The Process of Writing an Effective Personal Statement
Scott R. Furtwengler
Dean, Honors Program, San Jacinto College
scott.furtwengler@sjcd.edu 281-929-4614

 What is a personal statement?
 General advice
 Focus on the approach to the content of your
personal statement: Your Vision
 Resources
 Questions
 Handout

 The general, comprehensive personal
statement (a.k.a., goal statement, course-of-
study proposal)
 Responses to specific questions, for example:
Describe a book that you’ve recently read.
Did it affect you? How?

 Admission Applications
 Scholarship Applications
 Internships
 Leadership Positions
 Employment Opportunities

 A picture
 An invitation
 An indication of priorities and judgment
 Your story

 An academic paper with you as the subject
 A résumé in narrative form
 A journal entry
 A plea or justification

 Answer the questions that are asked
 Tell your story. Show rather than tell.
 Be specific. Strive for depth, not breadth
 Concentrate on your opening
 Write well and correctly. Proofread!
 Address setbacks, if necessary
 Adhere to word limits and formatting
instructions
 Revise. Revise. Revise.

 Don’t use clichés or hyperbole
 Don’t list or restate information from your
résumé or other material
 Don’t use the same essay for each college
 Don’t complain or whine
 Don’t discuss money as a motivator
 Don’t submit supplemental material unless
requested (papers, letters of support, etc.)
 Don’t plagiarize!

 In 1,000 words, explain….
 Your dreams, goals, aspirations
 Your career goals
 Your educational goals
 Why you are applying to our program

 What was?
 What is?
 What can be?
 What should be?
Lund & Finch, Lessons in Leadership Mostly Learned
the Hard Way (1987)

 What challenges and obstacles have taught
you something important about yourself?
 When have you been so immersed in what
you were doing that time seemed to
evaporate while you were actively absorbed?
 What ideas, books, theories, or movements
have made a profound effect on you?
 Who are the influential people in your life,
why?

 To what extent do your current commitments
reflect your core values?
 Where or how do you spend most of your
time?
 Under what conditions do you do your best or
most creative work?
 To what extent are you a typical product of
your generation or culture? How might you
deviate from the norm?

 What is your potential within your proposed
major? Within the college? Why?
 In what ways will this education benefit you?
 What do you bring to the table?

 How do your core values align with theirs?
 What about the institution appeals to you?
 Why are you choosing it from other
institutions?
 Address the school’s unique features that
interest you
 Do some research: websites; promotional
material; campus visits; and conversations
with current students, alumni, faculty, and
recruiters

 Read it out loud
 Let others who will give you honest feedback
read it
 Craft it
 Revise it
 Proof it

 http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/6
42/01/
 The Personal Statement
 Examples of statements
 Advice from admissions officers
 Top 10 Rules and Pitfalls

 Perfect Personal Statements by Mark Alan
Stewart, 1996.
 How to Write a Winning Personal Statement
for Graduate and Professional School by
Richard Stelzer, 1989.

 Scott R. Furtwengler
Dean, Honors Program, SJC
scott.furtwengler@sjcd.edu
281-929-4614