Before you write a personal statement/cover letter/ CV, answer these questions:
Ask yourself some “hard questions”:
1. Intellectual influences: Who were your favorite professors (and why)?
2. Identify the best paper you ever wrote, the most influential book you have read, and the single most important concept you have learned.
3. Encouragement: Recall and write out the actual words of a professor, teacher, or someone else in your life who encouraged you to go in this direction.
4. Turning points: Where were you and what were you doing when you first thought of going in this particular direction? How have your interests evolved?
5. Experiences: List volunteer, travel, family, and life experiences that have inspired you to go in this career direction.
6. Academics: How have you prepared yourself to succeed?
7. Skills: What skills have you honed through the experiential and educational choices you have made?
8. Personal attributes: What personal attributes make you particularly likely to succeed?
9. What makes you unique? In life, in your writing, as a student, employee, ____________________?
10. (for statements for college or a cover letter for a job): Why should you be here (in graduate school or at this company, employer, etc.)?
1. Intellectual influences: Who were your favorite professors (and why)?
2. Identify the best paper you ever wrote, the most influential book you have read, and the single most important concept you have learned.
3. Encouragement: Recall and write out the actual words of a professor, teacher, or someone else in your life who encouraged you to go in this direction.
4. Turning points: Where were you and what were you doing when you first thought of going in this particular direction? How have your interests evolved?
5. Experiences: List volunteer, travel, family, and life experiences that have inspired you to go in this career direction.
6. Academics: How have you prepared yourself to succeed?
7. Skills: What skills have you honed through the experiential and educational choices you have made?
8. Personal attributes: What personal attributes make you particularly likely to succeed?
9. What makes you unique? In life, in your writing, as a student, employee, ____________________?
10. (for statements for college or a cover letter for a job): Why should you be here (in graduate school or at this company, employer, etc.)?