5. For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated with. (196 times) Whatever you do, don't start your personal statement with any of these – not only are they awful clichés, but they're bound to be picked up by Ucas's anti-plagiarism software. 2. From a young age I have always been interested in. (309 times) Next was a sentence specific to Nursing – the degree course with the highest number of applications. Over 200 people wrote: “Nursing is a very challenging and demanding [career/profession/course].” Posted Wed 20 April 2016 - 15:48 Some 1,770 students (from over 700,000 who applied) started their personal statements that way; and most of these finished the sentence with ‘interested in’ or ‘fascinated by’. 1. From a young age I have (always) been [interested in/fascinated by]… [1,779] It’s not too late to apply to start at university or college in 2016. Applicants can make five university choices up until 30 June this year and may still get offers if places are available. “For as long as I can remember I have…” was close behind, followed by “I am applying for this course because…” 11. Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world… [148] Personal statements are a tricky beast; most of us haven’t been trained to write about our own lives in a compelling, thoughtful way. Instead, we are taught the Five Paragraph Essay for most of our academic career, taught that our intro needs to end with a thesis statement, and our thesis statement needs to include the three points we wish to expand upon in the body of the essay. My go-to example comes from a sample paper featured on the Medical College of Wisconsin’s webpage. In this personal statement, the author chooses to place us in her life at seven years of age. The entire first paragraph is a scene of the young writer watching her mother give birth. It’s intense, descriptive, and engaging. It makes us want to keep reading. A personal statement for a fellowship or graduate school application is your opportunity to express to the selection committee who you are and why you are a great candidate for the program. In particular, an eye-grabbing lead sentence or opening paragraph is your most important tool for maintaining the reader’s attention. Here are some examples of powerful personal statement openings of winners of highly competitive fellowships. A common aspect of these opening statements is their ability to draw the reader in to a unique and memorable story that begins to describe why the applicant is applying to the fellowship. You can identify more personal statement samples like these online by Googling “personal statement example pdf” with the name of the fellowship. By a Marshall Scholar to the U.K. The applicant masterfully opens with a story to describe the early beginnings of his intellectual curiosity, a key characteristic that the selection committee seeks in applicants. Read more . Last edited by badgerbadger; 03-09-2006 at 19:27. to look at a few examples of how some applicants started off their personal statements. Quotes seem to be quite popular but make sure it fits in with your personal statement and is something that you'll be able to expand on and link it in with whatever else is in your statement. Don't just chuck them in there for the sake of it. Perhaps a brief explanation of the main reason why you want to study the subject or any major event that led you to become interested in the subject. 'I am looking forward to starting a law degree and am excited at the prospect of moving away from home. I feel that I am academically and socially equipped for all that university life has to offer and hope that you award me with the privilege of an offer from your university for my chosen course. ' Do the rest of it first, and you'll get some ideas while you are doing that. With apologies to the authors, if I just pluck the opening lines from the eight statements in the Law section of the Studential site, we have: Oh, and I thought of something else to shoot my mouth off about . remember who you are and who your audience is. You are a teenage student applying for a university course, they are pretty much seasoned experts in everything to do with that course, so don't purport to tell them anything about their own subject, because they will either already know or spot an inaccuracies and misconceptions in your ideas. By all means offer up a couple of your (considered) thoughts about something that interests you, but make sure you present them as your own fledgling opinions, and use disclaimers in the manner of 'it seems/appears that. ' or 'I have found/noticed. ', but don't make a prat of yourself by appearing to think you have authoritative statements to make which a good dissertation topic, to the tutors formal application letter, may blindingly obvious/wrong. Profesh is an eloquent, sage-like presence on tsr but I personally feel he takes a massive risk with the opening: Oh yeah, Im applying to do Biochemistry @ Oxford, Warwick, Bath write an essay for college application, Imperial, Bristol & York 'The spectre of global terrorism is prevalent. Fundamental civil liberties are under threat, not only by those who seek to destroy our society help your writing, but also by those who have been charged with the task of safeguarding it. We are possibly entering a period of momentous constitutional change and legislative upheaval.' Why not look at a few personal statement websites such as: Sorry to start the thread, but I am begining to write my PS now, and believe I need an eye catching begining, because on all the 'good' personal statements i've seen they dont go straight into talking about the course essay about summer time, rather they usually give anecdotal evidence about something or rather that made them interested in the subject. Used by 310 applicants Used by 1,370 applicants 5. Throughout my life I have always enjoyed… Mary Curnock Cook, Ucas’ chief executive, said: “The personal statement is supposed to be personal. Learning to write about yourself in a compelling way is a vital skill when applying for jobs; using hackneyed phrases is not the best way to stand out.” 3. I am applying for this course because… Used by 1,451 applicants More than 4,000 students began their Ucas personal statement with exactly the same opening line as more than a thousand other students. So much for standing out from the crowd. 4. I have always been interested in… Indeed, the weapon of surprise is a key ingredient in a Monty Python skit about the Spanish Inquisition (no one expects it, just in case you forgot). But in a personal statement humor and surprise can fall flat in the hands of a fumbling writer. Nevertheless, some writers take these calculated risks an a essay, and do so with style. Witness this passage from a sample essay in Chapter 4, as a film student explains how he spent his freshman year in a different major: I attended seventeen different schools before high school. I spent the morning of my eighteenth birthday in an auditorium with two hundred strangers. Radio has been my passion for as long as I can remember. Keep in mind that some quotations are highly overused and that quotations can also come off as merely trite and silly, depending on the taste of the reader. Some find Forrest Gump’s “Life is like a box of chocolates” hilarious; others just groan when they hear it. If using a quotation help for writing essay, be sure that you’re not just propping yourself up on it as an apology for a lack of substance to your text. Comment on the quotation’s relevance to your life rather than just let it sit there buy essays online writing service, and choose the most meaningful quote for the circumstances rather than one that simply tickles your fancy. Here is a perfect example of a lengthy creative beginning that winds its way into a formal thesis statement internet home work, excerpted from a Rhodes Scholarship essay in Chapter 5: Other essays open with much briefer and less narrative personal stories, sometimes relying on just one line to set the context, with the writer heading to a purpose statement shortly thereafter. Here are some straightforward but artful beginnings to personal statements from Donald Asher’s book Graduate Admissions Essays : Here we find a writer who simultaneously evokes the memory of his beloved grandfather and also introduces us to his own sensibility. Simple details about his simple upbringing make up a brief but vivid tale with a tragic end, and thus we understand a very personal motivation behind this writer's choice of career. Without question, the most common place for writers to exercise their freedom in personal statements admissions essay for college, as well as the most common place where writers feel uncertain about what they’ve done creative writing in english literature, is in their beginnings. Even personal statements that are scientific in tone and content might have creative beginnings. Although there’s nothing wrong with a straightforward opening simply stating your purpose, especially if you have just one page for your essay, most writers take a bolder tack. Readers of personal statements are used to openings that tell stories or borrow quotations, essays that discuss relevant current events, and even daring writers who risk a bit of well-conceived humor or surprise.
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