Personal Statement - Where do I start?

January 18th, 2018 | ONSF Personal Statements Workshop | Haley Phillips | OPCE Graduate Intern


I recently attended a workshop sponsored by the University of Michigan Office of National Scholarships and Fellowships geared towards helping students prepare scholarship/fellowship applications - more specifically, how to write a personal statement. I'm sharing the biggest tips and tricks that I learned.

Step 1: Your Story
  • Who are you (including past experiences that have led you to this point)
  • Where are you going?
  • How does this opportunity move you forward?
  • Caveat: integrity as a cone of real possibilities grounded in genuine interests, experiences, and abilities - don't lie about your stories or abilities!
Step 2: What type of opportunity?
  • Jobs vs fellowships
  • What’s the mission of the opportunity? What are they looking for? Are there explicit criteria? If not, what knowledge, experience, skills, and character-traits would someone need to flourish in this opportunity?
    • Example of explicit criteria: https://knight-hennessy.stanford.edu/admission/criteria
    • Print resume, print criteria, start drawing arrows between the two - what on your resume makes you qualified for the position?
    • Have a story to complement the criteria
    • If not explicit criteria, print out description,  and highlight important ideas and phrases 
    • Be sure to separate “eligibility requirements” from “selection criteria”
Step 3: Developing Your Global Application Strategy
  • How can you demonstrate to the reader that you match their criteria, mission, or that you have the knowledge, skills, and character to flourish in this position?
  • Tip: Write out the selection criteria as bullet points with two columns and fill in how you fit each
    • Criteria
    • Qualifications 
Step 4: The Parts of Your Application
  • These might include:
    • Resume or CV (or a list of activities built into the application)
    • Transcript
    • Personal Statement or Cover Letter
    • Supplemental Essay Questions
    • Letter of Recommendation
  • Add a third column to your list and assign each item from your checklist of criteria and experiences to one or more parts of your application. Make sure that all the key points are adequately covered in the application as a whole.
    • Ex. if course is listed on resume (i.e. MAT 260), explain significance of course so readers can understand importance
  • Caveats
    • Don’t have direct experiences? Think about other analogous experiences that have given you transferable skills. If you can’t think of any analogous experiences, reconsider why you are applying
    • Some things are better said about you by someone else (i.e. your reccomender)
Step 5: Structuring your Personal Statement
  • Answer the Prompt - what does the application ask you say in your personal statement? Does the prompt have parts?
  • Make a checklist of items that you want to be sure you cover in the essay
    • Caveats: Don’t make tired readers work! Structure your essay so that it is clear that you answering the prompt and addressing the selection criteria
    • The “Three Things” Test - If the reader turned over the page and wrote down three things about you, what would they be?
Step 6: Thinking About Structure
  • Chronological: structured according to past, present, and future events in that order
  • In Media Res: begins with a story told in vivid present or past tense and then moves in the broader themes of the statement 
  • Issue-based: convince the reader to agree with your argument 
  • Topical Division: organizing the rational connections within
  • Ring Composition (be wary - gets overused - only use with longer statements):
    • Caveats
      • Avoid narrating your CV/resume - focus on meaning and connections
      • Remember that good storytelling is as much about what you leave out as what you put in (see Andrew Stanton’s TED talk on storytelling)
Step 7: Using Keywords
  • Go back to the essay prompt, job description, organization’s mission etc. What are some of the key words or phrases that they use?
  • Use these in your statement to 
    • (a) show them that you’ve carefully read the prompt and researched their organization and 
    • (b) how each part of your essay is responding to part of the prompt or selection criteria
  • Caveats
    • Again, don’t make tired readers work!
    • Check for long, complex sentences
    • Check for jargon and repetition 
Step 8: Writing Multiple Applications
  • How to personalize a boilerplate essay - build into the boilerplate a “...” where you personalize each version to each particular organization or opportunity
  • Best places: At the end of the first paragraph AND at the end of the statement as a whole - not JUST then end of the essay, because readers can tell you just swapped out a name
Final Caveats:
  • The use of hyperbole to convey emotional intensity (“unique,” “I’ve always...”)
  • Use of caveats and connecting phrases (“I think…,” “to me…,” “furthermore…”)

I hope this helps as you begin applying for scholarships and fellowships! The UMSI Career Development Office and Office of Professional and Community Engagement are here to help you throughout the process. Schedule an appointment with one of our staff members on iTrack to receive customized, strategic, comprehensive counseling on all your applications.




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