How to Write Your Personal Statement Essay

This post is a bit different than the usual theme of my blog, but I thought it may be helpful to others that are considering applying to undergraduate or graduate school.

As I was applying to graduate school last fall and writing all sorts of personal statements and essays and writing samples, I had a hard time knowing what to include. I wanted to highlight my experiences, but also show that I still have a lot to learn and discover.

While I can’t necessarily share my graduate school admissions essay with you, I can still help you out. Here is the very brief outline of my personal statement for my Master’s of Social Work graduate “Personal Statement” essay:

• Personal story about why I am pursuing this specific degree
  • The first time I met a social worker was when my parents were adopting from China. The experience of my parents adopting made me interested in adoptions and when traveling to China several times as a teenager I saw economic, racial, and gender inequality in a way I had never before seen.
  • The school I was applying to highlighted their focus on diversity and social justice in their school’s mission statement on their website, so I incorporated that into my story as well.
• A bit about my work experience as a social worker and my goals in continuing my education (One of their personal statement questions)
  • Additionally as I wrote about my work experience, I named examples of diverse cultural groups and client populations that I have worked with to bring it back to the department mission (Another one of their personal statement questions)
  • My passion for social work and the clients that I serve.
• My research experience and how I am hoping to expand this research in my graduate studies
• How social workers influence change and advocate for social justice (Another personal statement question)
  • In this section I wrote about my experience advocating for change in issues that I care about. In the 2015 legislative season, I had the opportunity to meet with politicians and advocate for a bill concerning child protection services practices in my state.
  • I also mention the importance of educating family and friends and encouraging them to view current issues from different perspectives.
• Bring it home with a strong conclusion
  • In my conclusion I wrote about how my personal experience with adoption, my work experiences, and my experience advocating for others have contributed to the social worker I am today, and how I am hoping to pursue my MSW at that specific university in order to be better equipped to work with parents struggling within the child protection system.

In the end it was 1085 words. It was difficult to say everything that I wanted to highlight in my educational and professional career, while also addressing their specific personal statement questions. I found it extremely helpful to read the school’s missions statement and learn more about their program emphasis and to keep that in mind while writing the statement. I cannot emphasis that enough.

It’s also important to remember that it is an essay, so it should have an easily identified introduction, points, and conclusion. Since I was just writing about myself and my work experience, it was harder to work in into a concrete essay structure. Before I wrote it all out, I put together an outline like the one above to make sure that I had a defined structure.

Give yourself plenty of time to write this. I did the majority of this essay in a coffee shop on night, and then re-visited it and edited it over the next few weeks.

Don’t forget to celebrate when you’re finished! Send off the essay and your application and other writing samples and then celebrate being done. Applying to graduate school is a feat and you can do it!