How Did You Write Your Personal Statement?

[Juliet Farmer]

I'm one of the SDN freelance writers, and I'm revisiting the personal statement topic focusing on writing/editing resources.

Wondering if, when writing/editing your personal statement, any of you used:

Online tutorials/videos
Professional editing services
Instructional/reference manuals
Free resources - university writing/career centers, peers, mentors

I'm sure there are other resources I haven't even thought of!

If you have used any of the above (or anything else), paid or free, helpful or not, I'd love to hear about it. 🙂

Thanks,
Juliet Farmer

 

[Stellar Clouds]

I asked for some advice from a junior faculty member. Her advice was to pick something you like doing and compare it to your specialty of choice. On every single interview, I had at least one person tell me how much they enjoyed reading my personal statement. It was not boring/identical to everyone else's, and it showed a deeper understanding of my specialty choice.

 

[Juliet Farmer]

Cool! Did you have anyone read/edit it, use any online resources or anything else?

 

[Stellar Clouds]

I did the vast majority of the editing myself. I did have two faculty members read it, but the changes they suggested were very minimal.