How to Write a Personal Statement for University Applications

When you are applying for a university, it is a must to write a personal statement. This is one of the mandatory things that you should do. You should also pay special attention to the personal statement you write as it can heavily contribute towards the positive results that you can get at the end of the day.

What is a personal statement?

A personal statement is a supportive document that you submit along with the university application. You can think about calling it as an opportunity to articulate the fact of why you prefer to study a specific course in the selected university. Along with that, you can highlight your knowledge, experience, and skills as well. You will also be able to highlight the passion that you have to study the course you apply for, while you write a personal statement.

10 tips for writing a personal statement for university applications

Here are 10 tips to keep in mind while you are writing a personal statement. Make sure that you keep all these facts in your mind and create the best personal statement, which can increase your chances of getting selected to a university.

• Create the initial draft

You should start writing your personal statement with a draft. However, this draft should not contain any character counter. Then you will have all the freedom to include your ideas to the personal statement. That’s because you are not taking any effort to restrict yourself to a character count.

• Don’t rush

It is never a good idea to rush when you write a personal statement. You can even take a couple of days for it. Then you can write it at your pace and make it perfect.

• Use the perfect expressions and words

The words that you include in the personal statement will contribute heavily towards the positive impression that you can create. That’s why it is important to use the perfect expressions or words at all times.

• Get a perfect start

The first sentence of your personal statement can create an excellent first impression. Hence, you need to make sure that you are getting a perfect start at all times.

• Focus on the strengths

Throughout the personal statement, you should be focusing on your strengths. Then you can easily showcase why you deserve to get selected for the university that you are applying for.

• Be honest

While writing a personal statement for university applications, you need to be honest at all times. If you are not good at something, you should not include it. The personal statement should be accurate.

• Make it a work of your own

Some of the students tend to go through sample personal statements available online before they write a personal statement. You shouldn’t make that mistake. You can do that to get a quick understanding of the format, but you shouldn’t copy content from the samples.

• Read it out loud

After writing the personal statement, you should read it out loud. Then you will be able to make sure that there is no cohesion between the paragraphs.

• Get the help of another person to proofread

You will not be able to identify the mistakes in your personal statement. This is why you should think about getting the help of another person to proofread your personal statement.

• Don’t read the personal statement after you submit

Once you submit the personal statement, you should refrain from reading it. There is no point in going through the personal statement after you submit it.

Personal statement dos and don'ts

There are certain things that you should do and certain things that you shouldn’t do while you write personal statements. Here are some of the dos and don’ts.

Dos

• You can tell a story about yourself within the personal statement
• You have the freedom to brag about yourself in the personal statement
• You should respect word limits
• You must personalize the personal statement
• You must adhere to the grammar rules
• You should get feedback for the personal statement you write

Don’ts

• Don’t restate your resume in the personal statement
• Don’t wait until the application deadline to submit the personal statement
• Don’t forget to include self-awareness
• Don’t get another person to write your personal statement
• Don’t include any sensitive topics in the personal statement

Keep these tips in your mind and you can end up with getting the best personal statement created. Then you can submit it along with your application and increase your chances of getting selected to the university.