The Personal Statement

At a minimum, each student will write one essay referred to as The Personal Statement and for most colleges, it is completed through the Common Application (CA). With the CA, students can apply to a number of schools with only the push of a button but keep in mind that many schools have supplemental applications with additional essays. The good news is that those supplemental applications are available through the CA.  If one or more of the colleges on your list uses their own application instead of the CA, the personal statement will still be required but the prompts may be different. Visit www.commonapp.org for a list of participating colleges. 

If done well, the essay writing process will be time consuming so it's important to start early and to stay organized. An average of six prompts are released each spring and they are often the same or only slightly altered from previous years. A prompt is a question or statement designed to give students a topic or an idea to use as a springboard.  One prompt may challenge students to talk about failure, while another may ask about a specific event or moment when the student changed their thinking. Because there are many ways to respond to any given prompt, it is important to read them carefully while writing down first thoughts about each. Write anything that comes to mind whether it is a memory, a curiosity about what the prompt is asking or even an irritation. It's not uncommon for a prompt to make the reader feel frustrated and if that happens, take note and consider writing that essay. After doing this, take a few days to think about each before revisiting the list and deciding if there is one or more that you are drawn to. See FYS News for the 2023-2024 prompts.

There are many topics that students are drawn to and those often include family, loss, service trips, travel and sports injuries. Although these topics are tempting, keep in mind that the admissions counselors want to admit you, not the animal you saved, the coach who never gave up on you or the grandparent who inspired your interest in medicine. It's easy to get caught in the trap of writing about an inspirational person or moment but it often does little to show how you view the world and how you think. This doesn't mean that you can't write about a service trip but what it does mean is that you need to stay focused on an aspect of the trip that helped you define yourself or even make you question yourself and the world. Most often the best personal statements are about a seemingly simple passion, habit, moment or task. My students have written about book organization, pizza dough, sea glass, apple orchards and more. Every essay brought the reader into the student’s life and how they think. This is your goal: to share your story and to leave the reader changed in some way.

The personal statement is often the longest of the essays and typically the first to be reviewed by admissions officers. This first essay sets the tone and allows the committee to be able to see who you are in writing. Again, although this essay is referred to as a statement, think of it as a personal perspective piece.  Only then will you be able to show who you are and how you think.