The Basics: What is a Personal Statement?
A personal statement is an essay used to:
- Support a university or college application
- Apply for a scholarship
- Apply for an internship or research opportunity
The purpose of a personal statement is to provide the reader with more information about the candidate.
The Basics: Getting Started
To Get Started
- Read and analyze the prompt carefully.
- Look for hints of what the readers are looking for.
- For example, the Gilman Scholarship Statement of Purpose directions tell applicants to "be specific" and "address
ALL questions."
- Look for other requirements
- Word or character count, pages, etc.
- Do some research.
- Look at the program's website. Oftentimes there will be helpful information like profiles of past winners and example essays.
Suggestion: Print out and annotate the prompt page to help you keep track of all requirements. *This is especially helpful for multi-part applications like the Gilman.
Brainstorming Ideas
Brainstorming can help you:
- Figure out what you want to write about
- Organize your writing before the writing process
Techniques
- Listing
- Free writing
- Clustering or bubbling
- And more! Even talking out your ideas with a friend, family member, tutor, or advisor is brainstorming.
Suggestion: Ask yourself open-ended questions, such as:
- What do I want the readers to know about me?
- Why should I be picked for the scholarship?
- Why do I want the scholarship/opportunity?
Essay Organization: Outlining
An outline is a plan for your essay. Creating one can help you organize your thoughts and stay on track.
- An outline shows two things:
- The
relationship between the main idea of your essay, your topic sentences, and your supporting points
- The
order in which you plan to put all of this information together
- There are two main types of outlines:
- Topic outline: brief ideas (informal)
- Sentence outline: includes complete sentences (formal)
Suggestion: Write your outline in the same order as basic essay structure (see below). This is also a way to see if ideas are placed in logical order
before you begin writing a long (and hard to edit) draft.
Essay Organization: Basic Structure
The following is basic essay organization.
Always make sure to follow any guidelines provided by the program you are applying for. Oftentimes, the structure of a personal statement/scholarship essay will differ from what you would write for class.
- Introductory Paragraph
- Hook: Draw your audience into the essay
- Thesis Statement: Main idea of your essay
- Body Paragraph #1
Topic Sentence #1
- Supporting Point #1
- Supporting Point #2
- Supporting Point #3
** Repeat this process for each body paragraph
- Conclusion Paragraph
- Restate Thesis/Main Ideas
- Wrap Up Ideas
Top Tips for Students
Here are the
top tips we tell students for writing their personal statements.
- Don't skip reading the prompt and brainstorming
- Research the program or scholarship to which you are applying
- Focus on your strengths
- Provide context (This can be for academic highs and lows or for program specific information.)
- Be self-reflective to show how you have learned from your experiences
- Avoid being overdramatic or focusing on the negative
- Be authentic
- Focus on possible key themes
- Revise and proofread carefully and have others look at it, too!
Avoid the Following
When writing personal statements, students should typically avoid the following:
- Unknown acronyms
- Quotes/dialogue
- Creative writing
- Storytelling/scene setting
- Repetition
- Asking questions
- Inappropriate use of humor
- Analogies
- Generalities - be specific!
Additional Resources: Writing Center
Information provided by the Citrus College Writing Center and posted February 25, 2025
