The Ultimate Guide: How to Write a Personal Statement for Your College Application!
Learn how to write a personal statement that will (hopefully) get you into your dream school!
After I got accepted to my dream school, I realized that the statement I submitted clearly had a hand in my acceptance. I’ll be breaking down what made my statement so great, including examples from my actual statement! Check out the 6 step process below:
1. Examine your school. Make connections with the college-specific values/experiences that matter to you.
For example:
“I became interested in _________ University while looking for a school in the Northeast that could provide a launch-pad for my career. __________’s wide range of business internships was the most attractive factor for me…”
I’m not suggesting you look all over the website for information to mention. All I’m saying is that you should mention reasons why you love the school you’re applying to. A lot of this you already know! Describe your intentions; demonstrate your steadiness of mind.
2. Note some life events. These should be fairly current (in the past 3 years max) life-altering events that speak to who you are and what you’ve gone through.
For example:
“Initially, I never intended to transfer or even to attend a community college. After high school, I was on track to attend a state university in pursuit of a career in architecture, contrary to the path I am on now…”
Stick to main points in this step, don’t get fixed on trying to make them understand all the nuances of your pre-experience (I was very tempted!). This is a ‘statement’, not a ‘story’. Since I’m long-winded, I cut out a lot of details in my statement. If you want to mention another school in your statement (like I did), don’t name drop! Relevant school names will be provided at other places in your application.
3. End with your (abbreviated) personal mission statement. Or include a few lines about the difference(s) you intend to make in your life or others.
For example:
“___(Insert name of school on application)___ has some of the best resources (internships/study abroad programs) to help me curate my resume so that my academic experience reflects a skillset that is internationally inclusive.”
The mission statement is a line or two about what your intentions are. So, for a personal mission statement, you’ll want to write a few lines that tie your personal/professional/academic intentions together. This is a good place to reiterate the intentions you may have described previously.
4. Reread, check for spelling/grammar/punctuation/word count.
For example:
“In fact, I think I was lucky in taking such an
untraditionalnon-traditional path.”
Seriously now! Assuming you didn’t make any mistakes is futile! I proofread as I write and I still overlook mistakes! Word/character count may also be important. Some statements require that you keep to a minimum/maximum of words or characters. You can keep track of the word count statistic in Word by looking down near the page count in the bottom left corner. If you click on the word count, you can see all the totals for your document (including total characters).
5. Let someone read it or read it out loud to yourself. This tests readability and will get you a second opinion.
You could have a parent, mentor, or friend read it to get feedback. Encourage them to be honest with you and how they think everything reads.
If certain words don’t sound right, look in the thesaurus for replacements. But don’t get carried away with it! You want your statement to sound like you. Just like every application, every student is different! Schools are aware of this, so don’t try to aim for an overly pruned statement.
6. Reread your changes, SAVE, and submit!
Make final changes in this final step. Look for common mistakes you may have made. For me, I’m always mixing up my verb tenses! Those are harder mistakes to notice, but will make the statement sound childish and low quality if overlooked.
SAVE, SAVE, SAVE! What a nightmare to have a perfect statement lost forever! Fortunately, if that does happen, you can come back to this article anytime for pointers! It’s also good to save a piece of writing like this because you could modify it for scholarship applications or other professional uses in the future.
Lastly, don’t forget to submit your statement! If you’re submitting it to multiple schools, you’ll want to go through and edit the college/university name or other college-specific information you mentioned in the statement before you submit it each time.
Disclaimer: Some colleges/universities have requirements for personal statements that I may not have mentioned here! Follow those requirements with these tips in mind for your best chance!
I can’t guarantee that you’ll get accepted if you follow this 6-step plan. No perfect personal statement can make up for other inconsistencies that may exist. I wish you the best of luck in your process!
Talk to you soon,
Is there a tip I didn’t mention here that you want to suggest? How important do you think personal statements are in a college application? Let me know in the comments below!
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