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.
 

E-Learning—The New Age Way Of Acquiring Education

E-learning includes all forms of electronically supported learning and teaching

Wikipedia

E-Learning has come as a boon to people seeking to acquire different skills—basic or advanced.

E-Learning cuts across barriers like distance and time, the banes of modern living. E-Learning does not cost much and learning can be self-paced, instructor driven, and interactive. You can be part of a group or receive instruction on your own. You can learn from anyone in any part of the world and be exposed to a global world view.

Benefits of E- Learning

• E-Learning can put up different learning styles and make possibility of learning through a variety of activities.
• Develops knowledge of Internet and computers skills that build self- knowledge and self –confidence throughout their lives and career.
• E-Learning makes easy for employees to formulate learning a continuous part of their job.
• Reduce travel time and travel cost for off campus students and also learning materials allows student study in their own place 

Education actually means acquiring knowledge and skills and is not age, community or gender specific. However, education imparted through classroom training over generations---be it in the form of Gurukuls or schools or colleges has corrupted knowledge seeking, introducing boundaries and petty biases. In India, it was class specific—only people from certain castes got educated.

Skills were restricted to families. A barber’s son remained a barber with no way of getting educated in the lettered word. In the western world churches and religious organizations controlled education and later on, only the moneyed class made it to schools.

Even today, in a far more democratic world, schools and universities are run as money-making industries, restricting admission to a select few. Some religious institutions restrict the entry of women. The middle aged and elderly, have very little scope of starting afresh in a new course or syllabus, since they also have to take care of their jobs, families and health issues.

 A person living in a small suburb or a village may never get to go to a good school.Also, if you are of frail health or disabled, chances are that you may not be able to travel to school.

E-learning content can include:

1. Text
2. Audio 
3. Images
4. Video

 Ways of delivering and accessing e-learning content include:

1. Internet
2. CD
3. USB
4. DVD
5. Mobile phone
6. Personal computer
7. Tablet computer

E-learning transgresses distance. You can study from within your home. You can take classes after working hours. Or…for the busy mother—after your babies are asleep or at school.E-Learning promotes self paced learning. You can start getting educated later in life. You can be forty and join an online university at that age. You can learn from a coach who lives in another country. Even if you are educated enough, you can enhance your knowledge through the many refresher courses available online.

You can later become a coach or a trainer yourself. An online trainer has the advantage of training at flexible hours. You can make your teaching interactive and multi-dimensional using the immense amount of online training tools available in the market today. You can learn and train through your TV and smart phones and tablets very effectively. Knowledge and education is literally at your finger-tips.

With newer and more advanced innovations in technology available every day, the dream for educationists should be that no individual, in any part of the world, should be left uneducated.

Undergraduate and Graduate School Admissions deadlines for the USA

If plan to study in the US either for Undergraduate courses (bachelor’s degrees) or Graduate courses (MS or MBA, MD, LLM etc.) you must meet the application deadlines for each school. International students (such as students from India, Asian countries and other countries that do not have English as their mother tongue), need to write the TOEFL or IELTS that are standardized English tests recognized by the American college boards.

 Some schools might give you an IELTS/TOEFL waiver if you can prove that you have studied all your primary, secondary and high school courses in English.

Basic certificates and test requirements:

1.  Undergraduate courses- High School certificate, SAT scores, TOEFL/IELTS.

2.  Graduate Courses-

                        

•   MS - Undergraduate college leaving certificate (most schools consider only 4 years of  graduation and not 3 years) with marks card, GRE general or GRE subject scores, TOEFL/IELTS.
•   MBA- Undergraduate college leaving certificate, GMAT scores, TOEFL/IELTS scores.
•   MD-  Undergraduate college leaving certificate (some schools insist on American     undergraduate degree),MCAT scores, TOEFL/IELTS scores.
•   LLM- Undergraduate college leaving certificate, TOEFL/IELTS scores.

Additional requirements:

• Resumes- Student resumes listing academic achievements,extra-curriculars and additional courses such as languages or dance/music/art courses.
• Personal statement or Statement of Purpose Essays—In these Essays you should stress on your goals ,your academic and other achievements so far, your reasons for choosing your course of study and how would contribute to the school during your stay there.
• Letters of recommendation from your teachers/professors and/or professional recommendations from your boss.
• For Business schools and many graduate courses you will have to provide information on your work experience if any and a recommendation from your boss on your professional capabilities and achievements.
• For Medical School admissions you will have to provide a list of your voluntary work at hospitals and other health services related work and lab work if any with a letter of recommendation from the hospital/service center/lab.

Planning your applications:

Most schools start classes in fall, i.e. - late August/beginning September. Application deadlines for fall admissions are usually November-December of the previous year.

If you want to get into college in September 2014, you must finish sending your scores and other requirements by December 2013. Be ready with all your scores by October 2013 end.

Since almost all test scores like the GRE,GMAT,SAT,TOEFL and IELTS takes between 2-4 weeks, it is better to take all these tests by June, so that the scores are reported by July end and you can start working on your essays and recommendation letters. MCAT scores take 4-6 weeks to be reported.

It is also safe to take some of these tests as early as May because in case you are not happy with your scores, you can redo the test after a couple of months.

For rolling admissions (round the year admissions), please go to each school’s website to find out details about requirements and admission deadlines.

 For More Information refer the following websites:

1. Collegeboard.org: Offers advice to college bound students,who are currently in High School finishing their PUC, or 12th Grade.Senior students (who finished school a few years ago) who have not matriculated and are going to enrol in college for the first time, are also eligible to apply.This website has a comprehensive college search for colleges in the US and each school requirements and information about the SAT.
2. Princetonreview.com/grad/international-applicants.aspx and gradschools.com gives good information about application deadlines,choosing subjects and programs and test requirements.