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Personal statement - advice on pushing your accomplishments vs. writing creatively about a passion
_oshun1_
Alum Member
Do you guys think that your resume speaks for itself or should your personal statement push some of the highlights of your resume?
I know that we're not supposed to just reiterate our resume in our personal statement, but I feel really nervous writing a PS entirely about something I'm passionate about i.e. surfing or linguistics, without making some sort of transition like this all has allowed me to develop xyz character traits which helped me excel academically/in my career.
I thought if I wrote about surfing or linguistics I can more generally talk about communication/language (it's really important in surfing) and transition into how developing communication/language skills has helped me achieve my goals at work or academically.
After writing it all out, I think it doesn't sound fluid and seems disjointed when half or 2/3 of my PS is nicely written waxing poetic about a passion and then the rest of it is more straightforward and trying to brag without bragging....and there isn't much room to really go into a specific anecdote about my job/academics and try to tie it back to whichever passion and also talk about specific work/school accomplishments. It seems like they're such drastically different topics and maybe I can't merge them together with this page limit.
Should I keep trying to more smoothly merge the two ideas together or just try to write about just one topic? or is it okay if it doesn't have the smoothest transition? Do most people's PS's ultimately end with "...and this is why I'm awesome and these are some of the good things I've done..."?
/anxiety/
idk if just coming from a philosophy/linguistics/literature background I'm over analyzing and stressing and trying too hard to make this sound like an A+ philosophy paper
sorry if this sounds frantic and all over the place
Comments
I would lean toward maintaining a cohesive subject. So if you're writing about surfing, stick to that. If in writing about surfing you mention how it taught you focus or communication etc, then more power to you, but definitely don't stretch the topic to fit some pitch points in.
Just remember that you're not writing a philosophy paper, you're writing a narrative. Your PS should tell a story with you as the protagonist. Here's KV with a few narrative structures that just can't go wrong:
Mine was a man in hole story and worked beautifully.
@"surfy surf"
"I thought if I wrote about surfing or linguistics I can more generally talk about communication/language (it's really important in surfing) and transition into how developing communication/language skills has helped me achieve my goals at work or academically"
In a recent admissions webinar, we were advised to make sure that we were authentically "connecting the dots" (e.g. between an experience and passions, between a time of difficulty and what it taught you, etc.). So, if you feel that your communication and language skills have been developed by -- and transferred from -- surfing, and are applicable in the workplace and at school then that might be a good idea! If not, it might be a bad idea!
My personal statement is resume-esque (with a narrative) because law schools in Ontario don't want your resume. It was really hard for me to do this... but if you're applying in America and you're not required to rehash accomplishments, save them (or find a way to throw some in, but in an affable, non-braggy way). I think they're more concerned with how you think and how you write than what you've done. Maybe tackle it from that angle.
@"Cant Get Right" thanks for the video. It's funny bc I posted on here a few months back asking if I should take a creative writing class to get an idea of how to write about myself and everyone was like no it won't help. I have 0 story telling skills and only know how to analyze theory so I'll keep researching for those types of videos and writing tips
Yeah I agree with everyone else. Don't focus on pushing your resume in your personal statement - they already have a copy of it!
Instead use your personal statement to tell a story about who you are as a person, and perhaps why who you are is someone fit for law school. AKA - get personal
I've heard law school deans complain about résumé rehashes—and some schools specifically ask you not to focus on your accomplishments in the essay. Check out the admissions course: https://7sage.com/admissions/enroll/
We've made most of our advice about the personal statement totally free!
If you do want a brief introduction on creative writing, Stephen King's book "On Writing," and Robert McKee's "Story" are both great books on storytelling and are themselves really well written, fun reads. I'd recommend them even if you're not interested in writing. If you just need to develop a narrative structure to follow though, I think Vonnegut covers the basic mechanics really well. I think some of his best books were created based on manipulations and reversals of some of these plot lines. "Cat's Cradle" is definitely a reverse Cinderella Story.
@"Cant Get Right" what do you think about writing about growing up feeling torn between two cultures and finding a home/culture/family in the surf community.
My mom immigrated us to the US when I was a kid, she took advantage of a legal loophole allowing us to leave without telling my father (the country was just falling apart in the 90s). I couldn't go back to my home country (where my entire family lives) until I was 18, otherwise would not have been able to go back to the US.
I have an anecdotal story from a couple years back when a guy surfed straight over my head slicing my head open and all the surfers around me (complete strangers) rushed to take care of me and that was the first time I felt apart of the surf community and like I really had a family taking care of me in the states.
I'm starting on the admissions course and going to look into those books about storytelling