One of the key parts of all graduate school applications is the personal statement. The personal statement by itself can be so daunting. However, with support, a consistent stream of feedback, and lots of revision and rewriting, you can get it done. 

Every person is different, so every person’s road to the completion of their graduate school personal statement will be different as well. Nonetheless, I believe there are some things that are consistent across many people’s writing process. First, I’ve compiled my list of the top five signs you may not be writing your graduate school personal statement correctly.

1. If the amount of drafts you’ve written is any singular digit, you’re not doing it right.
2. If your drafts haven’t been returned to you covered – graffitied in corrections – you’re not doing it right.
3. If a minimum of 6 people haven’t read your drafts and made corrections, comments, and suggestions, you’re not doing it right.
4. If you don’t question your entire life multiple times during the writing process, you’re not doing it right.
5. If you don’t feel a certain pain in your soul, a very specific kind of self-doubt, and a seemingly endless stream of frustration, you’re just not doing it right.

Humor aside, there are shared experiences by those who have completed their graduate school admissions personal statement. For many people, a big part of the personal statement is writing numerous drafts, continuously asking people to look over their work, and being frustrated about writing. 

My graduate school personal statement took me around two years to write. No, I didn’t spend every single day working on it. Rather, I attended various writing workshops and programs where I wrote draft after draft, received feedback, made revisions, received more feedback, made more revisions, and continued the cycle until the program or workshop was over. By the end, the draft statement I initially started with in 2014 and the final personal statement I submitted with my graduate applications in 2016, were literally miles apart. Everything from sentence quality and structure, to paragraph organization, to the actual contents of my personal statement, had changed from version one to the final version.

The big take away from all of this is the need for constant critiquing, revision and rewriting when writing a graduate admission personal statement. Having a consistent stream of feedback is crucial to improving the quality of your personal statement. Faculty recommenders, advisors and mentors can provide great guidance throughout this process. They can tell you a variety of things ranging from: major grammatical mistakes, weak paragraphs, and what to leave out of your statement. Additionally, it’s particularly important that one of the professors helping you revise your drafts be in your intended field of study. For example, if you’re applying to Ph.D. programs in English, at least one English professor should be reading over your personal statement. Along the way, it’s important to not overwork faculty and remember they’re busy too. So, make sure you give them plenty of time to respond ahead of your deadlines.

You should also find as many writing groups or workshops or programs as you can, to get as many eyes on your drafts as possible. As people are critiquing your drafts remember, they are strictly critiquing your writing and not you, your life, or your decisions in life. Taking and utilizing constructive criticism is a necessity for writing a good personal statement. 

Additionally, no one cares about your entire life at this point. Yes, it says “personal” statement however, the point of the personal statement is only to describe specific things. The personal statement describes the details of your life most relevant to your research interests, why you are pursuing your intended degree, what you’ve done that has prepared you for your intended research and intended degree, and how you and your research fits at “X” institution. What’s too personal? What’s not personal enough? This is one of many reasons why it’s so important to have several people review your work. Together your team of reviewers can help you answer these questions.

Even with support and assistance, the graduate admissions personal statement can still be a daunting task. But remember, it can be done. Others have done it, and with a lot of hard work and patience, you can do it too.