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24 Application Essays (Statements of Purpose)

Application essays, what this handout is about.

This handout will help you write and revise the personal statement required by many graduate programs, internships, and special academic programs.

Before you start writing

Because the application essay can have a critical effect upon your progress toward a career, you should spend significantly more time, thought, and effort on it than its typically brief length would suggest. It should reflect how you arrived at your professional goals, why the program is ideal for you, and what you bring to the program. Don’t make this a deadline task—now’s the time to write, read, rewrite, give to a reader, revise again, and on until the essay is clear, concise, and compelling. At the same time, don’t be afraid. You know most of the things you need to say already.

Read the instructions carefully. One of the basic tasks of the application essay is to follow the directions. If you don’t do what they ask, the reader may wonder if you will be able to follow directions in their program. Make sure you follow page and word limits exactly—err on the side of shortness, not length.  The essay may take two forms:

• A one-page essay answering a general question
• Several short answers to more specific questions

Do some research before you start writing.  Think about…

• The field.  Why do you want to be a _____? No, really. Think about why you and you particularly want to enter that field. What are the benefits and what are the shortcomings? When did you become interested in the field and why? What path in that career interests you right now? Brainstorm and write these ideas out.
• The program.  Why is this the program you want to be admitted to? What is special about the faculty, the courses offered, the placement record, the facilities you might be using? If you can’t think of anything particular, read the brochures they offer, go to events, or meet with a faculty member or student in the program. A word about honesty here—you may have a reason for choosing a program that wouldn’t necessarily sway your reader; for example, you want to live near the beach, or the program is the most prestigious and would look better on your resume. You don’t want to be completely straightforward in these cases and appear superficial, but skirting around them or lying can look even worse. Turn these aspects into positives. For example, you may want to go to a program in a particular location because it is a place that you know very well and have ties to, or because there is a need in your field there. Again, doing research on the program may reveal ways to legitimate even your most superficial and selfish reasons for applying.
• Yourself.  What details or anecdotes would help your reader understand you? What makes you special? Is there something about your family, your education, your work/life experience, or your values that has shaped you and brought you to this career field? What motivates or interests you? Do you have special skills, like leadership, management, research, or communication? Why would the members of the program want to choose you over other applicants? Be honest with yourself and write down your ideas. If you are having trouble, ask a friend or relative to make a list of your strengths or unique qualities that you plan to read on your own (and not argue about immediately). Ask them to give you examples to back up their impressions (For example, if they say you are “caring,” ask them to describe an incident they remember in which they perceived you as caring).

Now, write a draft

This is a hard essay to write. It’s probably much more personal than any of the papers you have written for class because it’s about you, not World War II or planaria. You may want to start by just getting something—anything—on paper. Try freewriting. Think about the questions we asked above and the prompt for the essay, and then write for 15 or 30 minutes without stopping. What do you want your audience to know after reading your essay? What do you want them to feel? Don’t worry about grammar, punctuation, organization, or anything else. Just get out the ideas you have. For help getting started, see our  handout on brainstorming .

Now, look at what you’ve written. Find the most relevant, memorable, concrete statements and focus in on them. Eliminate any generalizations or platitudes (“I’m a people person”, “Doctors save lives”, or “Mr. Calleson’s classes changed my life”), or anything that could be cut and pasted into anyone else’s application. Find what is specific to you about the ideas that generated those platitudes and express them more directly. Eliminate irrelevant issues (“I was a track star in high school, so I think I’ll make a good veterinarian.”) or issues that might be controversial for your reader (“My faith is the one true faith, and only nurses with that faith are worthwhile,” or “Lawyers who only care about money are evil.”).

Often, writers start out with generalizations as a way to get to the really meaningful statements, and that’s OK. Just make sure that you replace the generalizations with examples as you revise. A hint: you may find yourself writing a good, specific sentence right after a general, meaningless one. If you spot that, try to use the second sentence and delete the first.

Applications that have several short-answer essays require even more detail. Get straight to the point in every case, and address what they’ve asked you to address.

Now that you’ve generated some ideas, get a little bit pickier. It’s time to remember one of the most significant aspects of the application essay: your audience. Your readers may have thousands of essays to read, many or most of which will come from qualified applicants. This essay may be your best opportunity to communicate with the decision makers in the application process, and you don’t want to bore them, offend them, or make them feel you are wasting their time.

With this in mind:

• Do assure your audience that you understand and look forward to the challenges of the program and the field, not just the benefits.
• Do assure your audience that you understand exactly the nature of the work in the field and that you are prepared for it, psychologically and morally as well as educationally.
• Do assure your audience that you care about them and their time by writing a clear, organized, and concise essay.
• Do address any information about yourself and your application that needs to be explained (for example, weak grades or unusual coursework for your program). Include that information in your essay, and be straightforward about it. Your audience will be more impressed with your having learned from setbacks or having a unique approach than your failure to address those issues.
• Don’t waste space with information you have provided in the rest of the application. Every sentence should be effective and directly related to the rest of the essay. Don’t ramble or use fifteen words to express something you could say in eight.
• Don’t overstate your case for what you want to do, being so specific about your future goals that you come off as presumptuous or naïve (“I want to become a dentist so that I can train in wisdom tooth extraction, because I intend to focus my life’s work on taking 13 rather than 15 minutes per tooth.”). Your goals may change–show that such a change won’t devastate you.
• And, one more time, don’t write in cliches and platitudes. Every doctor wants to help save lives, every lawyer wants to work for justice—your reader has read these general cliches a million times.

Imagine the worst-case scenario (which may never come true—we’re talking hypothetically): the person who reads your essay has been in the field for decades. She is on the application committee because she has to be, and she’s read 48 essays so far that morning. You are number 49, and your reader is tired, bored, and thinking about lunch. How are you going to catch and keep her attention?

Assure your audience that you are capable academically, willing to stick to the program’s demands, and interesting to have around. For more tips, see our  handout on audience .

Voice and style

The voice you use and the style in which you write can intrigue your audience. The voice you use in your essay should be yours. Remember when your high school English teacher said “never say ‘I’”? Here’s your chance to use all those “I”s you’ve been saving up. The narrative should reflect your perspective, experiences, thoughts, and emotions. Focusing on events or ideas may give your audience an indirect idea of how these things became important in forming your outlook, but many others have had equally compelling experiences. By simply talking about those events in your own voice, you put the emphasis on you rather than the event or idea. Look at this anecdote:

During the night shift at Wirth Memorial Hospital, a man walked into the Emergency Room wearing a monkey costume and holding his head. He seemed confused and was moaning in pain. One of the nurses ascertained that he had been swinging from tree branches in a local park and had hit his head when he fell out of a tree. This tragic tale signified the moment at which I realized psychiatry was the only career path I could take.

An interesting tale, yes, but what does it tell you about the narrator? The following example takes the same anecdote and recasts it to make the narrator more of a presence in the story:

I was working in the Emergency Room at Wirth Memorial Hospital one night when a man walked in wearing a monkey costume and holding his head. I could tell he was confused and in pain. After a nurse asked him a few questions, I listened in surprise as he explained that he had been a monkey all of his life and knew that it was time to live with his brothers in the trees. Like many other patients I would see that year, this man suffered from an illness that only a combination of psychological and medical care would effectively treat. I realized then that I wanted to be able to help people by using that particular combination of skills only a psychiatrist develops.

The voice you use should be approachable as well as intelligent. This essay is not the place to stun your reader with ten prepositional phrases (“the goal of my study of the field of law in the winter of my discontent can best be understood by the gathering of more information about my youth”) and thirty nouns (“the research and study of the motivation behind my insights into the field of dentistry contains many pitfalls and disappointments but even more joy and enlightenment”) per sentence. (Note: If you are having trouble forming clear sentences without all the prepositions and nouns, take a look at our  handout on style .)

You may want to create an impression of expertise in the field by using specialized or technical language. But beware of this unless you really know what you are doing—a mistake will look twice as ignorant as not knowing the terms in the first place. Your audience may be smart, but you don’t want to make them turn to a dictionary or fall asleep between the first word and the period of your first sentence. Keep in mind that this is a personal statement. Would you think you were learning a lot about a person whose personal statement sounded like a journal article? Would you want to spend hours in a lab or on a committee with someone who shuns plain language?

Of course, you don’t want to be chatty to the point of making them think you only speak slang, either. Your audience may not know what “I kicked that lame-o to the curb for dissing my research project” means. Keep it casual enough to be easy to follow, but formal enough to be respectful of the audience’s intelligence.

Just use an honest voice and represent yourself as naturally as possible. It may help to think of the essay as a sort of face-to-face interview, only the interviewer isn’t actually present.

Too much style

A well-written, dramatic essay is much more memorable than one that fails to make an emotional impact on the reader. Good anecdotes and personal insights can really attract an audience’s attention. BUT be careful not to let your drama turn into melodrama. You want your reader to see your choices motivated by passion and drive, not hyperbole and a lack of reality. Don’t invent drama where there isn’t any, and don’t let the drama take over. Getting someone else to read your drafts can help you figure out when you’ve gone too far.

Taking risks

Many guides to writing application essays encourage you to take a risk, either by saying something off-beat or daring or by using a unique writing style. When done well, this strategy can work—your goal is to stand out from the rest of the applicants and taking a risk with your essay will help you do that. An essay that impresses your reader with your ability to think and express yourself in original ways and shows you really care about what you are saying is better than one that shows hesitancy, lack of imagination, or lack of interest.

But be warned: this strategy is a risk. If you don’t carefully consider what you are saying and how you are saying it, you may offend your readers or leave them with a bad impression of you as flaky, immature, or careless. Do not alienate your readers.

Some writers take risks by using irony (your suffering at the hands of a barbaric dentist led you to want to become a gentle one), beginning with a personal failure (that eventually leads to the writer’s overcoming it), or showing great imagination (one famous successful example involved a student who answered a prompt about past formative experiences by beginning with a basic answer—”I have volunteered at homeless shelters”—that evolved into a ridiculous one—”I have sealed the hole in the ozone layer with plastic wrap”). One student applying to an art program described the person he did not want to be, contrasting it with the person he thought he was and would develop into if accepted. Another person wrote an essay about her grandmother without directly linking her narrative to the fact that she was applying for medical school. Her essay was risky because it called on the reader to infer things about the student’s character and abilities from the story.

Assess your credentials and your likelihood of getting into the program before you choose to take a risk. If you have little chance of getting in, try something daring. If you are almost certainly guaranteed a spot, you have more flexibility. In any case, make sure that you answer the essay question in some identifiable way.

After you’ve written a draft

Get several people to read it and write their comments down. It is worthwhile to seek out someone in the field, perhaps a professor who has read such essays before. Give it to a friend, your mom, or a neighbor. The key is to get more than one point of view, and then compare these with your own. Remember, you are the one best equipped to judge how accurately you are representing yourself. For tips on putting this advice to good use, see our  handout on getting feedback .

After you’ve received feedback, revise the essay. Put it away. Get it out and revise it again (you can see why we said to start right away—this process may take time). Get someone to read it again. Revise it again.

When you think it is totally finished, you are ready to proofread and format the essay. Check every sentence and punctuation mark. You cannot afford a careless error in this essay. (If you are not comfortable with your proofreading skills, check out our  handout on editing and proofreading ).

If you find that your essay is too long, do not reformat it extensively to make it fit. Making readers deal with a nine-point font and quarter-inch margins will only irritate them. Figure out what material you can cut and cut it. For strategies for meeting word limits, see our  handout on writing concisely .

Finally, proofread it again. We’re not kidding.

Other resources

Don’t be afraid to talk to professors or professionals in the field. Many of them would be flattered that you asked their advice, and they will have useful suggestions that others might not have. Also keep in mind that many colleges and professional programs offer websites addressing the personal statement. You can find them either through the website of the school to which you are applying or by searching under “personal statement” or “application essays” using a search engine.

If your schedule and ours permit, we invite you to come to the Writing Center. Be aware that during busy times in the semester, we limit students to a total of two visits to discuss application essays and personal statements (two visits per student, not per essay); we do this so that students working on papers for courses will have a better chance of being seen. Make an appointment or submit your essay to our online writing center (note that we cannot guarantee that an online tutor will help you in time).

For information on other aspects of the application process, you can consult the resources at  University Career Services .

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the  UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Asher, Donald. 2012.  Graduate Admissions Essays: Write Your Way Into the Graduate School of Your Choice , 4th ed. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press.

Curry, Boykin, Emily Angel Baer, and Brian Kasbar. 2003.  Essays That Worked for College Applications: 50 Essays That Helped Students Get Into the Nation’s Top Colleges . New York: Ballantine Books.

Stelzer, Richard. 2002.  How to Write a Winning Personal Statement for Graduate and Professional School , 3rd ed. Lawrenceville, NJ: Thomson Peterson.

LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS

• Application Essays. By: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Located at:   https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/application-essays/ . License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License

Writing in Genres Copyright © 2023 by Stephanie Frame is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Writing a Statement of Purpose

Writing a statement of purpose can be a critical step in the graduate application process. Not all graduate programs require a statement of purpose, but if you are applying to one that does, you are strongly urged to begin the writing process early.

The criteria that make a statement of purpose effective may vary by discipline or program. Thus, knowing what is generally expected within your discipline or program of interest can help in determining how to approach content, structure, and style of writing.

What to Discuss in the Statement of Purpose

One of the primary objectives of the statement of purpose is to demonstrate that you have relevant experience (whether academic or professional) and promise in your chosen field of graduate study. Common topics of discussion include:

• Your relevant experience and background, which may include coursework, research experience, work experience in your field, and teaching/tutoring experience. 
• Your research and/or professional interests, for example the sub-field of your discipline that you hope to specialize in.
• Your reasons for pursuing graduate study.
• Your “fit” with the particular program. For example, if you are applying to a master's degree in social work with the future goal of serving young adults with substance abuse issues, and many professors in the department you're applying to are experts in substance abuse, then you and the program are a "good fit."
• Your future professional goals.
• Your experience working with diverse groups and/or any ways in which you belong to an under-represented or under-served population. This information is useful because most programs strive to admit a diverse class of new students. However, many schools also require a separate "diversity statement" (sometimes called a "personal statement"), in which case you should save this information for the diversity statement. 

As noted above, the exact details of what to include in the statement depend a lot on the particular program and field of study you are applying to. Make sure to check with your mentors and read reputable online sources (e.g., blogs run by prominent professors in your discipline) to learn more about what is expected. 

Resources for Writing Statements of Purpose

• Webpages:  The Graduate Writing Specialist at CSULB maintains an external site on academic writing, which includes helpful pages on (1) applying to grad school , (2) writing admissions essays (including statements of purpose), (3) FAQs about admissions essays , and (4) writing CVs and résumés . 

Sample Statement 1:  The following sample statement of purpose helped a student get admitted to several prestigious PhD programs in political science:  

Note:  Names have been changed for anonymity, and the sample includes commentary notes by the Graduate Writing Specialist.

• Sample Statements 2:  This collection of sample statements maintained by  Career Development and Alumni Engagement at CSU Channel Islands provides some helpful models from different disciplines.  Note:  When using samples, remember that no particular sample is perfect, and even a successful sample may have serious flaws. So, always use your best judgment and the advice of advisors/mentors in your field when crafting your essays. 

A "Skeleton" for Your Statement of Purpose:  The following document was developed by Graduate Center staff (writing specialist and coordinator) to assist you in structuring your statement of purpose:

Note:  Each discipline/program may have different expectations, so plan accordingly. For example, some programs have very detailed essay prompts with numbered questions. In these cases, follow the prompt rather than the skeleton document. The skeleton document is ideal for "generic" prompts with few details, for example: "Please explain your reasons for applying to this program, your preparations for graduate study, and your future goals."

Karen Kelsky's A+ Admissions Essays: Dr. Karen Kelsky, of the Professor Is In blog, offers the following excellent handout on writing admissions essays: 

Tip Sheet from Dr. Barri Gold (now at UPenn):  This handout (adapted from one by OK-LSAMP ) provides a wealth of tips and ideas for crafting effective statements of purpose for grad programs: 

Asking for Feedback

A great statement of purpose is one that is organized, clear, relevant, and speaks to your audience (i.e., the admissions committee). The statement of purpose is your introduction to the committee as a scholar and a potential colleague, and can be a determining factor in admission.

Thus, it is critical for you to receive timely and relevant feedback on your statement of purpose draft. Be sure to have multiple people read and offer comments on your statement of purpose. Share your statement with faculty members, particularly those writing letters of recommendation, and allow yourself ample time to write multiple drafts, keeping in mind that you may need to rewrite portions or entire drafts before it is finalized. 

The Graduate Center is available to provide feedback on your statement of purpose or other essays related to graduate admission by  submitting your materials to be reviewed . This service is free and available to everyone. You are also welcome to request an appointment with Graduate Center staff. 

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Want to see your chances of admission at California State University, Fullerton | CSU Fullerton?

We take every aspect of your personal profile into consideration when calculating your admissions chances.

California State University, Fullerton | CSU Fullerton’s 2023-24 Essay Prompts

Common app personal essay.

The essay demonstrates your ability to write clearly and concisely on a selected topic and helps you distinguish yourself in your own voice. What do you want the readers of your application to know about you apart from courses, grades, and test scores? Choose the option that best helps you answer that question and write an essay of no more than 650 words, using the prompt to inspire and structure your response. Remember: 650 words is your limit, not your goal. Use the full range if you need it, but don‘t feel obligated to do so.

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.

The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?

Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you‘ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

What will first-time readers think of your college essay?

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College Application Essay Writing

Description: With so many college applicants and admissions officers reviewing countless amounts of applications consisting of test scores and GPAs, it can be a challenge to stand out in the crowd. In this course, you will be provided with tips and resources about the college essay writing process in order to begin developing an engaging, professional college essay that will grab the admissions officer's attention and allow them to hear and be inspired by your story. We will discuss what college admissions officers are looking for in a college essay or personal statement and discuss tips for how to meet the word limit by diving into the importance of conveying particular and strategic meaning in writing. Finally, we will discuss how to write a concise, yet professional resume and cover letter and participate in mock interviews in order to get ahead in preparing for the post-college world.

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Undergraduate Research Opportunities Center

• Writing Strong Essays & Personal Statements

Writing Strong Essays & Personal Statements

Writing essays and personal statements represents a large part of the work that goes into creating a winning application. Here are the few tips that will help orient you to the purpose of these pieces of writing and get you started on composing essays and statements that will make your application shine.

Adapted from contributions by Tammy Hoyer (Senior Program Manager at the Undergraduate Research Center, University of California, Davis)

Why are essays and personal narratives so important?

First, although essays and personal narratives are just one piece out of an entire application packet – along with your GPA, test scores, letters of recommendation, and the relevant experience and skills in your resume – they are the one piece that gives you the opportunity to use your own voice and make a case for yourself . It’s like a pseudo-interview where the selection committee gets the idea of who you are through your own words and presentation. A well-written essay or statement may prove to be the deciding factor that wins you a letter of acceptance!

Second, essays and personal narratives give you the opportunity to convey information that the selection committee will find compelling in making its decision about your application. Specifically, this is your chance to describe why the opportunity you are applying for is important to you, how it fits into your aspirations, and how it will help you achieve academic ambitions and professional goals . When a reader is done reading your essays and personal statements, they should be able to easily ascertain:

• the origin of your interest in a field of study
• the growth of that interest over a period of time (as illustrated by experience)
• that the opportunity you are applying for is the next logical step in the sequence toward a specific goal.

Third, essays and personal narratives give you the opportunity to address what might appear to be gaps or weakness in other aspects of your application. Here is your opportunity to turn weaknesses into strengths. For example, if you nearly flunked out of school in your freshman year, highlight how you have turned your work and grades around since: "Although a lack of focus caused my grades to suffer during my freshman year, my transcript from more recent semesters reflects a significant improvement in my grades and demonstrates a commitment to my work and a level of readiness for [the opportunity you are applying for]." If there was a significant life event that caused that lack of focus, explain it (but don't offer excuses). Selection committees understand that some things in life are beyond our control. They just want to know what you did about it. How you handled a challenge and came back strong can speak very well for you.

And lastly, these writing pieces serve as a writing sample . They should be well organized, concise, and completely free of grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors.

So how do I craft a strong piece of writing?

A strong piece of writing starts with developing the content, addresses the questions asked, and ends with polishing the spelling, grammar and formatting to perfection. Here are some guidelines and strategies that will help you with the process.

• Start early, plan well, and give yourself the luxury of enough time. Putting together a strong application takes time and effort – and it’s time and effort that has to fit in around all your other schoolwork! Giving yourself enough time lowers the stress throughout the process and results in better, stronger final drafts. It allows you to tackle the writing in bits and pieces. It allows you the time you need to go through a series of drafts. And it allows the writing to develop naturally and grow into a final draft without your having to force the issue. Believe it or not, your brain thinks about these things even when you are not working on them directly! Make it easy for yourself and support your efforts to succeed by giving yourself enough time.
• Ask your professors, advisors, and mentors to read your drafts and offer input.
• Ask your friends and family to proofread.
• Establish your voice . Your tone in the essay should reflect what is special, unique, distinctive or impressive about you. Find a tone of voice that is confident without sounding arrogant. If you are addressing what might be otherwise perceived as weaknesses in your application, there is no need to make excuses or sound contrite or apologetic. Usually, a straightforward tone will serve you best. Just state what affected your performance and follow up with what you did to improve the situation.
• Answer the question . When you are posed with a specific question or topic, stay on point and answer the question or address the topic!
• What are your academic or research interests? You might indicate an interest in a particular time period or author, or address one or two questions or problems in your chosen field. Remember that you will be working under or alongside professors in research. It is important that there is a good parallel in academic interests. At the early undergraduate level, this good parallel might be demonstrated simply by the curiosity, enthusiasm and motivation you demonstrate toward the broad disciplinary area in which the professor conducts research. Later on in your undergraduate and graduate career, it will be important to show a closer match between your interests or field of study and the particular sub-discipline or narrow area of research the professor is pursuing.
• How did you become interested in this field or research? Writing about how you became interested in a field establishes the beginning point of your interest and lets you go on to show how you have taken positive steps in pursuing your interest. You might talk about how a teacher or professor, or a life experience, first sparked your interest.
• What kind of activities or experiences have you had that have contributed toward your interest in, preparation for, or understanding of this field or research area? You can order your narrative here chronologically, or you could group experiences into categories such as internships, work experience, summer research experiences, community service, or life experiences. Make sure you describe what these experiences taught you either about yourself or about the subject matter that stimulated your interest in pursuing the field or research further.
• What are your aspirations? Whether you are an undergrad applying to a summer research program or graduate program, or a grad student applying for a postdoc position, you need to be able to paint the picture of what you are interested in, what next and where you hope to go. What are your goals? Then, tie those goals and aspirations in to what this opportunity you are applying for has to offer. Make it clear how this opportunity is the logical next step in reaching your goals.

Additional Resources

• Definition of Personal Statement for Fellowships and Grad School
• Writing the Personal Statement - Exercises to start writing
• Writing the Personal Statement - What should it include?
• Writing the Personal Statement for Grad School
• Writing for External Fellowships
• Tips for answering Short Essay Questions
• Tips to overcome Writer's Block

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