What Is a Personal Statement Everything You Need to Know About the College Essay

What Is a Personal Statement Everything You Need to Know About the College Essay SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips In addition to standardized test scores and transcripts, a personal statement or essay is a required part of many college applications. The personal statement can be one of the most stressful parts of the application process because it's the most open ended. In this guide, I'll answer the question, "What is a personal statement?" I'll talk through common college essay topics and what makes for an effective personal statement. // Even the terminology can be confusing if you aren't familiar with it, so let's start by defining some terms: Personal statement- an essay you write to show a college admissions committee who you are and why you deserve to be admitted to their school. It's worth noting that, unlike "college essay," this term is used for application essays for graduate school as well. College essay - basically the same as apersonal statement. (I'll be using the terms interchangeably.) Essay prompt - a question or statement that your college essay is meant to respond to. Supplemental essay - an extra school or programspecific essay beyond the basic personal statement. Many colleges ask for only one essay. However, some schools do ask you to respond to multiple prompts or to provide supplemental essays in addition to a primary personal statement. Either way, don't let it stress you out! This guide will cover everything you need to know about the different types of college essays and get you started thinking about how to write a great one: Why colleges ask for an essay What kinds of essay questions you'll see What sets great essays apart Tips for writing your own essay // Why Do Colleges Ask For an Essay? There are a couple of reasons that colleges ask applicants to submit an essay, but the basic idea is that it gives them more information about you, especially who you are beyond grades and test scores. #1: Insight Into Your Personality The most important role of the essay is to give admissions committees a sense of your personality and what kind of addition you'd be to their school's community. Are you inquisitive? Ambitious? Caring? These kinds of qualities will have a profound impact on your college experience, but they're hard to determine based on a high school transcript. Basically, the essay contextualizes your application and shows what kind of person you are outside of your grades and test scores. Imagine two students, Jane and Tim: they both have 3.5 GPAs and 1200s on the SAT. Jane lives in Colorado and is the captain of hertrack team, while Tim lives in Vermont and regularly contributes to the school paper, but they both want to be doctors and they both volunteer at the local hospital. As similar as Jane and Tim seemon paper, in reality they're actually quite different, and their unique perspectives come through in their essays. Jane writes about how looking into her family history for a school project made her realize how the discovery of modern medical treatments like antibiotics and vaccines had changed the world and drove her to pursue a career as a medical researcher. Tim, on the other hand, recounts a story about how a kind doctor helped him overcome his fear of needles, an interaction that reminded him of the value of empathy and inspired him to become a family practitioner. These two students may seem outwardly similar but their motivations and personalities are very different. Without an essay, your application is essentially a series of numbers: a GPA, SAT scores, the number of hours spent preparing for quiz bowl competitions. The personal statement is your chance to stand out as an individual. // #2: Evidence of Writing Skills A secondary purpose of the essay is to serve as a writing sample and help colleges see that you have the skills needed to succeedin college classes. The personal statement isyour best chance to show off your writing, so take the time to craft a pieceyou're really proud of. That said, don't panic if you aren't a strong writer. Admissions officers aren't expecting you to write like Joan Didion; they just want to see that you can express your ideas clearly. No matter what, your essay should absolutely not include any errors or typos. #3: Explanation of Extenuating Circumstances For some students, the essay is also a chance to explain factors affecting theirhigh school record. Did your grades drop sophomore year because you were dealing with a family emergency? Did you miss out on extracurricularsjunior year because of an extended medical absence? Colleges want to know if you struggled with a serious issue that affected your high school record, so make sure to indicate any relevant circumstances on your application. Keep in mind that in some cases there will be a separate section for you to address these types ofissues, as well as any black marks on your record like expulsions or criminal charges. #4: Your Reasons for Applying to the School Many colleges ask you to writean essay or paragraph about why you're applying to their school specifically. In asking these questions, admissions officers are trying to determine if you're genuinely excited about the school and whether you're likely to attend if accepted. I'll talk more about this type of essay below. Want to write the perfect college application essay? Get professional help from PrepScholar. Your dedicated PrepScholar Admissions counselor will craft your perfect college essay, from the ground up. We'll learn your background and interests, brainstorm essay topics, and walk you through the essay drafting process, step-by-step. At the end, you'll have a unique essay that you'll proudly submit to your top choice colleges. Don't leave your college application to chance. Find out more about PrepScholar Admissions now: // What Kind of Questions Do Colleges Ask? Thankfully, applications don't simply say "Please include an essay about yourself" - they includea question or prompt that you're asked to respond to. These prompts are generally pretty open ended and can be approached in a lot of different ways. Nonetheless, most questions fall into a few main categories. Let's go through each common type of prompt, with examples from the Common Application, the University of California application, and ApplyTexas, as well as a few individualschools. Prompt Type 1: Your Personal History This sortof questionasks you to write about a formative experience, important event or key relationship fromyour life. Admissions officers want to understand what is important to you and how your backgroundhas shaped you as a person. These questions are both common and tricky. The most common pitfall students fall into is trying to tell their entire life stories - it's better to focus in on a very specific point in time and explain why it was meaningful to you. Common App 1 Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. Common App 5 Discuss an accomplishment, event, orrealizationthatsparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. University of California 2 Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side. University of California 6 Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom. // Prompt Type 2:Facing a Problem A lot of prompts deal with how you solve problems or how you cope with failure. College can be difficult, both personally and academically, and admissions committees want to see that you're equipped to face those challenges. The key to these types of questions is to identify a real problem or failure (not a success in disguise) and show how you adapted and grew from addressing the issue. Common App 2 The lessons we take fromobstacles we encountercan be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced achallenge, setback, or failure.How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? Common App 4 Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma - anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution. ApplyTexas B Describe a circumstance, obstacle or conflict in your life, and the skills and resources you used to resolve it. Did it change you? If so, how? // Prompt Type 3:Diversity Most colleges arepretty diverse, with students from a wide range of backgrounds. Essay questions about diversity are designed to help admissions committees understand how you interact with people who are different from you. In addressing these prompts,you want to show that you're capable of engaging with new ideas and relating to people who may have different beliefs than you. Common App 3 Reflect on a time when youquestionedor challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? Whatwas the outcome? ApplyTexas A Describe a setting in which you have collaborated or interacted with people whose experiences and/or beliefs differ from yours. Address your initial feelings, and how those feelings were or were not changed by this experience. Prompt Type 4:Your Future Goals This type of prompt asks about what you want to do in the future: sometimes simply what you'd like to study, sometimes longer term career goals. Colleges want to understand what you're interested in and how you plan to work towards your goals. You'll mostly see these prompts if you're applying for a specializedprogram (like pre-med or architecture) or applying as a transfer student. Some schools also ask for supplementary essays along these lines. ApplyTexas C Considering your lifetime goals, discuss how your current and future academic and extracurricular activities might help you achieve your goals. University of California (Transfer Applicants) Please describe how you have prepared for your intended major, including your readiness to succeed in your upper-division courses once you enroll at the university. // Prompt Type 5: Why This School The most common style of supplemental essay is the "Why us?" essay (although a fewschools with their own application use this type of questionas their main prompt). In these essays, you're meant to address the specific reasons you want to go to the school you're applying to. Whatever you do, don't ever recycle these essays for more than one school. Yale University What is it about Yale that has led you to apply? Chapman University There are thousands of universities and colleges. Please share with us why you are choosing to apply to Chapman. Rice University How did you first learn about Rice University and what motivated you to apply? Prompt Type 6:Creative Prompts More selective schools often have supplemental essays with stranger or more unique questions. University of Chicago is notorious for its weird prompts, but it's not the only school that will ask you to think outside the box in addressing its questions. University of Chicago The word floccinaucinihilipilification is the act or habit of describing or regarding something as unimportant or of having no value. It originated in the mid-18th century from the Latin words "floccus," "naucum," "nihilum," and "pilus"- all words meaningâ€Å"of little use.† Coin your own word using parts from any language you choose, tell us its meaning, and describe the plausible (if only to you) scenarios in which it would be most appropriately used. Tufts University Whether you've built blanket forts or circuit boards, produced community theater or mixed media art installations, tell us: what have you invented, engineered, created, or designed? Or what do you hope to? University of Virginia What’s your favorite word and why? University of Chicago(Phil Roeder/Flickr) // What Makes a Strong Personal Statement? OK, so you're clear on what a college essay is, but you're still not sure how to write a good one. To help you get started, I'm going to explainthe main things admissions officers look for in students' essays:an engaging perspective, genuine moments, and lively writing. I've touched onthese ideas already, buthereI'll go into more depth about how the best essays stand out from the pack. Showing Who You Are A lot of students panic about finding a unique topic, and certainly writing about something unusual like a successful dating app you developed with your friends or your time working as a mall Santacan't hurt you. But what's really important isn't so much what you write about as how you write about it. You need to use your subject to show something deeper about yourself. Look at the prompts above: you'll notice that they almost all ask you what you learned or how the experience affected you. Whatever topic you pick, you must be able to specifically address how or why it matters to you. Say a student, Will, was writing about the mall Santa in response to Common App prompt number 2 (the one about failure): Will was a terrible mall Santa. He was way too skinny to be convincing and the kids would always step on his feet. He could easily write 600 very entertaining words describing this experience, but they wouldn't necessarily add up to an effective college essay. To do that, he'll need to talk about his motivations and his feelings: why he took such a job in the first place and what he did (and didn't) get out of it. Maybe Will took the job because he needed to make some money to go on a school trip and it was the only one he could find. Despite his lack of enthusiasm for screaming children, he kept doing it because he knew if he persevered through the whole holiday season he would have enough money for his trip. Would you rather read "I failed at being a mall Santa" or "Failing as a mall Santa taught me how to persevere no matter what"? Admissions officersdefinitely prefer the latter. Ultimately, the best topics are ones that allow you to explain something surprising about yourself. Honesty Since the main point of the essay is to give schools a sense of who you are, you have to open up enough to let them see your personality.Writing a good college essay means being honest about your feelings and experiences even when they aren't entirely positive. In this context, honesty doesn't mean going on at length about the time you broke into the local pool at night and nearly got arrested, but it does mean acknowledging when something was difficult or upsetting for you. Think about the mall Santa example above. The essay won't work unless the writer genuinely acknowledges that he was a bad Santa and explains why. Want to build the best possible college application? We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League. We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools. Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in. Even this little kid is a better Santa than Will was. EloquentWriting As I mentioned above, colleges want to know that you are a strong enough writer to survive in college classes. Can you express your ideas clearly and concisely? Can you employ specific details appropriately and avoidcliches and generalizations? These kinds of skills will serve you well in college (and in life!). Nonetheless, admissions officers recognize that different students have different strengths. They aren’t looking for a poetic magnum opus from someone who wants to be a math major. (Honestly, they aren't expecting a masterwork from anyone, but the basic point stands.) Focus on making sure that your thoughts and personality come through, and don't worry about using fancy vocabulary or complex rhetorical devices. Above all, make sure that you have zero grammar or spelling errors. Typos indicate carelessness, which will hurt your cause with admissions officers. Want to write the perfect college application essay? Get professional help from PrepScholar. Your dedicated PrepScholar Admissions counselor will craft your perfect college essay, from the ground up. We'll learn your background and interests, brainstorm essay topics, and walk you through the essay drafting process, step-by-step. At the end, you'll have a unique essay that you'll proudly submit to your top choice colleges. Don't leave your college application to chance. Find out more about PrepScholar Admissions now: // Top 5 Essay-Writing Tips Now that you have a sense of what colleges are looking for, let's talk about how you can put this new knowledge into practice as you approach your own essay. Below, I've collected my five best tips from years as a college essay counselor. #1: Start Early! No matter how much you want to avoid writing your essay, don’t leaveit until the last minute. One of the most important parts of the essay writing process is editing, and editing takes a lot of time. You want to be able to put your draft in a drawer for a week and come back to it with fresh eyes. You don't want to be stuck with an essay you don't really like because you have to submit your application tomorrow. You need plenty of time to experiment and rewrite, so I would recommend starting your essays at least two months before the application deadline. For most students, that means starting around Halloween, but if you're applying early you'll need to get going closer to Labor Day. Of course, it's even better to get a head start and begin your planning earlier. Many students like to work on their essays over the summer when they have more free time, but you should keep in mind that each year's application isn't usually released until August or September. Essay questions often stay the same from year to year, however. If you are looking to get a jump on writing, you can try to confirm with the school (or the Common App) if the essay questions will be the same as the previous year's. #2: Pick a Topic You’re Genuinely Excited About One of the biggest mistakes students make is trying to write what they think the committee wants to hear. The truth is that there's no "right answer" when it comes to college essays - the best topics aren't limited to specific categories like volunteer experiences or winning a tournament. Instead, they're topics that actually matter to the writer. "OK," you're thinking, "but what does she mean by 'a topic that matters to you'? Because to be perfectly honest, right now what really matters to me is that fall TV starts up this week, and I have a feeling I shouldn't write about that." You're not wrong (although some great essays have been written about television). A great topic isn't just something that you're excited about or that you talk to your friends about; it's something that has had a real, describableeffect on your perspective. This doesn't mean that you should overemphasize how somethingabsolutely changed your life, especially if it really didn't. Instead, try to be as specific and honest as you can about how the experience affected you, what it taught you, or what you got out of it. Let'sgo back to the TV idea. Sure, writing an essay abouthow excited you are for the new season of The Vampire Diariesprobably isn't the quickest way to get yourself into college, but you couldwrite a solidessay (in response to the first type of prompt) about how SpongeBob SquarePants was an integral part of your childhood. However,it's not enough to just explain how much you loved SpongeBob - you must also explain why and how watching the show every day after school affected your life. For example, maybe it was a ritual you shared with your brother, which showed you how even seemingly silly pieces of pop culture can bring people together. Dig beneath the surface to show who you are and how you see the world. When you write about something you don't really care about, your writing will come out cliched and uninteresting, and you'll likely struggle to motivate. When you write about something that is genuinely important to you, on the other hand, you can make even the most ordinary experiences - learning to swim, eating a meal, or watching TV - engaging. As strange as it sounds, SpongeBob could make a great essay topic. #3: Focus onSpecifics But how do you write an interesting essay?Focus. Don't try to tell your entire life story, or even the story of an entire weekend; 500-650 words may seem like a lot, but you'll reach that limit quickly if you try to pack every single thing that has happened to you into your essay. If, on the other hand, you just touch on a wide range of topics, you'll end up with an essay that reads more like a resume. Instead, narrow in on one specific event or idea and talk about it in more depth. The narrower your topic, the better. For example, writing about your role as Mercutio in your school's production ofRomeo and Juliet is too general, but writing about opening night, when everything went wrong, could be a great topic. Whatever your topic, use details to help draw the reader in and express your unique perspective, but keep in mind that you don't have to include every detail of what you did or thought - stick to the important and illustrative ones. #4: Use Your Own Voice College essays aren't academicassignments: you don't need to be super formal. Instead, try to be yourself. The best writing sounds like a more eloquent version of the way you talk. Focus on using clear, simple languagethat effectively explains a point or evokes a feeling. To do so, avoid the urge to use fancy-sounding synonyms when you don't really know what they mean. Contractions are fine; slang, generally, is not. Don't hesitate to write in the first person. A final note: you don’t need to be relentlessly positive. It’s OK to acknowledge that sometimes things don’t go how you want - just show how you grew from that. #5: Be Ruthless Many students want to call it a day after writing a first draft, but editing is a key part ofwriting a truly great essay. To be clear, editing doesn't mean just making a few minor wording tweaks and cleaning up typos; it means reading your essay carefully and objectively and thinking about how you could improve it. Ask yourself questions as you read: is the progression of the essay clear? Do you make a lot of vague, sweeping statements that could be replaced with more interesting specifics? Do your sentences flow together nicely? Do youshow something about yourself beyond the surface level? You will have to delete and rewrite (potentially large) parts of your essay, and no matter how attached you feel to something you wrote, you might have to let it go. If you've ever heard the phrase "Kill your darlings," know that it is 100% applicable to college essay writing. At some point, you might even need to rewrite the whole essay.Even though it's annoying, starting over is sometimes the best way to get an essay that you're really proud of. Ludwig/Flickr What's Next? Make sure to check out our other posts on college essays, including our step-by-step guide to how to write your college essay,our analysis of the Common App Prompts, and our collection of example essays. If you're in need of guidance on other parts of the application process, take a look at our guides to choosing the right college for you, writing about extracurriculars, and requesting teacher recommendations. Last but not least, if you're planning on taking the SAT one last time, check out our ultimate guide to studying for the SAT and make sure you're as prepared as possible. Want to improve your SAT score by 160points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: