It’s 8 PM on the night of a midnight deadline to your dream school and nothing you’ve ever done seems like it’ll be enough. You go online for some inspiration only to find story after story about some high schooler curing cancer or breaking the world record for saving the most people from a burning fire or somehow building a tech company from the ground up at the age of 14. Compared to them, who’s going to care about your eight years of archery practice? You begin to spiral, wondering if all those school-wide competition wins, volunteer hours, and extracurriculars were for naught. Meanwhile, that terrible clock continues to run and you’ve wasted 30 minutes staving off a panic attack.
Take a breath. We've all been there.
The first thing you should know is that admissions officers want to read about people, not about accomplishments. You’ve already sent them the long list of accolades you’ve earned throughout your schooling experience, so there’s no need to double down on them unless one of your experiences changed or informed who you are.
The second thing you should know is that you do have something to contribute to their university or program. It’s easy at this step of the application process to feel discouraged and wonder how you are going to stand apart from the crowd. Rest assured, you have the tools to stand apart just by virtue of being a unique individual. Everyone has an angle, you just need to find yours.
So how does one get started with your personal statement?
Now that you’ve calmed down a bit and you feel your head begin to clear, the actual task of starting your essay looms before you. From here, regardless of the kind of writer you are, your next step is to answer a few simple questions: who are you and what do you want your college to know about you?
Answering just these two questions will help you get an angle for your essay. Remember, the purpose of your essay is to tell the admissions officers more about yourself and to help them visualize you on campus. The easier you make that visualization, the more successful your effect on those admissions officers will be. This means that as you are writing about yourself, it would benefit you most to be genuine and clear.
Who are you?
Take some time to just do a deep dive about yourself. Again, everyone is unique and everyone has a story to tell - this is all about helping you find yours. Start with your interests and passions: what do you like to do in your free time? And, more importantly, how did you find out that’s what you liked to do? Where did you grow up and how did that affect you? Anything can be used for your essay if you frame it the right way, so initially you’re just getting some ideas that you can work with.
An important note: your interests do not need to be “impressive” here. They just need to be true to you. If you are interested in video games, write that down. Now think - why are you interested in them? What about them? Is it the story? The mechanics? The artistry in the design? The puzzles and challenges within them? Does any of that connect to your love of stories, of creating, of designing, or solving problems? Anything can lead to anything else! Allow yourself the freedom to get a good idea of who you are.
What do you want your college to know about you?
It might help to think of this question as a way to explore your future and what kinds of things you want the admissions officers to visualize you being a part of on campus. Now that they know a bit about you, what can they expect you to be like? What kinds of interests do you bring to campus?
If you have difficulty answering this, think about what might make you happy once you’re at college. Do you want to spend your time organizing events for other students? Do you want to join a sports team or even be part of a weekly Smash bros tournament? Anything can work for a jumping-off point, just be sure to write it down.
Once you have your ideas, all that is left is to meld them together.
With a bit of creativity and framing, anything can connect to anything else. Think of the reasons why you are interested in certain things and how they can connect to your future endeavors. Maybe you’re a person who likes archery because you read a book about it once. You can connect that with your love of books, then with your English degree, and more. Be brave and tell the truth.
So here we are: you have two lists of ideas (who you are/who will you be), and now all that’s left is to put pen to paper.
Be strong in your convictions! Believe that you are a unique individual and make your essay-readers believe it too. Look for ways to connect who you are and who you want to be. Something important you need to remember during this process is that you can bring something unique to anywhere you go. This is the true key to a good essay, because if you can’t convince yourself of this fact, you’re going to have difficulty convincing others. Everyone has a story to tell and luckily, now that you’ve found out who you are and what you may someday be, you’re ready to begin telling yours.
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