Personal statements are used either for admission purposes or job purpose. In both cases, the core aim of the writer is to sell himself to the reader whether it is the employer or the admission administrator. The personal statement should be descriptive enough for the reader to clearly understand your expertise and skills yet it should be to the point and most importantly relevant to the main point.


Personal statement for university applications, however, is completely different from the professional personal statements. University application personal statement is much more detailed. The student is supposed to talk about his ambitions and goals in detail to convince the school administration for giving him admission in the school. There are hundreds and thousands of applicants every time the admissions open in universities therefore; personal statement is what makes you stand out from the rest of the clan. Since not everyone can be granted admission at a time and admission offices have to filter out only a small number of students from the huge number of applicants.

How to write a personal statement

Writing a personal statement is not that hard if you are aware of the pattern and clearly understand the requirements. Since it is in essay format, start it with the introduction. Introduction should be of you and the course you are interested in. However, make sure that you are not targeting a specific school since if you are writing it for UCAS, the statement will be considered for all of the graduate schools that you have mentioned in the application form.


After the introduction, there are total five sections in the entire document. First is the academics section; which covers up almost the 75% of the personal statement for most types of schools. In this section you are supposed to talk about the course you are trying to get enrolled in and all the relevant academic involvement that has been present in the past during high-school and after (if you are applying after a gap year).


Second is the section in which you are supposed to talk about your engagement with the subject or course once you are outside the classroom or the school premises. There are millions different ways people utilize their studies outside the classroom and school premises depending on their relevant school. You must talk about all those correspondences in this section. This section demonstrates how interested and motivated you are for the specific subject or course you are applying for.


The third section is supposed to be discussing the work experience of the applicant. It does not matter whether you have done the field work for a stipend or not. All that matters to different schools is the learning you have acquired through these experiences related to your subject and course. Since practical working enhances and increases a person’s knowledge in the field more than that is taught in classrooms, therefore, top schools really value work experiences and prefer to give admission to the students who have relevant good experience and understanding in the subject.


In the fourth section, hobbies and extracurricular interests are supposed to be discussed. This section is to make you stand out from the rest of the candidates with your hobbies and interests and how impactful they are. However, make sure that you do not elongate this section and strictly stick to the point. Additionally, the hobbies and interests you mention should be capable enough to make you stand out from your fellow applicants. To stand out it is not important that you have scientific or artistic interests. Rather, to stand out you must be extremely creative to present a simple hobby like reading in an impressive manner.


In the end, it is the section for conclusions in which you can simply mention the key points of each of the previously discussed sections. Additionally, if you have any plans aligned for after the degree program such as post-graduate studies or career plans, you can mention how studying this specific course would help you to achieve those. It will ensure the ending to be equally impactful as the beginning and the body.

Types of personal statements

There are several types of personal statements that include:

• Graduate school personal statement
• Mission statement
• Medical school personal statement
• College personal statement
• Law School personal statement
• University personal statement
• Masters Program personal statement
• History Statement

These are the vast types of personal statements written for academic purposes. Each of them has a bit of different requirements than the other. Following are further specifications of some of these personal statements and tricks to write them.


HOW TO WRITE A PERSONAL STATEMENT FOR GRADUATE SCHOOL


The format to be followed in the statement of person for the graduate school is more r less the same. It has to be started with an introduction, followed by body paragraphs discussing your academics, work experience, hobbies; all correlating with your admission and it has to be ended with a proper conclusion as well.


However, there are few additional things that you must keep in mind when writing a statement for graduate schools. Focus on your tone and avoid getting informal. Similarly, do not over share your personal details and definitely maintain a serious and formal overall outlook. The admission officers are looking for students who understand the importance and value of higher education and are serious enough to show that in their personal statement. Do not crack a joke to elongate the content. It is best to stick to the point firmly.


HOW TO WRITE A PERSONAL MISSION STATEMENT


A personal mission statement focuses on the person’s being and often people find their right path in life through their personal mission statement. Personal mission statements either describe in detail of why the person is following a specific track or discuss his personality traits and interests to identify his dream destinations in professional and personal life. It is completely normal to feel overwhelmed upon asking to write a personal mission statement since mostly the mission statements help the individual find his path in life. Therefore, before having one a person is completely clueless of what to write and discuss in the statement let alone write a detailed essay.


It, however, gets quite simple if you write it step by step according to the following pattern. Three basic elements make up the personal mission statement and those are the nouns that describe you, the verbs that you prefer to adopt in life and the image of perfect world in your head. Start with thinking of the nouns that perfectly define you for instance entrepreneur, law maker, or artistic etc. After this think of the verbs that you wish to adopt in life such as educating, making art or inspire etc. Last, but not the least, think of the perfect image of the world in your head. This is a bit tricky part but it is derived from your vision and perspective in life. For instance, some people think of the perfect world to be free of poverty and so they want to adopt a profession that helps the poor in some way or the other. In the end, combine the answers of all the three elements and put it together in formal wordings to develop a personal mission statement.


HOW TO WRITE A PERSONAL STATEMENT FOR MEDICAL SCHOOL


Writing a personal statement for getting admission in a medical school follows a similar introduction followed by five sections pattern. However, you are supposed to keep and show your inclination towards healthcare and medicine. Start with the academic history, then the engagement on daily basis outside the school premises, and then the work experiences in the medical field. The third – work experience section is a bit different since in medical fields volunteer work is highly valued and appreciated as well as experienced individuals are given greater priority. Therefore, you can talk about all your experiences as a volunteer and even paid jobs and unpaid internships in the third section of the personal statement. After that discuss your interests and hobbies and finally conclude the personal statement to end it.


HOW TO WRITE A PERSONAL STATEMENT FOR COLLEGE


Writing a personal statement for college is not much different from the standard format of writing a personal statement. A total of 6 sections including the introduction paragraph are included in the outline and the applicant has to talk about the usual things starting from academic background, practical engagement, work experience and hobbies and interests. Another additional factor which students could consider is to get a thorough idea of the college campus and its different aspects during open days and could write his statement according to that.

HOW TO WRITE A PERSONAL STATEMENT FOR LAW SCHOOL

The personal statement written for law school should be written on the standard format. However, the student must take the advice of pre-law advisor before starting the personal statement. It would help you to have a much clearer idea regarding the exact requirements and expectations that schools have from the personal statements. Additionally, the work experience section in the statement of person should be in much detail as the professional exposure is highly valued in law schools and the students with greater work experience are more prioritized.

Some important tips for personal statement

Some important tips and tricks to keep in mind in order to ensure an excellent letter of intent are as following.

• Always target the field or subject you are applying for instead of colleges individually since all of the UCAS choices read the same letter.
• Keep the letter as simple as possible with accurate vocabulary to create a greater impact on the readers.
• Do not give in the letter without proofreading. A million of mistakes could be laying thee which you can only find by proofreading.
• Formal tone is very important to show how passionate and serious you are for getting the admission.

Personal statements are essential for UCAS admissions and you cannot expect your application to get accepted without the statement of purpose. There are multiple kinds of statements which are discussed above as well as the detailed step-by-step guide to write them. Following the mentioned guide will help you to easily write the personal statement in excellent quality and get admission in your dream school.