I remember when I first applied for college and I had to write a personal statement. Of course, I overanalyzed the situation and ended up writing about 10 different ones. The personal statement is your one chance to separate yourself from the herd of applicants and I REALLY wanted mine to stand out. I mean, you only have 2 pages to basically tell the school what you're all about and I wanted to do it in the most creative/imaginative way. I don't really remember if I succeeded (lol) since I can't find copies of said personal statements.Now, almost a decade later, I'm in the same place...trying to write a kick-ass personal statement. This time, there's a different objective. Not only do I have to introduce myself to the school, I also have to convince them that I'm the right fit to the program I'm appying for. And I have to do that in 2 pages!!! As usual, I'm putting extraordinary stress on myself for something that really isn't that hard. Once said and done, it's not really that hard for me to write and get my thoughts down. The trick is to show wit and personality without seeming crazy. It's really hard for me to start since I have a billion ideas running through my head. I guess it's best to just write all my thoughts down and hopefully they'll be coherent enough to be strung together to write a kick-ass personal statement.
So far, here's what I got:
- Write in the perspective of Freud's theory - id, ego, superego
- Write a one act play - I've done this before and if I can only find it for reference
- Not write something cliche - I think the best personal statements are those that have heart but are not cheesy. I'm sure people reading personal statements can sort through all the BS.
- Try VERY HARD not to go all James Joyce on my personal statement - I have a tendency to go on tangents. Someone told me I write in a similar fashion to James Joyce. Great compliment but it really won't help me with my personal statement especially when it needs to be succinct.
2 comments:
hey debbie. if you're writing a statement, you just need to match goals and program with your own goals and agenda in life. what are you writing the statement for? and no, don't go james joyce, hehe. good luck!
but they want you to show personality...you can't show personality if you're just answering their questions... i don't know. I'll figure it out after the GREs
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