Among similarly qualified candidates, the personal statement can make the difference between admission and rejection.
Admissions officers review dozens of applications per day from applicants with similar grades, test scores, and even extra-curricular activities.
Often, the personal statement can be the determining factor in admissions decisions. The personal statement allows the candidate to describe and distinguish himself in his own words. It is the only part of the application which gives a human face to the candidate, allowing him to discuss what he has learnt, what motivates him, who has influenced him, and why he is unique.
Rather than be a cause for panic and stress, the personal statement should be welcomed and embraced by students, as it gives them the opportunity to offer insight into the very essence of who they are as individuals.
What is the personal statement?
The personal statement is a required part of the “Common Application,” which is accepted by over 400 colleges and universities in the US. It is strictly limited to 650 words and students have the ability to choose from one of the following five questions:
• Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
• Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn?
• Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?
• Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?
• Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.
Students no longer have the option of creating and answering their own question, as they had in previous years. The word limit has increased from 500 to 650 words for the upcoming application cycle.
How you should approach the personal statement?
While these five prompts may appear to be dissimilar, they are essentially asking the same question: who are you as a person? This is very important to keep in mind, as this is supposed to be a personal statement.
The most important advice I can give in writing your personal statement is to simply be yourself. Explain what defines and drives you. What experiences in life have shaped your perspective on the world? What challenges have you had to overcome to make you stronger? What motivates you? What makes you, essentially, you? You should be able to write the personal statement in a highly individualised manner — both in terms of content, as no one knows you better than yourself, but also in terms of approach, as your writing style and perspective should be unique.
It is imperative you speak in your own voice and use your own words.
Do not feel pressured to be someone else, as this disingenuousness will be apparent to the admissions officer, who has likely read thousands of personal statements. If you scored 500 on the Critical Reading section of the SAT, for example, and start using words like “gravitas” and “schadenfreude”, your personal statement will raise red flags.
You and only you should write your essay — not your idealised version of you, your mother, or anyone else, but you. Be honest. It sounds cliche, but let your emotions and feelings be your guide. If you are sombre, write in a sombre style. Do not force humour, if you are not naturally funny. If you are an introspective thinker, then write in introspective style. Just be yourself.
The worst thing a student can do in the personal statement is talk about anything but themselves. Essays should be written in the first-person and should have a very narrow focus.
If your father is your role model, for example, it is very hard to summarise your entire relationship with him in 650 words. Instead, focus on a particular incident between you and your father and put it into the greater context of your relationship as a whole.
Apart from allowing the admissions officer insight into your character, you should also allow them to explore your intellectual curiosity. This doesn’t mean that you have to impress them with flowery language, but it does mean you should impress them with your content and style.
One of the best pieces of advice I can give students is that when they write, they should be transporting their readers to the actual scene. You should be descriptive as possible in your writing, allowing the reader to smell, feel, touch, and experience what you are writing about with each of their sensations and emotions.
Admissions officers, who read dozens of applications per day, want to be surprised and engaged. If you are unable to grab and hold their attention in the first few sentences, you may not have a chance to bring them back. They will most likely skim the rest of your essay, as they do with the vast majority of unremarkable ones that blend into one, indistinctive mass.
Why the personal statement matters
Other than the personal statement, almost every other part of your application is broken down into objective components. Standardised test scores are very appropriately named, as they have been standardised to reflect your competency in a particular subject.
Grade point averages are reflective of your academic record as a whole. These are quantitative measures of your academic record. The more selective a university is, the higher the likelihood that the students applying could intellectually handle the work at the university.
Harvard, for example, rejects four out of every five valedictorians that applied for admission. At the more selective universities, admissions officers are spoiled for choice when it comes to academically qualified candidates, so they must rely on other subjective criteria.
What distinguishes those accepted versus those rejected, particularly at the most selective universities?
It is the qualitative components of your application, none of which is more important than the personal statement. The admissions officers want to understand you as a person, before they get to know you as a scholar.
While a 4.0 GPA is impressive, it does not reveal intellectual curiosity or attitudes towards learning. Nor does it reveal emotion intelligence, maturity, or your ability to interact effectively with others, all of which are extremely important.
Admissions officers want to see a window into your soul, and the personal statement is that window. What it reveals is incredibly insightful and important to the process. What others have to say about you, through recommendations and interviews, is also important, but how you are able to express yourself is of paramount importance.
