Do you remember how most of us in our teens used to make strong statements on personal traits? We would often compare our identities with superheroes, cricketers, WWE wrestlers, and the likes. This very attribute marks the foundation and need for crafting personal statements.
It refers to those essays and other documented files that give an overview of who you are, your strengths, and the achievements that you’ve bagged in the past.
Personal statements are often required to be drafted by students seeking admissions in colleges and universities. But, merely having a brief idea of the personal statement will not take you anywhere if you lack the knowledge on how to go about it. No wonder, every 7 out of 10 students end up looking for personal statement help frantically.
So, how about investing some time in reading this blog and figuring out how to compose well-knit personal statement like a boss?
Here you go!
1. Introduce Yourself with Clarity
First things first, you need to introduce yourself. The section should reflect your personality. Follow these steps to add perfection.
- Highlight and explain why you are interested in pursuing an academic degree.
- It must reflect a personal tone with no relevance or similarities to others’ works.
- Refrain from being too pushy or over-the-top with your self-explanations in terms of achievements and accolades.
- Also, highlight your passion and write what features of the academic program align best with your hobbies and inclinations.
2. Lay Focus on Relevant Skills and Expertise
There’s no point talking about your culinary skills while seeking admission for post-graduation in Economics. Adding up your skills in the personal statement denotes those experts that are relevant to the position for which you are applying.
Here are a few tips that will come into play.
- Talk about past achievements, interests, experiences, and skills that are relevant to your niche of learning.
- Provide a brief description of your talent and skills and establish how it will help you shine brighter during the university course.
- Describe why you feel you would be a prized possession or why would the admission panel of the university count on you as a promising student.
- Also, you must consider mentioning how the academic course fits well into your future aspirations in two to three sentences.
3. Extend your Goals in the Personal Statement
You can always find enough scope to boast or expand your goals if you are writing a personal statement. Here’s how you can make your presence felt.
- Draw real-life instances and demonstrate how a specific skill has helped you overcome academic challenges in the past.
- This will only strengthen your claims and convince the admission committee to consider your application.
- You may include and highlight “teamwork skills”. For instance, if you are writing to apply for the position of a research scholar, you may explain how your teamwork proficiency has helped you collaborate with fellow researchers in the past.
- Mention how your organizational skills have helped you find interesting artifacts, rare findings, and other research details concerning unique subject matters.
- Also, focus on highlighting short-term goals. For example, what you hope to achieve in the university, during your course of study, and where you see yourself in the next five years.
4. Link Back to Your Introduction Often
No matter if you are writing a personal statement for college, school or university, it is important for you to link back to the introductory segments often. If you wish to make a mark of excellence, then the document must carry relevance.
Here’s everything you need to know.
- Refer to the starting point of the personal statement and take a look at the focal points you have mentioned.
- Evaluate and confirm whether the document has maintained parity between the slants introduced at the beginning and throughout the body.
- Alter segments that you find are exaggerating and deviates from the main essence of the statement.
- Use the right words and perfect expressions
5. Use the Right Words and Perfect Expressions
Words and expressions play a vital role when it comes to drafting a powerful personal statement. For example, using words like “purpose” or “objective” instead of “goal” sounds more elegant and academically enriched. As a result, it will create an impression of excellence on the admission committee.
So, here are a few suggestions on the types of words and expressions that would work best.
- “I use a creative approach to overcome all challenges.”
- “I am always enthusiastic and eager to hone new skills.”
- “I am hard-working, and I know how to execute my job.”
- “I am always at it and coming up with innovative ideas for my projects.”
- “I am motivated to meet deadlines and conduct in-depth research for my assignments.”
Take note of the words in “bold” and use similar slants in the sentences included above.
6. Maintain Consistency in the Use of Tense
One cannot overlook the consistent usage of tense. A personal statement can be written in any tense. But, one must not mix up the usage in the long run.
For example, if you start writing the personal statement using the first-person tone, backed by present tense, you must maintain that format throughout the paper.
Be careful and keep a tab on the fact that you have been consistent throughout the paper in terms of implementation of past, present and future tense.
7. Check the Length of the Personal Statement
A personal statement shouldn’t be too long or excessively short. It is ideally suggested to keep personal statements within 200 to 500 words. It must contain a consistent number of well-linked paragraphs.
Here is an overview of the key elements you must include in the paper, along with the tentative word count that you should maintain for each section.
- The first paragraph of the document should be no more than 5-7 sentences (150-200 words approx).
- The second paragraph must be within 50-75 words.
- Wrap up the third paragraph within 50 words.
- Likewise, go about the latter half of the document and alter the number of words in a way so that the entire paper is within 500 words.
Personal Statement Example
Getting your basics right about a personal statement and its key requirements isn’t enough. One must also refer to samples for better clarity and understanding.
So, here is an example for you to dig in and know how to add perfection to the work.
Personal Statement for Admission in Management Institute
I enjoy managing and solving real-life challenges in a constructive manner. As a result, it helps me overcome many difficulties without much hassle. Since this has been a constant trait of mine, I feel all the more confident to pursue Business Management as my major subject in grad school. Talking of graduation, your esteemed institute has always been my first choice.
I am particularly interested in studying Business Operations Management, backed by an academically enriched faculty in this college.
I am a keen chess player and have won many accolades on state and district levels. This, again, highlights the point that my organizational skills, strategic planning abilities, and management expertise have always been there. These traits help me to take life as it comes and embrace nothing but success in the long run.
Currently, I am working independently on a management case study to analyse and unveil the scopes of robotics and its applications in the field of corporate project management.
Enrolling for the post-graduation program in this college will allow me to work on more such research papers. Additionally, it will undoubtedly allow me to enhance knowledge across various domains of management and business processing. It will be quite helpful for me to grow as a focused professional and pave a rewarding future in the domain of business management and communication.
Parting Thoughts
That’s all, folks. I hope this interactive blog will help you to get the crux of the matter with a clear idea regarding the Dos and Don’ts of a personal statement. In case, you still find it tricky or convoluted, consult assignment help forums online. You can enjoy easy access to hundreds of well-knit personal statement samples for reference and idea-generation.
Cheers!
Author Bio:
Mark Hales is an experienced academic counsellor, associated with a leading NGO that deals with learning and education for orphans. In addition to it, he is a seasoned academic writer, working on behalf of the digital platform MyAssignmenthelp.com, over the past six years.