Personal Statement Advice, see Bad
I'm down at the Library (key clacking echoing and probably annoying the hell out of the person at the table with me who appears to be drafting a paper by hand) trying to get some advice to improve my personal statement. I figured How To Write A Winning Personal Statement For Graduate And Professional School would be packed full of helpful advice, but sadly it is not. Their advice for how to write a good personal statement is basically:
1. BE INTERESTING.
2. DON'T BE BORING.
No foolin'. When the book says to make sure your opening paragraph is a grabber, they give examples with lead sentences like "Not every dental school applicant has supported himself for five-and-a-half years jousting and swordfighting in a Las Vegas show." Well screw you. I'm sure this kind of thing is great help to those who have been leading wildly exciting lives for the past few years (and hadn't thought to include it in their personal statements) but what the hell am I supposed to do? Then there's the guy who was interested in medicine right from the start of college, then his mother became terminally ill, and in nursing her back to health he realized he was totally interested in medicine. A little love for those of us changing horses in midstream please?
But that doesn't disturb me as much as the fact that some of the advice given is just bad; one opening line is "During my final year in the Ivy League, I made a grevious and totally out-of-character mistake that changed the course of my life. In the process of writing my senior thesis, I committed plagiarism." I know that those kind of acts need to be addressed in the personal statement -- the place in your application where you get to defend yourself -- but that poor bastard's entire application just got thrown in the woodchipper. Then some others are just plain bad, i.e. "'You've come a long way, baby' is one of Madison Avenue's best-known slogans, but it also happens to reflect my own assessment of my personal growth and development" into a total CLICHE. Because she might have learned lessons in the classroom, but also "in the arena of life". Note to self: never work on an admissions committee ever.
That saying about how it's easier to mock then to do? Very true. Very, very true. As a sidenote; Radrac, your advice is still the best I've gotten so far.
1. BE INTERESTING.
2. DON'T BE BORING.
No foolin'. When the book says to make sure your opening paragraph is a grabber, they give examples with lead sentences like "Not every dental school applicant has supported himself for five-and-a-half years jousting and swordfighting in a Las Vegas show." Well screw you. I'm sure this kind of thing is great help to those who have been leading wildly exciting lives for the past few years (and hadn't thought to include it in their personal statements) but what the hell am I supposed to do? Then there's the guy who was interested in medicine right from the start of college, then his mother became terminally ill, and in nursing her back to health he realized he was totally interested in medicine. A little love for those of us changing horses in midstream please?
But that doesn't disturb me as much as the fact that some of the advice given is just bad; one opening line is "During my final year in the Ivy League, I made a grevious and totally out-of-character mistake that changed the course of my life. In the process of writing my senior thesis, I committed plagiarism." I know that those kind of acts need to be addressed in the personal statement -- the place in your application where you get to defend yourself -- but that poor bastard's entire application just got thrown in the woodchipper. Then some others are just plain bad, i.e. "'You've come a long way, baby' is one of Madison Avenue's best-known slogans, but it also happens to reflect my own assessment of my personal growth and development" into a total CLICHE. Because she might have learned lessons in the classroom, but also "in the arena of life". Note to self: never work on an admissions committee ever.
That saying about how it's easier to mock then to do? Very true. Very, very true. As a sidenote; Radrac, your advice is still the best I've gotten so far.