Personal Statement Grammar

[SLPihope2B]

I have had my statement edited multiple times. However, the final person I had edit my essay changed a TON of thing. She got rid of any passive voice I had in my essay and replaced it all with active voice. I agree that in some parts of my voice active voice sounds better, but in some places the passive voice makes more sense. 

I had not heard any rules/preferences of grad schools liking essays to be in active rather than passive voice. 

Does anyone have any insight on this? Thanks!!

[fuzzylogician]

That's a general kind of advice that's supposed to lead to better writing, it's not specifically something that graduate schools are looking for. As a linguist, I find a great deal of this advice misguided, including a lot of things that get classified as passive that aren't even that. The active voice is said to be better because it conveys agency, brevity, or similar, which is sometimes what you want and other times not. Use your better judgment to decide where you want to keep the edits and when not. 

[futureSLPhopefullylol]

I say trust your instinct and judgement. At the end of the say it is YOUR statement.