Tweet
I started answering Eyeliner's question about whether she should keep and re-use her personal statement, but then I realized that what I was saying was more pertinent to graduate school applications and so decided to post it here.
Do NOT -- and I repeat: Do not! -- re-use your personal statement, whether you're in the U.S., the UK, Canada, or anywhere else. Several reasons why (and this is according to the people who actually read your personal statements).
1. The standards change almost significantly from undergraduate admissions to graduate admissions. For one, in grad schools, a committee of professors decide which applicants to admit into their programs or not (since they'll be the ones you'll be working with for the next one to 8 years of your life)... as opposed to undergraduate admissions, where the admissions office decides who gets in and who doesn't. I am sure this isn't the same for all departments, but for humanities and social sciences, this is the case with almost all schools, if not all entirely. So, since the standards change from undergrad to grad, they'll be measuring your skills, qualifications, experiences, etc. against other graduate students. During the next years of your life, you're expected to improve your thinking and writing skills, learning how to express yourself better and more eloquently. That means your previous personal statement will require some polishing because you're no longer the same person you were a year ago, as you've learned more.
2. Your personal statement should reflect your intellectual identity. It SHOULD vary from institution to institution because you wanna talk about a certain professor or professors in the programs you're applying to. In my case, for example (I'm going into Islamic Studies), I'd mention the names and works of some of the scholars who've influenced me who go to the school I'm applying to. Because, as I mentioned earlier, they're the ones who are gonna be reading it and deciding whether I get to work with them or not. Since I'm applying to several different schools, I cannot (or should not, or don't want to) name the same scholars in all personal statements. I should have at least one from each school I'm applying to.
3. It is expected that your intellectual curiosity will never die out, and you must express it in your personal statement. In fact, don't focus on your achievements in your personal statement but focus instead on questions that have pushed you to study what you are opting to study. Don't worry about answering them; just ask them out loud and clearly in your paper. Now, of course, these won't be silly questions ... but something more like ... oh, I don't know. I'll just give my example again. I'm going into Islamic Studies with emphasis on hermeneutics (the concept of interpretation, particularly sacred texts) and gender studies. So, questions I could ask in my personal statement would include: Who exactly has the right to interpret a sacred text? Is it always true that an interpretation that differs from the majority-accepted interpretation is influenced primarily by personal desires? If so, how do we know that the majority-accepted, or traditional, interpretations were never based on the interpreters' personal desires or perhaps social circumstances and limitations? Why have women been marginalized in the legal spectrum of Islam? What has the response to Amina Wadud's Quran and Woman: Re-reading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perceptive been by lay Muslims and scholars alike, and why? What about Kecia Ali's Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist Reflections on the Quran, Hadith, and Jurisprudence?And so on. (NOTE: These would have to be worded in a scholarly way so that I don't seem to take sides or agree or disagree or make judgments. Here, as I write them out, I'm not really thinking about what is the best way I could say these, so don't word yours this lethargically.) For the gender studies part of my interest, I could ask questions about the social construction of gender and sex, what role history has played in determining the position of minorities like homosexuals, intersex, and other oppressed individuals.
Oh, and, of course, you wanna briefly talk about your background/upbringing. In my case specifically, I'd discuss the role of religion in the Swat society, for example, or my research on Muslims and Muslim women during the last couple of years and how any of this has influenced my decision to attain a degree in religions and gender studies and ... you get the point.
Other things I'd like to mention here are as follows ... and I fear this would be helpful mostly for humanities and social sciences students, but I hope it helps everyone else as well.
If you know what you want to do academically, start investigating various schools that have a strong department and an excellent faculty in your field. Right away, start making connections with the professors there. Don't bother contacting the admissions office to ask questions. Ask professors directly. Email as many of them as you can, and introduce yourself -- get your name out there -- to as many as possible. Let them know you're interested in applying to their program, tell them why they've attracted you, share your expectations with them, and so on. Ask questions so that you can be sure they'll respond.
While you're doing this, be sure to let your current professors and advisers know you're interested in pursuing further studies, if they don't already know. Meet with them on a regular basis; they are your best friends right now and might be so in the future as well if you're pursuing what they've already pursued. In most cases, especially if they are writers and renown scholars, they know virtually everyone in their field, and some might even know each other personally. What this means is that if you prove yourself good enough, they can bring you up in a conversation with others and introduce you to them so that when they hear your name or read your application for the first time, they're not surprised and wonder, "Hm, who is this student?"
Random things/advice:
- Have as many professionals as possible read your personal statement, program proposals, and application overall. Professionals here means your professors, advisers, English people, and so on. Sure, they might sometimes give you different feedback and advice, but you'll learn that it's all helpful in the long run; besides, you're not obligated to accept anyone's advice or suggestion if you don't like it or don't think it's that great.
- Use your time wisely
Don't think that because you're in your first year of college, it's too early for you to start studying hard or to consider further studies. It's NOT! It's never too early. If you've the time, consider yourself blessed. You have what many of us are deprived of and are desperate for someone to build a time machine so we can go back in time and move our academics at a faster pace or something.
- If you're applying for grad schools/scholarships and need to submit a proposal for it, I'll be happy to review it and give you critical feedback. Feel free to PM me about this if you're interested.
- When you read an interesting and/or good article, write to the author. They love it when you do this. But do this especially if you're going into the same genre that the author's work is published in.
And so on.
I'm telling all this here because I WISH I'd had someone tell me these same things and so much more before last year! But, ma'lish, it's never too late.
Do NOT -- and I repeat: Do not! -- re-use your personal statement, whether you're in the U.S., the UK, Canada, or anywhere else. Several reasons why (and this is according to the people who actually read your personal statements).
1. The standards change almost significantly from undergraduate admissions to graduate admissions. For one, in grad schools, a committee of professors decide which applicants to admit into their programs or not (since they'll be the ones you'll be working with for the next one to 8 years of your life)... as opposed to undergraduate admissions, where the admissions office decides who gets in and who doesn't. I am sure this isn't the same for all departments, but for humanities and social sciences, this is the case with almost all schools, if not all entirely. So, since the standards change from undergrad to grad, they'll be measuring your skills, qualifications, experiences, etc. against other graduate students. During the next years of your life, you're expected to improve your thinking and writing skills, learning how to express yourself better and more eloquently. That means your previous personal statement will require some polishing because you're no longer the same person you were a year ago, as you've learned more.
2. Your personal statement should reflect your intellectual identity. It SHOULD vary from institution to institution because you wanna talk about a certain professor or professors in the programs you're applying to. In my case, for example (I'm going into Islamic Studies), I'd mention the names and works of some of the scholars who've influenced me who go to the school I'm applying to. Because, as I mentioned earlier, they're the ones who are gonna be reading it and deciding whether I get to work with them or not. Since I'm applying to several different schools, I cannot (or should not, or don't want to) name the same scholars in all personal statements. I should have at least one from each school I'm applying to.
3. It is expected that your intellectual curiosity will never die out, and you must express it in your personal statement. In fact, don't focus on your achievements in your personal statement but focus instead on questions that have pushed you to study what you are opting to study. Don't worry about answering them; just ask them out loud and clearly in your paper. Now, of course, these won't be silly questions ... but something more like ... oh, I don't know. I'll just give my example again. I'm going into Islamic Studies with emphasis on hermeneutics (the concept of interpretation, particularly sacred texts) and gender studies. So, questions I could ask in my personal statement would include: Who exactly has the right to interpret a sacred text? Is it always true that an interpretation that differs from the majority-accepted interpretation is influenced primarily by personal desires? If so, how do we know that the majority-accepted, or traditional, interpretations were never based on the interpreters' personal desires or perhaps social circumstances and limitations? Why have women been marginalized in the legal spectrum of Islam? What has the response to Amina Wadud's Quran and Woman: Re-reading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perceptive been by lay Muslims and scholars alike, and why? What about Kecia Ali's Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist Reflections on the Quran, Hadith, and Jurisprudence?And so on. (NOTE: These would have to be worded in a scholarly way so that I don't seem to take sides or agree or disagree or make judgments. Here, as I write them out, I'm not really thinking about what is the best way I could say these, so don't word yours this lethargically.) For the gender studies part of my interest, I could ask questions about the social construction of gender and sex, what role history has played in determining the position of minorities like homosexuals, intersex, and other oppressed individuals.
Oh, and, of course, you wanna briefly talk about your background/upbringing. In my case specifically, I'd discuss the role of religion in the Swat society, for example, or my research on Muslims and Muslim women during the last couple of years and how any of this has influenced my decision to attain a degree in religions and gender studies and ... you get the point.
Other things I'd like to mention here are as follows ... and I fear this would be helpful mostly for humanities and social sciences students, but I hope it helps everyone else as well.
If you know what you want to do academically, start investigating various schools that have a strong department and an excellent faculty in your field. Right away, start making connections with the professors there. Don't bother contacting the admissions office to ask questions. Ask professors directly. Email as many of them as you can, and introduce yourself -- get your name out there -- to as many as possible. Let them know you're interested in applying to their program, tell them why they've attracted you, share your expectations with them, and so on. Ask questions so that you can be sure they'll respond.
While you're doing this, be sure to let your current professors and advisers know you're interested in pursuing further studies, if they don't already know. Meet with them on a regular basis; they are your best friends right now and might be so in the future as well if you're pursuing what they've already pursued. In most cases, especially if they are writers and renown scholars, they know virtually everyone in their field, and some might even know each other personally. What this means is that if you prove yourself good enough, they can bring you up in a conversation with others and introduce you to them so that when they hear your name or read your application for the first time, they're not surprised and wonder, "Hm, who is this student?"
Random things/advice:
- Have as many professionals as possible read your personal statement, program proposals, and application overall. Professionals here means your professors, advisers, English people, and so on. Sure, they might sometimes give you different feedback and advice, but you'll learn that it's all helpful in the long run; besides, you're not obligated to accept anyone's advice or suggestion if you don't like it or don't think it's that great.
- Use your time wisely
Don't think that because you're in your first year of college, it's too early for you to start studying hard or to consider further studies. It's NOT! It's never too early. If you've the time, consider yourself blessed. You have what many of us are deprived of and are desperate for someone to build a time machine so we can go back in time and move our academics at a faster pace or something. - If you're applying for grad schools/scholarships and need to submit a proposal for it, I'll be happy to review it and give you critical feedback. Feel free to PM me about this if you're interested.
- When you read an interesting and/or good article, write to the author. They love it when you do this. But do this especially if you're going into the same genre that the author's work is published in.
And so on.
I'm telling all this here because I WISH I'd had someone tell me these same things and so much more before last year! But, ma'lish, it's never too late.
Comment