Bad Personal Statements: How Not to Write a Personal Statement

A personal statement is an important aspect of the university application process, that is why it is important for students to write an excellent personal statement. However, most students will find it difficult to write a personal statement especially if they are doing it for the first time. This is because it is difficult to look at oneself objectively. Most people will find nothing deeply unusual about their lives. They see themselves as blending into the environment, without realizing that it is this environment that they create which makes them different from other individuals. That is why it is important to get help in writing your personal statement.

Another individual will be able to look at your life experiences in an objective way. However, it is not recommended to have close associates or family members for this task because they will likely came from the same background as the student; therefore they are prone to making the same assumptions. While it is difficult someone to write a personal statement about another individual who is a complete stranger to him or her, there are some general guidelines on what things do not appeal to schools. Below are some examples:

• Treating the personal statement as an expanded resume. An expanded resume means just plainly listing down your accomplishments and experiences. If you will notice, these are all in your resume anyway. The university can also choose to verify the information through school records. What you should do is write about your thoughts and feelings while these accomplishments were being achieved and experiences were happening. Write about how this means to you and how this motivated you to choose your degree programme or university.

• Creating an interesting character or situation without fully developing it. Applicants are taught that it is important to create an impression on the university admissions officer who will be reading the personal statement, and one way to do this is to make an interesting situation about the individual. Many applicants will often talk about being deprived of love by a parent or not having enough financial resources and then just mention that this “inspired” them to do better at school or choose a particular subject. However, there is a gap of how they were able to channel this “inspiration” into something that will show the individual's strong character. The key is to find the balance between writing about a topic and writing about how the topic was able to affect the individual.