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7 Simple but Effective Ways to Make Your Personal Statement for University

A personal statement is an avenue for you to show a University how unique you are and why they should enroll you in their program. With this in mind, you want to make sure that you write one that will ensure you get a place in the University of your Choice.

In this article, we will show you how to write a personal statement that will be effective and guarantee you entry Inyo your dream university.

  1. Plan What to Write

Before you start writing, you must plan what you will write and this is what’s called a draft. When you start, you want to observe the character count or word count. It might be that a certain number of characters (might be with spaces or without spaces) is considered standard or that a certain number of words is. It is up to you to find out what is expected of you and you should not make any assumptions.

During your planning stage, it’s best to outline the key points that you want to bring out in your personal statement. It is these key points that will form the ‘meat’ of your statement whereby you’ll just be expounding on them. The outline will help you stay focused on what you want to bring out.

  1. Do Not Rush

When writing a personal statement, you do not want to rush things. Take your time as this is a very important exercise that will play a very important role in your future. You can choose to write your personal statement for as long as a couple days due to the fact that you want to get this right, and you only have one chance to get it right. You can write the text in bits during different times of the day in order to give yourself time to think and come up with more appealing content.

  1. Use The Right Words

You might wonder what we mean when we say ‘use the right words’. This basically means that you find words that truly portray you as an individual who befits the institution that you want to apply to. Such words are like ‘accomplish’ in place of ‘do’ and ‘presume’ rather than ‘think’ will do wonders to your personal statement.

Show the school that you have a good command of the English language even though it may not be your native language. You can choose to use several tools at your disposal such as Grammarly to help you improve your command of the language.

  1. Focus On Your Strengths

So you have a limited number of words that you can use to sell yourself to the University of your Choice. This might not be enough to exhaust how brilliant you might be and why you deserve a place at this university. In spite of this, make sure that you focus on your strengths. Show them what you are really good at no matter how simple and silly it might seem to you. The University is interested in your uniqueness so be sure to show them that you can really stand out. Do not write about your shortcomings such as your weakness when it comes to math or the sciences, rather focus on your experiences and future plans. Show them that you have vision.

  1. Find The Right Introduction

Within the very first few lines, you want to start by capturing your reader’s attention. Write something captivating or funny that will make them want to continue reading your personal statement. This could be a joke or a fun fact few people know. Beware, this does not open a door for you to become a comedian or start making things up. Just write something fun and interesting that will help you capture and maintain your readers’ curiosity.

  1. Be Honest

Do not be dishonest unless you’re an aspiring fictional writer! Only novel and fantasy writers can get applauded for writing things that don’t exist and seem too good to be true. A personal statement is an official document and as such, it should be factual. Be as honest as you possibly can, don’t jot down skills that you do not possess such as being proficient in a certain language like French yet you happen to only know salutations, or lie about visiting different parts of the world yet you haven’t. Be who you are, there is no need to create a lie around your image.

By lying, you are putting yourself on a high pedestal thus making people expect more from you and once you fail to deliver, you will be known for being a fraud – things will end up badly for you!

  1. Proofread your Personal Statement

Once you’re done writing your personal statement be sure to proofread it. You could do this yourself or have a friend do it for you. This will help in eliminating any errors that might be there which could have worked to your disadvantage. Proofreading will also help you in weeding out any inconsistencies in your flow of thoughts and cohesiveness between your paragraphs. A good practice to identify such inconsistencies is to read your personal statement out loud and the unwanted parts will show themselves.

Conclusion

The 7 steps discussed in this article are sure to help you come up with a rockstar personal statement for your University application. They are simple, yet very effective. Please share with us your experiences with applying any combination of them. All the best!

Written By

Sophia Clark graduated from the University in the City of New York with B.A. in Journalism, 2011. She is a creative writer from New York who loves to share her thoughts with readers. In her free time, she enjoys writing fiction as well as reading it. Her big dream is to publish a novel one day.

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