DPDoubleTrouble

Has anyone done the video yet? I've been procrastinating on that... Anyone got tips?

Thanks for that! Will maintain my current statements in that case!

I've been done for a few weeks now! Just been hesitant on submitting my statements - always feel like I can keep improving them, ya know? Goal was to get them in by Jan 1 though! All my references are in, so that's nice peace of mind. It's nice how they let your references submit before you submit your statements. They must be swamped with letters. I have a really niche topic that most schools don't really tackle, so I'm only applying to (in ranked order): NPSIA, U of Calgary, Munk. How about yourself?

I'm applying for Masters Political Science, and all the schools mention a generic "statement of intent;" 1 page for some schools, while some are capped at two, so it's relatively short. I had written all my statements and was going to submit it but just been conflicted over the past few weeks. How personal should I be? I generally believe that personal life should be separate than academic life, and the whole idea of affirmative action, however where I currently stand is deeply impacted by my life, especially when you compare me to someone else in the same spot as me right now. Here is a bullet list of my life: Have a diagnosed learning disability (like an actual disability, not some ADHD ploy to get adderall) Abusive alcoholic father so parents divorced officially when I was a young child, otherwise single mother my entire life Lived in homeless shelters with my mom and sister as a child, and government housing since Mother was impaired in a severe accident a few years back so she's been on disability, so I've been paying for my entire education etc with many jobs simultaneously throughout high school and university Close friend killed himself in Grade 12 Once again, a friend killed himself in my second year of university As you can imagine, my grades haven't been the best, but this past year my grades in fourth year have been really great at 3.9/4.0 (across only fourth year poli sci classes so put it into perspective how well I'm doing), so I have a one page addendum on my transcript that details this, but purely factual/objective, no sap story. Essentially a bullet list but in sentence form. As it stands, my statements are purely academically oriented right now, but they're all at about 1 to 1/2 pages. Furthermore, my references don't know about my personal life, so their letters would also only talk about my academics and my very strong extracurricular background. Should I keep the route I am doing; aka only talking about my personal life in my addensum on my transcript and just academics on my statements, or should I mix it up? If I mix it up, some of my statements would need to be reduced to make room, so factor that in. Suggestions would help! Thanks!

Figured I'd get a thread going since there's been one every year except this year!