Personal Statement Questions

[onisteverina]

Hello everyone! I am pretty much stumped when trying to begin the writing of my personal statement. I am curious if people stick to the info that VMCAS specifically requests in the prompt... (development of interest in vet med, activities and experiences contributing to prep for DVM program, and discuss understanding of vet med profession and career goals and objectives)... or if this is just used loosely to structure the essay? How do you go about describing your understanding for the vet profession?.. I'm just stumped... and really have no idea how to include all of this information into 5000 characters.. I feel like a lot of these areas can overlap, so I'm just having a hard time figuring out how to organize my thoughts (clearly...). Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

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[LetItSnow]

Hello everyone! I am pretty much stumped when trying to begin the writing of my personal statement. I am curious if people stick to the info that VMCAS specifically requests in the prompt... (development of interest in vet med, activities and experiences contributing to prep for DVM program, and discuss understanding of vet med profession and career goals and objectives)... or if this is just used loosely to structure the essay? How do you go about describing your understanding for the vet profession?.. I'm just stumped... and really have no idea how to include all of this information into 5000 characters.. I feel like a lot of these areas can overlap, so I'm just having a hard time figuring out how to organize my thoughts (clearly...). Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Try answering the question: "What about you - experiences, personal qualities, whatever - has prepared you to enter the profession and makes you a better candidate than the next guy?" And remember that anything you say about yourself needs evidence to support it. (Example: The classic cover letter cliche "I'm a quick learner" doesn't mean anything if you can't point to something that supports the assertion.)

And then just start writing. Get some kind of rough draft down, no matter how disjointed, and go from there.

P.S. Don't put "I'm a quick learner" in your personal statement.

 

[orca2011]

I recommend "free writing." Literally write down every single word or phrase that comes to mine for a period of about 10 minutes. It can seriously be "i don't know what to write" but chances are some ideas will come out of that. Worked for some of my supplemental essay questions.

And I would address the questions they have in the prompt. If you have extra characters to add a little something extra that doesn't completely distract the reader, that's okay, but prompts are usually there for a reason. It doesn't have to be structured in a way that paragraph 1 is about the first part of the prompt, etc, but I would make sure you cover everything they ask about.

 

[onisteverina]

Thank you for your response! I am a career changer, and for whatever reason feel the need to tie in my experience in social work and how those skills would also be beneficial as a veterinarian. What I'm worried about is appearing to focus too much on the social work and not enough on my vet experiences. Do you think I should mention the social work or just stick to vet related experiences?

 

[BlackDog17]

I really struggled with getting my PS started too. Once I actually got writing though, it was MUCH easier. I jotted down a list of ideas, experiences I wanted to use, topics I wanted to touch on, and then just forced myself to write. I recommend just sitting down and writing about your experiences. Don't look back and read it over, don't try to make it sound good. Just get it all out of your head and onto the paper, and then you can go back and edit it later. After you get the creative juices flowing, so to speak, the actual writing becomes a lot easier.

I also have two entries full of personal statement tips in my blog (the link is in my signature below) if you need some more ideas before getting started. Shameless plug, sorry!

 

[Frozenshades]

linky: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=986232

 

[Crystalight33]

Thank you for your response! I am a career changer, and for whatever reason feel the need to tie in my experience in social work and how those skills would also be beneficial as a veterinarian. What I'm worried about is appearing to focus too much on the social work and not enough on my vet experiences. Do you think I should mention the social work or just stick to vet related experiences?

Career changer here as well, and I would definitely tie in your social work experience! I'm sure you have lots of emotionally draining experiences as a social worker, and that can very easily tie into vet med and having to deal with euthanasia. Or difficult clients. Or maybe talk about the more rewarding side of social work and how that can tie into vet med.

I was a musician and I opened my PS by comparing a piece of music to a dog with a broken premolar. I had no idea where to start either, and I googled vet school personal statement and found some personal statements that were posted on blogs and stuff. It helped me get an idea of how I wanted to structure mine.

Also, that character limit was a killer! My first draft was like, 6000 characters over . I had to keep copying and pasting it into VMCAS to see how much more I needed to cut.

 

[orca2011]

Thank you for your response! I am a career changer, and for whatever reason feel the need to tie in my experience in social work and how those skills would also be beneficial as a veterinarian. What I'm worried about is appearing to focus too much on the social work and not enough on my vet experiences. Do you think I should mention the social work or just stick to vet related experiences?

Tie them in. I definitely used other experiences besides just vet med related ones for my PS and supplemental essays. Many of the schools I applied to said they liked that "out of the box" approach. For example, I talked about how going abroad prepared me for the profession, how being a lifeguard and dealing with upset parents would help me with clients, and I also talked about swimming competitively for 14 years taught me discipline, etc. Definitely draw upon your experiences, but just make sure you connect them with vet med in a way that works.

 

[FarmerMom]

This might be helpful: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/642/01/

 

[that redhead]

I would focus on the prompts but not in such a way that paragraph 1 addresses the first part, paragraph 2 the second part, etc. It isn't like they're going to go through and check off what you did and didn't answer, but you do want to be as close and you can manage.

My advice to you would be to just start typing to address the prompts, and then read over what you have. There will be certain things you'll want to play up and certain things you want to leave on your application. The PS is about your story, not about your stats, so if it were me in your shoes, I would definitely talk about how my previous career prepared me for school and the field of vet med and how you made the decision to switch over. You don't need to talk a ton about the work itself, but more what abilities and knowledge you gained from it.

Good luck! We have a personal statement reader thread if you're interested

 

[WelshCob]

I'm with the just start writing group. I had at least 5 different versions that I started at different times each a little different and then I printed all of them and combined the best from each.

 

[onisteverina]

So, I've written it.. and have gotten some good feedback from several people.. but the vet I work for mentioned that he thinks it needs to involve more of an explanation on my understanding of the profession.. My basic outline is that I talk about how I decided to go into psychology initially, mention my experience in social work, the experience there that aimed me toward vet med, and then summarized how social work prepared me.. as well as my post-back.. and then briefly touched on what I got from each vet related experience.. sometimes in one sentence for each experience(ie. shelter medicine and how it taught me about population health concerns).. and then lastly, I said that with my experiences it has confirmed that I want to be a small animal vet..

Because of the character limit, I haven't expanded much on my experiences. I also was thinking that this was okay because we have the "experiences" section that allows us to elaborate on each one. This is why I focused more on my journey to vet med rather than what I have actually done as a vet assistant in my PS.

Any thoughts on this???

I guess I'm wondering... should I be selling myself more.. and talk about why I would be a good vet.. and less about the journey to vet med...?

FYI: I have 3000 hours at a small animal clinic, 60 hours in international vet med stuff in Nicaragua, 250 in shelter med, and 200 in research... along with animal related experience (dog washer, parents own a boarding facility, vet receptionist). So I do have the experience.. but didn't know if I should place more focus on this stuff...

 

[cadisestrama]

So, I've written it.. and have gotten some good feedback from several people.. but the vet I work for mentioned that he thinks it needs to involve more of an explanation on my understanding of the profession.. My basic outline is that I talk about how I decided to go into psychology initially, mention my experience in social work, the experience there that aimed me toward vet med, and then summarized how social work prepared me.. as well as my post-back.. and then briefly touched on what I got from each vet related experience.. sometimes in one sentence for each experience(ie. shelter medicine and how it taught me about population health concerns).. and then lastly, I said that with my experiences it has confirmed that I want to be a small animal vet..

Because of the character limit, I haven't expanded much on my experiences. I also was thinking that this was okay because we have the "experiences" section that allows us to elaborate on each one. This is why I focused more on my journey to vet med rather than what I have actually done as a vet assistant in my PS.

Any thoughts on this???

I guess I'm wondering... should I be selling myself more.. and talk about why I would be a good vet.. and less about the journey to vet med...?

FYI: I have 3000 hours at a small animal clinic, 60 hours in international vet med stuff in Nicaragua, 250 in shelter med, and 200 in research... along with animal related experience (dog washer, parents own a boarding facility, vet receptionist). So I do have the experience.. but didn't know if I should place more focus on this stuff...

By no means am I an expert on PS writing so take this with a grain of salt....

But I think your journey is important towards vet medicine is important because essentially that is what the question is asking (how you discovered vet medicine). However, I think you should concentrate more on what you LEARNED from your experiences (because the explanation for each experience is what you DID) and thus what you KNOW/LEARNED about vet medicine, which, I think, is super important to schools because they want to know you that you understand what the vet profession is like...

And I think selling yourself should be done during the interviews? I mean it should be sort of incorporated in your writing but not the main focus of your PS. IMO. Could be totally wrong...

But that's just how I tackled my PS.

I think talking about how you went to psychology first is important because it makes you stand out. And your experience in social work is also unique. Though they shouldn't be the primary focus (somehow gear them towards vet medicine). If you are to talk about all those experience (which I think you should), you shouldn't go into too much about what you did but mostly what you learned from them, about yourself, and how it led to vet med or the skills you learned there can be applied to vet med. And I think, your vet related experiences shouldn't be only a sentence each, since they are important to leading/confirming that you want to be a small animal vet.

I think it would be difficult to see how all your vet experiences led you to small animal medicine if they are all a sentence each.

 

[onisteverina]

Thank you so much for your response.. I'm having such a hard time with this, but I completely see your points and agree with you.. doing some serious re-vamp today and tomorrow.... man.. I hate such last minute stuff..

 

[LetItSnow]

Because of the character limit, I haven't expanded much on my experiences. I also was thinking that this was okay because we have the "experiences" section that allows us to elaborate on each one. This is why I focused more on my journey to vet med rather than what I have actually done as a vet assistant in my PS.

Any thoughts on this???

Yeah. There's nothing wrong at all with the general approach, but I would try to ensure that the trajectory of all that background (social work) is vet med. Put differently; they don't need to know all the details of your social work background - they need to know the pieces that contribute to your current career goal in some way. If it's not obvious, you might have to spell it out. (I can think of several obvious skills that would translate directly, but as an insider you probably can think of many more.)

I guess I'm wondering... should I be selling myself more.. and talk about why I would be a good vet.. and less about the journey to vet med...?

That's not really an either/or. You should be selling yourself throughout the personal statement, but you can do that while talking about your background by discussing how that background has prepared you or allowed you to develop critical skills.

I may be just restating cadisestrama's point; I'm not certain.

If it helps give you some ... I dunno ... sense of perspective ... I talked about my time as a director of a flying club, my time working in the telecom industry, my time in the newspaper industry, the supercomputing industry ... I drew on all of those (none of which have anything to do with vet med directly) to highlight skills or personal qualities that I felt would be worthwhile.

Best of luck!!

 

[cadisestrama]

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[jerseyshoregirl]

Onisteverina: i am a career changer as well - was an art and history major and worked in finance for a couple years before pursuing vet med. I am happy to hear that someone else has the same concerns as me! One essay idea i had was to emphasize how my artistic and visually minded brain would help me to succeed in vet med because anatomy and interpreting diagnostic images requires such a good perception of space. However i was not sure how this would go over so i ended up choosing a different topic. My essay focuses more on my personality strengths, my road to vet school, and my understanding of the field. I did not go into any detail about my experience working as a tech, etc because like you, I thought why regurgitate this info if it is all in the "experiences" section. I did tie my understanding of the profession into my experience working in finance though... I hope this was the right approach. I'm kind of nervous about it. One vet student who read it said that I may want to include some specific details about a vet med case that inspired me.... Is this a good idea?

 

[equineconstant]

Onisteverina: i am a career changer as well - was an art and history major and worked in finance for a couple years before pursuing vet med. I am happy to hear that someone else has the same concerns as me! One essay idea i had was to emphasize how my artistic and visually minded brain would help me to succeed in vet med because anatomy and interpreting diagnostic images requires such a good perception of space. However i was not sure how this would go over so i ended up choosing a different topic. My essay focuses more on my personality strengths, my road to vet school, and my understanding of the field. I did not go into any detail about my experience working as a tech, etc because like you, I thought why regurgitate this info if it is all in the "experiences" section. I did tie my understanding of the profession into my experience working in finance though... I hope this was the right approach. I'm kind of nervous about it. One vet student who read it said that I may want to include some specific details about a vet med case that inspired me.... Is this a good idea?

Including specific details is generally a good idea because it lets you show, rather than tell, what you learned from that experience, which makes it more effective and really illustrates what you've learned. Basically the point of including the anecdote would be more about what you learned from that case or what it shows about you, not necessarily that it was an uncommon procedure that you got to see or something.

 

[jerseyshoregirl]

Including specific details is generally a good idea because it lets you show, rather than tell, what you learned from that experience, which makes it more effective and really illustrates what you've learned. Basically the point of including the anecdote would be more about what you learned from that case or what it shows about you, not necessarily that it was an uncommon procedure that you got to see or something.

Okay, that's good advice. So it might be beneficial to add a little bit about an experience in cardiology if I am mentioning that I may want to pursue a speciality in cardiology?

 

[equineconstant]

Okay, that's good advice. So it might be beneficial to add a little bit about an experience in cardiology if I am mentioning that I may want to pursue a speciality in cardiology?

Yes. But the focus should be on what you got out of it, not what you did/saw (the latter is more what the section where you explain your duties is for).

 

[onisteverina]

Hey guys! So finally finished it.. and I definitely tied in some more experience.. thank you for all of the help/suggestions.

On a separate note, how did you guys determine your "student reported gpa".. It says in the instructions that if you have a bachelors than you have to list that gpa as your student reported gpa... I'm bothered by this because since I did a completely unrelated undergrad degree, none of my prerequisite classes are in that gpa.. and it is significantly lower than my cumulative or science gpa. I'm hoping that schools use the more specific gpa listed on the supplementals?....

 

[wildcatj]

Hey guys! So finally finished it.. and I definitely tied in some more experience.. thank you for all of the help/suggestions.

On a separate note, how did you guys determine your "student reported gpa".. It says in the instructions that if you have a bachelors than you have to list that gpa as your student reported gpa... I'm bothered by this because since I did a completely unrelated undergrad degree, none of my prerequisite classes are in that gpa.. and it is significantly lower than my cumulative or science gpa. I'm hoping that schools use the more specific gpa listed on the supplementals?....

I think usually the student reported GPA includes all the courses you've ever taken, no? As in everything that you list in your course section of the vmcas should be included in your GPA calculation. If that is correct you'd just need to take the total about of credit points you received and divide by the total credit points possible from both your bachelors, pre reqs and anything else.

 

[Lab Vet]

I think usually the student reported GPA includes all the courses you've ever taken, no? As in everything that you list in your course section of the vmcas should be included in your GPA calculation. If that is correct you'd just need to take the total about of credit points you received and divide by the total credit points possible from both your bachelors, pre reqs and anything else.

The 'Student Reported GPA' is the cumulative GPA received from your PRIMARY institution. Mouse over the question mark on this prompt on the VMCAS application and you'll see this explanation for the response. For those of us who have multiple schools to list on VMCAS, your primary institution (it should be highlighted in orange on the form), is the school at which you completed your pre-requisite coursework/the most credits. Not that you have to worry about this wildcat

 

[onisteverina]

So, when you have a bachelors degree (or higher), than your primary institution is from that school correct? Because in the instructions.. it says either school where you got your bachelors, or the place you too most pre-requisites. When I spoke with VMCAS they said that bachelors gpa trumps the pre-requisite gpa when you have a bachelors.

 

[wildcatj]

The 'Student Reported GPA' is the cumulative GPA received from your PRIMARY institution. Mouse over the question mark on this prompt on the VMCAS application and you'll see this explanation for the response. For those of us who have multiple schools to list on VMCAS, your primary institution (it should be highlighted in orange on the form), is the school at which you completed your pre-requisite coursework/the most credits. Not that you have to worry about this wildcat

I'm just totally lying then! Oops. Ignore that!

 

[ChittyBang]

So, when you have a bachelors degree (or higher), than your primary institution is from that school correct? Because in the instructions.. it says either school where you got your bachelors, or the place you too most pre-requisites. When I spoke with VMCAS they said that bachelors gpa trumps the pre-requisite gpa when you have a bachelors.

Unfortunately for me, this correct. I received my BA 13 years ago and, although my prerequisite/post-bacc GPA is much higher, I had to report my "primary" school's GPA. Sucks. And makes no sense. Seriously. Hopefully adcoms will realize how unfair this is for a lot of us

 

[onisteverina]

Okay, I'm glad that you said that.... although... it does suck! I'm thinking that they must use the supplemental application GPAs listed (science.. last 45 units, etc) as their main way to determine academic abilities?....I'm sure there are tons of people who take additional classes after graduating and how else would they fairly compare people? ALL off my science pre-requisite classes are after my bachelors...

 

[ChittyBang]

ALL off my science pre-requisite classes are after my bachelors...

Same here. And I was NOT a serious student when I was 21. I used my explanation statement to talk about how I've grown and changed as a student and how grades from 13+ years ago... blah, blah, blah... I also never, ever, ever anticipated applying to vet school, or any other school, back then

 

[jerseyshoregirl]

Same here. And I was NOT a serious student when I was 21. I used my explanation statement to talk about how I've grown and changed as a student and how grades from 13+ years ago... blah, blah, blah... I also never, ever, ever anticipated applying to vet school, or any other school, back then

oh no, then i did my student reported GPA wrong too! I thought it was all courses combined. this is going to kill me too, since i too took all of my prereqs after my bachelors and my last 45 hour GPA is a lot higher. thank you for pointing this out though... now i have to fix mine. what a bummer.

 

[jerseyshoregirl]

on a similar note, the only prereq course i took during my undergrad was physics 1 during my sophomore year, which was only to fulfill my school's science require and i got a C-. i clearly didn't apply myself at all - really wish I had. When I did my post-bac program, i took physics 1 and 2 and got A's. Do you think I have to make a statement about this in the explanation section? i don't want to draw attention to it if i don't have to....

 

[orca2011]

on a similar note, the only prereq course i took during my undergrad was physics 1 during my sophomore year, which was only to fulfill my school's science require and i got a C-. i clearly didn't apply myself at all - really wish I had. When I did my post-bac program, i took physics 1 and 2 and got A's. Do you think I have to make a statement about this in the explanation section? i don't want to draw attention to it if i don't have to....

No. One C isn't going to kill your application. I had a C and a Withdrawal (well 2 because I had to drop the lab portion of the course too) and didn't mention it at all in the explanation section and it never came up in interviews. It shouldn't be an issue since you retook the courses as well.

 

[ChittyBang]

I agree with Orca. Retaking them and getting high marks should speak for itself

 

[onisteverina]

Thought I would mention this since I just triple checked with VMCAS ... it is correct to list the bachelors GPA even if you took all your pre-reqs after graduating/in a post-bacc. I called again just to make sure.. super paranoid!

 

[Aegolius acadicus]

Bumping this thread because I've started working on my personal statement for this summer/fall vet school application. A lot of people I've talked to recommend starting the statement with a grabber related to some experience I've had, and I've tried to do this for my first draft. My problem is that I'm having trouble coming up with an exciting experience that really ties in well with the rest of what I have for my statement, and the whole thing is just kind of starting off awkward and disjointed. Has anyone else done something different with this that they can relate, ie starting off with something other than an experience that played some formative role in the your pursuit of vet med? Is the whole grabber thing a bad idea? I'm just sort of having writer's block right now. And I know I have time, I'm just part of a workshop meeting later this week to go over drafts of statements, and I was hoping to iron out a couple more kinks by then. I probably just need to stew on it a bit more, but I'd appreciate advice if anyone has any. Thanks!

 

[Felixor90]

Bumping this thread because I've started working on my personal statement for this summer/fall vet school application. A lot of people I've talked to recommend starting the statement with a grabber related to some experience I've had, and I've tried to do this for my first draft. My problem is that I'm having trouble coming up with an exciting experience that really ties in well with the rest of what I have for my statement, and the whole thing is just kind of starting off awkward and disjointed. Has anyone else done something different with this that they can relate, ie starting off with something other than an experience that played some formative role in the your pursuit of vet med? Is the whole grabber thing a bad idea? I'm just sort of having writer's block right now. And I know I have time, I'm just part of a workshop meeting later this week to go over drafts of statements, and I was hoping to iron out a couple more kinks by then. I probably just need to stew on it a bit more, but I'd appreciate advice if anyone has any. Thanks!

I didn't start off with a grabber. I started mine off by talking about where I come from and my early life experiences that tie into what would make me a good vet later on in the statement. That was my 3rd rewrite, though. What I do is I skip the beginning and just start writing about myself and eventually I'll get the general idea of what I want to say and ideas start popping into my head randomly. You have plenty of time so just start writing down your stream of thoughts every day until you remember or think of things that would best describe you and your experiences in general.

 

[Klminner11]

Bumping this thread because I've started working on my personal statement for this summer/fall vet school application. A lot of people I've talked to recommend starting the statement with a grabber related to some experience I've had, and I've tried to do this for my first draft. My problem is that I'm having trouble coming up with an exciting experience that really ties in well with the rest of what I have for my statement, and the whole thing is just kind of starting off awkward and disjointed. Has anyone else done something different with this that they can relate, ie starting off with something other than an experience that played some formative role in the your pursuit of vet med? Is the whole grabber thing a bad idea? I'm just sort of having writer's block right now. And I know I have time, I'm just part of a workshop meeting later this week to go over drafts of statements, and I was hoping to iron out a couple more kinks by then. I probably just need to stew on it a bit more, but I'd appreciate advice if anyone has any. Thanks!

My personal statement started off with me talking about something profound that happened in my life that wasn't vet med related but caused me to start living my life a certain way that ultimately led me to vet med. What I'm trying to say is your personal statement can be just that personal, there's not always this one shining moment that has led you to where you are.

 

[Cephal0pod]

I'm actually writing my personal statement as a series of haikus.



But really, I am struggling with the same thing right now, Aegolius. It's hard! I have some ideas, but I think I really need to do the free writing thing that was mentioned earlier and start hashing some things out.

 

[Aegolius acadicus]

I didn't start off with a grabber. I started mine off by talking about where I come from and my early life experiences that tie into what would make me a good vet later on in the statement. That was my 3rd rewrite, though. What I do is I skip the beginning and just start writing about myself and eventually I'll get the general idea of what I want to say and ideas start popping into my head randomly. You have plenty of time so just start writing down your stream of thoughts every day until you remember or think of things that would best describe you and your experiences in general.

Thanks, that helps. I have a rough idea of what my body paragraphs are looking like, so I went back and kind of worked an intro around them. I do have time to work with it some more.

I'm glad some people don't go with the grabber tactic; most of the people in my workshop are premed, and they're all starting their statements off with how they've been saving heart attack patients and helping cure leukemia, and I'm just sitting there like "so...I really like cows..." I just don't feel like I have a whole lot in the profound department to work with.

 

[Aegolius acadicus]

I'm actually writing my personal statement as a series of haikus.



But really, I am struggling with the same thing right now, Aegolius. It's hard! I have some ideas, but I think I really need to do the free writing thing that was mentioned earlier and start hashing some things out.

Yeah, I kind of started mine with a gigantic web diagram of what I wanted to talk about. It's organizing and getting the intro done that I'm having trouble with now. Oh well, it'll come...

 

[Skimble]

I'm glad some people don't go with the grabber tactic; most of the people in my workshop are premed, and they're all starting their statements off with how they've been saving heart attack patients and helping cure leukemia, and I'm just sitting there like "so...I really like cows..." I just don't feel like I have a whole lot in the profound department to work with.

You probably do have something unique or profound, you just don't realize it because it's normal to you.

I started my last two personal statements with narrative attention getters. The first was about going to the emergency vet for the second time in one week for my sick pet and deciding euthanasia was the best option for my hamster, and I was only four years old at the time. My last one started with a story about watching a dog get hit by a car while on vacation last summer.

I'm sure you have had a unique experience that you could turn into a narrative attention grabber. It doesn't have to be too crazy, but it should reveal something about you.

 

[Daelite]

I really struggled with getting my PS started too. Once I actually got writing though, it was MUCH easier. I jotted down a list of ideas, experiences I wanted to use, topics I wanted to touch on, and then just forced myself to write. I recommend just sitting down and writing about your experiences. Don't look back and read it over, don't try to make it sound good. Just get it all out of your head and onto the paper, and then you can go back and edit it later. After you get the creative juices flowing, so to speak, the actual writing becomes a lot easier.

I also have two entries full of personal statement tips in my blog (the link is in my signature below) if you need some more ideas before getting started. Shameless plug, sorry!

Hi, would you mind sharing the link to your blog?

 

[Meemo23]

I really struggled with getting my PS started too. Once I actually got writing though, it was MUCH easier. I jotted down a list of ideas, experiences I wanted to use, topics I wanted to touch on, and then just forced myself to write. I recommend just sitting down and writing about your experiences. Don't look back and read it over, don't try to make it sound good. Just get it all out of your head and onto the paper, and then you can go back and edit it later. After you get the creative juices flowing, so to speak, the actual writing becomes a lot easier.

I also have two entries full of personal statement tips in my blog (the link is in my signature below) if you need some more ideas before getting started. Shameless plug, sorry!

Hi -
I don't see your PS tips
Do you mind sharing ?

 

[LyraGardenia]

Hi -
I don't see your PS tips
Do you mind sharing ?

It looks like BlackDog hasn't been on here for a few years, but if you do find the tips keep in mind that this year just has the three questions rather than the traditional PS, so PS advice from previous years may or may not be applicable.

 

[Meemo23]

It looks like BlackDog hasn't been on here for a few years, but if you do find the tips keep in mind that this year just has the three questions rather than the traditional PS, so PS advice from previous years may or may not be applicable.

Good point