If you have to find advice on writing personal statements, get it from the best source–the readers of admission essays. They can tell you exactly what are agreeable and what are not advisable in admission essays. Read on to discover their top three tips in writing a personal statements.
Don’t just recount your academic achievements
A common mistake of students in writing personal statements is they enumerate their achievements in school. Avoid doing this because it defeats the purpose of your essay. Personal statements are there to state whatever your transcript of records, recommendation letters, and other application requirements cannot say. Personal statements inform your readers of your personality. So, try to leave your academic achievements in a resume list and make your application more interesting through a clever personal essay topic.
Be specific with what you want and why
Characteristics of admission essays that tick off readers are being disorganized and having vague statements. Avoid this in writing your personal statement and avoid making your readers guess what you want to say. It is better to plan the content of your essay than to beat around the bush and state practically nothing in particular. So, select a creative and interesting topic, then make an outline. Make sure to include information that are relevant to the topic and arrange them logically. And if you must, review the steps in writing effective essays.
Don’t be sloppy, make your essay error-free
Having one or too many typographical, grammar, and punctuation errors in your personal essay reflects your clumsiness and laziness. The errors show that you either do not know how to write an essay properly or that you did not prepare enough for the application process. So, once you?ve written your essay, read it again and again. Proofread, edit, and have someone to check it many times.
Related links:
Covering personal flaws – How to downplay your weaknesses when writing a personal statement
Essay writing guide ? How to start writing your personal statement
Personal essay tips ? How to make your essay engaging to admission officers
Writing an essay – Tips on how to write a personal statement
Improving writing skills – Ways to improve writing skills
Isn?t it tiring to read a person?s biography over and over again? You will feel the same way if you were an admissions officer reading students? personal essays that say similar things. Moreover, you could get bored and annoyed with the number of cliche essays all piled up on your desk. In the end, you?d wish someone wrote differently. To avoid boring your readers to death, below are ways you can make your personal statement original.
Don’t stuff your essay with cliches
If you are the one reading hundreds of personal statements and many of them are cliches , you will feel like all of the students just copied each other and are all have the same personality and interests. In addition, you will have a difficult time remembering each student and what they said. To avoid becoming one-of-the-boring students, include information that are unique to you. Be honest and personal in writing your essay to add variety.
Focus on your own personal story
You might think of yourself as uninteresting, but in fact, you?re the opposite. And everyone has a different story to tell, so go ahead and tell what?s yours. Be creative. If your friend wrote about how he struggled to get through school while working and you have a similar experience, you can write about your perspectives in being a working student and the lessons you?ve learned from such an experience. A subtle twist always helps in essay writing.
Share your own thoughts on the topic
While preparing for your essay, you may have read examples of personal statements as a guide. Using examples are advisable, but using the same topics and content is not. So as you talk about yourself in your personal statement, discuss your personal thoughts as well. Fight the urge to say claims made in example essays to avoid sounding like one.
Related links:
Competitiveness as topic – How to write about your competitive personality in an admission essay
Organizing your essay – How to write an organized admission essay
Covering up flaws – Help on how to cover up personal flaws in personal statements
College essay wordcount – Guide to meeting the wordcount requirement without compromising the essay quality
Writing an essay – Tips on how to write a personal statement
If you are into politics and you have strong feelings regarding your political beliefs, you may find it a good idea to write about a politics-related topic on your personal statement. Some of the personal statement writing guides that you have read may say that politics isn’t necessarily a good topic for your essay, because politics is a very sensitive subject. In truth, though, you can write a compelling, interesting, and meaningful personal statement based on your political beliefs. Read on to learn how to use your political beliefs to write a successful personal statement.
How your political beliefs can help you with your essay
When you are faced with the task of finding a topic for your personal statement, your political beliefs may not be the first topic that comes to mind. If you think about it, though, politics and political beliefs can make a good topic, especially if you want to major in a plan of study that is related to politics or government. Your political beliefs are more than just what influence your votes in an election, but they also reflect your perspective of world issues, legal matters, and the relationship between politics and society. Furthermore, your political beliefs may also give a hint on your personality, character traits, and who you are as a whole. In other words, your political beliefs can reveal more personal information, which is exactly what the purpose of the personal statement is: to introduce you, as a person, to the admissions committee.
How to discuss your political beliefs in the essay
When it comes to writing your personal statement, it’s essential that you relate your political beliefs as to who you are and how you have developed as a person. Basically, you want to reflect on your political beliefs and understand how they have shaped your character traits, personality qualities, virtues, and values. Your aim is to use your political beliefs as a vehicle to convey more pertinent information about you. In other words, the focus of your personal statement should still be about you and not on your political beliefs per se. Here are some suggestions for using politics and political beliefs as your personsal statement topic:
- Write about how your political beliefs are a manifestation of your admirable qualities.
- Write about how politics have shaped your perspective of profound topics, like justice, equality, or freedom.
- Write about politics-related experiences that have influenced your decisions, personality, or outlook on life.
What not to include when tackling political beliefs in the essay
When using politics or political beliefs for your personal statement topic, it’s essential to know what topics to avoid writing about. In most cases, it would be best to avoid controversial and sensitive topics, because most schools try to avoid the controversy involved in such topics. Likewise, it would also be irrelevant to write about what you know about politics or about your stand on current political issues. Avoid discussing politics in a manner that takes the focus away from you and why you are a good candidate for the school you are applying to.
Your personal statement is one of the most important requirements for your application package. While most people see the personal statement as a stressful requirement, it is also an opportunity to introduce yourself to the admissions committee by writing about practically any topic you can think of. In fact, you can even write your personal statement based on a fictional character. Choosing a fictional character for your personal statement topic may seem rather absurd at first, but you can come up with a great essay if you handle the topic with care. This article will offer some helpful information on using a fictional character as a topic or theme for your personal statement.
A fictional character as a catchy essay subject
Fiction books, movies, and stories come in all sorts. From the fanciful and intangible to the scientific and realistic, you can find fiction stories of all kinds, each with different fictional characters. Each character is a unique personality that you can relate to in various ways, on various levels, and through various channels of emotion and thought. This is what makes fictional characters such a catchy essay topic; if offers you diversity, depth, and broadness of the topic. You must realize, though, that the task of writing a personal statement is not similar to writing a book report or research paper. Your personal statement is something that reveals your personality, your values, your virtues, and your strengths. For this reason, it can take some deep reflection and self-evaluation to come up with a great personal statement based on a fictional character.
Discussing your favorite fictional character effectively
To use a fictional character effectively as your essay topic, you should try to understand how you relate to the character and how the character has positively affected you and your life. You may want to think of the qualities and traits that you have in common with the fictional character, such as fortitude, resilience, honesty, faithfulness, or integrity. Your main objective is to keep the focus on yourse;f, while using the fictional character as a point of reference or a source of inspiration.
Think of why you want to use the character as the subject of your paper and try to express that in your essay. Make a clear connection between how the fictional character has had a positive effect on your personal development. Then, establish a clear connection between how your personality and character traits make you a good candidate for acceptance to the school you are applying to.
Other tips to make your essay catchy
Here are a few more tips on how to make your essay catchy:
- Try capturing the reader’s interest and attention from the beginning of your essay by starting your essay with a quote from your favorite character, a passage from the story the character is featured in, or a personal anecdote related to you and the character.
- Focus on telling the story of how you have been affected as a result of the connection you have made with the character.
- Try to have other people read your essay and ask for their opinions, suggestions, or comments. This will help you polish your fictional-character-based essay into a personal statement worthy of even the best schools in the world.
Reading examples of personal statements is an excellent way to get ideas that you can use when you write your own. Aside from reading sample essays, there are also various tips on writing that you can find online. Below are some of these tips.
Common problems in writing an admission essay
Before you start your writing process, you have to be aware that writing is not very easy. One of the problems you would probably encounter is deciding for your topic or theme. Hundreds or even thousands of people are vying for a spot in the university that you want. So it could really be difficult to choose a theme that would make your admission essay unique. Another difficulty you would probably encounter is deciding for the scope. An admission essay should not be very long, so you really have to limit the scope of your essay very well.
Top 10 essay writing tips
It is very important that you are equipped with helpful tips when you write your essay. The following are top ten essay writing tips to keep in mind:
1. The first tip is to make your essay interesting and creative. By doing this, you could grab the attention of the admission committee.
2. The next tip is to weave your ideas with one theme.
3. Next, make sure that you write with clarity. A clear essay is engaging and fun to read.
4. Don’t forget to make your essay coherent.
5. Provide a three-dimensional image of yourself through your essay. Your essay is the means through which you can reveal your personality to the admission committee.
6. Then, make sure you develop your theme well.
7. Do not use jargons and highfalutin words in order to impress the admission officers.
8. You also have to ensure that your essay is well-edited.
9. You have to read it several times to make sure that it is error-free.
10. Lastly, you should let others read your essay. Ask them for suggestions.
Reminders
When you write your personal statement, there are other things that you have to keep in mind. One of these is the limit of your creativity. A creative essay is notable. However, you have to limit your creativity. Remember that you are not writing an essay for a creative writing class. You also have to remember to include only your experiences relevant to your application. Keep in mind that a personal statement is supposedly short.
Before you start writing your admission essay, it is an advantage if you read excellent examples of personal statements. You can use these examples of personal statements as guides.
Photo Credit : Chapendra
One of the basic requirements for your application to a post-secondary educational institution is the admission essay. Simply put, the admission essay can spell the difference between getting accepted or rejected to the school of your choice. If you are having trouble writing your personal statement, you may want to read on for some basic but helpful tips on writing an exceptional piece. This article will also give advise on how you can use personal statement examples to help you along the way.
Accurate accounts of your student life
When writing your admission essay, it’s essential that you make accurate accounts of your student life. Not only can admissions committees double check your transcripts and what you write on your resume, but most admissions officers can also spot a lie a mile away, so don’t even think about it.(1) Scour the Internet for some examples of personal statements to see how other writers use their student life to enhance their essays.
Brief but powerful descriptions of your experiences
If you plan on writing about life experiences, make sure that your descriptions are concise, brief, and, most of all, powerful. Read a good example of personal statement, and you’ll notice how the writer uses literary strategies to make their experiences come across more vividly and with impact. The last thing you want to do is bore the admissions officers who are reading your essay.(2)
Convincing conclusions
In concluding your admission essay, you should keep in mind your main objective, that is, to persuade the admission committee to accept you into their school. Try to use what you have already written about (your student life and your experiences) to prove that you have the values and traits that it takes to succeed in the college that you are applying to. Make sure that you don’t come off as being boastful or arrogant, instead try to be humble but confident.(3) Look for an example of personal statement with a persuasive conclusion, and try to emulate how the writer was able to succeed in reaching the main goal of the admission essay.
(1) http://www.acm.edu/uploads/cms/documents/acm-writing-essay.pdf
(2) http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/application.html
(3) http://www.depauw.edu/admission/documents/college-essay.pdf
Earning an MBA degree can be one of the most fulfilling achievements that you will experience in life. Not only is MBA an achievement in itself, but it can also aid greatly in your career path. This article will cover three essential fields of business, and how an MBA education can help you succeed in each one.
Business Management
An MBA degree can help you advance your career in business management. All throughout your MBA education, you will be studying and dealing with different business models, situations, concepts, strategies, and topics. An MBA degree is likely to aid you in starting up and managing your own business.(1)
Finance
Another field where an MBA degree is of great importance is finance. Dealing with numbers can be difficult, but an MBA education can help you understand the way that the economy works and how to manage your finances. It is often said that understanding finance is one of the most important factors in being successful, and an MBA education will definitely help you develop a deeper understanding of how it works.(2)
Strategic/Risk Management
Finally, in order to keep a business and company running smoothly, efficiently and effectively, it is essential to be well versed in risk management and strategic management. Whether you specialize in risk management or you have learned about it through your other classes, an MBA education is definitely a good way to get accustomed with making strategies and minimizing business risks.(3)
Before you gain your MBA education and degree, you will have to complete your application package and get accepted into an MBA program. Perhaps the most significant application requirement is the personal statement. So be sure to take a look at examples of personal statements to help you write an excellent essay. When studying examples of personal statements, try to understand the tone, format, themes, and topics that are often written about. What you will notice about personal statement examples is that they are interesting, captivating, and moving, all at once. Try to read at least one personal statement example to get an idea of what is expected from your essay.
(1) http://www.hbs.edu/mba/svmp/
(2) http://www.bus.wisc.edu/mba/curriculum/
(3) http://www.mib.edu/cms/data/pages/master_course_insurance_finance.aspx
When applying for an MBA program, you will probably hear and read a lot of information about MBA school, MBA admissions, and MBA degrees. The problem is, it’s high likely that not everything you hear or read about them will be true. In fact, there are numerous myths about MBA that many people believe in. Here are some MBA myths and the truths behind them:
Myth 1: You need to be a business major to qualify for MBA
The truth is, people from many different fields apply to and qualify for MBA programs and schools all around the world. Most schools will accept applicants as long as they have a US Bachelor’s degree or any equivalent form of achievement.(1) In fact, if you just take a little time to read some personal statement examples, you will find that MBA applicants come from all kinds of academic backgrounds. Don’t believe in this myth, because you will only discourage yourself in getting your MBA degree.
Myth 2: You won’t get admitted to top MBA schools if you didn’t come from a blue-chip company
Another common myth is that you need to be from a blue-chip company to get admitted to a reputable MBA school. While some schools will require that applicants to have had practical experience in the working world, others are willing to accept applicants with no working experience at all.(2) If you do plan on applying to a top MBA school without any working experience, try checking out some examples of personal statements to get an edge over your competition. You’re bound to find an example of personal statement that’s written by someone who isn’t from a blue-chip company.
Myth 3: Using a former alumna as personal reference that will help you secure a spot
Getting letters of recommendation and other forms of help from an alumna is a clever way to increase your chances of getting accepted. It’s important to realize, though, that an MBA school will not accept you just because one of their alumni wrote a recommendation letter for you.(3) Take matters into your own hands and have confidence that your own skills, capabilities, and experiences are enough to get you into MBA school. Be sure to capitalize on your personality, character, skills, education, and training by writing an excellent MBA admission essay with the help of personal statement examples.
(1) http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba/admission/application_requirements.html
(2) http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/admissioncriteria.html
(3) http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba/admission/letters_of_reference.html
When you write your admission essay, it is important to make every word count. Take a look at some good examples of personal statements, and you’ll find that practically every word helps to enhance the essay. Most schools have guidelines on essay length, which literally means that each word counts. Aside from adhering to the essay length, it is also essential to make sense out of those words because your admission essay may be the one thing that can get you into the school of your choice.(1) Here are some helpful tips on how to make write your personal statement:
Use the active voice
Although it is possible to use the passive voice in an effective way, it is often best to use the active voice in your admission essays. Because the active voice denotes an action, it helps in affirming your desire to attend the school you are applying to. Also, this helps to grab and hold the reader’s attention. Using the passive voice may lead to confusing sentences or sentences that are not very interesting to read.(2) Use examples of personal statements to see how they make use of the active voice.
Don’t show doubt or lack of confidence in your writing
You probably have a lot of doubts about what to write, how to write it, what the committee wants to hear, and how to make your essay stand out. When it comes down to finally writing your paper, though, it’s important not to let any of these doubts, or any other negative thoughts for that matter, reflect in your writing.(3) Try to show that you are confident, relaxed, and ready to face the challenge of writing your essay and getting into the school. One tactic often used in personal statement examples is to focus on the positive and downplay the negative.
Be sure not to repeat the same ideas.
Another helpful hint for creating a winning admission essay is to avoid repeating the same ideas or information throughout your essay. Try to keep your essay flowing from one idea to the next, and avoid recycling or reusing the things that you have already said. Read your essay to yourself and then read it aloud to discern for yourself whether or not it is enthralling enough to keep your audience reading. You could also have others read it, and use their insights and opinions to improve on what you’ve already written. Compare your essay to a personal statement example to see if it’s at par with quality.
(1) http://www.sac.edu/students/library/nealley/pathfinders/meb_essay.htm
(2) http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_actpass.html
(3) http://admissions.me.holycross.edu/2007/10/09/common-application-essay-advice/
When writing your MBA admission essay, one of your main goals is to stand out as a unique individual who makes a good candidate for college admission. Most examples of personal statement are able to do this well. Writing a unique MBA essay doesn’t necessarily require that you write about your entire life history.(1) If you are stuck on how to write an MBA essay that stands out, try out some of the following tips:
Discuss what makes you both a leader and good team player
Two marks of a great applicant are teamwork and leadership. The reason MBA schools hold teamwork and leadership with great regard is that these two traits are essential to being a good business student and a good businessperson in general. Some examples of personal statement focus on certain experiences or situations wherein the author had to take on the reigns and be the leader of the team, or had to sacrifice for the sake of teamwork. Be specific in the examples that you give, but expound on the qualities and character traits that you have developed because of your experiences.(2)
Tell readers what MBA can offer you
Another way to make your MBA essay stand out is by talking about how an MBA degree can help you in your life. This is an approach used in many personal statement examples. Perhaps you have specific goals or aspirations in life that would be more easily attainable with an MBA degree. An MBA degree has a lot to offer you, so be sure to concentrate on the points that mean the most and those that will make the most impact on your career and life. Just remember not to make it sound “too good to be true,” otherwise, the admissions committee may just think you’re sucking up.
Focus on your strengths and downplay your weaknesses
Finally, use the MBA essay to highlight your strengths while downplaying your weaknesses. For example, you may want to briefly address a certain weakness or shortcoming of yours. Be sure to focus on how you have used your strengths to overcome such weaknesses. The point is to acknowledge the negative, but concentrate on the positive.(3) For a good idea on how to go about incorporating this third tip into your essay, have a look at an example of personal statement that talks about failures or hardships.
(1) http://www.californiacolleges.edu/admissions/university-of-california-uc/personal-statement.asp
(2) http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/personal_statement.shtml
(3) http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/642/01/
