Application Essay Advice: UCLA Personal History Statement

[Penemonie]

The UCLA graduate application requires a personal history statement where you have to talk about how your life experiences and how they led to the decision to pursue the graduate field of interest. It specifically says that "this statement should not duplicate the statement of purpose".

In my SoP, I am already writing about how my experiences, both personal and academic, made me apply to XXX programs so I am not sure how this personal history statement is different from the statement of purpose.

[Yanaka]

Hey! 

I'm also applying to UCLA. Your SoP should not be the "autobiographical" part of your application. It should only be academic, unless your off-campus experiences are relevant to you as a future grad student. UCLA's personal history statement is there to focus on yourself (although always related to your project and interests). 

Well I'm no expert, not at all, but that's the info I have gathered.

[glitterunicorn]

Just remove your personal experiences from SOP and utilize that for your personal history statement. Expand more on your academic experiences. There should be somewhat a clear distinction between both statements.

+1 to Yanaka's post.

[Yanaka]

I must add now that I have also removed off-campus involvements to use them in my Personal History/Background. I think my SoP is more efficient as revolving entirely around academic stuff.