Help writing a personal statement.

If you’ve been reading our blog for a while, you might have noticed that a lot of our advice sounds similar. It’s not because we’re phoning it in; it’s because the a lot of basics of quality writing remain the same, even across genre.

Many students look at the blank page for their personal statement and start having a lot of feelings. This can sometimes make them think that those feelings are what they should be writing. While your interior life will often inform your writing, a personal statement isn’t about creating an emotional bomb.

Your personal statement also isn’t about being perfect. Obviously it’s OK if you have a good idea of what you want to do, but being certain about the next 10 years of your life is not realistic and colleges don’t expect it.

If you are struggling to know what to put in your personal statement, look at what the college the asking for in their prompt and look at the school’s mission statement. Those are two things that are telling you what is important to them, literally, in writing. Don’t pretend that all of those things matter to you, but you should find some overlap in their goals and your own; otherwise, you might want to look at a different school for your own peace of mind.

Colleges want to make sure that you 1) have decent writing skills and 2) understand, in a general way, that college is a mix of professional and personal development.

Have questions about your personal statement? Ask here.

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