Most applications are rejected if they look generic or the applicant appears uninformed about the target program. Your strategic goal is to demonstrate that you understand what they are about, and that your qualifications, values, and interests are a match for them. So don’t start writing yet—not until you’ve clarified this match for yourself.
You are more than a research project. Spend some time reflecting on your experiences and values. What do you care about? Why do you need this fellowship to accomplish your ulterior objectives?
Think beyond the technical space as well. If you only have one summer research internship because you spent your summers mentoring under-served high school students, use that to demonstrate your commitment to service and diversity. If you discovered a passion for fusion energy in your senior year and all your previous experience was optimized for an industry job, show that excitement to the committee. Whether it’s growing up on a farm, hiking the Appalachian Trail, or leading a high school robotics team, these experiences can be used to demonstrate motivation, commitment, and a good work ethic. These are attributes that can help you be successful in research.
Take the time to carefully read about the program. Consider the goals of a fellowship and pay attention to any special requirements (e.g. Broader Impacts and Intellectual Merit for NSF applications) as well as any tips they might offer on their websites.
As for t he backgrounds of the actual reviewers, the evaluating committee may vary from non-technical readers to specialists in your scientific niche. Usually, they are academics from your broad area of science (e.g., nuclear engineering) but not from your specific area (e.g., thermal hydraulics). Consider this as you choose the details and vocabulary to describe your current and former research and activities.
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As long as you stay within the specifications set by your target program, you have the freedom to structure your personal statement as you wish. Some programs have specific prompts seeking 300–500-word answers, and others ask for 2–3-page statements.
Build a personal narrative that ties together y our personal history, experiences, and motivations. In addition to a few paragraphs (2–3) at the beginning of your statement, you can weave your motivation and goals throughout your document to create a cohesive story. This cements your identity into the minds of the reviewer. If they remember you, they will be more likely to accept you!
This section is typically 3–6 paragraphs long, with a few examples to illustrate your point. To decide which experiences to share, ask yourself these two questions:
1. In which ways did this experience help me grow? One common mistake is to describe an experience in great detail and fail to translate it into skills or qualifications. Instead, explicitly say what that experience means for your future goals. Ex: Building a fusor in high school has prepared you for laboratory work, or volunteering with a recycling program shows your dedication to protecting the environment. More details here.
2. Why should the review committee care? Make it very clear that you are a match for their program. Tie your experiences and their meaning directly to the qualities that the fellowship program is looking for in successful applicants. For NSF GRFP applications, you’ll need to have explicit sections for Broader Impacts and Intellectual Merit. Be sure to explain how you and your project will fulfill these two goals.
Spend 1-2 paragraphs describing your research goals. Depending on the application, you may or may not have a specific research statement. If you have a separate research statement , save the more specific research topics for that document, and reference them in your personal statement. If there’s no research statement, you should briefly summarize the projects you want to work on, and how those fit in with your experiences.
Wrap up by looking into the future. Your long-term career goals should be a logical completion of the personal narrative you’ve built throughout the document, and usually takes up one paragraph. Will you leverage the fellowship to explore new and impactful ideas without established funding? Will you be able to engage in public outreach and education more easily with a secure source of funding? Answering these questions will show that you are forward-thinking and will put the fellowship to good use.
Now that you’ve got the main pieces down, revise your document to maximize its impact.
Make your relevant experiences tangible by stating specific outcomes such as awards, discoveries, and publications. Whenever possible, try to quantify the experience. How many people were on your team? How many protocols did you develop? As a TA, how often did you meet with your students? Here are some examples of vague and concrete experiences:
My mind was opened to the possibility of using different programming languages together to create code that is faster to run and easier to understand and modify. | During this project, I collaborated with other group members to develop a user-friendly Python wrapper for a 10,000-line Fortran library. |
I won the physics department’s Laser Focus prize. | I won the physics department’s prize for the top student in my cohort of 20 students. |
I learned about how particle accelerators work. | I took apart and repaired two electromagnetic steering filters inside of a particle accelerator. |
Your goal in sharing your experiences is to demonstrate that you have the qualifications, qualities, and promise found in successful recipients of that specific fellowship. Therefore, you will need to not only choose experiences wisely but also state specifically what they mean within the context of your application.
“As a senior, I received an A in a graduate-level CFD course.” | “My advanced coursework demonstrates my ability to thrive in a challenging academic environment. A graduate-level computational fluid dynamics course challenged me to…” |
“I independently developed a digital data acquisition software for gamma spectroscopy.” | “My research experiences have developed my problem-solving abilities. When the commercial software was insufficient for my gamma spectroscopy project, I … This has given me the confidence and software skills to attack open-ended research problems.” |
Your current education level should influence the tone and topics you address in your statement. For instance, the NSF GRFP accepts applications from three levels of students: senior undergraduates, first-year graduate students, and second-year graduate students. The tone and specificity of your application should reflect your level. While senior undergrads can write generally about their future goals, second-year graduate students should write about specific progress towards career goals.
Consider labeling your sections to show the structure of your statement. These will guide the reviewer through your document and explicitly call attention to sections where you answer questions from the application material. In an NSF research proposal, “Intellectual Merit” and “Broader Impacts” section headers are specifically requested.
Selection criteria can vary from year to year. Be sure to follow the most up-to-date guidelines provided by your target fellowship program, especially if you are referencing older examples. You can also find examples from across different disciplines here (scroll to the bottom).
Personal statement from a successful NSF GRFP application. In particular, note the use of section headers to break up the statement. | Personal statement from a successful NNSA SSGF application. This statement focuses less on the individual and more on the “intellectual excitement” about the research. |
To get started or receive feedback on your fellowship personal statement, make an appointment with one of us. We would love to help you!
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Published on February 12, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on July 3, 2023.
A personal statement is a short essay of around 500–1,000 words, in which you tell a compelling story about who you are, what drives you, and why you’re applying.
To write a successful personal statement for a graduate school application , don’t just summarize your experience; instead, craft a focused narrative in your own voice. Aim to demonstrate three things:
This article guides you through some winning strategies to build a strong, well-structured personal statement for a master’s or PhD application. You can download the full examples below.
Urban Planning Psychology History
Getting started with your personal statement, the introduction: start with an attention-grabbing opening, the main body: craft your narrative, the conclusion: look ahead, revising, editing, and proofreading your personal statement, frequently asked questions, other interesting articles.
Before you start writing, the first step is to understand exactly what’s expected of you. If the application gives you a question or prompt for your personal statement, the most important thing is to respond to it directly.
For example, you might be asked to focus on the development of your personal identity; challenges you have faced in your life; or your career motivations. This will shape your focus and emphasis—but you still need to find your own unique approach to answering it.
There’s no universal template for a personal statement; it’s your chance to be creative and let your own voice shine through. But there are strategies you can use to build a compelling, well-structured story.
The first paragraph of your personal statement should set the tone and lead smoothly into the story you want to tell.
An effective way to catch the reader’s attention is to set up a scene that illustrates something about your character and interests. If you’re stuck, try thinking about:
To write an effective scene, try to go beyond straightforward description; start with an intriguing sentence that pulls the reader in, and give concrete details to create a convincing atmosphere.
To emphasize your enthusiasm and commitment, you can start by explaining your interest in the subject you want to study or the career path you want to follow.
Just stating that it interests you isn’t enough: first, you need to figure out why you’re interested in this field:
Once you’ve set up the main themes of your personal statement, you’ll delve into more detail about your experiences and motivations.
To structure the body of your personal statement, there are various strategies you can use.
One of the simplest strategies is to give a chronological overview of key experiences that have led you to apply for graduate school.
Don’t try to include absolutely everything you’ve done—pick out highlights that are relevant to your application. Aim to craft a compelling narrative that shows how you’ve changed and actively developed yourself.
My interest in psychology was first sparked early in my high school career. Though somewhat scientifically inclined, I found that what interested me most was not the equations we learned about in physics and chemistry, but the motivations and perceptions of my fellow students, and the subtle social dynamics that I observed inside and outside the classroom. I wanted to learn how our identities, beliefs, and behaviours are shaped through our interactions with others, so I decided to major in Social Psychology. My undergraduate studies deepened my understanding of, and fascination with, the interplay between an individual mind and its social context.During my studies, I acquired a solid foundation of knowledge about concepts like social influence and group dynamics, but I also took classes on various topics not strictly related to my major. I was particularly interested in how other fields intersect with psychology—the classes I took on media studies, biology, and literature all enhanced my understanding of psychological concepts by providing different lenses through which to look at the issues involved.
If your path to graduate school hasn’t been easy or straightforward, you can turn this into a strength, and structure your personal statement as a story of overcoming obstacles.
Don’t focus too heavily on negatives, but use them to highlight your positive qualities. Resilience, resourcefulness and perseverance make you a promising graduate school candidate.
Growing up working class, urban decay becomes depressingly familiar. The sight of a row of abandoned houses does not surprise me, but it continues to bother me. Since high school, I have been determined to pursue a career in urban planning. While people of my background experience the consequences of urban planning decisions first-hand, we are underrepresented in the field itself. Ironically, given my motivation, my economic background has made my studies challenging. I was fortunate enough to be awarded a scholarship for my undergraduate studies, but after graduation I took jobs in unrelated fields to help support my parents. In the three years since, I have not lost my ambition. Now I am keen to resume my studies, and I believe I can bring an invaluable perspective to the table: that of the people most impacted by the decisions of urban planners.
Especially if you’re applying for a PhD or another research-focused program, it’s a good idea to show your familiarity with the subject and the department. Your personal statement can focus on the area you want to specialize in and reflect on why it matters to you.
The personal statement isn’t a research proposal , so don’t go overboard on detail—but it’s a great opportunity to show your enthusiasm for the field and your capacity for original thinking.
In applying for this research program, my intention is to build on the multidisciplinary approach I have taken in my studies so far, combining knowledge from disparate fields of study to better understand psychological concepts and issues. The Media Psychology program stands out to me as the perfect environment for this kind of research, given its researchers’ openness to collaboration across diverse fields. I am impressed by the department’s innovative interdisciplinary projects that focus on the shifting landscape of media and technology, and I hope that my own work can follow a similarly trailblazing approach. More specifically, I want to develop my understanding of the intersection of psychology and media studies, and explore how media psychology theories and methods might be applied to neurodivergent minds. I am interested not only in media psychology but also in psychological disorders, and how the two interact. This is something I touched on during my undergraduate studies and that I’m excited to delve into further.
Especially if you’re applying for a more professionally-oriented program (such as an MBA), it’s a good idea to focus on concrete goals and how the program will help you achieve them.
Don’t just state the position you want to achieve. You should demonstrate that you’ve put plenty of thought into your career plans and show why you’re well-suited to this profession.
One thing that fascinated me about the field during my undergraduate studies was the sheer number of different elements whose interactions constitute a person’s experience of an urban environment. Any number of factors could transform the scene I described at the beginning: What if there were no bus route? Better community outreach in the neighborhood? Worse law enforcement? More or fewer jobs available in the area? Some of these factors are out of the hands of an urban planner, but without taking them all into consideration, the planner has an incomplete picture of their task. Through further study I hope to develop my understanding of how these disparate elements combine and interact to create the urban environment. I am interested in the social, psychological and political effects our surroundings have on our lives. My studies will allow me to work on projects directly affecting the kinds of working-class urban communities I know well. I believe I can bring my own experiences, as well as my education, to bear upon the problem of improving infrastructure and quality of life in these communities.
Your conclusion should bring the focus back to the program and what you hope to get out of it, whether that’s developing practical skills, exploring intellectual questions, or both.
Emphasize the fit with your specific interests, showing why this program would be the best way to achieve your aims.
If you’re applying for a more academic or research-focused program, end on a note of curiosity: what do you hope to learn, and why do you think this is the best place to learn it?
If there are specific classes or faculty members that you’re excited to learn from, this is the place to express your enthusiasm.
If you’re applying for a program that focuses more on professional training, your conclusion can look to your career aspirations: what role do you want to play in society, and why is this program the best choice to help you get there?
You’ll be expected to do a lot of writing in graduate school, so make a good first impression: leave yourself plenty of time to revise and polish the text.
Your style doesn’t have to be as formal as other kinds of academic writing, but it should be clear, direct and coherent. Make sure that each paragraph flows smoothly from the last, using topic sentences and transitions to create clear connections between each part.
Don’t be afraid to rewrite and restructure as much as necessary. Since you have a lot of freedom in the structure of a personal statement, you can experiment and move information around to see what works best.
Finally, it’s essential to carefully proofread your personal statement and fix any language errors. Before you submit your application, consider investing in professional personal statement editing . For $150, you have the peace of mind that your personal statement is grammatically correct, strong in term of your arguments, and free of awkward mistakes.
A statement of purpose is usually more formal, focusing on your academic or professional goals. It shouldn’t include anything that isn’t directly relevant to the application.
A personal statement can often be more creative. It might tell a story that isn’t directly related to the application, but that shows something about your personality, values, and motivations.
However, both types of document have the same overall goal: to demonstrate your potential as a graduate student and s how why you’re a great match for the program.
The typical length of a personal statement for graduate school applications is between 500 and 1,000 words.
Different programs have different requirements, so always check if there’s a minimum or maximum length and stick to the guidelines. If there is no recommended word count, aim for no more than 1-2 pages.
If you’re applying to multiple graduate school programs, you should tailor your personal statement to each application.
Some applications provide a prompt or question. In this case, you might have to write a new personal statement from scratch: the most important task is to respond to what you have been asked.
If there’s no prompt or guidelines, you can re-use the same idea for your personal statement – but change the details wherever relevant, making sure to emphasize why you’re applying to this specific program.
If the application also includes other essays, such as a statement of purpose , you might have to revise your personal statement to avoid repeating the same information.
If you want to know more about college essays , academic writing , and AI tools , make sure to check out some of our other language articles with explanations, examples, and quizzes.
College essays
Academic writing
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What’s covered:, what is the purpose of the scholarship personal statement, what to include in your personal statement, personal statement example: breakdown + analysis, how to make sure your writing is effective.
Either before or after you’ve gotten into your dream school, you’ll have to figure out how to pay for it. For most students, this involves a combination of financial aid, parent contributions, self-contributions, student loans, and scholarships/grants. Because scholarships are money out of someone else’s pocket that you never have to pay back, they are a great place to start!
Scholarships come in two forms: merit-based and need-based. Need-based scholarships are also often called grants. These designations tell you whether an organization looks at your financial situation when deciding about your scholarship.
Additionally, different scholarships fall under different categories based on the mission of the organization or person providing the scholarship’s financing. These missions typically emphasize different things like academic achievement, specific career goals, community service, leadership, family background, skill in the arts, or having overcome hardship. As you select scholarships to apply for and complete your applications, you should keep these missions in mind.
No matter what type of scholarship you are applying for, you will be asked to provide the review committee with standard materials. This includes your transcript, GPA, and resume/extracurriculars, but also, importantly, your personal statement. A scholarship personal statement is a bit different from your normal college essay, so we’ve put together this guide and some examples to help you get started!
The purpose of your personal statement is to help a review committee learn more about your personality, values, goals, and what makes you special. Ultimately, like with your college essays, you are trying to humanize your profile beyond your transcript, GPA, and test scores.
College essays all have one goal in mind (which is why you can apply to multiple schools at once through applications like the Common App or Coalition App): convince admissions officers that you would be a valuable addition to the university environment. The goal of your scholarship personal statement is different and differs more from one scholarship to the next. Rather than convincing various review committees that you are a generally good candidate for extra funding for college, you need to convince each review committee that your values have historically aligned with their organization’s mission and will continue to align with their organization’s mission.
Common missions amongst those who give scholarships include:
If a specific mission like this is outlined on an organization’s website or in the promotional material for its scholarship, the purpose of your personal statement is to show how you exemplify that mission.
Some scholarships ask for your personal statement to be guided by a prompt, while others leave things open for interpretation. When you are provided a prompt, it is obvious what you must do: answer the prompt. When you are not provided a prompt, you want to write a personal statement that is essentially a small-scale autobiography where you position yourself as a good investment. In either case, you should identify a focus or theme for what you are trying to say about yourself so that your application does not get lost in the shuffle.
Prompts include questions like:
If you are provided a prompt, develop a theme for your response that showcases both your values and your achievements. This will help your essay feel focused and will subsequently help the review committee to remember which candidate you were as they deliberate.
Themes include things like:
Without a prompt, clarity can be harder to achieve. That said, it is of the utmost importance that you find a focus. First, think about both your goals and your values.
Types of goals include:
Values could include:
After you write out your goals/values, write out your achievements to see what goals/values you have “proof” of your commitment to. Your essay will ultimately be an exploration of your goal/value, what you have done about your goal/value in the past, and what you aspire to in the future.
You might be tempted to reflect on areas for improvement, but scholarships care about you living out your values. It is not enough to aspire to be exemplary in leadership, community service, or your academic field. For scholarships, you have to already be exemplary.
Finally, keep in mind that the review committee likely already has a copy of your extracurricular activities and involvement. Pick one or two accomplishments, then strive for depth, not breadth as you explore them.
My interest in the field of neuroscience began at a young age. When I was twelve years old, my sister developed a condition called Pseudotumor Cerebri following multiple concussions during a basketball game. It took the doctors over six months to make a proper diagnosis, followed by three years of treatment before she recovered. During this time, my love for neuroscience was sparked as I began to research her condition and, then, other neurocognitive conditions. Later, my love of neuroscience was amplified when my mother began to suffer from brain-related health issues. My mother had been a practicing attorney in Dallas for over twenty years. She was a determined litigator who relentlessly tried difficult cases that changed people’s lives. Now, she suffers from a cognitive impairment and is no longer able to practice law. Oftentimes, she has headaches, she gets “cloudy,” her executive functioning slows down, she feels overwhelmed, and she forgets things. My mother has gone from being the strong, confident, emotional and financial caretaker of our family to needing significant help on a daily basis. Once again, with this illness came a lot of research on my part — research that encouraged me to pursue my dreams of exploring neuroscience.
Due to my experiences with my mother and sister when I was in middle school, I knew that I wanted to make a difference in the field of neuroscience. I also knew that, to obtain this goal, I needed to maintain superior grades in school while also pursuing opportunities outside of school to further my education. In school, I was able to maintain superior grades to the point where I am currently valedictorian in a class of 567 students. In addition, in school, I challenged myself by taking 16 Advanced Placement classes and 19 Honors classes. Two of the most beneficial classes were AP Capstone Seminar and AP Capstone Research. AP Capstone Seminar and AP Capstone Research are research-oriented classes where students are given the opportunity to pursue whatever track their research takes them down. As a junior in AP Capstone Seminar, I researched the effects of harmful pesticide use on the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in children. This year, as a senior in AP Capstone Research, I am learning about the effects of medical marijuana on the treatment of Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
Outside of school, I furthered my education through taking advantage of the Duke TiP summer program. Duke TiP is a summer program run by Duke University where students who score extremely well on the SAT as middle schoolers are able to take college classes at different universities throughout the summers of their middle school and high school years. I took advantage of this opportunity twice. First, I went to Trinity University in San Antonio to expand my horizons and learn more about debate. However, once I was done exploring, I decided I wanted to go into neuroscience. This led me to take an Abnormal Psychology class at Duke University’s West Campus. This class opened my eyes to the interaction between neuroscience and mental health, mental illness, and personality. Years later, I am currently continuing my education outside of school as an intern at the University of Texas Dallas Center for Brain Health. Through this internship, I have been able to see different aspects of neuroscience including brain pattern testing, virtual reality therapy, and longitudinal research studies. With this background, I have positioned myself to be accepted by top neuroscience programs throughout the nation. So far, I have been accepted to the neuroscience department of University of Southern California, the University of Virginia, the University of Texas, and Southern Methodist University, as well as the chemistry department at University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.
It is with this passion for neuroscience driven by my family and passion for education driven by internal motivation that I will set out to conquer my career objectives. My educational aspirations consist of acquiring a bachelor’s degree in a biological or health science that would assist me in pursuing a medical career as a neuroscience researcher. I decided to attain a career as a researcher since my passion has always been assisting others and trying to improve their quality of life. After obtaining my Masters and my PhD, I plan to become a professor at a prestigious university and continue performing lab research on cognitive disorders. I am particularly interested in disorders such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In the lab, I hope to find different therapies and medications to help treat the 3.5 million people around the world suffering from ASD. Furthermore, I want to contribute back to underserved populations that struggle because they do not have as much access to medical assistance as other privileged groups. As such, I hope to do a part of my research in less developed or developing Spanish-speaking countries. This will also allow me to pursue my love of Spanish while pursuing my love of neuroscience. I think that following such a career path will provide me the opportunity to learn about the medical needs of the autistic community and improve their quality of health. Furthermore, I hope to train a new generation of students to strive to research and make comparable discoveries. Whether it be through virtual reality labs or new drug discoveries, I believe that research leads to innovation which leads to a brighter future.
This student does a great job of making themself appear competent and dedicated to the field of neuroscience. This is primarily because they provided tangible evidence of how they have pursued their dedication in the past—through their AP Capstone courses, their Abnormal Psychology class at Duke TiP, and their internship at UTD. There is no doubt in the mind of a reader that this student is high-achieving.
This student also engages successfully with a past-future trajectory, where they end with a vision of how they will continue to use neuroscience in the future. This helps the review committee see what they are investing in and the ways that their money will go to good use.
This student has two major areas for improvement. As we have said, the purpose of a personal statement is for a student to humanize themself to a review committee. This student struggles to depict themself separately from their academic achievements. A solution to this would be for the student to establish a theme towards the beginning of their essay that relates to both their values as a human and their achievements.
At the beginning of the essay, the student explores how their interest in neuroscience began. They explain their interest through the following sentences: “During this time, my love for neuroscience was sparked as I began to research her condition and, then, other neurocognitive conditions” and “Once again, with this illness came a lot of research on my part — research that encouraged me to pursue my dreams of exploring neuroscience.” The student made the great decision to tell the backstory of their interest, but they described their research in very mundane and redundant terms. Instead, they could have focused on their value of intellectual curiosity as a magnetic force that encouraged them to research their mother and sister’s ailments. Curiosity, then, could serve as a value-related thematic throughline to taking AP Capstone classes, taking college courses during the summer that weren’t required, and interning before even graduating high school.
A second area for improvement would be avoiding statistics. As the student identifies their valedictorian status and the number of AP classes they have taken, they might turn away certain personalities on a review committee by appearing braggy. Even further, these statistics are a waste of space. The review committee already has access to this information. These words distract from the major theme of the essay and would have been better used to humanize the student.
Throughout my academic career, I have been an avid scholar, constantly pushing myself towards ambitious goals. I held and continue to hold myself to a high standard, enrolling myself in rigorous curriculum, including Honors and Advanced Placement courses to stretch my mental potential. During my junior year of high school, I took four AP tests, two on the same day, and earned the AP Scholar with Honor Award. Additionally, I received the Letter of Commendation for the PSAT/NMSQT, and qualified for Rotary Top 100 Students both my freshman and senior year, a sign of my commitment to my studies. However, school has not been all about having the best GPA for me; beyond the numbers, I have a deep drive to learn which motivates me to do well academically. I truly enjoy learning new things, whether it be a new essay style or a math theorem. I always give each class my best effort and try my hardest on every assignment. My teachers have noticed this as well, and I have received school Lancer Awards and Student of the Month recognitions as a result. It is a major goal of mine to continue to aspire towards a high level of achievement regarding future educational and occupational endeavors; I plan on continuing this level of dedication throughout my educational career and implementing the skills I have learned and will learn into my college experience and beyond.
This fall, I will begin attending the University of California Los Angeles as an English major. I chose this major because I am fascinated by written language, especially its ability to convey powerful messages and emotions. I also enjoy delving into the works of other authors to analyze specific components of their writing to discover the meaning behind their words. In particular, I cannot wait to begin in-depth literary criticism and learn new stylistic techniques to add more depth to my writing. Furthermore, I recently went to UCLA’s Bruin Day, an event for incoming freshmen, where I was exposed to many different extracurriculars, some of which really piqued my interest. I plan on joining the Writing Success Program, where I can help students receive free writing help, and Mock Trial, where I can debate issues with peers in front of a real judge. The latter, combined with a strong writing background from my undergraduate English studies will be extremely beneficial because I plan to apply to law school after my undergraduate degree. As of now, my career goal is to become a civil rights lawyer, to stand up for those who are discriminated against and protect minority groups to proliferate equality.
As a lawyer, I wish to utilize legislation to ameliorate the plight of the millions of Americans who feel prejudice and help them receive equity in the workplace, society, and so on. Though this seems a daunting task, I feel that my work ethic and past experience will give me the jumpstart I need to establish myself as a successful lawyer and give a voice to those who are often unheard in today’s legal system. I have been a Girl Scout for over a decade and continually participate in community service for the homeless, elderly, veterans, and more. My most recent project was the Gold Award, which I conducted in the Fullerton School District. I facilitated over ten workshops where junior high students taught elementary pupils STEM principles such as density and aerodynamics via creative activities like building aluminum boats and paper airplanes. I also work at Kumon, a tutoring center, where I teach students to advance their academic success. I love my job, and helping students from local schools reach their potential fills me with much pride.
Both being a Girl Scout and working at Kumon have inspired me to help those in need, contributing significantly to my desire to become a lawyer and aid others. My extracurriculars have allowed me to gain a new perspective on both learning and teaching, and have solidified my will to help the less fortunate. In college, I hope to continue to gain knowledge and further develop my leadership skills, amassing qualities that will help me assist others. I plan to join multiple community service clubs, such as UCLA’s local outreach programs that directly aid residents of Los Angeles. I want to help my fellow pupils as well, and plan on volunteering at peer tutoring and peer editing programs on campus. After college, during my career, I want to use legal tactics to assist the underdog and take a chance on those who are often overlooked for opportunities. I wish to represent those that are scared to seek out help or cannot afford it. Rather than battling conflict with additional conflict, I want to implement peaceful but strong, efficient tactics that will help make my state, country, and eventually the world more welcoming to people of all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. These goals are close to my heart and therefore I will be as diligent as I am passionate about them. My perseverance and love for learning and community service drive my ambition in both education and life as a whole, and the drive to make the world a better place is one that I will carry with me for my entire life.
This student emphasizes two values in this essay: hard work and community service. These are values that go together nicely, and definitely make sense with this student’s end goal of becoming a civil rights lawyer! That said, some changes could be made to the way the student presents their values that would make their personal statement more convincing and engaging.
Structurally, instead of using a past-future trajectory, this student starts by explaining their academic achievements, then explains their career goals, then explains their history of community service, then explains their future desires for community service. This structure loses the reader. Instead, the student should have started with either the past or the future.
This could look like 1) identifying their career goals, 2) explaining that hard work and a commitment to community service are necessary to get there, and 3) explaining that they aren’t worried because of their past commitment to hard work and community service. Or it could look like 1) providing examples of their hard work and community service in the past, then 2) explaining how those values will help them achieve their career goals.
Additionally, like with our other example, this student shows a heavy investment in statistics and spouting off accomplishments. This can be unappealing. Unfortunately, even when the student recognizes that they are doing this, writing “beyond the numbers, I have a deep drive to learn which motivates me to do well academically. I truly enjoy learning new things, whether it be a new essay style or a math theorem,” they continue on to cite their achievements, writing “My teachers have noticed this as well, and I have received school Lancer Awards and Student of the Month recognitions as a result.” They say they are going beyond the numbers, but they don’t go beyond the awards. They don’t look inward. One way to fix this would be to make community service the theme around which the essay operates, supplementing with statistics in ways that advance the image of the student as dedicated to community service.
Finally, this student would be more successful if they varied their sentence structure. While a small-scale autobiography can be good, if organized, every sentence should not begin with ‘I.’ The essay still needs to be engaging or the review committee might stop reading.
Feedback is ultimately any writer’s best source of improvement! To get your personal statement edited for free, use our Peer Review Essay Tool . With this tool, other students can tell you if your scholarship essay is effective and help you improve your essay so that you can have the best chances of gaining those extra funds!
Arts & Sciences
Washington University Fellowships Advising
The personal statement is an essay designed to give the reader a sense of who you are and how closely your goals and strengths match the ideals of a specific fellowship. While such writing offers a great deal of compositional flexibility, it should clearly address some basic points:
The most effective statements focus on:
A selection committee generally reads hundreds of applications in a short period of time. Readers are looking for essays that:
provide substantive and relevant information
Write down two or three experiences that have shaped who you are. Write down two or three significant problems you have faced and how you solved them. Then look for patterns.
Now take a look at your transcript.
Consult with a fellowship advisor for essay writing tips. Try several different approaches until you find the right fit. Revise, revise, revise! If you need help with structure, visit a mentor in the Writing Center . As you draft your essay, share it with people who know you well and ask if it captures you accurately. Be sure to show your essay to faculty advisors and recommenders before submitting a final version.
Before soliciting feedback, however, make sure to review the policies of the scholarship for which you are applying. Some programs, such as Rhodes and Mitchell, do not allow students to receive outside feedback on their application materials.
Weak essays generally share one or more of the following characteristics:
In personal statement samples for scholarships.
Here is the personal statement of an applicant who got admitted on a fellowship to the MIT Sloan fellows MBA program . This fellowship paid for the complete tuition fee, the cost of living, and the cost of health insurance. In addition, the MIT fellowship covered the entire program duration, which was one year.
For the fellowship personal statement, MIT poses several questions to applicants, which the admissions committee expects to be answered in an essay form. MIT provides these personal statement prompts to encourage students to self-reflect and share their insights with the program.
In this Article
Fellowship personal statement prompt 2, fellowship personal statement prompt 3.
What are your short-term and long-term professional objectives for attending the program? Specifically, please indicate your objectives and how they fit with the purposes of the Program. How would your unique background contribute to the diversity of the Fellows community?
Ten years of diverse experience driving commercial functions of Fortune 500 firms has established me as a well-versed sales leader. To further enrich my experience, I intend to work on international assignments as a sales expert in global consultancy firms. This career progression would help me understand the corporate DNA of various organizations across industries spread around the world. After receiving adequate multi-faceted exposure in global consultancy, my ultimate objective is to land back in my home country and lead any sales and distribution company as a C-level executive and derive satisfaction by positively influencing the lives of employees and their families, customers, and business partners and the society at large.
I am inclined to the MIT fellowship program as its core philosophy of innovation and leadership resonates with my key strengths and career background. My undergraduate studies in computer sciences and my initial work experience in the software industry imbued in me the significance of framing systems and structures to enhance an organization’s performance capabilities. My undergrad from the top business school in Switzerland and my experience in key leadership roles in commercial functions of fortune 500 companies further polished my leadership skills.
Because learning innovations in technology and leading diverse teams have been the key motivating factors for me, the more I read about the fellowship program, the more I feel I belong here. This program would also provide a window to the world and make me more relevant and worthy of consideration for international positions. As I aim to work internationally, this program is the perfect platform to develop the knowledge, skills, and network I need. By traveling to essential centers of enterprise and government during the Seminar in a Leadership course, having direct interactions with world-class leaders through Dean’s Innovative Leader Series, and networking with classmates coming from 30+ different nations, I would gain the essential exposure needed to become a globally relevant team lead.
Not only is the fellowship program a perfect fit for me, but I am also confident I could enrich other fellows’ experiences. My personality reflects my culture, religion, and family values, and my presence in the cohort will help my fellows learn more about this part of the world. Because Singapore is one of the fastest-growing markets internationally, understanding how the business operates in this area would be invaluable to anyone wanting to work internationally. Having spent most of my life in Singapore and Malaysia, I possess deep knowledge of its indigenous culture, the opportunities this land offers, and the challenges companies face. My experience would help others understand the application of innovation and leadership from the perspective of a small country.
I started my career as a software engineer, firmly believing in systems and processes, but my career taught me the importance of people in an organization. The experiences from this transition from a system enthusiast to a transformational leader have stories worth sharing.
Give an example of how you have used your strengths to demonstrate leadership. Now consider the leader you aspire to be – what areas of personal development do you want to focus on in this fellows program to become that leader?
During my career at Nestle, Singapore, I developed a strong reputation for being a change agent and a leader of high competence and integrity. Because of this, I was handed the extraordinary task of rejuvenating the biggest region in constant negative growth. The management gave me complete autonomy to get the house in order.
My leadership style was very transformational. I articulated my vision to become number one and then motivated people to turn this vision into reality. Being very friendly and democratic, I opened candid discussions to identify problems and find their solutions collectively. I focused on positive reinforcement and introduced an employee recognition program called ‘Champion of the month’ to encourage initiatives and developed a ‘Wall of Champions’ to create a high-performance culture. My core job was to establish a culture of a supportive climate to promote creativity, autonomy, and ownership, an environment where people feel excited to contribute. By motivating the team and making them believe in themselves, I could deliver results surpassing management’s expectations.
The business required some tough decisions to be taken as well. A few team members and business partners needed to be set off the bus. But first, I had to establish that the decisions taken were for the right reason and the bigger interest of the organization and not based on personal interest or ego. My fair and honest treatment of all the team members helped them accept a not-so-popular decision. I suppose my people leadership skills blended with the system-oriented mindset, creating a positive difference in the region.
There is an adage that the world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. The world is full of diversity – race, faith, values, cultures, traditions, and languages, and there is much to learn from. Therefore, to continue the lifelong learning journey, I aspire to see the next phase of my life unfold while working in different parts of the world. Hence, being a global leader defines my passion and future career aspiration. The fellowship program would be the perfect platform to prepare me for the international arena. I would improve my effectiveness as a multicultural leader and work on social and networking skills. The 360° Leadership Assessment would also be beneficial in identifying the improvement areas and eventually developing me into a distinctive and effective leader. I believe the more I want to grow outwardly, the more I need to develop inwardly.
So, this 10-month fellowship would give me the space and time to self-reflect and develop personal leadership skills. The ultimate objective, however, is to become a better human being and serve humanity.
Tell us about the most challenging experience you have had in collaborating with a person or group who did not share the same ideas. What did you learn from this experience, and did it change how you dealt with similar situations afterwards?
After my undergrad from NUS, I was hired as Area Sales Manager at Nestle Singapore. Coincidently, one of the third-party distributors in my area also got appointed simultaneously. The first task I was assigned was to chalk out the commercial plan for the current year, which included presenting the growth forecast and a detailed action plan. The analysis revealed that the area under the newly appointed distributor had tremendous growth potential. However, the plan required increased fleet infrastructure, additional headcount in the sales team, and injection of further credit investment in the market.
When the plan was discussed with the distributor, he rightly rejected it as he considered the forecast highly exaggerated and impossible to achieve. Hence, he did not want to invest any further. The fundamental reason for the conflict was the lack of confidence the distributor had in me; I was naïve to propose a concrete business plan. Since the initial few discussions didn’t work out well, I tried to delay further talks to avoid conflict and let him take his time to digest my proposal. However, subsequent discussions also didn’t turn out to be positive. Instead, the confrontation kept increasing to the extent that the distributor started taking it personally as a matter of his ego.
To sort the confrontation amicably, I tried to find a middle ground and convert the negative conflict into creative tension. Since the core objective was shared between us to increase profitability, we decided to kick start the plan while partially compensating him for additional expenses. We also announced target achievement incentives to make him stretch for the set goals. The distributor agreed, and a collective effort was made in the new direction. The recent developments brought success beyond our expectations and improved profitability by leaps and bounds. Thus, both of us have a great sense of achievement and recognition.
Later, while reflecting on the initial conflicts we faced, I realized that the situation might have been tackled much better if I had invested more time in rapport and trust-building at the start. Suppose I had built more confidence that I cared about him and his business, the matter would have been resolved much more amicably. I learned that trust leads to acceptance and willingness to collaborate, and building trust is much more important than conquering discussion through logic and numbers. Since then, I got to work with different teams and business partners. However, I ensured I did not initiate business discussions before achieving personal rapport and a bond of trust.
Over the past year or so I have been getting a lot of requests from students regarding sharing a sample personal statement for the Fulbright scholarship. The sample Fulbright personal statement below has been shared with me by an anonymous but successful Fulbright...
Here is the personal statement of an applicant who got admitted to several top graduate schools for a degree in business and management. Variations of this personal statement got scholarships of upto $250,000 at Columbia, Harvard, and NYU. Read this essay to...
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Resources > Advice for Personal Statements > Part 4: For Fellowship
Written by David Lombardino | Updated March 1, 2024
The best fellowship personal statements are the ones that reflect both the personal and professional maturity that should come with residency. This means a focused and driven personal statement, one that shows its confidence in being directly and humbly written.
This advice applies to all fellowship programs, from cardiology and hematology to endocrinology and gastroenterology, surgery, the pediatric subspecialties and everything in between.
Yes, though following the same rules naturally leads to differences.
The fellowship personal statement will distinguish itself by its diligence, focus and maturity.
At a minimum, to write an outstanding personal statement for fellowship, it must include:
Each of these items must elucidate a particular quality or qualities about you as a fellowship applicant.
They must be particular to you, as opposed to being able to be said generically by anyone applying for the program.
Both the fellowship personal statement and the residency personal statement should describe the specific path / specific reasons that has / have led to the decision to apply for the chosen specialty or subspecialty.
They should also detail what the candidate hopes to achieve through the position, including how the candidate sees it will edify their future career.
The general format of the residency personal statement is to describe the candidate's initial interest in medicine and how that was shaped into a desire for the particular field (e.g., internal medicine).
This is fleshed out with details that are relevant to the candidate's pursuit of the program (e.g., elective rotations, research experience, community involvement), with a view toward the future career.
This vision should be informed by significant clinical and, ideally, academic experiences in residency, if not also medical school.
Because candidates for residency are writing the personal statement for residency before having begun the training, it is often difficult for them to have a precise view of what they want in their future careers.
While residency applicants may already have some inclinations of what their future careers will be, many of those choices will be made through the course of their residency.
By contrast, fellowship applicants should know precisely what they anticipate for their future careers.
This means having a clear vision for how fellowship training (and often the fellowship training offered at the particular institution receiving the application) is the necessary next step in that direction.
Fellowship candidates should have a clear idea of who they are as doctors and the specific path they see their careers taking.
The three pillars of a successful medical fellowship personal statement, which should either have a paragraph devoted to each or be integrated where possible throughout the personal statement, are:
Through it all, make your fellowship personal statement about the journey you—and your passion for your chosen subspecialty—have taken to get your application to the program director's inbox. What is your story? What are the key moments that have shaped you personally and professionally and your passion for the subspecialty?
Make your fellowship personal statement a story about who you are as a person. Dig deep. What barriers have you faced and overcome on your journey? What keeps you up at night? What is your core drive, your core mission—your core WHY—that happens to bring you now to applying for this fellowship?
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The personal statement for fellowship should be developed according to the above, centered on the three pillars and composed of, in most cases, five paragraphs as follows:
For most fellowship personal statements, the word count should be about 625 words .
With some exceptions, if your personal statement is longer than 685 words, you have gone on too long and need to streamline your personal statement.
Similarly, with some exceptions, if your personal statement is less than 600 words, you haven't written enough and need to further develop your personal statement.
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The personal statement. It’s one of the most important parts of the entire college application process. This essay is the perfect opportunity to show admissions officers who you are and what makes you stand out from the crowd. But writing a good personal statement isn’t exactly easy. That’s why we’ve put together the ultimate guide on how to nail your personal statement, complete with example essays . Each essay was reviewed and commented upon by admissions expert Bill Jack. Let’s dive in!
Related: How to write an essay about yourself
A personal statement is a special type of essay that’s required when you’re applying to colleges and scholarship programs. In this essay, you’re expected to share something about who you are and what you bring to the table. Think of it as a chance to reveal a side of yourself not found in the rest of your application. Personal statements are typically around 400 – 600 words in length.
Pretty much anything, as long as it’s about you . While this is liberating in the sense that your writing options are nearly unlimited, it’s also overwhelming for the same reason. The good news is that you’ll probably be responding to a specific prompt. Chances are you’re applying to a school that uses the Common App , which means you’ll have seven prompts to choose from . Reviewing these prompts can help generate some ideas, but so can asking yourself meaningful questions.
Below you’ll find a list of questions to ask yourself during the brainstorming process. For each of the following questions, spend a few minutes jotting down whatever comes to mind.
The purpose of these questions is to prompt you to think about your life at a deeper level. Hopefully by reflecting on them, you’ll find an essay topic that is impactful and meaningful. In the next section, we’ll offer some advice on actually writing your essay.
Also see: How to write a 500 word essay
Once you’ve found a topic, it’s time to start writing! Every personal statement is different, so there’s not really one formula that works for every student. That being said, the following tips should get you started in the right direction:
The blank page tends to get more intimidating the longer you stare at it, so it’s best to go ahead and jump right in! Don’t worry about making the first draft absolutely perfect. Instead, just get your ideas on the page and don’t spend too much time thinking about the finer details. Think of this initial writing session as a “brain dump”. Take 15-30 minutes to quickly empty all your thoughts onto the page without worrying about things like grammar, spelling, or sentence structure. You can even use bullet points if that helps. Once you have your ideas on the page, then you can go back and shape them exactly how you want.
Now that you’ve got some basic ideas down on the page, it’s time to lock in on a theme. Your theme is a specific angle that reflects the central message of your essay. It can be summarized in a sentence or even a word. For example, let’s say you’re writing about how you had to establish a whole new group of friends when you moved to a new city. The theme for this type of essay would probably be something like “adaptation”. Having a theme will help you stay focused throughout your essay. Since you only have a limited number of words, you can’t afford to go off on tangents that don’t relate to your theme.
A lot of great essays rely on a specific scene or story. Find the personal anecdote relevant to your theme and transfer it to the page. The best way to do this is by using descriptive language. Consult the five senses as you’re setting the scene. What did you see, hear, taste, touch, or smell? How were you feeling emotionally? Using descriptive language can really help your essay come to life. According to UPchieve , a nonprofit that supports low income students, focusing on a particular moment as a “ revised version of a memoir ” is one way to keep readers engaged.
Related: College essay primer: show, don’t tell
Your opening paragraph should grab your reader’s attention and set the tone for the rest of your essay. In most cases, this is the best place to include your anecdote (if you have one). By leading with your personal story, you can hook your audience from the get-go. After telling your story, you can explain why it’s important to who you are.
Related: How to start a scholarship essay (with examples)
Your personal statement reflects who you are, so you should use a tone that represents you. That means you shouldn’t try to sound like someone else, and you shouldn’t use fancy words just to show off. This isn’t an academic paper, so you don’t have to adopt a super formal tone. Instead, write in a way that allows room for your personality to breathe.
Once you’re done writing, give yourself some time away from the essay. Try to allow a few days to pass before looking at the essay again with fresh eyes. This way, you’re more likely to pick up on spelling and grammatical errors. You may even get some new ideas and rethink the way you wrote some things. Once you’re satisfied, let someone else edit your essay. We recommend asking a teacher, parent, or sibling for their thoughts before submitting.
Sometimes viewing someone else’s work is the best way to generate inspiration and get the creative juices flowing. The following essays are written in response to four different Common App prompts:
When I was eight years old, I wanted a GameCube very badly. For weeks I hounded my dad to buy me one and finally he agreed. But there was a catch. He’d only get me a GameCube if I promised to start reading. Every day I played video games, I would have to pick up a book and read for at least one hour. At that point in my life, reading was just something I had to suffer through for school assignments. To read for pleasure seemed ludicrous. Needless to say, I wasn’t exactly thrilled about this proposed agreement. But I figured anything was worth it to get my hands on that shiny new video game console, so I bit the bullet and shook my dad’s hand. Little did I know that I had just made a life-changing deal.
At first, the required hour of reading was a chore — something I had to do so I could play Mario Kart. But it quickly turned into something more than that. To my complete and utter surprise, I discovered that I actually enjoyed reading. One hour turned into two, two turned into three, and after a while I was spending more time reading than I was playing video games. I found myself captivated by the written word, and I read everything I could get my hands on. Lord of the Rings , Percy Jackson , Goosebumps — you name it. I was falling in love with literature, while my GameCube was accumulating dust in the TV stand.
Soon enough, reading led to writing. I was beginning to come up with my own stories, so I put pen to paper and let my imagination run wild. It started out small. My first effort was a rudimentary picture book about a friendly raccoon who went to the moon. But things progressed. My stories became more intricate, my characters more complex. I wrote a series of science fiction novellas. I tried my hand at poetry. I was amazed at the worlds I could create with the tip of my pen. I had dreams of becoming an author.
Then somewhere along the way my family got a subscription to Netflix, and that completely changed the way I thought about storytelling. My nose had been buried in books up until then, so I hadn’t really seen a lot of movies. That quickly changed. It seemed like every other day a pair of new DVDs would arrive in the mail (this was the early days of Netflix). Dark Knight, The Truman Show, Inception, Memento — all these great films were coming in and out of the house. And I couldn’t get enough of them. Movies brought stories to life in a way that books could not. I was head over heels for visual storytelling.
Suddenly I wasn’t writing novels and short stories anymore. I was writing scripts for movies. Now I wanted to transfer my ideas to the big screen, rather than the pages of a book. But I was still doing the same thing I had always done. I was writing, just in a different format. To help with this process, I read the screenplays of my favorite films and paid attention to the way they were crafted. I kept watching more and more movies. And I hadn’t forgotten about my first love, either. I still cherished books and looked to them for inspiration. By the end of my junior year of high school, I had completed two scripts for short films.
So why am I telling you all this? Because I want to turn my love of storytelling into a career. I’m not totally sure how to do that yet, but I know I have options. Whether it’s film production, creative writing, or even journalism, I want to find a major that suits my ambitions. Writing has taken me a long way, and I know it can take me even further. As I step into this next chapter of my life, I couldn’t be more excited to see how my craft develops. In the meantime, I should probably get rid of that dusty old GameCube.
Essays don’t always have to reveal details about the student’s intended career path, but one thing I like about this essay is that it gives the reader a sense of the why. Why do they want to pursue storytelling. It also shows the reader that they are open to how they pursue their interest. Being open to exploration is such a vital part of college, so it’s also showing the reader that they likely will be open to new things in college. And, it’s always fun to learn a little bit more about the student’s family, especially if the reader can learn about how the students interacts with their family.
Prompt 2: “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?”
I remember my first impression of Irvine: weird. It was foggy, stock-full of greenery and eucalyptus trees, and reminded me of my 5th grade trip to a “science camp” which was located in the San Bernardino mountains. Besides Irvine, that was one of the few places in Southern California where you’d find so many non-palm trees.
Of course, perhaps my initial impression of Irvine was biased, motivated by a desire to stay in my hometown and a fear of the unknown. While that was true to an extent, Irvine was certainly still a little peculiar. The city itself was based on a “master plan” of sorts, with the location of each of its schools, parks, shops, and arguably its trees having been logically “picked” before the foundation was poured. Even the homes all looked roughly the same, with their beige, stucco walls almost serving as a hallmark of the city itself.
Thus, this perfectly structured, perfectly safe city seemed like a paradise of sorts to many outsiders, my parents included. I was a little more hesitant to welcome this. As I saw it, this was a phony city – believing that its uniformity stood for a lack of personality. My hometown, although not as flawlessly safe nor clean as Irvine, was where most of my dearest memories had occurred. From the many sleepovers at Cindie’s house, to trying to avoid my school’s own version of the “infamous” cheese touch, to the many laughs shared with friends and family, I shed a tear at the prospect of leaving my home.
Moving into the foreign city, remnants of the hostility I held towards Irvine remained. Still dwelling in my memories of the past, I was initially unable to see Irvine as a “home.” So, as I walked into my first-ever Irvine class, being greeted by many kind, yet unfamiliar faces around me, I was unable to recognize that some of those new faces would later become some of my dearest friends. Such negative feelings about the city were further reinforced by newer, harder classes, and more complicated homework. Sitting in the discomfort of this unfamiliar environment, it started to seem that “change” was something not only inevitable, but insurmountable.
As the years went on, however, this idea seemed to fade. I got used to my classes and bike racing through Irvine neighborhoods with my friends, watching the trees that once seemed just a “weird” green blob soon transform into one of my favorite parts of the city. While I kept my old, beloved memories stored, I made space for new ones. From carefully making our way over the narrow creek path next to our school, to the laughs we shared during chemistry class, my new memories made with friends seemed to transform a city I once disliked into one I would miss.
Through this transformation, I have come to recognize that change, although sometimes intimidating at first, can open the door to great times and meaningful connections. Although Irvine may have once seemed like a strange, “phony” place that I couldn’t wait to be rid of, the memories and laughs I had grown to share there were very real. As I move onto this next part of my life, I hope I can use this knowledge that I have gained from my time in Irvine to make the most of what’s to come. Even if the change may be frightening at first, I have learned to embrace what’s on the other side, whether green or not.
One huge plus to writing an essay that focuses on a place is that you might have it read by someone who has been there. Yet, what’s really helpful about this essay is that even if someone hasn’t been there, a picture is painted about what the place is like. Admission officers have the hard task of really understanding what the student sees, so the use of adjectives and imagery can really help. It’s also really clever to see that the green that’s mentioned at the beginning is mentioned at the end. It’s a nice way to bookend the essay and tie it all together.
Prompt 6: “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?”
I like getting lost. Not literally, of course, but figuratively. Whether it be in the story of a love song by Taylor Swift, or in the memories brought back by listening to my favorite childhood video game’s background music, I’ve always appreciated music’s ability to transport me to another place, another time, another feeling.
Alas, I cannot sing, nor have I practiced an instrument since my middle school piano class days. So, perhaps Kurt Vonnegut was right. As he puts it, “Virtually every writer I know would rather be a musician.” While I cannot speak for others, I have certainly not debunked his theory. Writing allows many, including myself, to attempt to mimic the transformative power of music – even if our singing voices aren’t exactly “pleasant.” Just as you can get lost in music, you can do so in a story. Whether it is in George Orwell’s totalitarian Oceania, or Little Women’s Orchard House, the stories outlined in novels can provide an amazing look into the lives and worlds of others, and an escape from the worries and problems of those in your own.
While I am certainly not claiming to have the storytelling abilities of the Orwells or Alcotts before me, I’ve had fun trying to recreate such transformative feelings for others. When I was nine, I attempted to write a story about a little girl who had gotten lost in the woods, only managing to get a couple pages through. As I got older, whenever I was assigned a creative writing assignment in school, I wrote about the same pig, Phil. He was always angry: in my 8th grade science class, Phil was mad at some humans who had harbored his friend captive, and in my 9th grade English class, at a couple who robbed him.
Thus, when I heard about a writing club being opened at my school in 11th grade, I knew I had to join. I wanted to discern whether writing was just a hobby I picked up now and then, or a true passion. If it was a passion, I wanted to learn as much as possible about how I could improve. Although my high school’s writing club certainly wasn’t going to transform me into Shakespeare, I knew I could learn a lot from it – and I did. The club challenged me to do many things, from writing on the spot, to writing poetry, to even writing about myself, something that’s hopefully coming in handy right now.
From then on, I started to expand into different types of writing, storing short ideas, skits, and more in appropriately-labeled Google Drive folders. At around the same time, I became interested in classic literature, which largely stemmed from a project in English class. We had been required to choose and read a classic on our own, then present it to the class in an interesting way. While my book was certainly interesting and unique in its own right, nearly everyone else’s novels seemed more captivating to me. So, I took it upon myself to read as many classics as I could the following summer.
One of the books I read during the summer, funnily enough, was Animal Farm, which starred angry pigs, reminiscent of Phil. I had also started going over different ideas in my head, thinking about how I could translate them into words using the new skills I learned. While the writing club helped reaffirm my interest in writing and allowed me to develop new skills, my newfound affinity for classics gave me inspiration to write. Now, I am actually considering writing as part of my future. In this endeavor, I hope that Phil, and the music I inevitably listen to as I write, will accompany me every step of the way.
Admission officers might read 70 (or more!) essays in one day. It’s not uncommon for them to start to blend together and sound similar. This essay might not make you laugh out loud. But, it might make the reader chuckle while reading it thanks to the subtle humor and levity. Being able to incorporate a little humor into your essay (if it is natural for you to do… do not force it), can really be a great way to shed additional light into who you are. Remember, the essay isn’t merely about proving that you can write, but it should also reveal a little bit about your personality.
Prompt 5: “Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.”
I learned a lot of things during the summer I worked at Tropical Smoothie. I discovered the value of hard work. I figured out how to save money. I even mastered the art of the Mango Magic smoothie (the secret is lots of sugar). But most importantly, I learned the power of perspective. And I have Deja to thank for that.
Deja was my shift supervisor, and one of Tropical Smoothie’s best employees. She was punctual, friendly, and always willing to lend a helping hand. She knew the store from top to bottom, and could handle pretty much any situation thrown her way. She made everyone around her better. On top of all that, she was four months pregnant! I was always impressed by Deja’s work ethic, but I gained an entirely new level of respect for her one day.
It was a Friday night, and Deja and I were working the closing shift together. It was very busy, and Deja and I were the only ones on shift. We managed to get by, but we were exhausted by the end of the evening. After wiping down the counters and mopping the floors, we closed up shop and went our separate ways. I was eager to get home.
I walked a couple blocks to where I had parked my car. Well, it wasn’t my car actually. It was my dad’s ‘98 Chevy pickup truck, and it was in rough shape. It had no heat or A/C, the leather seats were cracked beyond repair, and the driver’s side door was jammed shut. I sighed as I got in through the passenger side and scooted over to the driver’s seat. The whole reason I was working at Tropical Smoothie was to save up enough money to buy my own car. I was hoping to have something more respectable to drive during my senior year of high school.
I cranked the old thing up and started on my way home. But soon enough, I spotted Deja walking on the side of the road. There was no sidewalk here, the light was low, and she was dangerously close to the passing cars. I pulled over and offered her a ride. She got in and explained that she was on her way home. Apparently she didn’t have a car and had been walking to work every day. I couldn’t believe it. Here I was complaining about my set of wheels, while Deja didn’t have any to begin with.
We got to talking, and she confessed that she had been having a tough time. You would never know from the way she was so cheerful at work, but Deja had a lot on her plate. She was taking care of her mother, her boyfriend had just lost his job, and she was worried about making ends meet. And of course, she was expecting a baby in five months. On top of all that, she had been walking nearly a mile to and from work every day. The whole thing was a real eye opener, and made me reconsider some things in my own life.
For one, I didn’t mind driving my dad’s truck anymore. It was banged up, sure, but it was a lot better than nothing. My mindset had changed. I appreciated the truck now. I began to think about other things differently, too. I started making mental notes of all the things in my life I was thankful for — my family, my friends, my health. I became grateful for what I had, instead of obsessing over the things I didn’t.
I also gained more awareness of the world outside my own little bubble. My encounter with Deja had shown me first-hand that everyone is dealing with their own problems, some worse than others. So I started paying more attention to my friends, family members, and coworkers. I started listening more and asking how I could help. I also gave Deja a ride home for the rest of the summer.
These are all small things, of course, but I think they make a difference. I realized I’m at my best when I’m not fixated on my own life, but when I’m considerate of the lives around me. I want to keep this in mind as I continue to grow and develop as a person. I want to continue to search for ways to support the people around me. And most importantly, I want to keep things in perspective.
Too often we can be focused on our own problems that we fail to realize that everyone has their own things going on in their lives, too. This essay showcases how it’s important to put things in perspective, a skill that certainly will prove invaluable in college… and not just in the classroom. Another reason I like this essay is because it provides deeper insight into the student’s life. Sure, you might have mentioned in your activities list that you have a job. But as this essay does, you can show why you have the job in the first place, what your responsibilities are, and more.
We hope these essay examples gave you a bit of inspiration of what to include in your own. However, before you go, we’d like to send you off with a few (personal statement) writing tips to help you make your essays as lovely as the memories and anecdotes they’re based off of. Without further ado, here are some of our best tips for writing your personal statements:
College admissions officers read many, many essays (think 50+) a day, which can sometimes cause them to start blending together and sounding alike. One way to avoid your essay from simply fading into the background is to start strong. This means opening your essay with something memorable, whether an interesting personal anecdote, a descriptive setting, or anything else that you think would catch a reader’s attention (so long as it’s not inappropriate). Not only might this help college admissions officers better remember your essay, but it will also make them curious about what the rest of your essay will entail.
Perhaps most important when it comes to writing personal statement essays is to maintain your authenticity. Ultimately, your essays should reflect your unique stories and quirks that make you who you are, and should help college admissions officers determine whether you’d truly be a good fit for their school or not. So, don’t stress trying to figure out what colleges are looking for. Be yourself, and let the colleges come to you!
This one may seem a little obvious, but strong writing will certainly appeal to colleges. Not only will it make your essay more compelling, but it may show colleges that you’re ready for college-level essay writing (that you’ll likely have to do a lot of). Just remember that good writing is not limited to grammar. Using captivating detail and descriptions are a huge part of making your essay seem more like a story than a lecture.
Last but not least, remember to proofread! Make sure your essay contains no errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling. When you’re done proofreading your essay yourself, we would also recommend that you ask a teacher, parent, or other grammatically savvy person to proofread your essay as well.
With those in hand, we hope you now have a better sense of how to write your personal statement. While your grades and test scores are important when it comes to college admissions, it’s really your essays that can “make” or “break” your application.
Although this may make it seem like a daunting task, writing an amazing personal statement essay is all about effort. Thus, so long as you start early, follow the advice listed above, and dedicate your time and effort to it, it’s entirely possible to write an essay that perfectly encapsulates you. Good luck, and happy writing!
Also see: Scholarships360’s free scholarships search tool
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Hi everyone,
With fellowship application season approaching, many of you are starting to write personal statements. Even if you plan to apply next year, or the year after that, or even if fellowship’s not for you, you’re still going to write a personal statement someday, so read on.
Before you begin, check out my PD Note on Personal statement “Do’s and Don’ts . The talent pool is deep and you want to rise to the top. A powerful essay will boost you.
Each year, I review more than 30 personal statements and without fail, common errors emerge. You don’t want to spend hours drafting an essay just to be told it needs an overhaul, so hopefully this checklist will help:
In the end, your personal statement should highlight your potential. Use the checklist. Make yourself shine.
Enjoy your Sunday, everyone, and when your drafts are ready, send them to me for review.
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Whether you’re coming straight out of high school, are a transfer student, or are an adult student returning to college after a long absence, one of the first things you’ll want to do when preparing for college is to look for scholarships.
At all levels, college is expensive. Winning scholarships that cut down on costs is a priority for most of us, and writing an effective scholarship personal statement can help you do that.
There are many important parts of the process when it comes to scholarship applications. Locating the scholarships and gathering all the relevant information are key components, but your scholarship personal statement is arguably the most important part of a scholarship application.
Writing a powerful and memorable personal statement can really make your application stand out among the hundreds of other submissions.
Table of Contents
A personal statement is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It’s a statement, paragraph, or essay about yourself. It should tell who you are, where you came from, what your dreams, goals, and aspirations are, and more. It should focus on your strengths and tell scholarship committees why you deserve their money.
Sometimes, personal statements can be written in response to an open-ended question, such as, “ Tell us about yourself. ” More often, though, scholarship applications have a very specific prompt that you’re supposed to follow when writing your personal statement.
A prompt is something that many colleges or other types of scholarship committees will give you to help guide your writing. Some essays won’t have a prompt. We’ll discuss those later on in the article. For now, let’s focus on the applications that provide you with prompts.
When given a prompt, please stick to it and answer it fully. You don’t want to trail off onto some other tangent or write your statement how you want to write it simply because it sounds better or because you already have a standard scholarship personal statement you like to use. Answer the prompt that is given, and answer it honestly and completely.
Some prompts require you to respond to the questions asked in the order given, while for others ( most of them ), you can follow whatever order that suits you, so long as you address all questions.
Knowing about some common prompts beforehand will help prepare you for what you may be asked and will keep you from being blindsided. Knowing some common prompts early on can also prepare you a little more about what to write.
1. why do you deserve this scholarship.
This is probably the most commonly asked prompt for any scholarship personal statement. Most organizations that give scholarships know why you want the scholarship. What they don’t know is why exactly they should give it to you. Your answer to this prompt should be one that fully answers the question by telling the scholarship committee not only why you deserve the money, but also why you need it at all.
Why you deserve something and why you need it are two totally different questions. This prompt, though, requires you to answer both. The reasons you need the scholarship money could involve a number of factors, including:
All of these reasons – and more – are why you might need the money. Tell the committee that in your scholarship personal statement.
Telling them these things should not be seen as “feeling sorry for yourself” or begging for help. These are all legitimate reasons you could potentially need help paying for college. As long as you’re being honest, these are definitely things that should be included in your personal statement.
Telling the committee why you deserve the scholarship is a little different. While all those reasons are why you need the money, they don’t explain why you deserve it. This is the part of the scholarship personal statement where you sell the committee on YOU.
Tell them about all the great things you’ve done. If you were an honor roll student, a member of the BETA Club or National Honor Society, or a National Merit Scholar, put that in your statement.
Other reasons you could cite as to why you deserve a scholarship include:
Just as listing the reasons you need the scholarship isn’t begging, listing these reasons for deserving the scholarship isn’t bragging. There are hundreds, possibly even thousands, of people, trying to get the same scholarships you’re trying to get. You need to stand out above the crowd.
Although this prompt is worded quite differently from the first prompt, in essence, you can answer them both in a similar way. All of those reasons you might have for needing the money are also challenges you’ve had to overcome to succeed in life.
Other possible challenges could include the loss of parents, a physical or mental disability you’ve had to learn to cope with throughout your life, or a dangerous, scary, or upsetting life event you’ve lived through in your past.
For this type of prompt, you’ll want to start with the challenge you faced. Be as honest and descriptive as possible about what it was. Then be equally honest and descriptive about the steps you took to overcome it. If, after overcoming the challenge, you received some kind of recognition or award, make sure you mention that as well.
This is another very popular question that’s asked on scholarship applications. A scholarship committee wants to know that you have actual, obtainable goals for your education and your future before they give you money to use for college.
If you can’t effectively explain why college – and education in general – is important to your future goals, most committees won’t want to take a chance on you.
There are different ways to approach this particular prompt. If you fit into a category of people who have notoriously been excluded from higher education in the past, such as African Americans, women, or other minority groups, talking about that can help your case.
You can discuss how hard the generations that came before you fought for you to be able to attend college and how you want to honor that.
You can also take a wholly personal approach to answering this question. Mention any relevant struggles you’ve been through, and don’t be afraid to talk about your family. Did they go to college?
If not, discuss what an honor it’ll be to be the first in your family to graduate from college. Those types of things are all relevant reasons you might want to attend college.
No matter which way you decide to go with your answer to this question, don’t forget to talk about your goals and how college is the only way for you to achieve them in your scholarship personal statement.
Be specific. Talk about your intended major and how that major and the classes you’ll take for it will help you become what you want to become. If you’re applying for a college-specific scholarship, talk about why you want to go to that specific college.
Sometimes, no matter how hard you study and prep in order to write a good essay, a scholarship committee comes up with a personal statement essay prompt that seems like it’s entirely out of left field. These types of prompts can be anything.
For example, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been known to ask students seeking scholarships in the past, “ What do you hope to find over the rainbow? ”. And for 2022/23, one of UNC’s application prompts required fill-in-the-blank type of responses, including:
The 2022/23 Yale-specific questions on the Coalition and Common App included the following short answer questions:
Another unusual prompt you might come across is “What would you do if you were a superhero?” .
There really isn’t a way to prepare for these types of prompts, but knowing they exist and that you might run across one is a good start.
For many people, these are the best kinds of prompts to receive. They give you a chance to let your imagination run wild, and they’re a nice change from the same old “Why do you deserve this scholarship?” type of questions.
So if you do happen to run across one of these, don’t immediately dismiss it. These types of prompts give you a chance to have a little fun. They are a chance to have your personality shine a little, and who knows- you might just impress the scholarship committee!
If you’re asked to write a personal statement but aren’t really given a prompt, simply tell the college a mixture of all those things listed above. Talk about your achievements, accomplishments, and instances of overcoming obstacles. Talk about your history, and tell them why you need the scholarship and why you deserve it.
There are also a few other Do’s and Don’ts to remember. Do be specific, but don’t get too complicated. Keep things simple and light, while also being thorough. Your personal statement is like a mini autobiography.
You want to highlight all the key points while putting a heavy emphasis on your strengths. You can mention a weakness, especially if you’ve learned to overcome that weakness, but don’t focus too much attention there.
Arrange your essay in a logical order that makes sense and flows well. Also, try to keep to one or two central themes throughout the entirety of the statement. Clear, concise personal statements are easily read and extremely memorable. Don’t be afraid to tell a story, though.
You never want to lie or exaggerate in your personal statement, but you should make it as interesting and as entertaining as possible while sticking to the facts.
Be very clear and precise about your goals and dreams. Don’t add in a lot of hypotheticals, maybes, or uncertainties. Scholarship committees want to know that you have a solid goal for your future.
They don’t want to give money to someone who might want to be an engineer and thinks botany is great but also really loves the idea of cosmetology and is just going to “stay undeclared until I figure it all out.” Umm…that’s an extreme example, perhaps, but you get the idea.
Don’t add in a lot of unnecessarily long words. Your personal statement should read like an actual story of your life, not a poorly written thesaurus. Trust us on this.
Scholarship committees will be much more impressed if you write an honest, well-organized, and coherent essay about yourself than they will if you find a way to use the words “ platitudinous ,” “ audacity ” and “ impecunious ” in your personal statement.
Also, avoid cliches and extremely long and wordy sentences.
Personal Statement Review: If you need help brainstorming or reviewing your essay, check our personal statement helper page.
The first thing you want to do when writing your scholarship personal statement is to set the formatting up correctly. Some scholarship applications will provide you with specific formatting requirements.
If not, the standard formatting requirements of a scholarship essay or personal statement are usually as follows:
Specific guidelines given in the scholarship instructions always supersede these formatting guidelines. Be sure to use proper grammar and punctuation. If these aren’t your strong points, ask a teacher, mentor, or friend to look over your essay for any errors.
You could also utilize this awesome spellcheck and online grammar check tool , or use any other that works for you.
After you’ve got the formatting correct, the next thing you want to do is put together your outline. This can be done on paper, on the computer, or just inside your head, but it does need to be done.
You need at least a loose outline to make sure your essay flows smoothly and makes sense as written. While the exact structure of your essay will depend largely on your own writing style and the essay prompt, here’s the general structure for most essays.
Your introduction should be no more than 2 paragraphs long, and you want to catch the reader with a very interesting and engaging first sentence. You should also outline the key points you’re going to be making in the remainder of your essay. If you were writing an English paper, this would be your thesis.
You should always have at least 2 body paragraphs, preferably 3. Remember, long paragraphs of text running together can be hard for readers to wade through and absorb, so try to keep your paragraphs to no more than 5 sentences if possible.
If you change topics, such as moving from talking about your family to talking about your strengths, you should also change paragraphs.
Your body paragraphs are where you really sell yourself as a great student with a lot of potential to the scholarship committee. Remember- be specific but simple!
Don’t get bogged down in big, thesaurus-like words, and avoid clichés. Just be honest about your life experiences, your accomplishments, and your future goals.
In this last paragraph, you’ll want to sum up everything. This is also the paragraph where you talk about how much being awarded this particular scholarship would benefit you and what you would do with the money that will help you achieve your goals.
It’s also nice to thank the scholarship committee for taking the time to read through your application and consider you for the scholarship.
Below you’ll find some examples of actual scholarship essays that were written by actual college students seeking scholarships. Some are examples of what to do, while others are examples of what not to do.
If you’re stuck and don’t know where to begin, hopefully, these will give you a little inspiration.
“The day was May 28, 2014. My doctor told my parents that I would need Spinal Fusion Surgery with rods and screws, and it had to happen quickly. Before surgery, the doctor suggested strength training for the muscles in my back so that I’d recover faster. I immediately went to the local gym and began working with a personal trainer, Justin. I learned so much from him including how the body works and how surgery takes time to heal. After surgery, I knew that I wanted to use my experience to help others, just like Justin helped me.”
– Read the rest here .
This is an excellent example of an introductory paragraph for a scholarship personal statement. With the author’s first two sentences, I was hooked. This student knows how to immediately capture the reader’s attention and pull him into his story.
He’s relating a true story in response to a prompt asking him about his after-college plans, but he’s doing it in such a way that it’s instantly interesting, and engaging, and makes us want to read more.
The student also has a great transition sentence. Although we only provided a portion of the essay that stops just before he tells us exactly what his goals are, it’s obvious by the last displayed sentence that that’s exactly what he’s about to do.
He’s about to tell us his plans for his future, after already telling us why he chose those plans.
In just a few short sentences, this student catches our attention, tells us about a horrible thing that happened to him that he had to overcome, explains how that situation shaped what he wants to do with his future, and transitions into telling us his goals.
This is a masterfully crafted introductory paragraph.
“Unlike other teens, I’m not concerned about money, or partying, or what others think of me. Unlike other eighteen-year-olds, I think about my future and haven’t become totally materialistic and acquisitive. My whole outlook on life changed after I realized that my life was just being handed to me on a silver spoon, and yet there were those in the world who didn’t have enough food to eat or place to live. I realized that the one thing that this world needed more than anything was compassion; compassion for those less fortunate than us.”
In contrast to example one, this sample section is an example of what not to do when writing your personal statement. It starts off badly and just keeps ongoing.
The first couple of sentences of this student’s essay don’t paint her in a great light because of how they’re written. It’s fine to tell the scholarship committee that you aren’t a partier and that you care about your future, but it’s not okay to do it while sitting in judgment of other people.
The very first words of this essay are “Unlike other teenagers.” This automatically sets the writer apart, which would be fine if she were going on to say something positive about “other teenagers.”
For instance, if she were to say that she didn’t grow up getting to socialize and spend time with friends because she was homeschooled her whole life or that she didn’t learn about the advantages of technology because she grew up in a rural community, her opening words would’ve been fine.
Instead, she immediately jumps into saying harsh, degrading things about “other teenagers.” She lumps all teenagers into a stereotypical group of irresponsible partiers who care only about their appearances and material things.
Casting other people in a bad light is never a great way to let your light shine in any arena, but this is especially true when trying to craft a strong college personal essay.
The transition to her revolutionary life moment didn’t make a lot of sense, either. She says her “whole outlook on life changed” after realizing there were poor people in the world. This is off-putting for 2 reasons.
The first is that most people, including children, know there are poor people in the world. It isn’t really a secret and doesn’t usually come as a life-changing shock.
Secondly, the way her essay is written, she says she never did those bad things that other teens did. Then she says her whole life changed when she realized there were poor people in the world.
As written, this makes it sound like she changed and started doing these things after her revelation, which is certainly not what she meant at all, but because of the chronology of her essay, that’s how it sounds.
“And, that strength was something that came not only from knowing how to cook my own food, lug armfuls of wood three or four times a day, and make my own safe and cozy place in the world, no matter where. It came from an inner sense of seeing things as they are. Life isn’t just out of a magazine with the best appliances and the nicest furniture. There are other things in life, like dirty floors, and relationships that don’t always work, and meals that have to be made. But, that’s not all bad.”
– Read the rest here .
This is another example of an essay Don’t. The whole essay, which isn’t listed here, isn’t bad as a whole, but it also isn’t clear and precise. The sentences are long and wordy, and the student uses conjunctions, like “and” and “but,” to start sentences.
Grammatically, that isn’t the best way to write. This is an example of an essay that could have been quite good if only the student had spent some time editing it, proofreading it, and perhaps handing it over to someone else to look over it before he submitted it.
Never underestimate the power of revision and constructive criticism when writing your own scholarship essay.
“Through the successes of my efforts, I also realized that poverty was just a societal limitation. I was low-income, not poor. I was still flourishing in school, leading faith-based activities, and taking an active role in community service. My low-income status was not a barrier but a launching pad to motivate and propel my success. […] Success is triumphing over hardships — willing yourself over anything and everything to achieve the best for yourself and your family. With this scholarship, I will use it to continue focusing on my studies in math and engineering, instead of worrying about making money and sending more back home. It will be an investment into myself for my family.”
– Read the rest here .
These are two paragraphs from the same essay, both excellently written. This student came from a very poor background and had to begin making money to help out their family at a very early age.
In this essay, the student does a great job of discussing hardships in the past in an honest, straightforward way that invites the reader’s admiration rather than pity.
The way he spends a brief amount of time talking about his hardships and then moving swiftly into how those hardships motivated him to want more from life is very well-done.
His conclusion paragraph is also spot-on. He acknowledges that the only way to overcome hardship is “willing yourself” to achieve. This shows that he has a willingness to work hard and experience to back it up.
He then goes on to tell how he’ll use the scholarship money if he receives it. He says that he’ll “invest into [him]self” and take this opportunity to work hard, even if it means he has to suffer financially for a few years, in order to achieve what he needs to achieve to ensure future financial success for both himself and his family.
This shows him to be a hard worker, someone caring and empathetic enough to put family first, and intelligent and enterprising.
These are all great things colleges want from prospective students, and he showcases these traits in himself without being overt or in-your-face about it.
“To be able to hold onto your money you have to know how to manage it. Money management is a complicated process. As teenagers, we often have no idea how to manage money and we end up wasting a lot of it. But in a bad economy, most of us have had a crash course in what happens when you don’t manage your money properly. We have had to delve into a world foreign and unfamiliar to us and solve our own money problems. The most successful of us have managed to still have some semblance of a social life without going over our small budgets. The keys to doing this successfully are actually quite simple.”
The prompt for this particular essay was about managing money. In terms of staying on topic and having a good opening sentence, this writer did a really nice job.
The writer also makes the article very relatable because being a teenager and not knowing how to manage money is something most of us can remember quite easily.
In addition to being relatable, the first paragraph also holds our interest because it is easily read, not packed full of synonyms from the thesaurus, or written loftily.
The writer also does a great job with his “thesis” sentence. The last sentence of the paragraph is simple and straight to the point.
It lets us know what’s coming next; he’s about to list the keys to managing money successfully. This is a very well-organized introductory paragraph.
Where the writer falls short, though, is with his grammar. There are obvious run-on sentences and missing commas in that first paragraph. He also starts a sentence with a conjunction, which isn’t great as a general rule. The bad grammar and poor editing/proofreading take away from his entire paragraph, which otherwise would have been really good.
We’ve said it once, and we’re saying it again: Don’t skip the proofreading/editing stage ( fyi , we have great packages here to help with this ). If that isn’t something you’re good at doing, ask a teacher, mentor, friend, or loved one.
Grammar is important. You can have the best idea in the world, and bad grammar will keep people from hearing it because they’ll be too distracted by the errors.
When proofreading or editing for grammar, here are the most common questions to ask yourself:
Before submitting your essay, edit through it using these questions as a guide.
The importance of writing a great, moving, and memorable scholarship personal statement cannot be overstated. Scholarship applications are uniform for all students.
Scholarship committee members are forced to read through the same types of information for all the students who apply. The one place you’re able to stand out and be creative is in your personal essay. That’s why it’s so important that you make it count.
A strong personal scholarship essay can be the tipping point between no money and lots and lots of money, so plan for it. Make time to do it right and edit it properly.
Consider it the most important part of your application process, and set aside the appropriate amount of time for drafting it, writing it, and editing it before the submission due date.
Finally, never be afraid to ask for help. Whether it’s an educator, parent, spouse, or friend, there is someone out there who wants to see you succeed. That person will be happy to help you craft the best possible scholarship personal statement.
A scholarship essay should typically be between 500 to 1000 words. However, always adhere to any specific word limits set by the scholarship. If no limit is specified, aim for a concise essay within this range.
Focus on clear expression of ideas and experiences, and ensure to proofread for clarity and coherence. It’s more about quality than quantity.
Further Reading:
The Best GMAT Prep Courses, According to MBA Students
Best MCAT Prep Courses, According to Med Students
Best NCLEX Prep Courses, According to Nurses
Accredited ABSN programs in North Carolina
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The personal statement.
Definition of a Personal Statement
Reflection and Retrospection: A Pedagogic Mystery Story
Writing Personal Essays: On the Necessity of Turning Oneself Into a Character
Writing Personal Statements
10 Commandments for Writing Personal Statements
Not Leadership Material? Good. The World Needs Followers
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Dear Committee,
I am writing to show my interest in and desire to join your fellowship program. Since my early years, my interest in radiology immunology has grown rapidly. Whether it was research or a conducted experiment, I`ve always wanted to keep going.
I have multiplied this passion during my academic journey by pursuing and getting a bachelor’s degree in radiology immunology. This helped me to improve my [skills], which I hope to expand and advance during the fellowship program.
I used all opportunities to study radiology immunology beyond my bachelor’s. Internships, research projects, and volunteering gave me priceless experiences that helped me understand how knowledge in radiology immunology could be practically implemented in multiple situations. The experience of studying the growth dynamics of immune cells while participating in [research project name] helped me understand the specifics of cooperation with multidisciplinary specialists. It boosted my skills working on a team and taught me that the best outcome is only possible with coordinated work.
In conclusion, I am convinced that the radiology immunology program is the chance I will use to develop myself as a specialist. Besides sharing the workspace with top-class specialists and running research projects, I want to contribute to the radiology immunology program I am a part of. I feel confident about joining the program because my passion and confidence always lead me to the top.
I appreciate your consideration of my application. I see myself as a member of the radiology immunology fellowship program, and I’m looking to make a step forward.
[The applicant’s name]
Fellowship programs set strict requirements and choose candidates carefully, so convincing the admission board that you’re their #1 candidate is not easy. Still, you can get this chance effortlessly by preparing a compelling personal fellowship statement that will perfectly present your desire and ability to become a fellow. Moreover, we provide good ready-made fellowship personal statement samples to simplify this task additionally.
Just choose one example that best correlates with your needs, and let’s start.
Someone may think completed writing pieces may be used for copypaste and rewriting. However, it’s a critical mistake because such things in personal statement for fellowship examples are immediately considered plagiarism, and the institution officials will immediately deny the applications. Reasons why a suitable example may help aren’t so obvious, but knowing them can help a lot while writing your own fellowship application doc.
When applicants examine examples, they see what format these texts have. Moreover, they understand how the information is organized, starting with the introduction, moving to the self-description mentioning the main achievements that made them who they are today. Moreover, personal statement examples for fellowship help to understand how to combine parts in a well-composed statement.
Having several medical fellowship personal statement examples on hand may assist you while exploring expert tips and recommendations. Most people perceive information better only with visual materials, and pro-made samples can cope with this task perfectly.
Another advantage of using already-composed personal statement fellowships is that they help people see what writing components should and shouldn’t be included. Once individuals see what works for solid personal statement examples and what doesn’t, they understand how to strengthen it.
In successful medical fellowship essays/applications, the writers’ main goal is to reveal their strengths that will be valuable for the chosen program. Seeing how others compose their examples can help individuals tailor personal statements, emphasizing their strengths and motivating them to join the preferred program.
Fellowship personal statement examples are ideal for debriefing dos & don’ts and working on bugs. This works exceptionally well when visuals are accompanied by expert commentary. However, it is essential to remember that not all examples are suitable, but only from sources you can trust.
There are two main reasons why you should explore our database with medical fellowship personal statement examples. First, it’s their variety – radiology, pathology, dentistry, orthopedics, and internal medicine are just some of the fields we can help you with. Secondly, it’s their authors. Every example is made by a proficient field-related expert knowing all the admission process nuances and program features that must be considered.
Of course, you cannot copy from a fellowship personal statement sample, as your own document should be well-personalized and tailored to a particular program. Nevertheless, there’re no restrictions to getting inspired with content structure, transitions, and things that need to be revealed.
Preparing admission documents takes a while, especially if applicants pretend to join a competitive program. Composing everything in one night is not an option. So, here are some tips to help you better prepare your medical fellowship personal statement using our examples.
With a plan, you understand your document’s appearance. Divide the text into paragraphs, with an introduction, a body part consisting of three sections, and a conclusion. Look at fellowship personal statement examples to define what needs to be included in these structural parts, and consider adding them to your document.
Whether it’s an introductory hook, calls to action in conclusion, or exciting anecdotes in the body. Personal statements fellowships are formal pieces, so use engagement methods in your writing wisely. See how examples writers manage it to get more ideas.
The fellowship application personal statement should be program-focused and contain information that describes an individual as a skillful specialist. Moreover, the writing should include the most valuable career and educational path facts. Try to find this information in pro-made examples and explore how authors manage it.
Besides learning about the text’s structure and format, it’s also important to consider simple elements like grammar and spelling. Institution officials carefully revise each piece and pay attention to all details. Once they spot even the slightest mistake, it may harm your personal statement for fellowship sample.
Your grammar should be correct and simple, as the text should be easy to understand. Grammar continues to be one of the most problematic points when preparing personal statements for fellowship and other application docs. Spelling is also necessary and should be given as much attention as grammar. Let someone else read the text to ensure you don’t miss anything. A fresh look may identify issues that should have been included during the first check.
We’d like to recommend you prepare several fellowship personal statement examples because hardly only one will 100% match your needs. And it’s not about competence but the fact that each program is unique, even if you’re applying to the same specialty. Faculty culture, values, and capabilities vary from institution to institution. Therefore, having only one sample fellowship personal statement to work with would be a bad decision. Consider the following factors when looking for suitable examples:
A solid and consistent personal statement is your golden ticket to new opportunities, and it’s worth all efforts and time spent creating it. However, sometimes people may worry a lot due to great responsibility or feel a lack of competency to cope with this writing themselves. And that’s where professional help preparing a personal statement for fellowships is the best solution.
From comprehensive guides & examples to expert writing & editing assistance – our service is qualified enough to boost your admission prospects significantly. With years of expertise and hundreds of successful admission cases, we are well aware of ways to make a lasting impression on the committee with your sample personal statement for fellowship application.
All you need is just place an order with your requirements and the filled questionnaire. You can also add an appropriate personal statement fellowship example as a reference to help experts understand your needs better. But don’t worry if there’s no suitable example – your materials are enough to make your own perfectly.
Writing personal statements for scholarship applications.
In many ways, writing a personal statement is a 180-degree turn from what you’re used to doing in college. You have been trained to write rather staid, formal, academic papers in which you know the format and what is expected of you, and the challenge lies in researching the topic at hand. In crafting a personal statement you are the world’s leading expert on the topic, but must create the method of conveying this information to the committee.
What is a personal statement?
A personal statement is…
In the end, every personal statement I’ve read that I thought was truly exceptional had one thing in common: when I finished reading it, I thought, “I’d like to meet this person. I’d like to take this student out for a cup of coffee and learn more.” A really effective personal statement tells the reader what makes you different from everyone else in the applicant pool, and does so while utilizing engaging, interesting, and concise prose.
With that very general advice in mind, here are more specific do’s and don’ts for writing a personal statement:
GETTING STARTED ...
Okay, that’s all well and good. Now you have some very vague idea of what this is supposed to look like and some basic ground rules. But how do you get started?
In general, remember that this is about listening to your gut, not letting your head talk. You have to find ways to turn off the logical, academic, editing part of your brain and tune in to your gut. Do this by engaging in mindless, repetitive activities that allow your mind to wander away, like doing dishes, jogging, or driving on a long, straight, uncrowded interstate. Or try writing first thing in the morning, every day, before your brain has a chance to really wake up and kick in.
Listen for the small voice inside that really knows you best.
Then, start writing. Here are three plans of attack to begin writing your personal statement:
Brainstorm / Free write / Organize. Just sit down and just start writing about yourself. Don’t edit anything out. Just let everything about you spill out on the page. Then pick a bunch of the most promising-looking ideas and give yourself five minutes to free write on each of those topics to see which ones you can tease the most out of. Lastly, start organizing them: which ones fit together the best? How can you make sense of these disparate parts? Make a schematic, organizational, or flow chart that shows the relationship between them.
Make a timeline of your life. What three or five or ten events would someone have to know to understand you? How do they connect to one another?
Write short answers to a bunch of the following questions. Keep track of which ideas keep popping up, and when you seem to be repeating yourself. Limit yourself to one or two paragraphs so that you can answer as many of these as possible.
In the end, the process is worth it. Finalizing a personal statement and getting it to a point where you’re happy with and proud of it is not easy and takes a huge amount of time and energy. But even if you don’t win or even get an interview, going through the process of defining yourself and accounting for your life and decisions to this point will help you step back, look around, and engage your future.
Contributors include: Paula Warrick, American University; Jane Curlin, Willamette University; Mary Hale Tolar, Harry S. Truman Foundation; the Scholars and Fellows Office at Columbia University; Linda Critchlow, University of Puget Sound; Lori Coliander, University of Washington; and Barri Gold, Muhlenberg College.
Personal statements may be used to customize the application to a specific program or to different specialties.
Creating the personal statement, formatting the personal statement, previewing the personal statement, reviewing/editing the personal statement, assigning the personal statement.
You create your own personal statements in the MyERAS portal from the Personal Statements section listed under Documents.
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When creating a personal statement in the MyERAS application, the following formatting options will be available:
After entering the personal statement title and content, you will have the opportunity to preview your personal statement before saving it. This preview allows you to view your personal statement just as the programs will view it, including the number of pages.
You are responsible for reviewing your personal statements before assigning them to programs.
The Preview/Print option under the Actions column will allow you to view and/or print your personal statement.
Personal statements can be edited at any point during the application season — even when assigned to programs that have been applied to.
Personal statements that have been edited will be reflected on the programs’ side by an updated status containing the date of the updated version, but programs are not guaranteed to view or review updated versions of personal statements.
You may designate the assignment of one personal statement for each program.
What is the personal statement.
Most fellowship applications include a personal statement. This is an opportunity for you to show your critical thinking skills in a creative format. It is where you get to add your voice to the mix of materials that reviewers see when you apply for fellowships. Use the personal statement to highlight positive aspects about yourself that may not be apparent in other parts of your application.
The personal statement is your place to ask and answer questions about your past, present and future, including:
The personal statement should not simply list your activities and accomplishments. Instead, try to craft a narrative that shows the review committee reader that you have the qualities the fellowship is looking for.
You can approach the personal statement in many different ways. Some students like to start with an outline, while others start by brainstorming. The main points are: What are a few things you want people to know about you? Why is this fellowship right for you?
Writing improves with successive drafts. It is not unusual to write several drafts of the personal statement. As long as the fellowship rules allow it (and most do), you should bring your writing to the URF advisers. We can discuss your ideas at any stage and speak with you in detail about your statement. We don't try to fit you into a mold. Instead, our goal is to help you write a statement that you feel best represents you!
Keep these ideas in mind as you write:
Once you have written your personal statement, invite friends and family to read it. Do they think it portrays the person they know? Fellowship committees value authenticity above all other qualities. Make sure your statement reflects your true values and aspirations.
A personal statement for a fellowship or graduate school application is your opportunity to express to the selection committee who you are and why you are a great candidate for the program. In particular, an eye-grabbing lead sentence or opening paragraph is your most important tool for maintaining the reader’s attention. Here are some examples of powerful personal statement openings of winners of highly competitive fellowships.
By a winner of a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) in Macau. The applicant draws the reader to something memorable – her parents’ unique vocation – paving the way for an interesting story about her childhood and interest in working abroad.
By a graduate fellowship applicant to the University of Washington. This opening paragraph begins to tell a story that reflects on the applicant’s work with a diverse community.
By a winner of the Fulbright U.S. Student Grant. The lyrical nature of this stand-alone opening paragraph exhibits an advanced ability to use both words and punctuation to express the applicant’s personal values and how they originated.
By a successful applicant to Teach for America. Immediately, the applicant has built a framework to describe his interest in education and equal opportunity, and his personal experience as a child of an American immigrant.
By a Marshall Scholar to the U.K. The applicant masterfully opens with a story to describe the early beginnings of his intellectual curiosity, a key characteristic that the selection committee seeks in applicants.
A common aspect of these opening statements is their ability to draw the reader in to a unique and memorable story that begins to describe why the applicant is applying to the fellowship. You can identify more personal statement samples like these online by Googling “personal statement example pdf” with the name of the fellowship.
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Dr. Vicki Johnson is Founder and CEO of ProFellow, the world’s leading online resource for professional and academic fellowships. She is a four-time fellow, top Ph.D. scholar, Fulbright recipient and an award-winning social entrepreneur. She is the Creator and Director of Fully Funded , an award-winning online course and mentorship program for graduate school applicants seeking to find and win full funding.
© Victoria Johnson / ProFellow, LLC 2016, all rights reserved.
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Advice for applicants.
All of the CSC’s scholarship schemes are highly competitive. This means that many very able applicants will be disappointed. Only candidates whose applications are outstanding across the board are likely to be successful. You must therefore consider carefully what you choose to include. This page provides advice and guidance to applicants completing the application form, including feedback from the selection panel and common mistakes to avoid.
Before you start writing your application, it is important you check you are eligible to apply. Guidance on eligibility requirements for each programme can be found under the ‘Candidate eligibility’ sections on the individual programme pages .
In addition, all candidates must ensure they include all necessary documentation with their application. Every year many strong candidates are disqualified due to incomplete applications, so please make sure you check this carefully.
See individual programme pages for a checklist of all the essential requirements for an eligible application.
The selection panels assess applications using three key criteria: academic merit, impact of the work on development, and study/research plan.
The CSC makes its decisions on who receives a Commonwealth Scholarship purely on the basis of the information provided in the application form. There are no quotas for people from different countries.
For more details on how applications are graded, see the Commonwealth Scholarships Selection Criteria.
Please note that there is separate selection criteria for PhD Scholarships (for high-income countries). Please visit the Programme Page for more information.
Below is some feedback and advice from the CSC’s selection panels which may be helpful when completing an application form for a Commonwealth Scholarship.
Your personal statement is your opportunity to give the selection panel a sense of who you are and why you want to be a Commonwealth Scholar. It should summarise the ways in which your personal background has encouraged you to want to make an impact in your home country.
The CSC encourages applications from candidates who have faced significant disadvantage or personal barriers to higher education or are under-represented in their field of study/workplace. Please use your personal statement to summarise the ways in which your personal background has encouraged you to want to make an impact in your home country, including personal or community barriers you have overcome.
Please read our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about applying for a Commonwealth Scholarship. This includes answers to many common queries that applicants encounter.
Please refer to this page for any queries you might have before contacting the CSC.
We asked Scholars to share their experiences of applying for a Commonwealth Scholarship and what it means to them to be a Commonwealth Scholar. You can watch their responses in the videos below.
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CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) was introduced with the intention of recognizing individual author contributions, reducing authorship disputes and facilitating collaboration. The idea came about following a 2012 collaborative workshop led by Harvard University and the Wellcome Trust, with input from researchers, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and publishers, including Elsevier, represented by Cell Press.
CRediT offers authors the opportunity to share an accurate and detailed description of their diverse contributions to the published work.
The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the descriptions are accurate and agreed by all authors
The role(s) of all authors should be listed, using the relevant above categories
Authors may have contributed in multiple roles
CRediT in no way changes the journal’s criteria to qualify for authorship
CRediT statements should be provided during the submission process and will appear above the acknowledgment section of the published paper as shown further below.
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Conceptualization | Ideas; formulation or evolution of overarching research goals and aims |
Methodology | Development or design of methodology; creation of models |
Software | Programming, software development; designing computer programs; implementation of the computer code and supporting algorithms; testing of existing code components |
Validation | Verification, whether as a part of the activity or separate, of the overall replication/ reproducibility of results/experiments and other research outputs |
Formal analysis | Application of statistical, mathematical, computational, or other formal techniques to analyze or synthesize study data |
Investigation | Conducting a research and investigation process, specifically performing the experiments, or data/evidence collection |
Resources | Provision of study materials, reagents, materials, patients, laboratory samples, animals, instrumentation, computing resources, or other analysis tools |
Data Curation | Management activities to annotate (produce metadata), scrub data and maintain research data (including software code, where it is necessary for interpreting the data itself) for initial use and later reuse |
Writing - Original Draft | Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically writing the initial draft (including substantive translation) |
Writing - Review & Editing | Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work by those from the original research group, specifically critical review, commentary or revision – including pre-or postpublication stages |
Visualization | Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically visualization/ data presentation |
Supervision | Oversight and leadership responsibility for the research activity planning and execution, including mentorship external to the core team |
Project administration | Management and coordination responsibility for the research activity planning and execution |
Funding acquisition | Acquisition of the financial support for the project leading to this publication |
*Reproduced from Brand et al. (2015), Learned Publishing 28(2), with permission of the authors.
Zhang San: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software Priya Singh. : Data curation, Writing- Original draft preparation. Wang Wu : Visualization, Investigation. Jan Jansen : Supervision. : Ajay Kumar : Software, Validation.: Sun Qi: Writing- Reviewing and Editing,
Read more about CRediT here opens in new tab/window or check out this article from Authors' Updat e: CRediT where credit's due .
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Research the fellowship and/or program you are applying to. Write a coherent, well-structured essay. Frame it with a unifying metaphor or analogy. Start with an interesting lead--a story, anecdote, or description of a scene--and end it with a conclusion that refers back to the lead or completes the metaphor. Be concise and to the point.
A well-written personal statement demonstrates your ability to organize your thoughts and communicate clearly. Conversely, an unpolished statement can unintentionally portray the writer as disinterested, unprofessional and careless. Your personal statement should articulate your preparedness by clarifying how your past experiences, education ...
The personal statement is an important requirement for residency and fellowship applications that many applicants find daunting. ... Writing a personal statement represents a unique opportunity for residency and fellowship applicants to amplify their ERAS application beyond the confines of its objective components. 3 Using this stepwise ...
Say "I hope to direct a MICU one day." And think big- fellowship directors like applicants with ambition. 5.Do show your draft to others: Show it to friends and family. I want to read all your personal statements, often if necessary, to make sure they're great. So remember your personal statement is your last opportunity to boost your candidacy.
A personal narrative. Build a personal narrative that ties together your personal history, experiences, and motivations. In addition to a few paragraphs (2-3) at the beginning of your statement, you can weave your motivation and goals throughout your document to create a cohesive story. This cements your identity into the minds of the reviewer.
The Personal Statement for Fellowship In your journey to complete your medical education you've written personal statements, first when you applied to medical school and then for residency. Now you're applying for a fellowship, so once again you'll need to write about yourself. This time, however, keep in mind
A personal statement is a short essay of around 500-1,000 words, in which you tell a compelling story about who you are, what drives you, and why you're applying. To write a successful personal statement for a graduate school application, don't just summarize your experience; instead, craft a focused narrative in your own voice. Aim to ...
Personal Statement Example: Breakdown + Analysis. Example 1. My interest in the field of neuroscience began at a young age. When I was twelve years old, my sister developed a condition called Pseudotumor Cerebri following multiple concussions during a basketball game.
Many applications for research opportunities require a personal statement. This is an opportunity for you to show your critical thinking skills in a creative format. It is where you get to add your voice to the mix of materials that reviewers see when you apply for fellowships. Use the personal statement to highlight positive aspects about ...
Personal Statement. The personal statement is an essay designed to give the reader a sense of who you are and how closely your goals and strengths match the ideals of a specific fellowship. While such writing offers a great deal of compositional flexibility, it should clearly address some basic points: your qualifications for the given fellowship.
Scholarship Personal Statement Example that Won $250,000. Here is the personal statement of an applicant who got admitted to several top graduate schools for a degree in business and management. Variations of this personal statement got scholarships of upto $250,000 at Columbia, Harvard, and NYU.
The personal statement for fellowship should be developed according to the above, centered on the three pillars and composed of, in most cases, five paragraphs as follows: Introduction: The first paragraph—and ideally first sentence—should mention the fellowship subspecialty being applied for, or give a clear indication of it.
5. Use an authentic voice. Your personal statement reflects who you are, so you should use a tone that represents you. That means you shouldn't try to sound like someone else, and you shouldn't use fancy words just to show off. This isn't an academic paper, so you don't have to adopt a super formal tone.
When your eyes start glazing over, ask for help. In the end, your personal statement should highlight your potential. Use the checklist. Make yourself shine. Enjoy your Sunday, everyone, and when your drafts are ready, send them to me for review. Mark. Submitted by Mark David Siegel on May 05, 2019. A checklist to follow when writing personal ...
Organize: Prepare a list of questions, organize your certificates with all dates, be prepared for the application process in advance, have a portfolio available, use one email address for all applications. (Tip: Use your university address rather than personal email.) Draft Your Personal Statement: Personal statements should be one page or less.
Evaluating Your Personal Statement • Proofread! • Strategically choose people to critique your personal statement - Begin with a trusted friend to clean up language and grammar - Utilize services offered by the Office of Graduate Fellowships and Awards - Stop by The Career Center for help from a Career Advisor
Here are five examples of powerful personal statement openings for winners of highly competitive fellowships. "I still remember the damaged smiles of the abandoned, elderly residents at the St. Vincent de Paul house in Curitiba, Brazil like it was yesterday. Their weathered faces lit up as the junior team of Clube Atletico Paranaense and I ...
A personal statement is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It's a statement, paragraph, or essay about yourself. It should tell who you are, where you came from, what your dreams, goals, and aspirations are, and more. It should focus on your strengths and tell scholarship committees why you deserve their money.
The Personal Statement. Definition of a Personal Statement. Reflection and Retrospection: A Pedagogic Mystery Story. Writing Personal Essays: On the Necessity of Turning Oneself Into a Character. Writing Personal Statements. 10 Commandments for Writing Personal Statements. Not Leadership Material?
Personal statements fellowships are formal pieces, so use engagement methods in your writing wisely. See how examples writers manage it to get more ideas. Define accents and things to focus on; The fellowship application personal statement should be program-focused and contain information that describes an individual as a skillful specialist ...
Writing Personal Statements for Scholarship Applications. In many ways, writing a personal statement is a 180-degree turn from what you're used to doing in college. You have been trained to write rather staid, formal, academic papers in which you know the format and what is expected of you, and the challenge lies in researching the topic at ...
The personal statement is limited to 28,000 characters, which include letters, numbers, spaces, and punctuation marks. There is not a limit to how many personal statements applicants can create. Personal statements created outside the MyERAS application should be done in a plain text word processing application such as Notepad (for Windows ...
Most fellowship applications include a personal statement. This is an opportunity for you to show your critical thinking skills in a creative format. It is where you get to add your voice to the mix of materials that reviewers see when you apply for fellowships. Use the personal statement to highlight positive aspects about yourself that may ...
Here are some examples of powerful personal statement openings of winners of highly competitive fellowships. "My parents are acupuncturists who made the long trip from their tiny cluster of villages in Guangzhou, China, to the quaint suburbs of Northern California, two years before I was born.". By a winner of a Fulbright English Teaching ...
Some applicants focus on how a Commonwealth Scholarship would help them to become personally successful, rather than on how their work can specifically contribute to development in their home country. ... Your personal statement is your opportunity to give the selection panel a sense of who you are and why you want to be a Commonwealth Scholar ...
CRediT author statement. CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) was introduced with the intention of recognizing individual author contributions, reducing authorship disputes and facilitating collaboration. The idea came about following a 2012 collaborative workshop led by Harvard University and the Wellcome Trust, with input from researchers, the ...