Are you ready to apply to the college of your dream? Have you already prepared everything that you need to impress the commission, board? We bet that you have done almost everything except for one thing: writing a personal statement. By most of the students, this is considered the most difficult step that requires more efforts and attention that any other step for applying for a college.
If you create an impressive personal statement you can expect for getting accepted to the college, and for the applicant, this is one of the most desired and expected events. However, if everyone could easy write a working personal statement, the colleges would not pay such attention to it. Thus, you need to understand how to write it to make it work.
Here, we present a brief guide to writing a personal statement with the key tips that will help you to get invited to the college.
Follow the requirements
One of the obvious though the most frequently ignored points. From the first sight, everything looks quite simple: you just read the requirements, understand what the commission board wants to read and write your statement. However, when you start to do that, you forget all those things trying to make essay personal (which is good). You omit the structure, the main points to include, the formatting and the issues to be covered. In a result, you get a good but absolutely useless essay that won’t help you reach the settled goal.
How to avoid this problem? Always make outlines of your statement while reading the requirements and remember to check the ready statement when you’re over.
Do not include too much information
A common mistake made by all the applicants is trying to add everything that concerns you and your personal life. Sometimes, the information added is nothing more than just an absurd. Students write about their families, their achievements in primary school, and their pastime. Of course, there are cases when this information may be rather effective, for example, if you missed the primary school because you were a capable one, and it allowed you to graduate from the high school earlier.
How to avoid this problem? Again, check the requirement. Sometimes, the colleges have a list of points to be included in your personal statement and you will get the guidelines on what to write here.
Do not exemplify
Anyone could write that he has enough leadership or organization skill, good knowledge of Spanish and understanding in programming. However, to make the commission board trust you, you should give them some things that will make them believe that everything you are talking about is true. Add certificates, show the results of your work and tell the stories that will show your best qualities. Also, you may ask someone to write you a feedback so you could add it to the personal statement demonstrating that people really think that you are a good candidate for getting a scholarship.
How to avoid this problem? Never add information that you cannot prove. First, the Commission board will definitely check all your achievements. Secondly, if you add some vague facts, the commission board members will not be sure that you are a really good candidate not just want to be.
Keep the length in mind
A huge personal statement is even worse than a statement with vague facts and lack of structure. You need to make it short still present here everything that will demonstrate your strong points and prove that the college will regret if they lose such a student.
How to avoid this problem? Thus, when proofreading your statement feel free to delete every single word that seems to be too weak, and every single sentence that does not concern the general idea of the statement.
Do remember that application to the university is an important step that will affect your life. If you are not sure that you’ve done everything perfectly, check our brief guide once more, give yourself some time just to relax and get a fresh look on the already written essay, be brave to rewrite it as many time as needed and you will definitely create a statement that everyone would remember!
