Personal Statement for Social work/counseling programs-- how personal should I get?

[zaksa1]

Hello!

I am applying to social work/counseling programs and today is the first day I am sitting down and thinking about how i will be writing my personal statements/SoP. The reason I am in this field is because of a difficult home life and living with people who have mental illness. I want to be personal and real about why I am applying but I do not know what is considered too personal or how much is too much. Does anyone have any advice? Whether its the amount I should include or the topics I should definitely include/definitely want to avoid. thank you so much!

[brainsRus]

The best way to be personal in a personal statement is to make it academic. How did your personal experiences make you want to study these things academically? Be super brief on personal information like that because it can be a sign of immaturity if you write too much about yourself and not enough about your academics and why you're a good fit for the field instead.

For example, I want to study episodic memory, specifically how and why we forget lived events in order to help inform interventions that might help improve the lives of those with enduring memory problems at any age. That's my personal turned professional/academic as I have episodic memory problems myself and have a fascination with how the brain works because of my own experience.