There are a lot of considerations to keep in mind when writing a Personal Statement for University Applications. There is no way to cover every aspect of the Personal Statement to take care of –lest you were to torture yourself with a barrage of mind-meltingly boring paragraphs– but there are the fundamental attributes that MUST be noted. This is a collection of the most vital parts of your University Application Personal Statement that you NEED to understand.

The objective of this article is to highlight some of the key points to keep in mind when writing a Personal Statement for university. Many other factors come into play when determining the success rate of your overall admissions application, but these points in particular briefly cover the most important things to watch out for in your admissions essay. These topics will be covered more in-depth in the later articles; we will also be covering some of the other important considerations to take to maximize your application’s acceptance rate.

Table of Contents

1. Sensitive Topics in College Essays
2. Writing College App Essays With Good Flow
3. How to Write a Good Hook and Introduction in the College Essay
4. Word Choice in College App Essays

5. Grammar and Spelling

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Sensitive Topics in College Essays

Having worked in the University Admissions Essay Writing Service industry for years now, I can say with confidence that controversial topics in Personal Statements are not uncommon. With this in mind, I want to make clear something that might dampen the mood for my fellow readers: No, this is not good news; this is not something to be excited for at all. Some readers may be excited that I’ve seen many applicants write offensive material or language in their personal statements; this is not unreasonable to think, as that could only mean less competition in the admissions pool. What most applicants don’t realize is that it is very easy to mistakenly write sensitive topics in an offensive manner. Most of the applicants I’ve worked with who added sensitive topics into their papers didn’t even realize the material was offensive.

So how does this happen? For the most part, it is due to the nature of the questions that universities ask. More often than not, universities ask their applicants very open questions that can be a bit too personal. This very easily invites deeply emotional and personal stories. Couple this with the fact that most applicants are around the age of eighteen and have yet to develop the experience to convey such heavy topics in a compelling and inoffensive manner; they will have a cacophony of horrors waiting for them by the time they are finished with their paper.

This does not mean you should not write about deeply personal topics in your application.

But if it’s so hard to write deeply personal topics well without sounding cliche or over-dramatic, how does one write about it well?

The answer to that is simple: If you can’t afford a writing service to optimize it for you, learn to write in a non-invasive manner yourself. 

It’s a straightforward approach –and the only approach at that– but it’s easier said than done.

So what is invasive writing?

When one is “invasive” when writing a personal statement for university; it is writing in a manner that pushes the Topic rather than writing to the admissions office what the topic reveals about you as a person. Invasive writing will focus too much on what happened rather than how the events in the topic have molded you. This is a common problem with people who write about severe and sensitive topics since applicants tend to get too caught up in the severity of the situation that they forget to imply in their writing how it affects them and makes them a strong applicant.

The problem with applicants implementing sensitive topics when writing a personal statement for university is that it is very difficult to avoid invasive writing. There are, of course, a plethora of other issues one may come across with writing about sensitive topics; I will be covering those in another article. Trying to write about sensitive and deep topics as a young adult, as most applicants to universities are young adults, is quite a struggle; one of the most important things you may take from this section of the article is how to avoid invasive writing to make your essay more approachable.

The best course of action for those who cannot afford writing services for Personal Statement Optimization would be to ask multiple English teachers in your school to review the paper you’ve written. As with all other aspects of your application, remember to consult multiple teachers about your Personal Statement. Remember: your teacher’s job is to teach a classroom; University Application Writing is very much different from the material learned in school.

Writing College App Essays With Good Flow

This particular attribute is very important when writing a personal statement for a university –especially in maximizing the success rate of your admission chances. It is also very difficult to master properly without prior extensive writing experience of sentence and paragraph structure. There are many considerations to keep in mind when working on editing and revising the flow of the Personal Statement, but this is just one of the most important ones to take away: the placement of paragraphs.

To clarify, flow is the consistency and harmony in words or paragraphs or sentences or punctuation when placed in a certain order. The flow of words is usually optimized to make the reading experience more streamlined and straightforward without any misinterpretations.

Here is an example of bad placement in paragraphs:

Paragraph 1: The applicant introduces the most difficult obstacle that they faced

Paragraph 2: The applicant writes how they’ve developed themselves to overcome the said obstacle.

Paragraph 3: The applicant provides extra details and supplementary information about the obstacle and why it was very difficult

Here is an example of good placement of paragraphs:

• Paragraph 1: The applicant introduces the most difficult obstacle that they faced.
• Paragraph 2: The applicant provides extra details about the obstacle and why it was very difficult; they later build up excitement about how difficult the obstacle is.
• Paragraph 3:  The applicant writes how they’ve developed themselves to overcome the said obstacle.

The first example is not good since the second paragraph clashes with the third. The rising action and climax are both in the second paragraph and will contain the most interesting details. This should not be left in the middle of the Personal Statement since it will make the rest of the text drag on. The last thing anyone needs to hear after the climax is supplementary details. It would be better to have a conclusion at the end of the climax to highlight the significance and importance of the context discussed in the text.

The second example has a better placement of paragraphs because it is providing a transition between the obstacle and the solution to it. The build-up will more fluidly place the rising action and climax where they should be while keeping the introduction and beginning body paragraphs interesting

Other vital roles in maintaining consistent flow when writing a personal statement for the university include the following: the placement of words in a sentence, the placement of sentences in paragraphs, the pairing of words with one another, placement of transitional phrases in the right spots, sentence structure diversification, and sentence length diversification. These will be covered in future articles.

How to Write a Good Hook and Introduction in the College Essay

The hook is one of the most important aspects of writing a Personal Statement for a university; it is the first part of your essay that the university admissions officers get to see and is therefore the first impression they get of you. There are multiple ways to optimize your hook for the best admission success rate, but there are no specific structures of the hook that are better than the other.

One of the most important points to remember about constructing the hook is that it needs to provide the right AMOUNT of information in order for it to be effective. Too much background information in the introduction will spoil the rest of the content; too little background in the introduction will not give the admissions officers the shock value needed to keep them enticed.

Here’s an example of a hook that has too little information:

“It was one of the biggest challenges of my life. This event had changed my life forever. I will never forget it: It was the day that I grew up too fast.”

Here’s an example of a hook that has too much information:

“I was faced with the most difficult struggle of my life when I was sixteen: I was kicked out of the house for the first time in my life and had to fight obstacles for a week; this was due to familial issues which were later resolved after much conflict and time.

Here’s an example of a powerful hook that gives enough to provide shock value, but withdraws enough information to keep the admissions officers reading:

“It was every stressed teenager’s dream: the quintessential vacation at a beautiful beach with coconut trees that provide just enough shade to provide comfort from the illuminating sun. The beach is quiet, peaceful; I can hear the sound of my own breathing while I finally stretch after a long week of mind-meltingly taxing work. 

Something, however, was not quite right.” 

Another important point to remember about the hook is that it tends to be more artistic and structurally informal than the rest of the paper; this is the opportunity for you to leverage as much enticing, creative talent as you can. This does not mean that you need to pepper your paper with as much purple prose and fancy writing as you can –as that can actually make your essay appear less appealing– but it does mean that your introduction needs to be eye-catching and interesting enough to stand out among the other pool of applicants.

Remember: the hook is what catches your reader’s attention and keeps them reading everything else you have to say more attentively. Without a powerful hook, the rest of the content in your Personal Statement may become less interesting as well. More of the key points to keep in mind about the hook and introduction of the Personal Statement will be made in future articles.

Word Choice in College App Essays

This is a rather straightforward issue.

Diction is the word choice you use in your college essay. Depending on its connotation, this can either give you an advantage or a disadvantage.

A good example of this is a student trying to answer a question about leadership experience. Let us say that the writer wants to demonstrate that they are not just any ordinary leader, but a leader who tends to know how to improvise their way out of a sticky situation. The diction, or word choice, they will use in their essay may include the following: calm, collected, alert, firm, breathe, strong, quick, watchful, and careful.

Here are some of the most important points to keep in mind about word choice. ]

1. Do NOT pepper your Personal Statement with the same keywords over and over.
2. Word choice is subtle, so don’t try impressing with big fancy words.
3. Keyword Optimization requires the right connotation
4. Keyword Optimization requires the right timing

Here’s an example for number 1:

A bad way of optimizing keywords for an impression of a sharp-witted leader who is capable of last-minute improvisation would be to put calm, collected, alert, firm, breathe, strong, quick, watchful, and careful all in one sentence.

“I stayed calm and collected while trying to breathe and be watchful of what will happen next; I was strong, alert, firm, and able to quickly dispatch the situation quickly if the next few minutes called for it.”

Clearly, this would be overkill in keyword optimization. What you may have noticed, however, is that by over-optimizing for a certain impression of themselves, the writer essentially makes himself lose all credibility that they are the calm collected leader who can improvise well. They use so many words that their image will seem too “extreme” to seem realistic.

In other words, do not abuse thesaurus.com when looking for keywords to optimize for in your Personal Statement.

Here’s an example for number 2: Staying subtle is important for writers to give a good impression that isn’t too pushy.

A good way of being more subtle with optimized keywords would be the following:

“It felt like the world was spinning and the entire classroom was in chaos; I took a deep breath and exhaled through my nose, releasing the air from my lungs and the stress from my mind. My mind was as clear as water, and then it came to me: I knew what to do.” This example works since it is more subtle with its words such as “exhale, stress, clear as water”. These keywords are more likely to provide the admissions office with the right impression of an applicant who can stay calm during a stressful situation and think up ways to improvise.

A bad way of staying subtle would be this, an example of being too straightforward:

“There was too much chaos in the classroom and my teammates were unfocused; being the leader of the group, I quickly thought up of what to do.” This is not subtle in the slightest. The applicant simply makes strong claims about their strengths and repeats them to the reading admissions officers; in other words, they are expecting that the reader will simply believe everything they say at face value. This lacks the subtlety necessary when writing a personal statement for the university to look more genuine and believable.

Here’s an example for number 3: having the right connotation simply means having the right tone in words for the right context in the paper.

If an applicant were writing to make themselves appear gentle and firm, this would be a bad use of connotation.

“Having worked with the students in the elementary school, I knew making kids feel like they won against an older student gave them confidence. I readied my bat before pulverizing it and launching it far, but just far enough for the children to catch the ball and therefore catch me before I could hit home base.”

If an applicant were writing to make themselves appear gentle and firm, this would be a good use of connotation.

“Having worked with the students in the elementary school, I knew making kids feel like they won against an older student gave them confidence. I readied my bat before striking true. The ball launched far, but just far enough for the children to catch the ball and therefore catch me before I could hit home base.”

Here’s an example for number four: Timing the right Keywords properly when writing a personal statement for a university needs to be precise. Even if the right keywords are used and used often enough at the right amount, they need to have an appropriate time of use. Here are examples of timing keywords to give the impression of a hard-working applicant.

Example of bad timing in keyword usage:

The project our church held was near impossible to complete in one day: we had to paint the old walls of the church with a new coat of white paint. I was the most hard-working of the bunch. I knew exactly how much needed to get done and I was not afraid to work longer to finish more of our assignment.

Example of good timing in keyword usage:

I was no stranger to getting my hands dirty: even if there were assignments to finish and tests to study for, even if I wanted to take a break and spend time with my friends, even if I knew there were time-sensitive tasks that demanded to be finished, I had to bite my tongue. I persevered.

The problem with the first example is that the applicant suddenly shifts the topic about the struggle of painting the old walls to talking about themselves. They seem to impatiently jump to why they are hard-working so that the Personal Statement does not become about the writer’s experience, but what they have to shove down the reader’s throat.

The second example is better since it is more patient in letting the reader know that they are a hard-working person despite difficulties. The keywords such as “bite my tongue, preserved, and hands dirty” compliments the repetitiveness of the “even if I knew” to incite to the admissions officers that a major claim is to be made. The keywords in this example are timed properly as they are placed in an area that is optimal for a major reveal of a positive character trait due to the dramatic repetition in “even if I knew”.

More explanation of these examples and further reading on understanding keywords and their importance in the Personal Statement will be found in future articles.

Grammar and Spelling

This may seem like an obvious option to consider when writing a personal statement for university, but it is especially important that your paper is completely free of spelling and grammatical errors. This rule goes for all essays, but this is especially true for the Personal Statement. If the University Admissions Officers notice a grammatical or spelling error in your Personal Statement, they will most probably take it as a sign of work that was not reviewed thoroughly enough.

Sloppy work not only demonstrates laziness and apathy towards the application process, it, more importantly, but also reveals that the topic you are writing about is unimportant to you. Whether that is true or not will matter; what matters is the impression that the admissions officers feel when they read your paper.

Admittedly, some mistakes are not as easy to catch as others and may even slip under their radar. The misuse of a semicolon in separating two independent clauses may not be as noticeable as the infamously dreaded (their vs there vs they’re) and (you’re vs your). Even so, do not jeopardize the success rate of your admissions application by lazing out on a few mistakes; take the extra time to correct grammatical mistakes in your paper so you can avoid appearing uncaring and apathetic.

If you are short on time, which is one of the worst situations to be in before a university application deadline, there are revision services available online.

There are still free grammar checkers online which are a smart choice to have. Though most of them don’t cover the more specific grammatical and spelling errors in your paper, they reveal the more noticeable and obvious errors in your papers that you don’t want the admissions office to see. The more complicated and hidden errors will be up to you to sniff out and find quickly before the deadline looms closer. Even if they’re not as noticeable as the ones found in a grammar checker, errors should not be left unedited because they risk ruining your application success rate.

This is simply an introduction to some of the major key points that you need to consider when constructing your Personal Statement. If you believe you need more help, you may want to consider hiring a professional college admissions essay editor. Instead of writing a personal statement for university the hard way, our expert editing and consulting can clean up and optimize your essay to its fullest potential.