YouOnlyYoloOnce

A few of the schools I am applying to ask for a biographical statement/personal history statement (the three schools I am referring to are UMichigan, UC Berkeley and UC San Diego). This is separate of course from the statement of purpose. I have already put a lot of work into my statement of purpose, but it is completely academic and has essentially no biographical element. I am not sure what to include in a biographical statement. It's not that I don't like talking about myself (I think I'm the most interesting person around.) However, it feels like I'll be walking through a minefield. I am especially wary of saying anything along the lines of "I've been philosophizing since I was a kid." Anyone else have any ideas about what to write in those kind of statements?

Hi. I am applying to PhD programs this application season. I graduated with my BA in May. Here are what I deem to be the relevant facts about my application (I will make no claims about the quality of my writing sample or letters of recommendation.) I am glad to share this in the hopes that others will be encouraged to share as well. This process is a stress-inducing one, and reducing some of the mystery of the rest of the pool is, I think, a way to moderately reduce that stress. Undergrad institution: Well-regarded, small private university in New England Undergrad GPA: 3.83 overall, 3.91 in the major (philosophy was my only major.) Summa. GRE: 164V, 160Q, 5W Areas of interest: Broadly, Value Theory. (Metaethics, Ethics, Applied Ethics, Philosophy of Law, relevant issues in Philosophy of Action) Writing Sample Topic: Experimental Moral Philosophy Applying to (in roughly geographical order, West to East): UC Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, UC San Diego, UColorado-Boulder, UArizona, UTexas-Austin, UChicago, UMiami, Duke, UNC Chapel Hill, Georgetown, Penn, Brown, UMass Amherst, Cornell (This list is subject to change a bit, but I doubt much.)