How Much Detail to Include in Personal Statement

[hopefulslp2b!]

Hi all!
 

I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations about just how much personal detail to put into one's personal statement. I have a low overall GPA (3.2 ?) but managed a 3.89 for the last 60 units. I'm trying to explain that my earlier grades were poor because I was struggling with an undiagnosed autoimmune disorder. I'm personally not weird about saying what it was, as I feel the symptoms are easily attributed to struggles in school. BUT I don't want to include too much personal information as to where the schools reading my personal statement might be like, okay...should I just say I had health issues that contributed to my poor GPA?

 

Was just wondering if anyone else in the same boat had any recommendations ? 

[speech97]

Yes you could definitely health issues contributed to the rocky start you experienced but once you got a hold of your health and managed it, you were able to manage your schoolwork as well. Don’t be too vague and good luck! 

[estel]

I don't think you need to go super in-depth on it, but if you wanted to mention your health problems, you could also even tie it into SLP! Like, something about how it's important for SLPs to collaborate with other providers like OTs and audiologists, for example, because if a kid has a hearing loss, they're going to struggle in speech therapy, just like how you struggled in your academics because of your undiagnosed health problems. Or you could point out that there's strong relationships between speech/language disorders and academic problems, so seeing how much better school was for you after diagnosis/treatment inspired you to help kids, where once a kid gets diagnosed and gets speech therapy, they'll have the opportunity to do better in school.

[hopefulslp2b!]

On 12/15/2019 at 7:02 PM, speech97 said:

Yes you could definitely health issues contributed to the rocky start you experienced but once you got a hold of your health and managed it, you were able to manage your schoolwork as well. Don’t be too vague and good luck! 

Thank you so much for your help and response! ? 

[hopefulslp2b!]

On 12/16/2019 at 7:49 AM, estel said:

I don't think you need to go super in-depth on it, but if you wanted to mention your health problems, you could also even tie it into SLP! Like, something about how it's important for SLPs to collaborate with other providers like OTs and audiologists, for example, because if a kid has a hearing loss, they're going to struggle in speech therapy, just like how you struggled in your academics because of your undiagnosed health problems. Or you could point out that there's strong relationships between speech/language disorders and academic problems, so seeing how much better school was for you after diagnosis/treatment inspired you to help kids, where once a kid gets diagnosed and gets speech therapy, they'll have the opportunity to do better in school.

Thank you soo much for your help and response!! Those are some really good points! ? 

[AARTH]

On 12/16/2019 at 8:49 AM, estel said:

I don't think you need to go super in-depth on it, but if you wanted to mention your health problems, you could also even tie it into SLP! Like, something about how it's important for SLPs to collaborate with other providers like OTs and audiologists, for example, because if a kid has a hearing loss, they're going to struggle in speech therapy, just like how you struggled in your academics because of your undiagnosed health problems. Or you could point out that there's strong relationships between speech/language disorders and academic problems, so seeing how much better school was for you after diagnosis/treatment inspired you to help kids, where once a kid gets diagnosed and gets speech therapy, they'll have the opportunity to do better in school.

Hi! Just wanted to say hello because I'm also a linguistics major and it looks like we applied to a lot of the same schools! Best of luck!!

[estel]

On 12/17/2019 at 9:05 PM, AARTH said:

Hi! Just wanted to say hello because I'm also a linguistics major and it looks like we applied to a lot of the same schools! Best of luck!!

Aw awesome, hi!!! How did you already get accepted to UIUC?? Do they do rolling admissions?

[slptobe!]

A personal statement is a way for the admissions committee to get to know you better beyond your transcripts and resume, so if there is something that they should know to get a full picture of you than you can tell them how much you're willing to divulge. You can be vague and talk about it in just a sentence or two about how it affected your grades or if you wanted to say more you could make it part of your story that you're telling about yourself in your ps. I didn't have any health issues myself necessarily, but a family member did and so I included it in my ps. Schools want to get to know you, the more they know the easier it is to tell if you would be a good fit for their program, these parts of your story also say something about you and your character so in the end it'll probably help more than hurt if you're comfortable to mention it. Hopefully this made sense, message me with any questions. Maybe I can help!