Hey guys! Writing your personal statement can be daunting. Let me share with you some tips for writing your personal statement for graduate and professional school programs! These tips I received from the admissions counselors of a Top 5 public health program helped me immensely. Coupled with my other accomplishments, my personal statement got me into the best programs in my field, including Ivy League schools, and landed me scholarships in my current Masters of Public Health program. I hope they help you, too!
Open a word document and start typing up your answers, and let’s get into it! My graduate program is in Public Health, but please fill in whatever program you are interested in (law school, business school, other graduate programs).
Identify your Interests
- How did you learn about public health/ when were you introduced to it?
- Why public health? Why our school/program?
- Answer for each program you are applying to
- What awakens your curiosity?
- Here, you should talk about something that may be overlooked. For example, I am curious about the connection between chronic illness and mental health and mental health of immigrants because of my life experiences
- Specific areas of interest
- For me, I am interested in mental health, non-communicable diseases, health equity, BIPOC populations, and immigrant populations. Go ahead and list em all out!
Prove You Know What You’re Talking About: Research!
- Research the programs
- Look at the classes they offer, see if there is a practicuum/real-world experience element of the curriculum, and know what degrees and specializations or concentrations they offer. You know, basic research.
- Research the faculty
- Who is in the program? What kind of research are they doing?
- Find at least one faculty member that is doing work that really excites you and mention it in your paper!
- Who is in the program? What kind of research are they doing?
- Research the RESEARCH
- Say you are interested in a particular topic. Familiarize yourself with the work currently being done in the field. It would be very bad if you mentioned wanting to “discover a treatment for HIV”…when you would know that HIV treatments 1) already exist and 2) are shown to be pretty effective if you did some research. Let’s not make a fool of ourselves, now.
Now, Show Some Critical Thinking!
- Write the questions you’re having and challenges you’re seeing.
- This can be related to the field in general or the program!
Be Authentic
- While still maintaining some formality, BE YOURSELF!
- As cliche as this is, I promise you this has gotten me plenty of professional connections and opportunities. Do not waste your word count trying to be a more “professional” or “put together” version of yourself. These people read thousands of papers a year and will see straight through it. Be proud in what you know and be proud in what you have yet to learn. Preview your personality to make you seem like more than words on paper.
Next, let’s get into choices labeled as “Common Mistakes”. Admissions counselors at Emory University told me NOT to include these things while writing your personal statement.
Common Mistakes
Content
- Redundancy. Oversimplifying things, irrelevant details.
- Yes, you want the admissions counselors to have a sense of who you are, but make sure you are keeping details irrlevant to your story and admisison out, not oversimplifying huge topics, such as major challeneges we’re currently seeing in your field, and not repeating ourselves when not necessary.
- Don’t regurgitate your resume
- ..which can be hard to do sometimes, I know! Just remember that your resume doesn’t say how certain experience made you feel. For example, my resume shows that I did a public health project in a study abroad program during undergrad. However, in my statement, I explained how although the trip gave me plenty of global health skills, but it taught me that epidemiology would be a better fit for my career goals than global health.
- Don’t state the stage
- She literally told me “do not say ‘it was a cloudy day'”. I guess they do not really care for cliches. Consider this one of those irrelevant details.
Personality
- Avoid arrogance
- Yes, you want to show why you are a competitive applicant. Like I said earlier: acknowledge what you don’t know. Obviously you are not on the same level as the professors in your desired program, otherwise you would be in their shoes. The humility of being a 20s something year old that’s excited to take the next step in their field will be received well by admissions counselors.
- Write clearly, avoid jargon
- Kind of ironic considering academia is the birthplace of jargon, but again, write like there’s a human being typing on the keyboard. They don’t expect PhD candidate manuscripts out of a paper where you’re just supposed to explain who you are on paper.
- Stay away from controversial or argumentative comments
- If you have any doubts that the univeristy will be on your side with your controversial ideal, then you may not want to include it. If the programs you are applying to share the same values as you (i.e. inclusion, equity, diversity, etc), then this is of no concern to you!
- Avoid humor and negativity
- Don’t be a troll! Remember, you are asking for admission into a professional environment!
And for a little razzle dazzle…
I have a background in writing, including my blog. Besides a personal statement that straight-forwardly says “this is me, this is my story, please let me into your school”
I highly recommend returning to your 8th grade English class roots and using
METAPHORS AND ANALOGIES.
It’s a sure-fire way to make your papers unique from the rest.
While planning out my various statements for different schools, I typed out my answers to the questions above + the questions asked by each university and realized…
…my journey to choosing public health is kinda all over the place.
From learning about the field at a Major/Minor fair at my undergraduate school to my work experience related to public health to my personal experiences within the field like my PCOS diagnosis, there was a lot that came into play before I chose this career path.
I used the metaphor of a quilt to describe my journey while writing my personal statement. Every group of unique experiences, from work experiences to student group involvement and life experiences represented one patch in the quilt.
Not only does this make your story more visual, but that visual will stick in the admissions counselors’ minds when they think of your application! (don’t steal mine though aha. Plagiarism tools are no joke, be careful out there!)
GOOD LUCK!
Good luck this application season and be sure to check out other resources! Don’t be shy to reach out to admissions at your top-choice schools for guidance!
– Manyi
