It’s graduate school application season, and I know that you’re crunching down on your personal statements. Your personal statement is the opportunity for YOU to shine. What sets you apart from other applicants? How do your skills and experiences shape your pursuits? Why does the graduate program need you?
My revisions from an SLP program director, professors, and seasoned professionals in the field thoroughly equipped me with key areas to highlight and avoidances to look out for on the personal statement.
I am a huge personal statement and resume revision GEEK. I love getting to know people through this unique perspective!
You may already have completed your draft, or you might not have started yet. Either way, I’m here to help! I discuss about the most common things that I typically see on a personal statement, and I’ll tell you how to avoid them. Let’s dive in!
- Repetition
- You want to get your story across in the best way possible, but you don’t want to go in circles. This can be seen as having a poorly organized personal statement.
- To avoid this, it’s essential to have a concise format to get your voice across in the best way possible.
- Go through multiple revisions of your personal statement.
- If you see repetition, ask yourself:
- Is this necessary for me to add again?
- Is there another way I can say this?
- Clichés and quotes
- You want to get the reader’s attention, but you don’t want to be tacky — starting with a cliché or quotes could be a result of that. Not everyone has a “story” and that’s okay, but I highly recommend depicting visual imagery.
- Some clichés I see quite often are:
- “For as long as I could remember…”
- “I knew something had to be done…”
- “I want to serve others and help people…”
- Instead of telling the admissions team about your skills and why you’re passionate, show them HOW!
- Some clichés I see quite often are:
- You want to get the reader’s attention, but you don’t want to be tacky — starting with a cliché or quotes could be a result of that. Not everyone has a “story” and that’s okay, but I highly recommend depicting visual imagery.
- Being pessimistic or risk being controversial
- You want to be personal, but not too personal. Your personal statement is to talk about your intent for your future in the field, and there is a fine line between personal and professional. Being overly-personal could raise a red flag.
- Instead of focusing on your negative experience, talk about how you have been able to learn and grow from it.
- Instead of focusing on your negative experience, talk about how you have been able to learn and grow from it.
- You want to be personal, but not too personal. Your personal statement is to talk about your intent for your future in the field, and there is a fine line between personal and professional. Being overly-personal could raise a red flag.
- Spelling and grammatical errors
- This seems so simple, but it happens quite often. We are human, and we make mistakes, but proofreading your application is a must. The admissions team may select a more conscientious applicant due to these errors.
- I recommend using grammarly.com, and proofreading your personal statement again.
- I recommend using grammarly.com, and proofreading your personal statement again.
- This seems so simple, but it happens quite often. We are human, and we make mistakes, but proofreading your application is a must. The admissions team may select a more conscientious applicant due to these errors.
- Multiple storylines with no connections
- Writing about the origins of how you learned about speech-language pathology and about each observation session to dump all of the information is a great starting point, but you need to make those connections and to be concise. The admissions team goes through hundreds of applicants, so you want to highlight yourself in the best way possible.
- Think about each sentence, and ask…
- How does it contribute to your skill sets?
- Does it add value to your application?
- Is this sentence something you’ve already put on another area of your application?
- Think about each sentence, and ask…
- Writing about the origins of how you learned about speech-language pathology and about each observation session to dump all of the information is a great starting point, but you need to make those connections and to be concise. The admissions team goes through hundreds of applicants, so you want to highlight yourself in the best way possible.
- Endlessly listing extracurricular
- Your personal statement is an opportunity to talk about something that isn’t listed in your graduate school application. You already listed your involvement on CSDCAS and highlighted the ones you want to showcase on your resume. Don’t waste your character count on something that is already known! This is excessive and distracting information.
- Instead, you could consider writing about how your involvement or how specific experiences in your extracurricular has impacted you.
- Your personal statement is an opportunity to talk about something that isn’t listed in your graduate school application. You already listed your involvement on CSDCAS and highlighted the ones you want to showcase on your resume. Don’t waste your character count on something that is already known! This is excessive and distracting information.
In my experience, my personal statement was THE strongest part of my application. I graduated with Cum Laude honors with a 3.67 GPA, but this was still considered “average” in the SLP grad school pool. Additionally, my GRE scores (146/146/5.0) were also considered “below average”.
I was terrified I wouldn’t get into ANY graduate programs because of my statistics, but I truly believe that my personal statement had a large role in my acceptance to several nationally ranked graduate programs. It allowed me to talk about myself, my skills, my experiences, and my future endeavors in the field that made my application distinct. If you are looking to have your personal statement reviewed, I’m more than happy to help! Click the “need more help?” page!
As always, feel free to reach out if you have any questions! My email inbox & Instagram DMs are always open!
Good luck, you got this!