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How to write a personal statement
Writing your personal statement can be one of the most satisfying--or frustrating--writing experiences you\'ll ever have.
The personal statement is an important part of your application package. Depending on the topic you choose, the essay you write provides additional evidence of your intellectual and creative achievement. The essay is also the only opportunity for the readers of your application to get a feel for you as a person as well as for you as a student and this you should know before going for how to write a personal statement. The essay is also the place where you can put your academic record into the context of your opportunities and obstacles.
1. Understand and Explain Yourself
One of the main problems when writing is that applicants fail to take a thorough and analytical look at themselves and their objectives. Admission committee members are looking for interesting, insightful, revealing, and non-generic essays that suggest you have successfully gone through a process of careful reflection and self-examination.
2. Set Yourself Apart and learn how to write a personal statement
Committees are looking for something PERSONAL and ANALYTICAL. This means sharing information you rarely share with others and assessing your life more critically than usual. This approach is key to a successful personal statement.
Exercise: In order to begin writing your personal statement – your story—you’ll need to answer some basic questions to prepare yourself.
Questions before you go for how to write a personal statement
What\'s special, unique, distinctive, and/or impressive about you or your life story?
What details of your life (personal or family problems, history, people or events that have shaped you or influenced your goals) might help the committee better understand you or help set you apart from other applicants?
When did you become interested in this field and what have you learned about it (and about yourself) that has further stimulated your interest and reinforced your conviction that you are well suited to this field? What insights have you gained?
How have you learned about this field—through classes, readings, seminars, work or other experiences, or conversations with people already in the field?
If you have worked a lot during your college years, what have you learned (leadership or managerial skills, for example), and how has that work contributed to your growth?
What are your career goals and that impact how to write a personal statement
Are there any gaps or discrepancies in your academic record that you should explain (great grades but mediocre LSAT or GRE scores, for example, or a distinct upward pattern to your GPA if it was only average in the beginning)?
Have you had to overcome any unusual obstacles or hardships (for example, economic, familial, or physical) in your life?
How to write a personal statement >
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