Missed opportunities: the personal statement
Today's post is in response to several students who asked me to discuss the personal statement in graduate, fellowship, and award applications. Specifically, I'll address common misconceptions, explain why the personal statement is more important than you might think, and provide guidance on writing a strong one.
I’ll start with a spoiler. Although your personal statement will typically be structured around your life, career, and professional goals, those details are less relevant to the success of your application. What matters more is that your statement demonstrates maturity. Think of the facts of your life that you share as a vehicle to demonstrate that you are a mature person.
What Is a Personal Statement?
When applying to graduate school, a fellowship, or an award, you typically submit materials such as a CV, transcripts, letters of recommendation, and a research statement detailing your academic work. Additionally, applicants are asked to write a personal statement, which is a one- or two-page essay about themselves. This statement may include how they fit into a program, how it aligns with their goals, and what they will contribute to a department. Some prompts also ask for reflections on personal challenges.
Having reviewed PhD applications at two universities, as well as applications for prestigious fellowships (e.g., NDSEG) and awards, I’ve found that the personal statement is often the weakest part of an otherwise strong application. This is unfortunate because a good personal statement can be the deciding factor in an applicant’s success.
The Personal Statement as a Tiebreaker
To research this post, I browsed online discussion forums in which students brought up personal statements. Many students expressed confusion and anxiety about how to write their statements. Some even reported being advised by mentors that it is not a crucial component of their application. This is a mistake.
Although a personal statement might seem less important, in competitive programs it can make a difference. This is because in prestigious initiatives, all the shortlisted candidates have such good grades, test scores, recommendation letters, and research experience that it can be hard to differentiate them. Here, a good personal statement can be decisive. I have been on committees where my colleagues argued successfully for a student to be selected based on well-written personal statements. Also, for some fellowships and awards, reviewers must give personal statements a score (with an explicit rubric) that factors into the applicant's overall score as much as the research statement does.
I hope by now I've convinced you to take your personal statement seriously. Let’s move onto common pitfalls.
Avoid These Common Mistakes
The Passionate Origin Story
Many weak personal statements follow a predictable narrative: "The story of how I discovered my true passion for physics." These typically begin with childhood scientific curiosity, then educational experiences confirming the applicant’s destiny, and ending with the joyous decision to major in physics. Make no mistake: the passionate origin story makes you sound immature.
Children think in terms of what they want to be when they grow up. Professionals focus on the work they want to do and the impact they want to have. A personal statement should reflect a mature perspective, not a nostalgic self-discovery journey. The latter simply sounds childish.
The Hardship Story
Another common mistake is overemphasizing personal hardships. While explaining challenges that impacted your studies is an important function of the personal statement, some applicants dedicate too much space to difficulties without connecting them to their academic and professional development.
Unless your experiences are truly extraordinary, avoid making hardships the focal point of your statement. Bear in mind that applications from less fortunate parts of the world may tell stories of war, death, and extreme adversity. Compared to these, writing most of your statement about how your broke your leg sophomore year might seem trivial to reviewers. If you need to explain a dip in grades, do so succinctly and, if possible, have a letter writer vouch for your circumstances.
Empty Claims
Avoid naked assertions of your intelligence, perseverance, talent, or enthusiasm. These claims are not meaningful coming from applicants since anyone can say such things. Instead, we look to recommendation letters for evidence of these qualities.
How to Write a Strong Personal Statement
Focus on Maturity
Think about the personal statement as more of an emotional activity than a cerebral one. The vibe you convey is more important than the facts of your life. More specifically, the vibe you want to demonstrate is maturity.
It amazes me how many personal statements come off as immature, even from students with otherwise stellar applications. This is not a feeling you want to evoke in your reviewers. We have all dealt with immature students, and they are often difficult to manage and disruptive. You can stand out and evoke positive feelings by sounding like a serious professional.
Each year I review for a given program, I read 1 to 2 personal statements at most that have a mature vibe. If you want to leapfrog over the competition, this is the way to do it.
How to sound mature
It sounds almost trivial to say this, but if you want a professor to think you are a mature professional, try to sound like a professor. Read written bios or personal interviews of prominent scientists to understand how they discuss their work and career paths. Use this as a model for the vibe you inject into your own statement. If you do this, your statement will surely stand out in the right way.
Next time
I will post again about this topic. Next time, I will give you examples of weak and strong personal statements. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss it.