The Personal Statement: Sample Questions The following are examples of some types of questions that may be asked on college or scholarship applications. Be sure to get the specific topics and guidelines from the institution(s) you are applying to.
- Please state your specific interests with respect to which you are applying. Your intended area of specialization, career objectives, and research interests and experience are of particular interest. You may also wish to include a brief statement of your general reasons for undertaking graduate work. Please give a brief occupational resume if any significant period has elapsed since you were last enrolled in an academic institution.
- Please write an essay, approximately 2 to 4 typewritten pages, addressing (1) educational background, (2) research experiences, (3) major area(s) of interest, (4) immediate and long-term goals, and (5) unusual life experiences which might make traditional criteria (e.g., test scores, grade averages) less indicative of academic promise. Please use this page and other sheets as necessary.
- Applicant's Statement: In a maximum of 600 words, write a personal statement discussing your interests, life experiences, goals and social commitment. Do not exceed the maximum length: LONGER STATEMENTS WILL NOT BE READ.
- Briefly state your educational objectives and career goals. Do not hesitate to indicate if your plans are tentative. Please include relevant biographical information and, if your recent experience has been other than academic, describe it briefly indicating the relation it bears upon your decision to apply to the Graduate Faculty. Attach an additional sheet if more space is needed.
- Since more than scholastic aptitude alone is involved in admission to the Graduate School, it will be most helpful if you write about yourself (not more than two pages, typed, if possible): what you would consider your special qualifications to be, over and above those called for on the previous pages of the application; your experience relative to the area of proposed study outside the classroom and what it has meant to you, what you propose to do with your advanced degree, professionally, and for society at large; in short, speak as your own best advocate.
- There is evidence to suggest that there is a correlation between success in graduate study and such qualities as deep interest in your field, persistence, ambition, self-discipline, and independence. Please describe any such accomplishments or experiences that would be pertinent to your goals for graduate study.
- Because this program gives special consideration to factors that contribute to educational disadvantage, please include a statement outlining the educational, cultural, and personal factors in your background that you feel warrant special consideration.
- In evaluating your application it is most important that we have your own sense of goals, both specific and general, and of your background. Please address the following topics and attach your responses to this form. (As a rough guideline a total length of 1,000 words will probably be sufficient. You may append additional materials such as research papers if you wish).
- Describe your long-term goals, the routes by which you hope to achieve them, and your reasons for setting these objective.
- Describe your specific research interests and your reasons for selecting this institution as a place to pursue them.
- Describe and explain your background, and indicate how it has led to your goals and interests. Be sure to note any special skills or experiences that you feel are relevant.
- Evaluate your own potential for graduate study and research. What do you regard as your major strengths and weaknesses?
- Describe your long-term goals, the routes by which you hope to achieve them, and your reasons for setting these objective.
- The personal statement. Applicants are required to write a personal statement, no more than six pages in length. Use this statement as your opportunity to portray the person that you feel yourself to be--the person who sometimes gets lost behind the welter of scores, grades, dates and professional affiliations. Tell us about the significant life experiences and models that have shaped your career choice, the subjective meaning or impact of your clinical experiences thus far, your special interests in the field, and your personal goals as a practitioner, researcher and scholar. In addition, feel free to tell us anything that you want us to know about (e.g. leisure time pursuits, hobbies, travel). We favor prospective clinicians who had varied and significant life experiences both within and outside academia; accordingly, we would be interested in knowing what went on in your life during any periods appearing as blank spaces in your academic transcript. You might wish to include a discussion of "the road no taken" --that is, other interests and abilities which you might have considered as a career.
When you apply to college, you’ll need to complete an essay as part of your application. This is your opportunity to show admission officers who you are and to provide information about yourself that didn’t fit in other areas of your application. The essay also reveals what you can do when you have time to think and work on a writing project.
The number one piece of advice from admission officers about your essay is “Be yourself.” The number two suggestion is “Start early.” Check out these other tips before you begin.
Choose a Topic That Will Highlight You Don’t focus on the great aspects of a particular college, the amount of dedication it takes to be a doctor or the number of extracurricular activities you took part in during high school.
Do share your personal story and thoughts, take a creative approach and highlight areas that aren’t covered in other parts of the application, like your high school records.
Top two tips: Be yourself and start early
Keep Your Focus Narrow and Personal Don’t try to cover too many topics. This will make the essay sound like a résumé that doesn’t provide any details about you.
Do focus on one aspect of yourself so the readers can learn more about who you are. Remember that the readers must be able to find your main idea and follow it from beginning to end. Ask a parent or teacher to read just your introduction and tell you what he or she thinks your essay is about.
Show, Don’t Tell Don’t simply state a fact to get an idea across, such as “I like to surround myself with people with a variety of backgrounds and interests.”
Do include specific details, examples, reasons and so on to develop your ideas. For the example above, describe a situation when you were surrounded by various types of people. What were you doing? Whom did you talk with? What did you take away from the experience?
Use Your Own Voice Don’t rely on phrases or ideas that people have used many times before. These could include statements like, “There is so much suffering in the world that I feel I have to help people.” Avoid overly formal or business-like language, and don’t use unnecessary words.
Do write in your own voice. For the above example, you could write about a real experience that you had and how it made you feel you had to take action. And note that admission officers will be able to tell if your essay was edited by an adult.
Ask a Teacher or Parent to Proofread Don’t turn your essay in without proofreading it, and don’t rely only on your computer’s spell check to catch mistakes. A spell-check program will miss typos like these:
The number one piece of advice from admission officers about your essay is “Be yourself.” The number two suggestion is “Start early.” Check out these other tips before you begin.
Choose a Topic That Will Highlight You Don’t focus on the great aspects of a particular college, the amount of dedication it takes to be a doctor or the number of extracurricular activities you took part in during high school.
Do share your personal story and thoughts, take a creative approach and highlight areas that aren’t covered in other parts of the application, like your high school records.
Top two tips: Be yourself and start early
Keep Your Focus Narrow and Personal Don’t try to cover too many topics. This will make the essay sound like a résumé that doesn’t provide any details about you.
Do focus on one aspect of yourself so the readers can learn more about who you are. Remember that the readers must be able to find your main idea and follow it from beginning to end. Ask a parent or teacher to read just your introduction and tell you what he or she thinks your essay is about.
Show, Don’t Tell Don’t simply state a fact to get an idea across, such as “I like to surround myself with people with a variety of backgrounds and interests.”
Do include specific details, examples, reasons and so on to develop your ideas. For the example above, describe a situation when you were surrounded by various types of people. What were you doing? Whom did you talk with? What did you take away from the experience?
Use Your Own Voice Don’t rely on phrases or ideas that people have used many times before. These could include statements like, “There is so much suffering in the world that I feel I have to help people.” Avoid overly formal or business-like language, and don’t use unnecessary words.
Do write in your own voice. For the above example, you could write about a real experience that you had and how it made you feel you had to take action. And note that admission officers will be able to tell if your essay was edited by an adult.
Ask a Teacher or Parent to Proofread Don’t turn your essay in without proofreading it, and don’t rely only on your computer’s spell check to catch mistakes. A spell-check program will miss typos like these:
- "After I graduate form high school, I plan to get a summer job."
- "From that day on, Daniel was my best fried."