Personal History Statement Tips and Suggestions?

[axc]

One of the schools I'm applying to has a required SoP and personal history statement. I'm not sure how to go about starting this personal history statement. Any tips/things to avoid doing? Any general advice?

I'm also worried about repeating 'I struggled due to X,Y,Z then I struggled from Y,Z,A' since I fear it won't add any new insights for the reader and will just look like a daytime drama.

[Helpplease123]

I guess you could use the personal statement as kind of a prologue to the statement of purpose? So talk about your life leading up to now in your personal statement, how you came to want to study your program etc. Maybe start it at the first point you got an interest in the subject and discuss how it first developed? Then in SoP talk about you now, your future goals and how xyz program fits into that.

You're right, I wouldn't talk about struggles too much, I think they get so much of that now - everyones looking for some dramatic story to stand out it probably just gets a bit annoying to read but you also want to keep it interesting so try and add the odd bit that's less formal. I suppose it depends on the degree you're going for as well.