{"id":20032,"date":"2017-10-02T14:20:46","date_gmt":"2017-10-02T19:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/?page_id=20032"},"modified":"2024-07-29T11:41:36","modified_gmt":"2024-07-29T16:41:36","slug":"what-are-reviewers-looking-for-in-a-personal-statement","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/how-to-guides\/personal-statement-guide-2\/what-are-reviewers-looking-for-in-a-personal-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"What are reviewers looking for in a personal statement?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-modular-content-collection><p>Reviewers will have your application, academic transcript, and resume. Despite all of this material, reviewers may still want to know whether you would be a good member of their research team or have the confidence and drive to be successful in their program.<\/p>\n<p>They will read your personal statement to answer the question, <strong>\u201cWho are you\u2014 as a person?\u201d<\/strong> What are your values? How do you think?<\/p>\n<p>The aim of a personal statement is to create a version of yourself<strong>\u2014<\/strong> a persona or character<strong>\u2014<\/strong> that feels alive and present to the person reading your work.<\/p>\n<h3>How do you create a version of yourself that feels alive?<\/h3>\n<p>Personal statements are written in the first person, using \u201cI.\u201d The position taken by the \u201cI\u201d persona is usually one of reflection. The narrator in a personal statement steps back from daily life and reflects on previous experiences in a thoughtful, probing and considered way.<\/p>\n<p>Personal statements often include stories about yourself. These stories are short, usually a paragraph in length. They describe an experience that you\u2019ve had &#8212; one that shows what you value, what you\u2019ve learned over time, and why you\u2019re applying for a particular program or course of study.<\/p>\n<p>When creating your \u201cI\u201d persona, think of yourself as an \u201colder self\u201d looking back on a \u201cyounger self.\u201d Step outside of yourself and write about yourself as if you were a character in your own life.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"cta\" href=\"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/how-to-guides\/personal-statement-guide\/how-do-you-identify-the-purpose-of-and-audience-for-your-personal-statement\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How do you identify the purpose of and audience for your personal statement?<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- begin-migrated-from-panel-builder --><!-- end-migrated-from-panel-builder --><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reviewers will have your application, academic transcript, and resume. Despite all of this material, reviewers may still want to know whether you would be a good member of their research [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8275,"featured_media":0,"parent":17171,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-20032","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8275"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20032"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41141,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20032\/revisions\/41141"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}