How to Write a Personal Statement for College

The time has come: You’re applying to college or other program, and the application requires a personal statement. While it might seem overwhelming at first, you already possess all the tools, stories, and knowledge you need—you simply have to organize them into an essay.

I have worked with hundreds of students, helping them write winning personal statements. This blog will walk you through my step-by-step process for brainstorming, outlining, and drafting a personal statement for college or another program.

What is a personal statement?

A personal statement is an admissions essay that shows off more than just your writing skills. A good essay displays who you are, what makes you unique, what matters to you, and what you'll contribute to the university or program.

Application guidelines typically assign a word count between 200 to 1000 words. The common app, used by over 1000 colleges and universities, has a 650-word maximum. Usually, you get one or more prompts to pick from.

The common app includes 6 prompts, such as:

• Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

• Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

• Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

These prompts are intentionally vague. If you have a story in mind that you want to tell, you can usually make it fit any application prompt you have.

Why is the personal statement important?

The personal statement is important because it is your chance to stand out. You get to tell a meaningful story, show your personality, reflect on how you’ve grown, and demonstrate your writing style. It’s intended to be one of the most meaningful, personal writing projects you’ve ever completed.

Notice the keywords that the common-app prompts include:

• Identity

• Meaningful

• Reflect

• Challenge

• Realization

• Growth

They all want you to do the same thing:

Tell a meaningful story and reflect on why it matters to you.

How to Write a Strong Personal Statement Essay for College

Here are the five steps to writing a meaningful personal statement:

1. Brainstorm topics

2. Pick a central topic or story

3. Pick a theme

4. Outline your paper

5. Write your rough draft

Step 1: Brainstorm Topics

Reflecting and brainstorming before drafting will help with the rest of your writing process: you'll pick a better topic, include more detail, and have a more organized structure.

Before writing, try one of the following brainstorming strategies to choose a topic:

List of Potential Topics

Using a notebook, binder paper, or a Google Doc, spend 5 minutes making a bullet-point list of all the words, stories, people, memories, and ideas that come to mind as you read the prompts.

Anything goes here–don’t discriminate about what you include. The goal is to gather as many potentials as possible.

Favorite Mistakes

Think back on mistakes from your past that impacted you significantly. Make a list of your most major or important errors.

Consider mistakes that…

• taught you a lesson

• helped you grow

• moved you in a new direction in life

• showed you what not to do

• you will never repeat

• you’ve made multiple times

Special Foods

Take 5 minutes to make a bullet-point list of foods that have significance to you—a dish you tried on vacation, something your mom made when you were a kid, your favorite meal, a snack you eat everyday, favorite dish at a restaurant, or a traditional family dish.

When relevant, jot down sensory or emotional details about each food. This could be a specific memory, story, event, environment, person, smell, taste, or color that goes with the dish.

Food makes a great story topic for several reasons:

• It's relateable to everyone, yet personal to you as the writer

• It conveys unique aspects of your culture or family

• It provides a chance for sensory detail

Significant Objects

Take a walk around your room or your house, listing any objects that hold significance to you–trophies, toys, sports items, gifts, pieces of art, books, instruments, or tools. Jot down any standout stories, memories, words, or items.

Photographs

Photo albums make a great brainstorming tool because they remind us of special memories, stories, places, and people.

Browse through a digital photo album on your phone or computer–or look through a physical family photo album on your living room table–making a list of stories or topics that have special meaning.

Step 2: Select a Central Topic or Story from your List

Narrow your list down to just one–the most interesting and unique to you. The best choice does not need to relate to your major or be academic. It should be the one that triggers the most enthusiasm, sincerity, and detail.

Pick the story or topic that…

• interests or excites you the most

• feels important or meaningful

• taught you the biggest lesson

• has the most attention-grabbing “whoa” moment

• demonstrates a skill that sets you apart

• shows your passion or goals on a subject or activity

Step 3: Pick a Theme

Every good story as a theme: a central lesson, moral, or main idea. It’s useful to identify a theme for your personal statement, keeping it in mind while writing, because the theme gives your story a coherent meaning. Your details, scenes, and reflection all work together to support the central theme.

To determine a theme for your topic or story, you just have to ponder a couple questions about it:

• Why is this topic or story so important to you?

• What does it say about you?

• What have you learned from this experience?

• How did you use it as a vehicle for growth?

The answers to these questions will help you arrive at your essay's deeper meaning or main idea. You don't have to explicitly answer these questions or mention your theme in your essay. But it helps to keep your theme in mind while drafting your essay, because you want your storytelling and reflection to feel unified. Good essays typically include some sort of reflection, a commentary on why the story matters to you. This is where knowing your theme can help you create meaning from your story, as you demonstrate your wisdom.

Step #4: Outline your Personal Statement

Outlining your essay means planning its structure before you begin the draft, planning out what you'll include and how you will arrange the scenes, details, and reflection.

Outlining makes drafting so much easier because as you write, you know what comes next.

The outline typically includes two main parts: storytelling and reflection. The storytelling is where you explicitly tell the story, with full details including imagery, sensory language, description of the setting, and dialogue. The reflection is when you step back and comment on the story's events, from where you are now, to extract meaning and insights.

Your outline typically includes two main elements: storytelling, which includes detail, and reflection, which includes your insights.

• Storytelling: Which stories, scenes, and events you want to include

  • Detail: Storytelling elements and details, like sensory description, dialogue, description of the story’s setting, etc.

• Reflection: The lessons or realizations you gained during the events

  • Insights ( The “So What?”): What this topic, story, and theme tell the reader about you. Why is this important?

There’s no one-size-fits-all recipe for a structure, but most essays tend to choose from one of three general outline formats.

Structure 1: Storytelling then Reflection

This essay structure begins by jumping right into your story, usually spending multiple paragraphs telling all the events and scenes in full detail, without a pause. Then, when you have finished your story, spend several paragraphs reflecting on what challenged you the most, what you learned

Part 1: Storytelling. Spend the first 50-70% of your essay telling the story, or sequence of stories, in as much detail as possible. Describe how you felt, what happened, where it took place, what it looked, smelled, and sounded like. Include dialogue and anything else you can to paint a colorful picture.

Part 2: Reflection. After finishing the story, spend the remainder of your essay reflecting on what this story says about you. Consider how you changed, how it challenged you, what you learned, and how it made you who you are today.

Pros:

• Begins with a bang: The AAABBB structure allows for a strong "hook" because you can begin your essay by diving right into the action.

• Easy for the reader to follow: When you begin by telling the complete story, and avoid jumping between reflection and storytelling, your reader generally has an easier time following along.

Cons:

• May feel restrictive: Story-then-Reflection is a simple, reliable structure that many college applicants use. However, it may hold you back from writing a more structurally dynamic or unique essay.

Structure 2: Mixed Storytelling and Reflection

This essay structure intermixes storytelling and reflection throughout your piece. For example, you may begin your story with reflection—such as introducing some relatable concept or challenge that you confront as the story goes on. After that paragraph, you might spend a paragraph or two detailing a scene of your story, or a short vignette. Then, you might step back into reflection mode to share any insights or commentary you have, sort of like a narrator in a movie.

However, you can mix and match storytelling and reflection throughout your piece however you want.

Pros:

• Most flexible: You can interweave storytelling and reflection in infinite ways. You can begin with either one, and include bite-sized bits (or large, paragraph-long chunks) of reflection or storytelling however you see fit.

• Great for essays including multiple stories, lessons, items, or vignettes: If your essay includes several small stories, or several lessons learned, you can devote short chunks to each of them and follow each one with reflection.

Cons:

• Can get messy: If you constantly jump between storytelling and reflection, your reader might get confused about where they are—"Am I reading the story or the reflection right now?" If you choose this structure, I recommend having someone proofread it to see if your transitions are clear.

Structure 3: Reflection/Introduction, Storytelling, then Reflection

With this structure, you begin your essay by introducing its key topics, themes and takeaways. Don't spoil the ending of your story, and you don't have to introduce your topics overtly (“This essay will talk about…”) but instead try to subtly get the reader thinking about the challenges or topics you're going to develop.

For example, if writing about how you've gained confidence and grown your social skills, you might use the introduction to describe your background of social struggles and how they limited you. Or, you can write about how many young people struggle to socialize due to a lack of confidence.

Pros:

• Great for establishing a "seed": The introduction-first structure allows you to plant the "seed" of a theme or topic in your reader's mind, so they know what to look for while reading your story.

• Relatable: When you begin your essay by introducing a universal theme or topic, it can help your reader personally relate and "buy into" the story that follows.

Cons:

• Most be careful to avoid a weak "hook": When you begin your narrative by introducing a theme or topic, rather than starting with a story, you face the risk that the intro will feel stale, overly academic, or boring. But this doesn't have to be the case. Try to introduce the theme or topic in way that enlivens it with emotion, challenge, and significance.

Step #5: Draft Your Essay

With your outline as a guide, it’s time to sit down and write the actual essay draft.

Find a quiet space or productive work environment, and sit down with your laptop. Transform your outline into a written rough draft, filling each gap and paragraph with detail and elaboration

During this phase, keep the below tips in mind.

Don’t Overedit: Too Much is Better than Too Little (At First)

When writing a rough draft, aim to get all your ideas out onto the page. Don’t hold back. Write any detail, event, or reflection that comes to mind.

Later in the editing process, you will trim unnecessary detail or language.

Identify your Story’s “Sweet Spot” Moment and Use it to Slow Time

When storytelling, try to find the critical moment when something especially important happens. Often the climax, this moment might be when…

• you hit a home run

• your girlfriend breaks up with you

• you get caught cheating on a test

• you go off a huge jump on your bike

• you notice a bear in the woods

It’s important to identify your story's "sweet spot" because you want to emphasize it. This is the moment you've been building toward since your intro, so this is when you want your reader to pay special attention.

How do you achieve that?

By using language–especially sensory detail (the 5 senses) and vivid description–to slow down time.

Always Keep the Theme in Mind

Remember that your theme, or central message, unifies your paper. Every detail and reflection that you include in your paper should build your theme in some way, coming together at the end.

The theme gives your whole story a deeper purpose and significance–it explains why you’re telling the story in the first place. Keep it in mind throughout the whole drafting process.

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