest issue that you need to avoid while writing the personal statement is not to talk about irrelevant things.
• Last but not the least, do not copy anything from the internet and paste it into your personal statement.
• Do not be too general when it comes to personal statement writing. It can be tempting to focus on your attributes and where you want to go in your career.

5. How Long Should a Personal Statement be

One of the most important questions asked by the students while preparing for college or university admission is how long should a personal statement be?

You must be wondering the same. We have the right answer for you.

The expected maximum length of the personal statement is 4000 characters.

Keep in mind, its CHARACTERS and not WORDS.

4000 characters roughly make 2 to 3 pages, and it is more than enough to describe yourself in an impressive manner.

Most of the times, the university or colleges prefer the students to write their personal statement on the space specified for the purpose of the admission page of the institute website.

The character limit is already set in that so that the students do not write more than required.

One of the most important things to consider in this regard is that, do not force yourself to include irrelevant details about yourself just for the sake of meeting the word count limit. It will ruin your impression instead of building it.

Write briefly and confidently, and it will surely attract the attention of the admissions committee.

Keep in mind that you cannot just submit a single personal statement to different institutes for different courses, or even the same course.

You will have to write a separate personal statement for every college or university that you are applying to and follow their code or requirements.

In case of applying in different courses of the same institute, you can follow the policy of the institute to submit the same or different personal statements for different courses.

Explore the attached sample to perfect your personal statement. .

5.1 Personal Statement Sample

Take into account these good personal statement examples to help you write your own.

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