Personal Statement - An Ultimate Guide for Beginners

Have you always wanted to be someone who wanted to study in a dream college or high school, and now you have a chance to get admission there?

Was it always in your long-term planning to pursue your dreams of studying in a reputable college?

As important as your grades are in your admission process, a personal statement is equally important to get you admission to the desired graduate school or college.

The fact can not be denied that a perfect personal statement is the only way to impress the admission committee. So writing it flawlessly and effectively is essential. To draft a strong personal statement, understand its importance, format, and purpose clearly.

Continue reading this blog to know what a personal statement is and how it is written?

What is a Personal Statement?

A personal statement or a college essay is written to support your admission application to study in a college or a university. This purpose statement or application essay is a chance for you to get admission into your dream or favourite college to study the desired field or subject and help you learn skills of your passion.

A personal statement is written to make the jury or admission committee familiar with your personality and let them know why you are the best applicant to avail of opportunities in their institute.

Before granting admission, the committee wants to know everything about the applicant and why he deserves the chance to study in the college. This is to make sure that they are giving the scholarship to the candidate that best deserves it.

In a personal statement, an applicant presents his ambitions and passions, which help the admission officers to analyze their personalities. So its value and importance can not be denied.

A personal statement is usually written as a part of a college application essay. However, other types of essays can also be written when it comes to writing a college application essay.

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Purpose of Personal Statement

When you are writing a personal statement, you should know its purpose clearly. When you know its purpose, you can write it perfectly. A personal statement basically serves the following purposes:

• This statement provides an opportunity for the college admission committee to know you better. Reading about your life experiences, academic performance, and factors that contributed to your personality building leaves an impression on the audience before getting into college.
• As it talks about your personality, a personal statement also helps in highlighting your unique and interesting attributes and characteristics. An applicant presents himself in this statement with determination, enthusiasm, and a focused way that lets the audience know about you.
• A personal statement also presents your priorities in life. These priorities help readers know about your goals and achievements and your commitment to important things in life, which is impressive.
• A college essay also shares your personal story with the readers. Your experiences and lessons in life show your growth and learning ability which also inspires the audience.

How Long is a Personal Statement

Usually, the institute you are writing your personal statement decides the length of it. This is the reason it is recommended to read and understand the guidelines provided. Generally, 500 to 1000 words are required to draft your personal essay, but it differs from college to college and country to country.

If you are not given a word limit, it is advised not to go beyond 500 words. Long and lengthy essays get boring to read, and the audience gets bored. Also, the committee instantly wants to know you by quickly skimming through your essay. Keep it short to not annoy the readers.

How to Start a Personal Statement

A personal statement is a type of writing that your entire career depends on, so it should be well planned and executed. Instead of jumping on to the writing process instantly, spend some time planning and outline your essay.

Take the following steps to start with your personal statement:

1. Understand the Guidelines

The first step to writing a personal statement is to know what to write? There are always some guidelines provided by the institute in which they prefer the applicant’s college applications. Understand those instructions and guidelines. The guidelines will dictate a word count for your statement and also the format style.

2. Choose a Strong Topic

Think about a catchy topic that you will give to your personal statement to impress the judges. Plan out your whole essay and make a rough draft of all the points that you think will best work for your statement.

3. Gather Ideas and Information

Once you have a topic in hand, brainstorm ideas, and gather information to draft strong content. Make sure to form sensible and logical points to impress the audience. Writing a personal statement is one of the trickiest tasks. The content of your personal statement essay should reflect the best of your personality and image.

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4. Personal Statement Outline

No matter which college you are writing your application essay for, a universal outline suits all personal statements. Be it a personal statement for medical school or a law school application. A basic outline or format of this scholarship essay has an introduction, few body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

• Introduction: An introduction is the first part of a college application essay. Here an applicant introduces the topic with intentions to grab the reader's interest. An introduction is written with an opening sentence that is a hook used to grab attention, followed by some interesting background information, and the thesis statement or the main argument or idea of the essay.

Keep in mind that this section is just an introduction and not a detailed explanation of ideas and points. Do not give away everything to the readers in this section. Just give an introduction about your personality, interests, and interesting personal experience. And not write about your family members.

• Body Paragraphs: The body paragraphs of your personal statement contain everything you need to share and explain your introduction. This section talks about your achievements, problem-solving techniques, strengths, and weaknesses that justify your personality.

To draft this section successfully, make sure each paragraph you write should have a topic sentence and transitions to all the previous paragraphs. This is to maintain a logical flow in your statement to hold your audience intact to your essay.

• Conclusion: The conclusion is the last and the final section that sums up applicants ideas and important points. All the paragraphs written in the body section should be leading up this section.

The committee doesn’t want an abrupt and inappropriate ending to your statement. Your conclusion should have a summary of all the important points, including your goals and career paths, and objectives.

How to Write a Personal Statement?

Having countless purposes, it is clear how important it is to write it perfectly. Getting one chance to impress someone cannot be risked. In order to fulfill your lifelong dream of studying in a reputable school, you shouldn't be sacrificed at any cost. Understand clearly the writing process of your statement to impress everyone.

Following is the process involved in writing a flawless personal statement for master’s or graduate programs.

1. Take your Time

When you have enough information to write your personal statement, patiently start writing it. In order to bring quality to your essay and effectiveness, make sure you do not write your personal statement in a rush.

Take sufficient time to come up with unique ideas and get your personal statement right. A fresh mind and eyes will always help you write creatively. Give time to each part of the writing process to make sure you have written a perfect essay.

2. Highlight your Strengths

The purpose of a college essay is to impress the audience with your strengths. Whichever incident and experience you share, make sure it highlights your strengths. Avoid stating weaknesses as much as you can.

Make them believe that you are a good fit for their institute, rather than making them think of other applicants and students.

3. Honesty is the Best Policy

Although you are to present your strengths, it doesn't mean you brag about yourself and share something that is not true. Inspire them with your honesty and the fact that everything present in the personal statement is who you actually are.

Every aspect mentioned should portray originality. The committee will instantly know if you are lying, and this will work negatively for you.

4. Don't Repeat

Even if you have to emphasize your strengths, do not repeat one thing again and again. The repetition will make you lose the charm and interest of your statement, making it a boring and unattractive piece of writing.

There are a lot of statements that end you in bins. The reason behind it is that they fail to impress the jury because they are dull and boring. Avoid using information that is unnecessary and boring.

5. Sound Professional

In a personal statement, a person shares his experiences, stories, opinions, etc., but this doesn’t mean that you go casual and use language that sound unprofessional. Make sure each and everything you share has a very professional sound and is written formally.

Avoid using slang and casual vocabulary. You cannot risk this one chance of getting into your dream college, so be careful to provide good content.

6. Proofread

Your first draft can never be the final draft. If you submit your personal statement right after you finish writing it, you will never get admission. Revision is important.

Proofread and revise your essay in order to get rid of all the mistakes you overlooked while drafting it. Make sure the grammar, vocabulary, spellings, syntax, format, and tone used are on point.

When you proofread, you have a chance to make your writing better by doing editing. Read-out-loud your personal statement to hear how you sound in your essay and how well it impresses the audience.

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7. Feedback

After you are done with proofreading and editing, get feedback on your statement. Give your essay to your family and friends and see if you can impress them. If they get impressed and understand everything you wrote in the essay, chances are you will inspire the committee as well.

Get feedback on your essay’s tone, sentence structure, vocabulary, and clarity. Then, take all measures to ensure your statement’s success.

Personal Statement Examples

In order to give you a better understanding of the personal statements and college essays, we have given an example of a perfect personal statement below to help you draft your statement perfectly.

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