Tuesday 30 April 2013

How To Prepare Personal Statement

A personal statement or admissions essay gives you an opportunity to present yourself. Moreover,it enables you to distinguish yourself from other candidates.An admissions committee at the university evaluates you, as an applicant through your personal statement.
 
What do the Universities want to know about you?

Apart from your grades and references,Universities would like to read your personal statement in order to know more about you and to find out where you are headed.If you are applying to one of the top colleges,it is likely that everyone applying there will have good grades and excellent credentials.

However, the Universities you are applying to would like to know that you are indeed capable of taking on the demands of your coursework and that you will not drop out of college midway.

Universities get superior rating through where their students get placed,the research they do and through the prestigious posts their alumni hold in the world job market. Your college would like to know if you have the potential to stick to your area of study and make a name for yourself and thereby for the University.

For example Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton and other such Universities have produced Nobel Laureates and world leaders and students flock to such universities in order to gather experience and benefit from their curriculum, activities and their teaching.

The University would like to know whether you will fit in there and how you will contribute to the University through your academics and other activities.


What are the steps to follow to write a good personal statement?

You must prepare your resume before writing out your personal statement. To each point on your résumé, expand into sentences what your real thoughts on your achievements are like  soft skills and  communication skills. 

For example, under your academic records in your résumé,you may have mentioned your subjects and high school orunder graduate scores.

In your personal statement, explain why you opted for these subjects. Which subject were you most passionate about? Was there any subject you did not perform well in? In that case, how did you try and improve your scores?

A paragraph on your academic achievements should reflect your willingness to work hard and your ability to cope with the course work drawn up for you.

Mention all your strengths.You can start by putting down your strengths in points. Later, qualify your strengths by proving it through facts or events in your life.

Research information about the university or college you are applying to. Information can be found on the university website. Read up from brochures and other internet data about the courses available and the popularity of the college.How are the labs and the library facilities? Find out about the city, town and campus the college is situated in.Now make a list of the things that attract you to the University.

Next,zero in on your course. How does the University of your Choice compare with other universities in this particular subject? How long is the course? What are your career prospects after finishing your course? Most courses will have their faculty listed along with their credentials. Do you have the opportunity to train under eminent faculty members?

Make notes as you keep getting information. You will need all this information to write Your essay.
 
How early should you prepare your Personal Statement? 

Give yourself at least two months to prepare your personal statement. This is because you get so caught up with your exams/work and other admission processes that you are likely to leave the personal statement to the very end.

You may have to hurry to meet the university applications deadline. You may end up making a shoddy, incomplete personal statement and the University admissions committee then sets you apart as a very mediocre applicant.

Sometimes in spite of your good academic scores or excellent school/college records, you may get rejected because, what they see in carelessly structured personal statement is a disorganized candidate and a poor communicator.
 

1 comment:

  1. The personal statement is an important part of the higher education application process for university entrance in abroad. Thanks for such a good information Avigna, this information really useful for me to get a chance to attend interview in abroad universities.

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