Personal Statement!!! @.@ Where and how to start???

As the title says, Personal statement is a statement about each of us as a unique person. I think there is no rule to this and people would have different interpretation and approach to this! Here’s what I think:

Some of the things that I notice to be mostly included in the personal statement are:

• Your life journey and your value: This can be directly stated, or you can try to embed it indirectly while writing the whole statement.
• What are you passionate about?
• Future goal: This is important! If you don’t even know what you want to achieve for life, how can you achieve it? How could you possibly make a difference to your society? Think about it! This part should cover the short-term goal after completion of the program, 5 years, 10years, 20 years, or the highest terms. The committees need to know whether their investment on you will be the right choice to build a potential or a strong leader who will be able to make the differences to your career, community, society or the world.
• Why you are one of the most outstanding people to deserve to receive this scholarship? What makes you stand out…. listing down your strengths and reasons is important, but it’s not enough! You need to support it with real examples and evidences.
• Why do you want this program or this study? Why is it important? How did you get the inspiration/interest in this?
• Your expectation from the program : This can also tell the committee that you understand what the program is all about! (Because in some case, candidates misunderstand the purpose of the program and that’s why many people are not shortlisted despite being strong candidates). Moreover, having clear purpose and expectation also help the selected applicants to have proper preparation and to make the best of her/his experiences during the time there, as well as after the program.
• How would you contribute back to the sponsor/society: Tell you’re your SMART Plan!!! Don’t just say “ when I’m back, I’m working to work hard to use my skill to help my society and also share the skill to my friends/community and bla bla bla” . Tell you what, many others applicants who fail also write this similar kind of phrase! Nothing special! It’s not specific enough!! Describe exactly your specific plan and steps to implement it with proper proof that it’s do-able!

Items above are just some of important things! There is no particular order of what should appear first, second and third. You can choose to include only some of the items above or add many more things depending on your style and scholarship program. I suggest that you take the courage to try different strategies for different programs that you are applying for and learn from the experience of failing and passing. Get out of your comfort zone and always try out the new way, and don’t be afraid to some times go against what is defined as the norms or rules. Never try to copy anyone statement. Learn from different people, but find your way to adapt and customize to build the style that suits you the best and make you an original person! Uniqueness would help you get a long way in your scholarship application journey! Some things that people usually do might means that the committees have read such things millions times! Some time they also need some new tastes! I have seen some creative people writing about plant in their personal statement and what they learnt from the plant! Some outrageous statements have distinct the candidate to make him/herself stand out from the crowd, but some others can also lead to failure to be selected because it’s too unique that the committee can’t understand. Be unique and creative, but always think in the shoes of the committees. “Who they are, where they are from, what they do, would they be able to get the sense of your uniqueness!” Remember that people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care! It’s not only about what you say or what you do, but also how you say or how you do it!

Do spend time thinking about the points you are going to write in your statement, but also spend a lot of efforts strategizing how to say it in a way that is easy to understand and inspiring!

Believe in what you say and say what you believe! Don’t just make up the story just to sound like a perfect person! Express your genuine self in a well-arranged structure and logics! One of the issues I notice is that some people seem to write in a way a sound like he/she is the only best of the whole world in terms of everything, which make the committee decide not the shortlist the person despite the great level of achievement because they know that no one is perfect and a too proud person can turn out to be an egoistic/selfish leader rather than s.one who would be in service for the public’s good. My suggestion would be to get the help from others to review your writing and give comment of how they think about you if they were strangers who had never known you before. Meanwhile, there are some people who have done so many great things, but don’t see those things as something amazing and write about those experiences as if it’s something that sounds like it less matter than it really is. My suggestion would be ask your trust worthy people (Friends, teachers, mentors, relatives…etc) about what they think are the things they find impressive or interesting about you. Some time, we have done some great thing that impressed or inspired people, or changed people life, but we were not aware of. Go get some helps from others to discover your blind spot.

Don’t expect that you can finish a personal statement in one sit. Collecting the ideas along the way and over times. Try out so many drafts of writing and choose which style is better for the specific program that you are applying for.

Yes! It sounds like a lot of work! As a matter of fact, it is a lot of work, not just sound! It’s never be easy! Competition for scholarship is not gonna get any easier, but it’s only gonna get fiercer and harder. You only gotta work harder and smarter with high level of persistence and proactiveness!