You’ve probably imagined college life to take place in one of the top universities in town. You have an above-average GPA and even scored high on your SAT. Unfortunately, so did other applicants. With the sea of candidates competing for the limited slot, you can secure your entry to your chosen university by submitting an admission essay that will set you apart from them. Just how can you do just that, here are some practical tips:
Write as you speak
The common mistake in writing an application essay is making it seem like it’s written by another person. Some essays barely make any impression at all because the writing seems detached. It’s as if the applicant is merely listing down all good reasons to get accepted to the college program. These are not enough to convince the admissions panel, since almost everybody has the same good reasons as yours.
When you write as you speak, it’s as if you’re letting the panel view the world through your own eyes. Give a fresh take on a topic that’s been discussed a million times before by citing personal experiences. You can illustrate the kind of person you are through this style of writing.
Although your personal statement for college is a matter that should be taken seriously, it shouldn’t stop you from being creative with the way you relay your thoughts. Write as if you’re just telling a story to a friend. This writing style will make your essay sound more original and truly personal. You can easily connect with your audience this way.
Be more introspective
Don’t just offer a summary of your accomplishments. The purpose of the essay is not to rewrite your resume. You should provide details about yourself that are not found in other application requirements such as your recommendation letter.
Because of the word limit, you should be more selective of the experiences you will share. You can also cite personal anecdotes that can best describe as who you are, or quotes that will serve as starting points in discussing your application. Others also pose rhetorical questions to best exhbit their logical reasoning and communication skills.
You need to be more introspective and think about situations in your life that made you who you are and who you want to be. These kinds of stories will appeal more to your audience.
Make it a fun read
Keep it short but entertaining. If you want to get your readers hooked, don’t start lamely. Have an attention-grabbing intro to keep them going. The details you provide in the body should support the thesis of your personal statement; the subtopics should also be well connected.
Make the time spent in going over your essay worthwhile for your readers. Don’t make them cringe because of the big words you’re using or trite expressions they’ve heard for the nth time. Write as if you’re talking to them directly. This will surely keep their interest. You can use a sample personal statement essay as a guide.
The application process for college can be quite difficult to complete, considering the fact that you will probably be asked to write a personal statement of some kind. The personal statement is often the deciding factor that will convince admissions committees that you make a good fit in their college. One way to write an exceptional personal statement is to make use of samples to give you an idea of what a good personal statement is all about. Read on to learn about how using sample personal statement essays can help you get into college.
Finding a topic to write about
For many people, one of the hardest parts of writing the personal statement is actually thinking of a topic to write about. Reading sample personal statement essays is a good way to get ideas for this. Try to gather some samples that discuss topics you can relate to and study how the writer goes about discussing the topic at hand. Use these essays as inspiration to come up with your own topic that reflects your unique personality.
Knowing what admissions committees expect
Another good reason for using sample personal statement essays is so you can get an idea of what admissions committees expect from your essay. Sample personal statements can be your guide to format, formality, and basic writing strategies of the writers. A successful personal statement must not only meet the expectations of the admissions committee, but it should also avoid the things that annoy admissions committees, such as trying to be poetic or overly creative in your essay. Understanding what your admissions committee expects from your essay is a crucial step toward knowing what to write and what not to write in your essay.
Tailoring your essay to the school you’re applying to
Finally, sample personal statement essays can help you tailor your essay to the specific school you are writing the essay for. One of the golden rules when applying to a college or university is to get to know the school you are applying to. Get to know what the school specializes in, what their educational system is all about, and the values and characteristics that they pride themselves in. Try to find sample personal statement essays that were written for the particular school you are applying to so you can see how the writer customized the essay for that particular school.
It’s important to make the admissions committee feel as though their school is your primary choice, and knowing more about the institution can help you tailor your essay to express your intent and passion about getting accepted to that school. Just remember that you should never, under any circumstances, plagiarize. Plagiarism can lead to rejection from the school and possibly even legal repercussions.
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Applying to one of the top universities in the country can seem like a daunting task. Most applicants experience a great deal of stress and pressure, because they want so badly to get into a top university. Whether you are transferring from another school or you are a newcomer into college life, you will definitely want to put your best foot forward when applying to a top university. One of the best ways to increase your chances of getting accepted is to know what they expect from you. Here are some tips that will also help you with writing your personal statement:
1. Do your research
The first and most important step to understanding what the university expects from you is to do your research. Visit the homepage of the university and read about the school, the courses they offer, their educational system and values, as well as their history. Getting to know the university will give you a good idea of what the university expects not only from its applicants, but from its students as well.
Part of your research will be to gather all information regarding the application process, such as requirements, deadlines, and procedures. Once you are satisfied with the information you have gathered about the university, you should spend some time trying to analyze the information to understand what the university is looking for and how they choose the applicants that will be accepted. To round up your research, try to find some sample personal statements that were written specifically for the university you are applying to. These sample essays can give you an upper hand on your competition when it comes to writing your own essay.
2. Know the requirements for the personal statement
Another way of trying to understand what top universities expect from your personal statement is to know and understand the requirements for your personal statement. Different schools will have different questions, and these questions can give you clues to what topics to write about, what the tone of the essay should be, and how to go about writing the essay. Some questions will be very open-ended, leaving it up to you to find a creative and interesting way to present yourself, while other questions will be straightforward and precise. Use the essays that you found to guide you in meeting the requirements for your application. Remember that the requirements given for the sample essay may differ from those given to you, so only use the samples as general guides.
3. Aim to exceed their expectations
Finally, when writing your personal statement, it’s important to aim higher than just meeting the university’s expectations. Try to exceed them. Here are some of the expectations that top universities normally have for the personal statement:
- error-free (no spelling, grammar, or syntax errors) personal statements
- truthful information
- interesting presentation of facts
- meaningful topics
- clear, concise, and coherent essays
Write an essay that is unique, emotional, captivating, and, most of all, one that makes a strong impact on the admissions committee. If you are able to leave a good, lasting impression on the admissions committee, you can be sure that your chances of getting into the top university will increase greatly. Try to study how the sample personal statement essays were able to go beyond what is normally expected to make an impact on the reader. Use some of these techniques to embellish your own essay.
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Using a Sample Personal Statement Essay when Writing an Essay Focusing on Your Experiences as a Research Assistant
A personal statement essay is easy to write once you start hitting your strides, that is, when you already know where to begin. Beginning a personal statement essay is quite difficult since there are so many points where you can start. That is why it is advisable to use a sample personal statement essay. This allows you to have a framework which can guide you not only in beginning your essay, but in writing and concluding it as well. Being a research assistant is a huge advantage for you. That job allowed you to learn many things that you can use in graduate school. However, you are not the only graduate school applicant who has experienced being a research assistant. The challenge for you now is to make yourself stand out among the rest. You must write an essay that shows that you are unique and distinctive.
You may choose to base on a different essay
The personal statement essay of the research assistants who have entered college ahead of you may not be interesting. There might be an essay in the library that interests you more. You can still use that essay even if it does not deal about the personal experiences of a research assistant. Study how the author begins his or her essay and see if you can begin yours in a similar manner. For example, the author began with the most remarkable experience he had as an intern. You may also do so provided that you do not copy any of his idea. You may pattern your style after the original writer if you do not have a hard time writing that way. Just do not rephrase anything from his or her work.
Be careful with online sources
Should you use a sample personal statement acquired from the web, be sure that it has a verifiable author. The web is very easy to access and posting any information, factual or not, is very easy as well. The best thing that you can do is to get your sources from reliable websites. Verify the author of the sample essay to make sure that it is not plagiarized. If you cannot verify the author’s identity, you may have to skip that essay. You cannot use it as a research material. A work that has no author has no authority.
Get the author’s point
Understand the point that the author is making. Know where he or she wants to lead you, what his or her intents for writing are. Ask yourself what his or her aim is in writing that essay. This allows you to have an objective so you would know where to go when you are already making your essay. Do some self-exploration. Know how the point the writer is making relates to you as a research assistant.
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Your personal statement is your ticket to the college you want to study at and course that you want to pursue. Through your personal statement for college, you can introduce yourself to the admissions committee. This is your chance to tell them that you have what it takes to study in a specific university. This is also your chance to explain and clarify things about you that you think need explaining.(1) A mediocre essay can hurt your chances of getting admitted to your dream school.(2) This is why it is really very important that you make your essay very appealing just like those personal statement samples you see online. Read the characteristics of a mediocre essay below so that you’ll know what to avoid when writing a quality personal statement for college.
Characteristic #1: stating the same information as the ones in your transcript of records
Your personal statement is not your resume. The latter provides information about your accomplishments. The former, on the other hand, gives in-depth information about yourself. The essay is your means of telling the admissions committe who you really are. This may include writing about your foibles and shortcomings. The tendency of a mediocre sample personal statement is that it only restates the information on your resume.
Characteristic #2: having no main thesis or focus (same as talking around in circles)
A good personal statement should have a thesis or a focus. The thesis is actually the thread that ties together the sentences and paragraphs in your essay. Your focus is your direction in writing.(3) So if you want to have an essay that is well-structured, make sure that you have a main focus on your essay.
Characteristic #3: being hastily written, resulting in work full of grammatical and typographical errors
The characteristics of a good essay include being free from grammatical and typographical errors. This is very important because having a hastily written one would give the admissions committee the idea that you are a careless person.
(1) www.unm.edu/~pre/law/archuleta.htm
(2) www.alma.edu/academics/departments/pre-professional/law/personal_statement
(3) depts.washington.edu/owrc/Handouts/Developing%20Your%20Thesis.pdf
In writing your personal statement for college, you don’t have to limit yourself with subjects such as the influential persons in your life, the events that pushed you to pursue studies in a specific field, and your skills. There are other topics that could make your personal statement for college more interesting. One of these is your interest in networking.
Explaining why you have a Twitter, Facebook, or MySpace account
Although others may think that getting yourself involved in Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and other networking sites is trivial, if you just know how to structure your essay and write effectively, you can surely write an excellent essay using networking as a topic. You can start off by reading some sample personal statements online. Then, you should explain the advantages of having one.
Stating what you use these accounts for
Some would probably feel cynical about an essay with networking sites as a subject. However, if you start your essay with an engaging introduction, you will surely grab the attention of the admissions committee.(1) In stating your points on why you use these accounts, you have to do it in a clear and interesting way. You should show the advantages of networking in the development of the various aspects of your life such as improving your socio-personal relationships.
Writing about being a responsible citizen of cyberspace in relation to networking sites
In order to make your interest in networking sites your strength, you have to write this in a way that would highlight your being a responsible cyber citizen. It is effective if you cite some events in which you are able to display how you resist the temptation of using networking sites irresponsibly. You have to show sincerity on your essay. Remember that your personal statement can help you get accepted to the college that you want.(2) To guide you in making one, there are plenty of personal statement samples that you can find online.(3)
(1) http://www.csulb.edu/colleges/chhs/departments/criminal-justice/pre-law/Personal_Statement.htm
(2) http://www.loyno.edu/careerservices/newsletters/student-newsletter/nov052008.htm
(3) www.admissions.ucsb.edu/Pdf/PersonalStatement.pdf -
Writing an excellent personal statement for college is more than just making a clean and grammatically correct essay. More than anything else, your personal statement for college should be well-structured. In order to do this, you should choose a theme that would weave together the various elements of your essay.(1)
What makes a person influential to you?
One of the themes you can explore is the influential person in your life. You have to tell about someone who had a great impact on how you think and how you act. This person can be in the form of a classmate, parent, friend, or teacher who helped you develop yourself into a better person.(2) The most important thing that you have to keep in mind is that specific person should have a very important role in your choice of college or course.
Why did you choose this person to write about?
Writing about someone who influenced and taught you about important things implies that you are a person who is eager to learn from someone. It would also give the impression that you are really an open-minded person. In choosing a person to write about, you have to remember that this someone should have an impact on why you want to pursue your study in a particular school or a specific course. You can write about specific incidents in your life in which that person’s influence is exhibited.(3)
How has this person influenced you? How has this person influenced your academic pursuits?
If you choose this theme for your personal statement, you have to make sure that your paragraphs revolve around your theme. You should highlight the ways through which that specific person has influenced you. You can read lots of sample personal statement in order to help you write your own. Personal statement samples can be found online.
(1) http://www.purdue.edu/prehealth/current_students/applying/statement.html
(2) http://www.wwu.edu/fellowships/personal_statement.shtml
(3) http://www.dickinson.edu/career/files/writingapersonalstmt.pdf
