Writing Your Personal Statement

The personal statement is one of the most important parts of a competitive scholarship application. In this statement you can illuminate what drives you and how your background and experiences not only have prepared you to achieve certain goals and work on your particular issue but also make you a strong match for the particular scholarship. The way in which you communicate your story should work towards your goal of persuading your audience - in this case the selection committee - to award you the scholarship, and it can be helpful to think of this essay as a form of persuasive writing. In your personal statement, you are making a compelling case for yourself.

Most personal statements contain four components, which answer the following questions:

1. Who are you now? What interests you and is important to you? What personal qualities (skills, abilities, attributes) do you want to convey as your strong points?

2. What experiences have been important in your development? These could be classes, internships, work experience, personal episodes—moments that contributed to and illuminate who you are now.

3. What are your future goals, and what is your larger mission or purpose in pursuing these goals?

4. Why do you want this scholarship? This is where it all comes together, the bridge between your personal narrative and the scholarship requirements.

What the personal statement is not:

• A narrative version of your resume.
• Overly flowery and cliched prose that sounds pretty but doesn’t tell us anything.
• A thought piece about an issue or problem without you in the picture.
• A series of general statements that could have just as easily appeared in another applicant’s materials.
• A rehashing of material that appears elsewhere in the application.

What the personal statement is:

• Authentic. There’s a reason that this is called a personal statement.
• Reflective. Take stock and consider what pivotal experiences provide insight into your credentials and motivation as they relate to the fellowship criteria and your chosen path.
• Specific. It’s the details that add texture and make a person human.
• Mature. You are positioning yourself as someone with the potential to make an impact in your field; to be taken seriously, you should demonstrate an awareness of the emerging developments in your field.
• Strategic. Consider what story needs to be told in the context of the larger application.