any advice on writing a fantastic Personal statement????
Some really basic tips:
As All4 said - spacing is a key element. Its difficult to read a large block of text.
Don't write your whole life history. Only choose what is pertinent.
Put something of "yourself" in it - something which makes the reader want to talk to you more. You want to make them want to get to know you better by inviting you to an interview.
Avoid "cutsey" or "hokey" first sentences - those get tossed fast.
There are lots of multilinguals who are posting on this thread - which is a good thing. However...your written English needs to be excellent (I'm not assuming these posters are not). That also must be reflected in how you'll write your interview essay & how your verbal communication is during the interview. So, although its important to have great written English - you also must be consistent, otherwise, they'll know someone else wrote your ps for you. Being able to communicate well is essential in the profession.
If you are multilingual - make that be a strong point in your statement, particularly in states like mine (CA) in which we are very diverse. If you are not just multilingual, but come from a different cultural background - include that as well - that again is tremendously important in CA.
If you only took 2 years of high school language - do not call yourself fluent! I can't speak for most of pharmacy schools, but when my daughter applied to medicine....if you put down fluency in a language - you got a least one interviewer who was also fluent in that language. Basically - don't lie!
Make your statement fit each school. Try to comment on what strength the school has to offer which is appealing to you.
Likewise...make a comment about how you'd like to give something back to the profession (not just "helping people" - you can do that by volunteering at a soup kitchen). Think about what leadership skills you have which could benefit some part of the profession.
Finally.....have someone read it who can be objective. Every mother thinks her son/daughter is perfect & wants each "proud" moment of that childs life to be mentioned. I read lots of my daughter's ps's..but she also took them to the career center to get an objective take on them.
Good luck!
