This document provides guidance on writing an effective personal statement. It discusses what a personal statement is, how to focus the content, and general advice. Personal statements are used for college and scholarship applications, internships, and jobs. The content should tell your story, show your priorities and goals, and answer any specific questions asked. You need to proofread carefully and avoid cliches. The document also provides sample questions that personal statements sometimes ask and resources for further information.

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

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

3.  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?

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

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

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

7.  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.

8.  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!

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

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

11.  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?

12.  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?

13.  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?

14.  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

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

16.  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

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

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