Statement of Purpose - Too "Fluffy" vs Too "Dry"

[AARTH]

Does anyone have any advice on how "sentimental" vs "academic" to make a personal statement? I am getting a lot of mixed messages from people, ranging from "absolutely do not write a sob story about your grandma who had a stroke" to "make it heart-felt and personal!" 

I know you shouldn't *just* make it a personal narrative, but I'm afraid some schools will find my essay bland if I only write about coursework and research experiences. Any tips on how to balance these things?

[KEIM]

I'm struggling with the same thing! I tend to write very fluffy/personal and that's probably not a good thing.I dont have a ton of outside experience tho. 

[aud2be2024]

I am struggling with that too!! I have a powerful personal story I could use but I don't know how much detail to go in versus how much detail to go in for academics. Also because I feel like having a personal story that connects with the field helps make you stand out but I could be wrong??

[slptobe!]

On 12/7/2019 at 9:53 AM, AARTH said:

Does anyone have any advice on how "sentimental" vs "academic" to make a personal statement? I am getting a lot of mixed messages from people, ranging from "absolutely do not write a sob story about your grandma who had a stroke" to "make it heart-felt and personal!" 

I know you shouldn't *just* make it a personal narrative, but I'm afraid some schools will find my essay bland if I only write about coursework and research experiences. Any tips on how to balance these things?

 

On 12/7/2019 at 11:35 AM, futurespeechie2 said:

I am struggling with that too!! I have a powerful personal story I could use but I don't know how much detail to go in versus how much detail to go in for academics. Also because I feel like having a personal story that connects with the field helps make you stand out but I could be wrong??

The purpose of a PS is for the admissions committee at the school to get to know you, your experiences, your academic abilities, and if you are a good fit for their program. It is becoming an increasingly difficult task to do as schools shorten the word limit because of the amount of applications to get through, but striking that medium is definitely a tricky thing! For me, I wrote an outline first one what I wanted to include to supplement the rest of my app and then I wrote way too much then edited down further and further. I asked many people (speechies and non-speechies) to read it and give their honest opinions. This really helped me. For me, I wrote about how life events and experiences have led me to where I am now and how that passion fueled my academic interests and motivated me to gain experience. Because while you don't want to write a sob story, those experiences for most have impacted their decisions and become one of the reasons they want to be an slp so it's an important factor. So for the sake of a word count, I did my best to weave all those aspects together. It's definitely not easy! Let me know if any of you have questions! I would be happy to try and help or send my ps as an example.