Personal Statement

[sophieblanc]

Hey,

I am having trouble with my personal statement / essay, are there any books or websites that offer advice for newbies?

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Sophie

[Joel418]

Two very helpful resources:

http://www.accepted.com/grad/personalstatement.aspx

www.statementofpurpose.com

Good luck!

[sophieblanc]

Thanks Joel!

[rogue]

I found Graduate Admissions Essays: Write Your Way into the Graduate School of Your Choice by Donald Asher to be incredibly helpful (if somewhat intimidating). It actually made me sort of excited to write my SoP.

http://amzn.com/1580088724

[synthla]

I found Graduate Admissions Essays: Write Your Way into the Graduate School of Your Choice by Donald Asher to be incredibly helpful (if somewhat intimidating). It actually made me sort of excited to write my SoP.

http://amzn.com/1580088724

I'll second that. Very useful pre-writing exercises in particular.

[LingGrad2009]

I found Graduate Admissions Essays: Write Your Way into the Graduate School of Your Choice by Donald Asher to be incredibly helpful (if somewhat intimidating). It actually made me sort of excited to write my SoP.

http://amzn.com/1580088724

Thirded here. Intimidating is right though -- every single example letter in the book was someone WAY more qualified than me. "After interning on the Apollo missions, I designed a near-earth satellite navigation algorithm that reduced collision rates by 98%. Meanwhile, my "Homes for Orphans" program was expanding nicely . . ."