Week 4: Personal Statement

"It may have been scary at times but this class has done so much to help me get prepared for graduate school and the application process. Before taking this class, I honestly had little confidence in getting into a graduate program, but now I feel that I have the right tools and information to submit quality applications and have much more confidence that I will be accepted into a graduate program."

Read APA Ch 6

This is an essay you are often required to write to apply for graduate school. Even if you are not planning on going on to graduate school, this is still good practice, and you are required to do it. Personal statements are notoriously difficult, and uncomfortable to write. You may find it helpful to look up a school you are interested in (from your list in an earlier assignment), go to their webpages and find out what the requirements are for writing the personal statement. Some schools have specific questions to address. Others do not. The personal statement communicates your interest in the program, your skills, abilities, academic experiences, and personal characteristics that demonstrate that you can be successful at the graduate level. You will also include (usually in a concluding paragraph) some indication of who you want to work with in that program.
Some tips:
DO NOT waste time telling them how great their program is--they already think so. It comes across as brown-nosy, and worse, wastes valuable space where you can and should be talking about YOU.
Talking about personal experiences helpfully illustrate a point, or make you memorable. But remember, you want to be memorable-good, not memorable-weird.
DO NOT highlight or overly emphasize weaknesses, unless you really think you have some 'splainin' to do. You partied too hard freshman and sophomore year and that's why your gpa isn't great? Don't include it. You were in a major car accident and had to withdraw from courses, prioritize, grow up and work hard? Include that.
DO NOT sell yourself short by using weak adjectives or being self-deprecating. Remember our first assignment? What do those adjectives say about you? How can you use them to highlight your skills and abilities?

Really, PLEASE, banish the following phrases from your writing: I believe, I feel, and I think. They are weak phrases. Be bold, say I AM.

You may find this link helpful: http://www.uni.edu/~gotera/gradapp/stmtpurpose.htm it's not about psychology personal statements, but much of it applies.

and this one is good too: http://psych.iupui.edu/sites/default/files/guidetowritingapersonalstatement_1.pdf

and here

Your personal statement should be about 500 words. If you think you will be applying to mental health counseling programs or social work programs, they will typically have specific questions for your to answer, and so you should choose one of those schools and use their questions as the basis for this assignment. If you are applying to business school, law school, medical school, follow the essay instructions for one of those and submit that.

Explore!

The habits of highly productive writers

Writing Personal Statements

Be Better at Grammar

Editing

Guide to Personal Statements in Psychology

Another Guide