Writing personal statements is hard. A lot is riding on one essay and figuring out what to include is not easy, especially if you’ve done a lot in your high school career. I remember that my biggest issue when I was writing my first personal statement was what in the world to even talk about. I wanted to address my family life, the way I grew up, my parent’s lives, the reason I wanted to go to college, what I wanted to study, what I wanted to experience, my passions, my goals, my failures, and things I overcame- but this is a very long list! So even choosing a topic to get started proved to be very difficult. 

There were many things I was told not to do: write about romantic partners, include too much of a sad story, focus too much on people that I admire, political opinions, and sell myself so much that I end up sounding like a snob. So now that I knew what not to do, I was left wondering what I should do. And if you’re on the same boat, continue reading for some (hopefully) helpful advice.

This is not something I learned until after I had been admitted to university and began working as a writing tutor but my biggest piece of advice is to create a narrative about your experiences. The admissions people have to read many personal essays and therefore yours needs to stand out. Think about an experience that is uniquely yours and use that to your advantage to create a captivating first sentence. This is how you reel them in. Then, talk about the experience as if you’re telling a story so that the personal statement is more engaging to the reader. And somewhere along the story, describe any obstacles you had to overcome, how you overcame them, what skills you used, and anything you learned from the experience. This way you are not only talking about yourself and giving the admissions committee an insight into your life, but you are also selling yourself by showing that you understand how to address difficulties and simultaneously showing off skills and qualities that you possess. 

The main thing you need to remember is that personal essays are about selling yourself. Think about questions such as why do you want to go to college? What skills and qualities do you possess that will help you in a college setting? What do you have to offer? Then build a story around your answers to these questions. Look at this example of a rough draft I began to write for a graduate school personal statement.

“I grew up in a home that valued education more than anything; my parents were not able to pursue that path and so they constantly encouraged me to make space in my life for a good education. Many of our conversations eventually turned into lectures about the importance of going to college in order to ensure a stable future. And so my biggest dream was to go to college, although I didn’t always know what career I’d find myself in. I had a passion for art and science from a very young age but it wasn’t until I was in high school when I found out about medical illustration and absolutely fell in love. Aside from the art component, I was and still am very drawn to the medical side of this field. This passion stemmed from my experience of living with a parent who was constantly ill; I witnessed many injustices that I can now identify as forms of medical racism. And although I knew I wanted to do something related to medicine, because I believed it could help close the gap, I knew I did not want to be a health professional. I also thought about being a graphic designer for a while, yet I felt like something was missing- it was just not the right fit for me. Finally, I came across medical illustration- a career that perfectly combines my love for science and art so well.”

It might be hard to pinpoint exactly where I address all the areas I mentioned before since this is only an introductory paragraph, but consider the use of narrative and the opening sentence as starting points for eventually fleshing out aspects of my life, skills I have, and obstacles I’ve faced.

My last piece of advice is to ask peers, counselors, teachers, family, anyone really to read over your personal statements and help you revise them. Having a second, third, even fourth perspective can be beyond helpful to see if there’s anything that is working really well or that could use some improvement.

I hope this has been helpful, best of luck!