Creating a Personal Statement

Writing an Effective

Statement of Purpose/Personal

Statement

Brian Rybarczyk, Ph.D.

Assistant Dean, Academic &

Professional Development

The Graduate School

UNC Chapel Hill

PS content Components of degree

MPA

PharmD

Coursework

Patient interaction

Clinical hours

Direct experience in specialty

Passion for medical field

Exposure to environment

Patient interaction

Know what you’re getting into

Ph.D.

Coursework

Research projects

Publications & presentations

Research experience

Coursework in advanced topics

Interest in discipline

Masters

Coursework

Direct experience in field

Coursework

Desire for field and

building new skills

ScienceCareers

Sell Yourself: Guidance for Developing Your

Personal Statement (2006, Part 1)

Sell Yourself: Refining the Personal

Statement (2010, Part 2)

Sell Yourself: Adding Substance toYour

Personal Statement (2014, Part 3)

Objectives

• What is a Statement of Purpose?

• Review structure and guidelines for writing

• Begin formulating your own statement

Statement of Purpose

• Focus on your specific research interests within a particular field

• Detail how your academic and professional experiences have developed those

research interests and prepared you to pursue them at a higher academic level

• Explain how those research interests can be pursued at this particular institution in

this particular program

Personal Statement (more biographical)

• Focus on the intersection of your personal, academic, and professional lives

• Detail various life experiences that have developed your character, work-ethic, and

perspective

• Explain how your background particularly suits your for this program and/or will allow

you to contribute a unique perspective to the community

Personal Statement

• Purpose:

• Tell A Story!

– Who you are as a professional

– What you want to do

– WHY – be specific

What are Review Committees

Looking For?

• Who are the review committee members?

• Fit with program of interest

• Readiness for graduate level academics

• Connection to career goals – professional

and scholarly

• Communication/writing skills

Aspects of Effective

Persuasive Writing

Aspects of Effective

Persuasive Writing

• Clear purpose/thesis statement

• Support with evidence

• Provide examples

• Accurate facts

• Organization & clarity

• Know your audience – convincing

Structu r e

• Intro: hook, unique perspective,

draw reader in

• Body: experiences, skills, goals, areas of

interest, challenges, gaps, justification for

application, how you fit

• Conclusion: reaffirm your preparation, confident

that Program X is right for you

Describing Your Scholarship

and Areas of Interest

Essay Prompts

1) Tell us about your academic background and future goals. What

have been your major achievements in the past? What do you hope

to accomplish in the future? How do you see this program helping

you achieve these goals?

2) A statement of purpose describing your research interests

3) In your statement, please discuss:

• Your background: how your experiences (education, work,

volunteer, and/or personal) have prepared you for graduate study;

• Your objectives for graduate study: your career goals, possible

faculty mentors, and (for doctoral students) initial research interests;

• Your decision to apply to HGSE: why you think there is a good fit

between your objectives and our program;

Examples of personal statements…

group critique

10 minutes + reporting out

• “Help people” = no

• Contribute to research in…

• Expand/refine skills such as…

• Develop skills in..

• Change how “x” works

• Pursue a career as a…

Why do you want to pursue

graduate education?

Do’s

• Include justification for why you are applying to

that program/graduate school, etc

• Keep focused, remember your audience

• Explain research interests, areas of science,

accomplishments, sources of motivation

• Address specific aspects of a particular program

and apply it to your career goals

• Give your essay to at least 3 other people to

provide critique and suggestions for

improvement

Don’ts

• …don’t make up experiences you never had

• …don’t send in a first draft

• …don’t wait to start your essay until the night

before the due date – CHECK DUE DATE!!

• …don’t plagiarize from someone else

• …don’t make it too long (or too short)

• …don’t spend lots of space on negative

• …don’t use pretentious words to sound intelligent

Questions

• Why do you want to participate in this

research area/graduate program/medical

school program, etc?

• What experiences make you qualified?

• What are your areas of interest and why,

why not other areas of science?

• Career goals and why?

Intentio n ality

• Record of opportunities you explored for a

purpose

• Clear path, plan and vision

• Why did you choose to participate in

summer program X?

• What did you learn from experience Y?

Tailoring

Match your skills, interest and readiness to program

• Area of scholarship/research

• Faculty member(s)

– Area of specialty not offered through other programs

• Structure of program fits with your goals, needs

– Flexibility, course sequence, length of time, opportunities for

selecting coursework, other unique aspects of training

• Resource availability, Type of institution

– Library collections, equipment, collaborations, proximity to other

institutions/research centers, etc.

Kiss of Death…

• Excessive self-disclosure

• Personal mental health

• Excessive altruism – “I can save the world”

• Professional inappropriateness (humor, clever,

religion, politics)

• Poor writing skills

Appleby and Appleby. 2006. Teaching of Psychology 33(1): 19-24

What NOT to include…

• A long biography starting when you were 3

years old and your discovery of “science” in your

backyard

• A sob story…

• Sounding desperate… I need to get into

program X

• How great Institution X is…”I would be honored

to study at”…”what a fine institution…”

“distinguished faculty” “amazing reputation”

Common Errors

1) Missing description of research/scholarship

– What were the outcomes?

– What are the next steps?

– Connection to future graduate work?

2) Rationale… why?

– I want to do this because

– I did this in order to…

3) SKILLS – what do you bring?

4) Organization & transitions

5) Connect to program of interest – not following

prompts

6) Too negative/cynical

7) Lack of personality

Next steps…

1) Finalize examples research/scholarship

description of this summer experience

2) Investigate programs of interest, what are

they asking for? Due dates?

3)….

Resources

• https://www.prepscholar.com/gre/blog/graduate-school-statement-of-

purpose-sample/

• Personal statements in the humanities

https://twp.duke.edu/sites/twp.duke.edu/files/file-attachments/personal-

statement-humanities-1.original.pdf

• Tips from UC Berkeley: https://ls.berkeley.edu/academic-programs/arts-

humanities/graduate-diversity-office/prospective-students/statement-

purpose

• Successful examples in humanities:

http://statementofpurposeexamples.com/humanities-statements-of-purpose/

• 4 more samples:

https://www.csuci.edu/careerdevelopment/services/sample-graduate-

school-admissions-essays.pdf

Brian Rybarczyk, Ph.D.

Assistant Dean, Academic & Professional

Development

The Graduate School

bryba r@ unc.edu