The personal statement can be a scary genre. Many graduate schools require a personal statement, but each program has differing expectations. This blog post is a resource on how to write and give feedback on a variety of personal statements for different kinds of programs. While this post is meant to be brief, I will provide links to more comprehensive resources for each subject area. I provide the general parameters for most personal statements, regardless of subject area or career goals, in order to give insight into what kind of genre the personal statement is.
Through researching this genre, I found out more about just how different personal statements can be for various subject areas and universities. This is made especially complicated as there are many guides for personal statements online, but some of them have inconsistencies. For instance, the Purdue OWL has a page on personal statements, but they do not address the difference between humanities personal statements and other kinds of personal statements.
Some quick pointers:
Length
Always check the website. Personal statements can be anywhere from a few paragraphs to a few pages. This means that some personal statements will need to be brief and concise, while others could be more nuanced.
The Question
Many personal statements will ask a question or a set of questions. Do a “close reading” on the question and try to read between the lines. Ask yourself: Why are they asking this, and why this question important for their program?
Specific, specific
Regardless of length, there should be a thesis (1-2 sentences that articulate the main claim you will make in this essay). Reviewers may even gloss over the whole essay just to see what you say in your first few sentences, so the first paragraph is very important. Even if you’re sharing a personal story (very common for many, but not all, personal statements), there should be some kind of thesis — what is the story supposed to demonstrate to your reader?
Professional/Academic Knowledge
Using some academic or professional knowledge is recommended for some fields, but not all. Many law school personal statement websites advise against using professional or academic knowledge, as they want to know you as a person, already know what you’re writing about, and you may write something false. Due to conflicting sources, I would recommend that you or your writer check in with a professor of their particular field on whether or not they should use this knowledge.
There are some key differences between personal statements from different subject areas. I am going to focus on the two most common graduate fields: the Humanities and medical, law, and business.
Humanities –
What exactly do you want to research/study and which faculty members do you want to study with? Extracurriculars, personal qualities, professional experience are usually not as emphasized. (This can depend on the prompt, but several resources either say no personal experiences or simply less reference to them.)
Medical, Law, and Business School –
Who are you and why do you want to study this? For most programs, you should tell some kind of autobiographical story that exemplifies your personal qualities.
So there are some important differences here. The humanities require you to have very focused research interests, while medical, law, and business schools are more interested in professional knowledge and autobiography. However for all personal statements, it is important to be specific, detailed, and concise.
General Resources
Click to access writing_personal_statements_for_graduate_school.pdf
University of Connecticut has some useful examples of personal statements!
Loyola University of Maryland also breaks down exactly what a personal statement is for those moments where the meaning gets tricky.
Humanities
Thompson’s Writing Program has a Personal Statement for Graduate Programs in the Humanities to help guide you!
Law
The University of Chicago’s Law school has also detailed various admissions essays that worked.
Berkley Law has some excellent examples!