Getting started on a graduate school personal statement

graduate admissions personal statements

You’re applying to graduate school. You have to write a personal statement. If that blank page is looking a little daunting, here are a few ways to jumpstart your process. 

Lower the bar.

Personal statements typically go through many rounds of revisions, so there’s no need to create something submittable on the first try. Adjust your goal: you want to get something on the page that you can show to a friend (or your tutor) to start the revision process.  

Do some stream-of-consciousness writing.

Write whatever comes to mind, giving yourself permission to be messy, write in bullets, ignore the wordcount, and move on from ideas when they bore you. Nothing you write has to end up in the actual personal statement—but by the time you’re done, you’ll have a few pages of raw material to start playing with. 

Study yourself.

Look back through old resumes and cover letters that you’ve used for other applications. Copy and paste old paragraphs that you still like into your stream-of-consciousness file, or write a few new sentences about internships and activities you haven’t thought about in a while. Once again, it’s all about creating some raw material to play with. 

Start prioritizing.

Once you’ve spent a few days away from your raw material, open the file and read it over. What are you excited to continue writing about? What seems most aligned with your specific prompt? Keep the fragments that you like, and move the rest into a separate document (just in case).

Write some topic sentences.

Considering what you have left on the page, jot down a few topic sentences. Ask yourself: what are three to five main ideas I’d want a reader to take away from all this? What order should they go in? You’ll end up with some rough topic sentences that you can organize the rest of your content under. 

By now, you’ll have a first draft of your personal statement that you can show to a friend or tutor to get their initial reactions, or come back to yourself in a few days with fresh eyes. And just like that, you're not writing your personal statement anymore: you're revising it. 

Celine graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Johns Hopkins University with a BA in English and Public Health Studies. After working as a consultant at The Bridgespan Group, she is now pursuing a PhD in English at Harvard.

Comments

topicTopics
academics study skills MCAT medical school admissions SAT expository writing college admissions English MD/PhD admissions strategy writing LSAT GMAT GRE physics chemistry math biology graduate admissions academic advice ACT interview prep law school admissions test anxiety language learning premed MBA admissions career advice personal statements homework help AP exams creative writing MD study schedules test prep computer science Common Application summer activities history mathematics philosophy organic chemistry secondary applications economics supplements research 1L PSAT admissions coaching grammar law psychology statistics & probability legal studies ESL CARS SSAT covid-19 dental admissions logic games reading comprehension engineering USMLE calculus PhD admissions Spanish mentorship parents Latin biochemistry case coaching verbal reasoning DAT English literature STEM excel medical school political science skills AMCAS French Linguistics MBA coursework Tutoring Approaches academic integrity chinese letters of recommendation Anki DO Social Advocacy admissions advice algebra art history artificial intelligence astrophysics business cell biology classics diversity statement gap year genetics geometry kinematics linear algebra mechanical engineering mental health presentations quantitative reasoning study abroad technical interviews time management work and activities 2L DMD IB exams ISEE MD/PhD programs Sentence Correction adjusting to college algorithms amino acids analysis essay athletics business skills careers cold emails data science dental school finance first generation student functions graphing information sessions international students internships logic networking poetry resume revising science social sciences software engineering tech industry trigonometry writer's block 3L AAMC Academic Interest EMT FlexMed Fourier Series Greek Health Professional Shortage Area Italian Lagrange multipliers London MD vs PhD MMI Montessori National Health Service Corps Pythagorean Theorem Python Shakespeare Step 2 TMDSAS Taylor Series Truss Analysis Zoom acids and bases active learning architecture argumentative writing art art and design schools art portfolios bacteriology bibliographies biomedicine brain teaser campus visits cantonese capacitors capital markets central limit theorem centrifugal force chemical engineering chess chromatography class participation climate change clinical experience community service constitutional law consulting cover letters curriculum dementia demonstrated interest dimensional analysis distance learning econometrics electric engineering electricity and magnetism escape velocity evolution executive function freewriting genomics harmonics health policy history of medicine history of science hybrid vehicles hydrophobic effect ideal gas law immunology induction infinite institutional actions integrated reasoning intermolecular forces intern investing investment banking lab reports linear maps mandarin chinese matrices mba medical physics meiosis microeconomics mitosis mnemonics music music theory nervous system neurology neuroscience object-oriented programming office hours operating systems