What is a Personal Statement
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How to Make and Format Yours
The Personal Statement is arguably the most important part of your whole application package, as it is usually described as holding the most weight for acceptance. It is your opportunity to show off your writing skills, describe how all of your experiences have led you to applying, and for you to show that you have the perfect fit for what you are applying to.
How to format your statement
The writing of the personal statement is different from scientific and liberal arts writing formats and styles. While it is about you, it is not about your whole life. It should stay focused on what your presence at their school will provide them and how the school can help you flourish into a strong expert in your field. You should not just list your accomplishments, they already have a copy of your CV. The statement is to show them all the things they cannot see in the other parts of your application package, such as exactly how you are prepared for graduate school and how all of your previous experiences come together to make sense to why you are applying there. If you cook, think of your personal and academic experiences as ingredients. What you are doing in your personal statement is taking all of these independent ingredients and prepping and cooking them to form a cohesive meal, or narrative.
I recommend the first paragraph of your statement being blunt and strong. The sentence I started my personal statement with was:
“My purpose in pursuing a PhD in [insert subject name] through the [insert university name] is to train as a [insert what you want to be} and progress toward my ultimate goal of pursuing a career conducting {insert specific subject topic name} research.”
This may be slightly different if you are not wanting to pursue a PhD or in the field of science. I then went on to describe specific skill sets I have learned and developed through my career thus far that I believe would contribute to my success as a graduate student in my field. The specific examples of what to include should be personalized to what skills your field prioritizes. This may require you to do some research.
Your statement should be 1,000 words. Some programs have strict word counts that are significantly more or less than 1,000 words. Some programs don’t give you a word count at all. When you encounter this, it is safe to stick to around 1,000 words, or to 2 pages single-spaced.
Ending your statement should tie back to your first sentence while also summing up the main idea of the reason you are applying. This can be something concise and requiring minimal personalizing to schools. My statement conclusion was along the lines of:
“My ultimate goal is an academic career in {insert subject] research. As I look forward, I believe the [university’s name]’s [subject topic] program will be instrumental in helping me grow and learn as I take my next step towards these goals. Thank you for your time and I hope you will consider my application favorably.”
Tips
I think the biggest tip I can possibly provide is to try to make a majority of the personal statement generalizable to as many programs as you can. I would reserve at least one paragraph to talk about the specific program you are applying to. This is how you work smarter, not harder. If you are applying to 8 schools, why would you want to write 8 different statements? If you have a general template, you can just rewrite and personalize a paragraph or two to each school, then you would then only need to write one statement + ~8 paragraphs.
Don’t tell your life story! Keep on track with relevance.
Avoid talking about your mental health. Such statements could create the impression you may be unable to function as a successful graduate student.
Writing this statement will take a while, start as early as you can.
Have multiple people look over it. Ask professors, your family, your partner, your classmates. Get a lot of feedback on it to make sure what you are writing is clear.
When you send it to advisor or mentor for feedback, send your statement as a word doc. When you submit your statement in the application portal, you will upload it as a PDF.
Make sure to keep your multiple statements accurately labeled and organized. It would be a little embarrassing to send a school the wrong personalized statement.
Personal statement examples
Here are some examples to give you an idea of what would be good for you to include and in the style of writing to mirror. Even if the program of the examples don’t correspond with what you want to study, I strongly suggest that you read it to get a general idea of how your statement should look:
UCLA Writing Center for more advice and info on statements