Perfect Personal Statement for Graduate School

Perfect Personal Statement for Graduate School

Do you know how to write a personal statement? If you apply for a graduate program, you cannot do without this knowledge. You may believe that it is enough to submit your academic credentials in recommendation letters and transcripts from your school, but that is not right. You want to be successful in your application and that requires more than factual information. There are so many applicants with similar papers and you will need something special to stand out and look different from them. No one can present you better than you can! Your personal statement for graduate school will give you a chance to customize your application and appear as a smart, goal-oriented, persistent, and motivated person open to new challenges and diligent studies.

What is the Statement of Purpose Grad School Requires?

Both graduate and post-graduate programs require a huge set of documents when one applies to a university. Reference letters, CVs, test standards, and transcripts in most cases are accompanied with a personal statement.

What is it? Why is it important? You will not be able to make it perfect if you do not know how to define its value in a proper way. Think of yourself for a moment not as of an applicant to a Master’s program, but as a defendant in the court. The admission committee of the university is the jury and you are on a trial. You have to prove that you have not committed any crime. For sure, they will believe that you are innocent only if you prove that and sound convincing. What is a personal statement? It is the same as the last word of the defendant. You have to prove that you are the best candidate and they can choose you among many.

You have to know how to start a personal statement, what you should include in it, and how you can conclude it in the best possible manner. Actually, it is a brief essay with sufficient evidence and bright examples from your experience. It is essential to make sure that all the cases are relevant to the main idea that you are a motivated person able to study, develop, and make a difference.

Principles of Writing a Grad School Personal Statement

So, learning how to write a personal statement for grad school, you have to know how to prove why you are a perfect fit for the degree you are pursuing. You are actually sending an invitation to the representatives of the admission committee to get acquainted with you. After thorough self-reflection, you have to define your goals and understand who you are. Only if you understand that, you can let others know you and interpret your motives.

Study great grad school personal statement examples and make sure that your own one answers the following questions:

  • Why do you believe that this particular program is the right one for you?
  • What will this program let you contribute to the society?
  • Is this program a natural continuation of your previous studies and natural choice in terms of your personality?

Working on your statement of purpose for graduate school, you have to make sure that you are sincere in your answers. You have to be comfortable with the information you provide. This is a mandatory condition for making your writing impressive and convincing. Considering the options of how to format a personal statement, you should think of it as of a looking glass to get your reflection.

Writing a Personal Statement: Which Goals do You Pursue?

  1. Show that you are passionate about this area
  2. Give specific examples of previously conducted research, relevant interests and skills
  3. Demonstrate that you are well aware of the requirements and expectations of the admission committee of this particular program
  4. Prove that you are energetic and smart enough to be successful in overcoming future challenges on the basis of your background

Typical Mistakes of an Inexperienced Personal Statement Writer

  • Using cliché
  • If you use vague phrases and sentences with too general ideas, the readers will not be interested in the content. Thus, they will not understand how serious your intentions are and how professional you would like to be in your future.

  • No anecdotes
  • It is highly recommended to include the stories which show that your passion is sustainable and you have never missed any chance to develop and learn more.

  • Wrong focus
  • Keep in mind that a personal statement should show not how you can compose texts, but what personality you have. You need to sound inspired and motivated, but the main focus should be on your accomplishments, not the stylistic devices and sophisticated vocabulary in complex sentences.

  • Too many accomplishments covered
  • If you offer your readers to look through a list of your achievements, they may be bored with this enumeration. What you need to do is to illustrate your interest in the field and your personal qualities with the help of one or two cases from your own life.

  • Too short or too lengthy text
  • How long should a personal statement be for grad school? This is a common question and there is no universal answer to it. The correct solution is to check on the requirements of the program you are dreaming about and follow them exactly.

    Expert Suggestions about the Organization of the Content

    • Introduce yourself with a personal story. You want to show that you are passionate about the studies and committed to the objectives of the program. An interesting story can prove that you fit the main expectations of the admission committee.
    • Make a follow-up with interpretation of your goals and experience. Thus, writing a personal statement for grad school, you will devote the middle part of your text to your features that help you make a difference.
    • Add a conclusion that should explain why you will undoubtedly benefit from the program and how you can be valuable to it as well.

    If you find it complicated to tell about yourself, follow every personal statement tip and use every opportunity to prove that you are going to be an excellent student, colleague, and member of the community. You are motivated and passionate. Now it is high time to let others get to know about that and choose you for the participation in the program.

    « Why Do Students Plagiarize? « Prev
    Mastering the Skill of Paraphrasing » Next »

    Latest blog posts

    Different Sides of AI Ethics
    Different Sides of AI Ethics

    Ethics of AI Wherever you are, you have access to any digital technologies and huge amounts of information about anything in the world. This cannot but change the society and reshape what people used to do and how they used to so that. Everything has changed, including human interaction, social relations, and ...

    Continue reading
    Creative Ideas to Produce Original Content
    Creative Ideas to Produce Original Content

    Can everyone do writing? Yes, for sure! Will the level of that writing be always high? Not really. You have to be creative and critical in your thinking to sound truly original in your texts. Have you got an ability to come up with outstanding thoughts to entertain others, communicate a new message, or get brilliant ...

    Continue reading
    Famous People Don't Plagiarize?
    Famous People Don't Plagiarize?

    There has been a pandemic of plagiarism in politics lately! A lot of public figures in the United States, the UK, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Austria, and other countries of the world here and there are discovered to copy-paste content in their dissertations and theses. There are a lot of eyebrow-raising cases of ...

    Continue reading
    How to Use Footnotes and Endnotes in Writing?
    How to Use Footnotes and Endnotes in Writing?

    What is footnote and endnote? Are they the same or different? Where do they appear in the text? What is the purpose of a footnote or an endnote? Are they common for academic and research papers? What are the limiting factors in their use? Which of them are accessible? Is there the right answer in choosing the style of ...

    Continue reading
    Benefits of Educational Technology for Students
    Benefits of Educational Technology for Students

    COVID has created an absolutely new reality with previously unknown rules and approaches to everything, including education. Along with its threats and inconveniences, it has also brought us understanding that things can be different from what they used to be. Under the circumstances when in-person workflows become ...

    Continue reading
    Educating Students on Academic Integrity
    Educating Students on Academic Integrity

    There is hardly anyone who has not seen national headlines in newspapers about shocking cases of cheating in schools. How can it happen that in the 21st century the students make such stupid mistakes? How can elite schools allow that to happen? What is going on in the system of national education? Don’t the ...

    Continue reading