Overview
The Personal statement’s main purpose is to help the writer to stand out from other applicants who have similar or identical academic records and testing results. A personal statement is like an essay, which you submit as part of your application. While FIU doesn’t require one, you may have written one if you applied to other colleges. They are commonly asked for in grad school and law school applications. Sometimes the school you’re applying to will give you a prompt–some questions they want you to answer in your essay. Sometimes the personal statement is more open-ended. In either case, a personal statement is a place where you communicate who you are and help give decision-makers a sense of you as a person. Those decision-makers often use that essay to choose between students with identical GPAs and experiences when there aren’t enough spots. Being effective at communicating who you are–your brand–will help you to write effective personal statements. Some experts see it as a make-or-break part of any application that requires you to submit such an essay.
Step 1
Spend 30-40 minutes total, exploring the two electronic full access books 50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays and Essays that Will Get You into Law School and the article “Create an Artful Essay for a Standout Medical School Application (all linked below). Notice I didn’t say to read these texts. You aren’t expected to read two books this week! You can read parts of it, skim parts of it, and skip parts of it.
And moreover, these aren’t the kind of books most of us would ever read cover-to-cover. But if you read the table of contents and skim chapters that interest you, you’ll come away from that experience with a feeling of how seriously people take the personal statement (sometimes called person essay) document.
All I want you to do is to spend about 30-40 minutes scanning and swimming these three digital resources. I want you to get a sense of what a personal statement looks like, see the range of possibilities, and ….. . Then, think about your own personal brand mood board. You may also want to talk about personal statements with a classmate, parent, or friend. Then you’ll write a response (described below).
50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays. [electronic resource]: includes advice from college admissions officers and the 25 essay mistakes that guarantee failure. (Links to an external site.)
This book focuses on applying to college not graduate school but there are many similarities between essays written for college and those written for graduate school and scholarship, or internship applications.
Essays That Will Get You Into Law School (Links to an external site.)
“Create an Artful Essay for a Standout Medical School Application” (2014). USNews.Com. (Links to an external site.)
Step 2
Imagine that you are going to bake a cake. There are a lot of steps before you pop your cake batter into the oven. First, you think about what kinds of ingredients you like (or have handy). And then you might decide how to mix them. Is it a chocolate cake or a yellow cake? Carrot cake or banana? Do you want nuts? Chocolate chips? Will you have frosting?
Presenting yourself is a lot like planning a cake. Mood boards are a good way, low-stakes, fun way to get started. You put all the ingredients (things about yourself that you might want to share) on the table and decide what to include. Each of us becomes an individual because of our attributes, skills, preferences, and dreams and also because of the collection of stories and experiences that make up our lives.
You can’t write a personal statement without first seeing yourself. But what does it mean to see yourself?
Instead of starting work on their personal statements by looking at a blank sheet of paper, people who are thinking about graduate school will be able to use their mood boards as a kind of mirror, to help notice, remember, and reflect on who they are.
What to post on the Discussion Board:
For this week’s post, you can use these questions to get your thinking and writing started or ignore the questions and just share whatever thoughts you have.
Although the words personal brand may not appear in any of this week’s assigned reading could you make an argument that articulating your personal brand through words and stories is a part of a successful personal statement? Maybe look at one personal statement as an example. Where did you find your example personal statement? What title did the author pick for his or her personal statement? After reading that personal statement, how would you describe that writer in a few words?
Even if you aren’t considering graduate school right now, did your personal-brand mood board (this week’s assignment) provide you with a few ideas about how you might start sifting through your experiences, ideas, values, skills, and interests to write an essay that reveals what’s unique about you?
Some people report that writing the personal statement was the most unhappy part of the graduate school application process. Why do you think people might feel that way?
Did anything in the assigned books and article surprise you? For example, was there an instance of advice in the article that resonated as true? Or were there words of warning in one of the books that seemed false or unhelpful?
If you have trouble seeing any connection between personal statements and your own personal-brand mood board, that’s okay. Share your impressions of the book and article. You don’t need to mention your personal brand mood board.
Your initial post must be at least 250 words long.
Always read the point distribution and word count specification for discussion board posts — this distribution may be different for later Discussion Board Post assignments.
