A personal statement is also known as a statement of purpose (SoP), it is detailed and focused essay about one’s career or their research goals. A personal statement is usually required for the application process in universities, graduate schools and some professional schools.
A personal statement is a short essay, which explains the writer’s career goals. It also describes the means to achieve these goals, and the ways in which one will achieve these goals, or has already achieved it. It is one of the most important documents required for admission in some professional programs in the US. SoP is often considered as the as the best way to assess the students by their critical thinking, interests, aims and their aspirations. A personal statement is considered as one of the best ways to communicate with the admissions committee. Most of the admissions committee members look for a crisp, short and an ideological SoP.
Some universities refer to personal letter as Graduate School Essay. Others call it ‘Letter of Intent’, ‘Statement of Intent’, ‘Goals Statement’ and many more. The length of personal statement varies in every university. However, the ideal length should be one or two pages. A personal statement is the only thing in the application process, which you can control. Sop is your only chance to talk to the admissions committee and make yourself stand out amongst the others. In your personal statement, you will have to convince the committee members that you have thirst for knowledge.
Writing a perfect personal statement requires you to pay attention, be patient and avoid errors. This article will give you some easy steps on how to write personal statement.
Steps:
- Start preparing for your personal statement early. You should give yourself at least a month to gather all the information, and then come up with a final copy of the personal statement.
- Try to do some research on the university that you are planning to apply, and look online for some current research trends. Go to the university website and read about the faculty publications and current interests. Check their admission requirements, especially for a personal statement.
- Take the help of your family or friends for gathering some details of your life. Try to recall some small details of your childhood and some rich details of your life. Add some incidents that will infuse more energy and meaning to your personal statement.
- Carefully think on what topic you would want to do your research on as a graduate student. Keep in mind that your interest might change during your studies. Therefore, you will want to enter the graduate school with a fixed idea of what you want to do, and write the same in your personal statement.
- Write a strong opening paragraph, which should be of five sentences or more. Give a detailed explanation of who you are, where are you from, what do you want to study in this field and why this university. Always be specific. Do not write in the personal statement that how beautiful their university is and that it is the best in the nation. The faculty already knows all this; you should add something more to it.
- Write the names of the faculty members with whom you would want to do your research. Try to explain to the university, why they should choose you. Tell them what you will be contributing to this field or what is your specialty. You plan how you are going to accomplish this task and mention it in the personal statement.
- In the rest of the essay, write about your undergraduate education, your work experience and some research topics that you have worked on.
- Make a list of all the things that will be enclosing with the personal statement. Write a brief description of your portfolio.
- In the end, thank the admissions committee for their valuable time. Give your contact details.
- Proofread the entire document and edit if required. You can also ask someone else to edit it for you.
Take a print out of your letter, sign it and now, you can mail it to the university.
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