# Personal Statement



## Restless Mind (Jul 19, 2006)

I have no idea what to write for this. My mom gave me a magazine that we received in our newspaper which has examples of student's essays to colleges - all of them have some sort of remarkable breakthrough, like tutoring a D student to a straight A one, or becoming the star pitcher on a baseball team and leading them to the state championship, or how about overcoming cancer. What have I accomplished that is worth writing about? Nothing. My life is boring and I've become a real quitter. Anything I've had talent in, I've given up. The only things I'm good at is being lazy, procrastinating, listening to music, avoiding people, worrying about my skin, buying/selling stuff on eBay, looking at porn, posting on numerous forums like this, and sleeping. How am I supposed to write a personal statement that is going to get me into a university with a life like that? By the way, my major is human nutrition, which I have little desire to continue in. I'm only doing it because I have spent the past two years taking classes to fulfill specific prerequisite courses for a university's particular curriculum. If I changed my major (clueless to what that would be), I'd most likely be spending another year or two living at home and commuting to my community college trying to complete preqs. 

Ugh, this all seems too hopeless.


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## person86 (Aug 10, 2006)

Lie. Make something up.

That's what I'd do.


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## whiterabbit (Jan 20, 2006)

My personal statement was the hardest thing I've ever had to write in my life because I've achieved absolutely nothing. I had no extra-curricular activities to write about, no interests, no hobbies, no jobs, no outstanding academic achievements, no life. And I cannot sell myself. But somehow I manged to pull it off. What I did was express real interest in the subject I wanted to study and mention a few specific areas I was interested in, talk about how my interest in the subject had developed, talk about aspects of the course I was looking foward to, and then I made up my interests and abilities. I completely lied. I said I was great at working individually and in a group. I said I knew I would benefit from university life. I said I would take full advantage of the opportunities offered to me. Etc, etc. It took me ages to write. I must have spent an entire year trying to write it.

Looking back at my personal statement I think it looks pretty ridiculous, but the university thought it was excellent. I'm reading back over it now. I seriously wrote things like "Reading has been an essential part of my life", "Being an avid follower of current affairs I watch and read the news every day" and "I also enjoy travelling to new places and walking in the countryside". Those were basically my interests. I also wrote that I enjoyed music.


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## GraceLikeRain (Nov 9, 2003)

Are you close to any of the professors at your current college? Talk to one of them. They might be able to help you.


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## Restless Mind (Jul 19, 2006)

GraceLikeRain said:


> Are you close to any of the professors at your current college? Talk to one of them. They might be able to help you.


Only one, but she's pretty much had it with me. I think I'm just going to have to do my best with what I got... which is not much, but I think I can tweak it enough (like whiterabbit did) and make it sound like I'm a somewhat accomplished and content human being.

I think the personal statement measures how well you can put on a facade, and sell yourself.


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