What do you want your Personal Statement to say about you?
You can read blog after blog about how to write your personal statement but the most powerful essays are those where your voice really shines through. How do you do this? Writing about yourself is challenging for most of us, adults included, so here are some pointers for digging deep to brainstorm your topic.
Who are you and what are your experiences? Reach back to your childhood, do you have great memories of learning how to cook from your grandmother who taught you that every meal had to have a rainbow of colors and now you love to experiment with paint? Did you spend hours in the car on family trips and now love to tell (write, sing, film, draw) long stories about people and places? How do you plan to take these moments and bring them with you to college?
What are your hopes and dreams as you go through life? Did you always want to be on stage and finally Senior year overcame your stage fright and auditioned for the play? Did you spend hours with friends making up rules, scenarios and characters and now you want to study screenwriting or game development? What will you bring to college that will rub off on others in your classes and in your dorm?
Is there a community of people without whom you'd be lost? This can be your siblings who write unexpected yearbook tributes to you, your best friends who make you laugh until your stomach hurts, or your teacher who takes the time to explain the most complex topics until you understand them. What is so special about these relationships?
What makes you come alive? Is it walking through your home town in the rain and singing at the top of your lungs? Is it the smell of your favorite food being cooked by someone you love? Is it seeing a breathtaking work of art and wondering in disbelief how this could be created? What do you love to do that you would do for free?
Talk to your friends and family as you brainstorm. Your goal as you answer these questions is to find what you're passionate about, big or small, that you can use to tell the reader about your authentic self. No one writes their personal statement in one sitting, or even two. You have all summer if you start thinking about the prompts now (the Common Application Personal Statement prompts are here and the UC Personal Insight prompts are here).
In the next few weeks I'll write more about how to go from brainstorming to writing your essay. If you want personalized help with your essays make an appointment today! Schedule a time to talk today, here's my calendar.