Uf

[yikes]

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hi,
the university of florida asks you to address your strengths and weaknesses as well as your financial need in the personal statement. i hate the weakness questions and usually just go with the fact that i can be too detail oriented. does anyone have any suggestions on how to fit these facts into the essay?

 

[thewesternsky]

Depending on the way they phrase the question, this may or may not fly-- In interviews, I tend to answer this question as a "While I have substantial experience with XY, I haven't yet done much of XX (e.g., research directly relevant to my area of interest, or clinical work, or whatever the shortcoming of my application happens to be for this school). I am very excited about the clinical psychology program at your university because it will allow me to acquire skills and experience in XX."

hi,
the university of florida asks you to address your strengths and weaknesses as well as your financial need in the personal statement. i hate the weakness questions and usually just go with the fact that i can be too detail oriented. does anyone have any suggestions on how to fit these facts into the essay?

 

[Lindz]

Hey, I'm applying there also, and have been having some problems addressing everything they require in the essay. In particular, how are you "describing your need for financial assistance"? I'm combining both my application and fellowship essays, and don't know how much to really write about my financial need. I haven't had to address this for any school, it seems like it should just be a given that you need some sort of support.....

 

[yikes]

yeah that's my problem as well. are you including anything else specific for the fellowship combo deal? i was sort of thinking that with the exception of financial need it would be similar to my other personal statements.

 

[Lindz]

Hey yikes, yeah I'm making it pretty similar to my other personal statements, and I currently only have two sentences addressing the financial support question. I don't really know what else to say, other than that I require some for of assistance....I wonder if they are looking for more than that.

 

[irish80122]

Try not to worry about these essay topics, they aren't as bad as you think. Some advice I received is when talking about your weaknesses it is good to talk about problems that are fixable and even better if it is something you have already been working on. For instance, one of my goals is to become a better writer, so I mentioned that as a weakness and I talked about a few ways I have worked to improve.

For financial aid, they pretty much know that most applicants are going to need some support, I think they are searching for those who already have external funding (who I am very jealous of). If you need support, say so, I did at Duke (where they even say that external funding is a big plus) and I still received an interview.

Just my $.02. Good luck!

 

[Psychie1]

I agree wth Irish that they are trying to find out if you have outside funding. I applied there last year and I think I wrote in that essay that, while I didn't currently have outside funding and would need to be supported, I planned to seek out outside resources throughout my years of study.