Guide to Personal Statements

Feb 9

What is a Personal Statement?

A Personal Statement (will refer to it as PS for short) is a limited written summary of an individual’s relevant academics and experiences associated with the application/program it is being used for. PSs are often required for applications of all kinds, whether its for a job, internship, scholarship, or fellowship. There are some instances where someone wants to develop a non-specific PS for the sake of hosting on a portfolio site or use in a career fair/networking setting, but overall, they are most effective/succesful when you create them SPECIFIC to the application or program you are applying for.

Below are a few tips when making PSs that are SPECIFIC to an application or opportunity!

***This is a GROWING and IN PROGRESS guide, so if you have other specific questions, feel free to let me know!

Content Guide

Outlining your PS

To help make the personal statement process less intimidating, I find that it helps to take EVERYTHING from the application description, turn it into a bullet-list format, and set yourself up to answer/address each, piece by piece.

Take the opportunity description, required/preferred skills, tasks, and other details into a google doc, and turn those bulky descriptions into bullets.
Take a <2 minutes PER bullet to write a bit about how that item relates to your personal or professional goals.

Selection criteria often looks heavily into an applicant’s ability to concisely and effectively show why being granted this opportunity is significant to their long-term journey.
People want to see that they are investing resources into the right individual! Highlight how being granted this would impact your trajectory in the near and distant future

After brainstorming for all these items, it should be easier to work them into full sentences/paragraphs for your PS. Move items around, group short responses together if they are relevant. USUALLY I end up basing my bullets from this exercise into the following categories:

Applicant (my) basic personal information:

Demographics
Stage in career

Skills:

Skills I Have
Skills I want

Background/Experience:

Academic Background and In-Class Experience
Relevant Non-Academic/School Experience
Experiences I want

Longer-term goals

Future work positions?
Grad School?

Below is the general skeleton of how my Personal Statements are structured.

In EACH category listed above, make sure to mention how the oppurtunity (might abbreviate to opp from now on) influences each category (“getting this ___ will allow me to ___”).

Scholarship Applications

Introduction

Name, Class, Major/Intended Area of Study
IN BOLD, mention the scholarship(s) you are applying for, and for what year/quarter.

Applicant Basic Personal Information
Background/Experience
Skills
Longer-term goals
Salutations & Thanks for considerations

Position-based (Internship, Job, Fellowship) Applications

Introduction

Name, Class year (if applicable), Area of Study
IN BOLD, mention the position(s) you are applying for, and for what year/quarter.

Applicant Basic Personal Information
Background/Experience
Skills
Longer-term goals
Salutations & Thanks for considerations

Formatting Guide

If an application has specific requirements for formatting (most often a page limit, sometimes I see font and spacing requests), stick with them.

If there are no specifics, utilize some formatting squishiness to your advantage, if it means it can allow you to better highlight your story! Some Pointers/suggestions below:

Page Limit: 1-2 pages is ideal. Stick to 2-3 pages MAX. 1-2 pages is ideal.
Font: I personally like modern sans serif fonts like Poppins, Josefin Sans, Alata, Nunito, Lexend
Spacing: Single or 1.5 Spacing to give you some
Sneaking in other media:

Hyperlink things! Websites, portfolios, example work, etc.
Insert images relevant to your talking points! Keep them relatively small, nothing bigger than a quarter of your page

Colors! SUPER underrated, but so effective with catching some eyes! Use a little bit of color for your subtitles (which helps break up big paragraphs).