personal statement for a high schooler

SDN Members don't see this ad. (About Ads)

I know there are 5 million threads about personal statements on SDN but they all seem to be about med school, dental school, etc. applications. My college scholarship application form says: "Personal Statement: For top consideration, provide a one-page essay explaining your interest in the degree program you have chosen and why do you believe you are deserving of a scholarship"

I have a couple of questions about this:

1. What the heck do I say about why I deserve a scholarship? I'm an awesome person, I have perfect grades, I'm smarter than everyone else, or what?

2. About the degree program, I'm 90% sure I want to be a pharmacist, but I don't have any good, original reasons-just stuff like I like chemistry, like to help people, etc.

3. Do all the rules & suggestions about applying to medical school in the other threads apply to my situation? I don't have a long list of volunteer activities or anything like grad school applicants do.

You shouldn't really need to be told what to write in a personal statement. :/ I mean, it's your statement, so it should come from you, and you alone. But anyway.

They're asking you to "[explain] your interest" in this program...so do just that! Talk about why you're applying to this program and not elsewhere. What sets this school/program apart from other similar ones that you could have chosen?

As for why you deserve a scholarship, perhaps your family isn't all that financially sound, so it wouldn't hurt to mention that (in a tasteful manner...not like "PLZ HELP I AM POOR KTHX").

Talk about what you can contribute to other people with the education you might receive at this school. Talk about why you're interested in this field of study to begin with. Is it a life-long passion, or was it something sudden that happened in recent years that made you consider such a career choice?

I'm pretty sure, as you also seem to be aware, that most of these questions and personal statements are requested from medical schools as well, and considering that enrolling into medical school is significantly harder than a university for undergraduate studies, you might want to learn how to answer these questions without having to put much thought into it, for the future at least.

Good luck!

All the schools I'm going to have an open ended essay... meaning that I can write about anything.... and I have no idea either. I started writing them yesterday and didn't get very far.

Okay... I kinda see what you are saying about why I want to eventually go to pharmacy school.....but I'm actually just going to this school because it has comparatively cheap tuition and is 12 minutes from my house. It does have a pretty decent science program though. Is it bad to put in the PS that you like the location and price tag?

Originally Posted by glowworm

Okay... I kinda see what you are saying about why I want to eventually go to pharmacy school.....but I'm actually just going to this school because it has comparatively cheap tuition and is 12 minutes from my house. It does have a pretty decent science program though. Is it bad to put in the PS that you like the location and price tag?

Yeah that would be bad. Even if that is the completely truthful answer and you didn't want to go there for any other reason you have to understand that everyone else out there is going to bend the truth to a certain extent to show the school why thye want to go there. Do a little research on the program/school you're interested in. Find out some unique selling points of the school and write how you're interested in taking advantage of those things. Although you're really interested in the location and price tag now, you may find out after a little research that there are other things that you're interested in about it and you'll have more to truthfully write about. Talk about qualities that you can bring to the school. If you have experiences, skills, etc that you can put in your statement that the school may be looking for based on what you know about it then talk about those things. An open-ended personal statement is a way for you to SELL YOURSELF to the school/program; you're not bragging per se but somehow you've got to tell them what interests you and what you can offer them

sell yourself and kiss their butts. That's really the best advice I can give right now.

Okay, I'm pretty good at flattery I think. I just be nice and tell them what they want to hear (based on the truth of course) and then I see what happens. Thanks everybody!

Quick addition:

I find it's easiest to write about things I'm passionate about. So, assuming you're passionate about wanting to get into this school, it shouldn't be all that difficult. For example, I started writing an essay for a private scholarship for college last night, and the topic is relatively political ("What does patriotism mean to you?"). Luckily, I'm very politically aware and genuinely interested/passionate in the subject matter, so my introduction came naturally.

It's common sense: people enjoy talking about things that *GASP* they enjoy! :P