How to write a personal statement
Personal statement is a crucial link in the application process and plays a decisive role in the success of the application. Different from a resume listing facts, a personal statement is a complete article, which should have a clear theme, rigorous structure, fluent language and novel ideas. Personal statement has only one theme, that is, the applicant's application motivation. Specifically, the applicant should clearly state his career goals, personal qualifications, research experience, professional interests and the reasons for choosing the target university in his personal statement. Articles can be written in autobiographical and professional discourse structures. The former mainly describes the applicant's personal experience, which should be done in chronological order, while the latter is more suitable for postgraduate application, focusing on the applicant's understanding of a certain major.
Only a well-crafted personal statement with personal characteristics can make the applicant stand out. Personal statements should avoid general self-introduction at the beginning. Applicants can add quotations, express wonderful opinions or describe special events at the beginning of the article to attract readers' attention.
How to write a high-quality personal statement
1. A successful personal statement should not only be fluent in language, rigorous in logic and clear in level, but also fully display the talent of the applicant and catch the attention of the reviewers.
With more and more "wonder people" applying to famous American universities, the status of awards becomes complicated and unpredictable. Winning honors and gold medals may not add weight to prestigious schools. The key is how to win by surprise when awarding honors.
2. Balance between meaning, thinking and emotion
Applicants generally believe that clerical writing must be "emotional" and impress the audit Committee members in order to successfully enter the prestigious school. In the successful cases of Xue Mei since 13, none of the students were admitted because of the flowery rhetoric or plot sense of the article. The most important thing to write about your own experience is to fully tap the "meaning".
For example, Stanford University likes "leadership", so when writing a document, students should not only throw out the leadership experience of a student union or social group cadre or the final award-winning result, but focus on how to express their thoughts and abilities that have been "changed" by their leaders. It is necessary to explain in detail the process of one's important experience and the whole process of this matter, highlight the changes that have taken place in the group under one's leadership, what difficulties have been encountered, how to go forward bravely, and what kind of understanding and sublimation have been obtained, so as to reflect one's leadership temperament.
In addition, American elite schools attach great importance to individuals' thinking and ability to change the status quo. The applicants of American elite universities are excellent and the competition is fierce, so the school will use the applicants' past to predict the future and select outstanding talents. Official document writing should conform to American concepts and tastes, and it is important to balance meaning and emotion.
3. Break the mindset of China people.
Generally speaking, many Chinese thinking modes like to compare scores blindly, such as which is better, the gold medal in Olympic Mathematics or the silver medal in Olympic Physics, and which position is higher for student cadres or ministers. In fact, there is no comparability between the two. The key is to explain where you are most different from others.
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