Personal essay

In a personal essay, you share a story from your life and your current thoughts about it. You are to answer the question: “How has this situation affected me?”. You will need to write a personal essay when applying to college or university.

The people who will read your personal essay are members of the admission committee and your task is to make your essay appeal to them. They want to see depth of your thoughts and fair reasoning, as well as enthusiasm and devotion to your field of study. A good personal essay is an effective essay. It reveals both professional and personal aspects of applicant’s personality.

Your perspective audience expects you to construct and prove your point of view on some definite subject with the help of the acquired knowledge and experience.

Don’t:
• Write about something difficult to prove
• Provide the examiner with another version of your autobiography
• Pretend to be witty and humorous
• Pretend to impress the reader with your rich vocabulary
• Make general statements
• Rely on computer spelling check
• Write what is not true

To compose a good essay, please also avoid:
• Numerous unnecessary repetitions
• General descriptions without analysis
• Careless interpretation of facts