What Type of Essay is a Personal Statement?
Indian/NRI Students, one of the most important part of a college application process apart from the standardized test scores and transcripts, is a personal statement or essay. And mark my words, one can find endless material and guides for your tests, but to something helpful with regards to the personal statement can be difficult, reason being it’s open ended and different people have different views about it. This guide will touch upon the Personal Statement topic along with how can you make it effective. Let’s start by discussing, "Why Do Colleges Ask for Essays?" The basic idea behind the essays is to gain more information about you, especially what you are beyond grades and test scores. Essays give the Admission Committee a sense of who you are your and your personality. And based on that what kind of skills you’d bring to the school. Essays also help college gauge your personality traits, like whether you’re ambitious or inquisitive or caring, etc. The essay contextualizes your application and shows what kind of person you are outside of your grades and test scores. Essay gives your application a body or else, it’s just a series of numbers. It also helps college see your writing skills. Only thing to remember is that via your essays you need to express your ideas clearly. Essays are a medium for students to tell their story, bring out the reasons why your high schools were affected, etc. so make sure to indicate any relevant circumstances on your application. Few colleges ask you to write about why you’re applying to their school. Through this admission officers want to know whether you are genuinely excited about the school. The might ask you to write about any experience or any important event or any key relationship you value from your life. Through this colleges want to understand, what you value more in life. Only thing to keep in mind is, focus on one event or aspect rather writing your entire life stories. They might give you a problem and ask you to provide solutions. College years can be difficult, both personally and academically, and admissions officers want to see that you're ready to face those challenges. The best advice for this type of essays is write about a real life problem which aligns to the topic and show how you solved that problem. Essay about diversity are designed to help admissions officers understand how you interact with people who are from a different field. While writing these essays, make sure you show you are capable of with new ideas. Essays about future goals help admission officers helps understand your interests and how you plan to work towards your goals. The most common supplemental essay is the "Why us?" essay. You have to address the specific reasons why you want to go to the school you're applying to. Only advice is never recycle the essays that are online or the ones which you have used for earlier applications. Indian NRI Students make sure you go through above points. Basis my experience, I've made a set of tips which you follow to write great essays: One can easily write the initial draft of the essay. However, the editing part is tedious. You have to edit the essay to make a bigger impact. Hence, always start early, like months before the application date. If you write about a topic which admissions committee wants but you aren’t confident about it, then you might not write an effective essay. Always make sure you choose something that you’re confident about and know a good amount of detail about it. Simple advice, don't try to tell your entire life story. Focus on the specific event related to the topic. Use event details to write in the essays. Do not copy essays available online or something which you have heard from somewhere. Always make sure you write your own words and say your story, rather borrowing someone elses story. While writing and editing the essays, never ever ease out on the quality of it. At the time of editing make sure you are reading and are objectively thinking of improving it. Write it to the point and short. Never keep huge paragraphs in your essays. Even if you have rewrite the entire things, make sure you do that and make an impact on your application. Drop us an email at [email protected] for further assistance. We'll always be there to assist you. What Type of Essay is a Personal Statement? How Does It Benefit an Applicant?
Here're Some Traits that Colleges Expect from you in Personal Statements:
#1: Insight Into Your Personality
#2: Evidence of Writing Skills
#3: Explanation of Extenuating Circumstances
#4: Your Reasons for Applying to the School
What Type of Topics Colleges Might Ask You to Write About Yourself?
Question Type 1: Personal History
Question Type 2: Facing a Problem
Question Type 3: Diversity
Question Type 4: Your Future Goals
Questions Type 5: Why This School
Here are Some Essay-Writing Tips for you:
#1: Start Early!
#2: Pick a Topic You’re Genuinely Excited About
#3: Focus on Specifics
#4: Use Your Own Voice
#5: Be Ruthless