Personal History Statement Queries

[vision15]

Hi, I am thinking of applying to a couple of UC schools for PhD in CS this year and bumped into something called a Personal History Statement on their website that we have to send along with the usual SOP for admission. Not much was mentioned about it on their website as well. So am a bit stuck here and have a few queries regarding it :-

1. What is it exactly? How is it different from the usual SOP?

2. How long does it have to be?

3. I couldn't find many samples on the internet, can anyone here share his/her's with me?

4. How important is it for admission?

Thanks.

[TakeruK]

Hi, I applied to two UC schools last year and was confused by the same thing. I don't remember where I found some of this information (I think some were found on the UC sites somewhere!)

1. The PHS is an essay for you to describe any personal things that the admissions committee should be aware of. I think in particular, it asks you to discuss any hardships you may have felt and overcame (e.g. minority, first generation grad student, health problems, family problems, etc.). The way I saw it (not sure if it's 100% right) was that the SOP is the professional appeal to the school (why you have the right skills, why you are a good fit) while the PHS is the emotional/personal appeal (why your success is meaningful).

2. I think I found this on the UC sites but the PHS should only be as long as you need it to be. So it can be from 1 paragraph to up to 2 pages I think.

3. These are pretty personal but I wrote about why I am motivated to succeed in school (in short: my parents immigrated after a war in their country and started a new life from scratch -- they gave up their own foundations to ensure their children will live in a better place). I found it really really hard to write the PHS without sounding like I'm whining / making my hardships sound really bad / fishing for sympathy etc.

4. I have no idea -- some people have said that schools ask for the PHS just so they can satisfy their requirement to be diversifying their student population. Many other schools don't even ask for it at all. Personally, I think it's only important if you need it to explain some anomalies (e.g. gap in study years) in the rest of your application. But, I got rejected from both UC schools (it's hard to get in as an international student so I don't know if my PHS made a difference).

Good luck!

[vision15]

Thanks TakeruK that was really helpful.

But it would really do me a world of good if you or anyone else can share their Personal History Statment with me. Anyone?

[mandarin.orange]

I compiled some resources in this thread from last year, including examples that can be found online:

I don't think you'll get many Grad Cafe members fulfilling your request to freely send you one, due to...well, by nature it IS going to personal, and most likely include identifying details. But, it's been discussed the internet over, so there's many resources out there. Use the search function and dig deep. I wish I had $1 for every discrete thread that's been started on Grad Cafe alone about the PHS.