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  • Hi, welcome to www.engvid.com , I'm Adam. In today's video, I'm going to talk to you

  • about writing a personal statement. Now, a personal statement is one of the documents

  • that you will have to submit to a university when you're applying for admission there.

  • Not all schools want it, but most schools do want some form of written document from

  • you to apply with. Now, personal statement is just one type of document, but that's the

  • type I'll talk about today. I'll mention the other types, but that will be a separate video

  • for them, because it's a different approach to each one. So, before you do - before you

  • do - before you start writing your personal statement, you have to be ready. Now, what

  • this means is you can't write a personal statement the night before. You can't write it a week

  • before. Some people spend anywhere from six months to a year preparing their personal

  • statement. Now, personally, I don't think you need a year, you just need to work hard

  • for awhile, but you need more than a week, okay? There's a lot of work to do, I'm going

  • to show you some of the things you need to keep in mind, we're going to look at six different

  • things you need to understand about the personal statement, but this is such an important document,

  • such an important piece of paper, that you have to spend time on it. You have to know

  • what's involved, okay? So, we're going to start with that.

  • First of all, know the parameters. Now, what does this mean? I've seen lots of people;

  • I've seen lots of examples of personal statements where the people did not get onto the school's

  • website and find out what they actually need to do. They didn't look at the instructions.

  • They didn't look at the limits. They didn't look at anything. They just started writing

  • a personal statement, okay? What they didn't understand is what font size can you use?

  • Usually the school will tell you, they will give you some instructions about what you

  • can and can't do, okay? If you think, oh, I don't have enough to write, I'll use a 14

  • font, a size 14 font, to fill up the pages, okay, they - the admissions committee, the

  • people who read this, they will see a 14 font - garbage, you're done, you're not getting

  • into this school. They didn't even read one word yet. They saw you couldn't follow instructions,

  • you obviously can't be a good student - goodbye, okay? Know the font. Know the spacing. Do

  • they want double-spaced or single-spaced? Some of them don't care, they say you can

  • write double or single, but make sure you know. If they want double-spaced, send them

  • double-spaced personal statement. If they want single, make it single. Some of them

  • will tell you how - the margins, they want one inch each side. They want two inches on

  • the top and bottom, one inch on each side. Make sure you format your personal statement

  • the way they want it. If you don't, it means you can't follow instructions, and this is

  • for a personal statement. How are you going to do when your teachers give you instructions,

  • right? You can't follow these basic instructions? You won't follow your teachers' instructions,

  • they don't want you at their school, you're done, they haven't even read your personal

  • statement yet.

  • Now, very, very important. Some of them will give you a word limit. Some of them will say

  • no more than 1000 words. Some will say no more than 1250 words. Some of them will say

  • 900 words. Make sure you know what the limit of words is. Now, they might not give you

  • a word limit. They might give you a character limit. Character means like, each letter and

  • space and period and comma, each one of these is a character. A 900 character usually includes

  • spaces, so make sure when your final draft is ready, you do not have more than 900 characters.

  • Now, again, don't sit there counting each one. Make sure you do this on Word or some

  • sort of word processor that can count for you, okay? And you can look at the top of

  • the tabs in Word, for example, and there'll be a place that says word count. There will

  • also show you character count. Make sure you don't go over your limit. Some of them will

  • just give you a page limit. No more than two double-spaced pages. Okay. No more than one

  • single spaced page, it's almost the same thing, but again, know how much you need to write,

  • don't go beyond it. If they're giving you two pages, don't write half a page. If they're

  • giving you one page, don't write a page and a half. Generally, I say anywhere between

  • a page and a quarter to a page and a half should be enough. That's usually the standard,

  • but again, every school will have their own instructions. Make sure you know what they

  • want. Make sure you give them what they want. Okay?

  • Now, some of them will just say "Write a personal statement", basically, why do you want to

  • come to this school, or why do you want to join this program. Others will give you a

  • very specific question, okay? If they give you a question, make sure you answer that

  • question. Make sure that you build your - you construct or organize your personal statement

  • around that question. If you ignore the question, you're - again, you're ending up in the rejection

  • file, you know, you aren't getting admitted. Now, keep in mind, the personal statement

  • is not the only thing they're looking at, but if you have very good grades, very good

  • extracurricular activities, very good volunteering but you still have a terrible personal statement,

  • all those things might not help you. On the other hand, if you have so-so grades and so-so

  • everything else but your personal statement is amazing, that could actually get you into

  • university. Very important document, okay? And sometimes, you will have everything the

  • same, they'll - let's say there's five seats in a class, in a particular course. There

  • are ten people, each of them have basically the same grades, the same experience, the

  • same volunteer experience, etc. What's going to make the difference between who gets in

  • and who doesn't? The personal statement, okay? Don't underestimate the value of this document.

  • Now, the next thing, and this where a lot of people make a mistake. Do they actually

  • want a personal statement, okay? Or, do they want a statement of intent, or a statement

  • of purpose? Call it both ways. Do they want an essay? Do they want a personal statement

  • of intent? Make sure you understand what it is they're asking for. A personal statement

  • and a statement of intent are not the same thing, okay? This - the way you write this

  • and the way you write this are different, okay, and that's why I said I'll make a different

  • video for the statement of intent because, right now, we're just concentrating on the

  • personal statement. So, let's take this question and go to the next step.

  • So, we're taking about a personal statement. What is the first thing you have to notice

  • about personal statement? First thing you have to notice is that they want a person.

  • It's personal, okay? What they don't want to know is they don't want to know what are

  • you, they want to know who are you. They want to see the person. They want to see the personality,

  • okay? They want to see the person that's going to be coming into their classrooms and interacting

  • with other students, interacting with faculty, interacting with school staff, somebody who

  • can lead, somebody who can work hard and succeed and go on to give the school a good reputation

  • once they enter the working world. So, they want to see a person.

  • Now, what does this mean? They want to know your personality. They want to know, what

  • have you done or - that shows who you are. They don't want to know what's on your transcripts.

  • They see your transcripts. They know what's on your transcripts. Don't tell them that

  • in the personal statement. Again, you can take out highlights. I was in the top 3% of

  • my class in whatever, sure. That's not on your transcript, necessarily. But don't tell

  • them I took this, this, and that course and I got A's in everything. Yeah, they know,

  • they can see your transcript. Don't tell them that here. They don't want to see a student.

  • They want to see a person. Okay? And I'll say that many times. If you have to submit

  • a CV or a resume, don't tell them what you've done in terms of work or volunteer experience.

  • They can see it in the resume. They can see it in the CV. Show them the person, don't

  • show them the worker. Show them the person, don't show them the student, okay? All of

  • that, they have other documents for. Again, all they want to see is the person.

  • Now, you're asking, okay, yeah, I understand, you've said it enough times, but I could tell

  • you that - I've said it to people ten times, and they still didn't do it. Very, very important

  • to make sure they see a person, okay? They want to see uniqueness. They want to see some

  • sort of imagination, okay, they want to see creativity. If you go online, if you do a

  • Google search, or Bing or Yahoo or whatever search engine you use and you put "personal

  • statement samples", the internet's full of them. Read some of these. You will read examples

  • of what not to do and you will read examples of what to do. I once read a sample of a girl

  • who got into all the ivy league schools. How did she organize her personal statement? She

  • basically put all of her information into a story about going to Costco. For those of

  • you who don't know, Costco is a huge supermarket in the States and Canada and everywhere. She

  • compared her life and she compared her academic career and her work experience to a shopping

  • trip to Costco. Now, you're thinking, well, that's a little bit strange. Yeah, it is a

  • little bit strange, but it worked, and what did it show the most? That she was thinking

  • outside the box. So, this is very important. Think outside the box, be creative, be original,

  • be fresh. The people who are going to be reading your statement, they're going to be sitting

  • in a room, they're going to have a stack of statements, okay? It's extremely boring work,

  • but they have to do it, and the more boring your personal statement, the more average

  • it is, the more bland it is, the more unoriginal it is, the more tired you're making them and

  • a little bit more angry you're making them. Don't make them angry, give them something

  • fresh, wake them up. As soon as you've woken them up, you already have an advantage in

  • your admissions process, okay? Very, very important. Be a person. Don't be a student.

  • Don't be a worker.

  • Now, I'm going to talk a bit more about how you should do this, especially the introduction

  • paragraph is super important. We're going to talk about that soon enough.

  • Okay, so now, as I mentioned, time, right? So, your next step is to plan. Now, you have

  • to plan your - you have to plan your overall approach to the personal statement. So, what

  • you have to do is you have to find your theme or your arc. This is an arc, basically, right?

  • So, this is what is holding your whole personal statement together and then all the information's

  • going to come under this, under the arc, and it's all connecting to one central idea, and

  • that's why I also call it a theme. Like, if you're into sports, that could be your theme.

  • If you're a refugee from somewhere and you're looking for a better life and you're looking

  • for a second chance, that's your theme. Or, another way to look at it is your "in". The

  • one thing that lets you into the story and then you build your story from there, right?

  • Very, very important to have this theme. You're not going to just list down random information.

  • You're going to tell a story, okay, and that's what you're looking for. You're looking for

  • the plot of the story of who you are and you're going to present that to the admissions committee,

  • the people who are reading it. Again, I can't stress this enough, take time to do it. And

  • you'll be surprised, I've helped lots of students write personal statements, okay, and it's

  • amazing to me. Like, they always send me their first draft and I always - almost always send

  • them back an email and I say, "Yeah, we're going to have to start from the beginning,

  • because you're not doing what a personal statement is. You're not telling me a story, you're

  • giving me facts, a lot of the facts which I can get from your other documents, okay,

  • so we're going to start from scratch." And what I do is I create a list of questions

  • for them, and what you can do is create a list of questions for yourself. But be very

  • broad with your questions, okay? Make sure you ask all the who, what, when, where, how,

  • which, etc., why, why do you want to come to this school? Why do you want to study this?

  • When did you know you wanted to study this? So, you're applying, for example, to medical

  • school, okay? Why are you applying to medical school? Why do you want to be a doctor? Did

  • somebody push you to be a doctor? Did you ever have an experience at a doctor's office

  • where you came out and you said "You know what? This is what I want to be, this is what

  • I want to do with my life." What is that point in your life, that light bulb switched on

  • and you realized this what you want to study? If you're going into business, why? Why do

  • you want to go into business? Do you want to be rich? Okay, good. You're not going to

  • say that on your personal statement. What you can say is why do you want to be rich?

  • Do you want to make lots of money so that you can help poor people? Do you want to make

  • lots of money so that you can control the world? Do you want to be president? Always

  • ask one more question. Whatever your answer is, go a little bit more. Again, very important,

  • I want you to dig deep into yourself. Don't be afraid of asking yourself these questions,

  • okay? Now, when I help students write a personal statement, I send them minimum fifteen questions,

  • sometimes thirty questions, and I'm not going to use all the answers in the personal statement,

  • I'm not going to ask them to do that, but I want them to think. I want them to find

  • that little piece of information, that little piece of their history to build a story around,

  • okay? I want them to find their theme, okay?

  • Ask non-typical questions. Don't say "Why do you want to be doctor?" Okay, obviously,

  • that's a question you need to think about, but I want you to think, "Why do you want

  • to help people? Why does seeing somebody sick become unsick make you feel good? How does

  • it make you feel good? What situation - what example, what experience in your life has

  • helped you understand that feeling about yourself?" Okay? Lots of questions. Give non-typical

  • answers to typical questions. Even if you're - in your list of questions, you have very

  • typical questions, "Why do you want to go to this school?", look for non-typical answers.

  • Why do you want to go to MIT? Well yeah, it's the best technical school in the world, but

  • why MIT? Why this particular school? There are lots of good technical schools. Well,

  • MIT has, on-campus they have this particular building where you can do this, that, and

  • that. Be very, very specific with your answers. Now, all the details you're going to collect

  • are going to help you come up with your theme, with your arc, the one thread that goes through

  • all this information and connects it all together, the one thing that helps you create a story,

  • okay? Because, again, they have your transcript, they have your CV, they want to know who you

  • are as a person, okay?

  • Think of it like this: when you get to university, you're going to meet lots of new people and

  • you're going to meet new classmates, new teachers, new people who are not your classmates but

  • go to your school, in your dormitory, you'll meet them at the cafeteria, whatever. You're

  • going to start interacting with people. People are going to want to know, who are you? Do

  • I want to be friends with you? Why do I want to be friends with you? Well, tell them here.

  • Tell them in the personal statement. Make the admissions committee, people, want to

  • be friends with you, because you're a special person, okay? And don't think - sorry, one

  • last point before I go on - everybody thinks they're special, which is fine. Everybody

  • is special, but if everybody is special, nobody is special. Right? So, don't assume that everybody

  • is basically different and you're the one special one, okay?

  • Another thing that a lot of people forget, and I forgot to mention this before too, you're

  • not the only one applying. The admissions committee is reading a lot of these things.

  • What makes you stand out? Okay? What makes you different from the other people? So, I

  • had one student. She was applying to a program that, on average, every year, they had 700

  • people applying, 700 applicants, for 25 seats in the program. So, one of the questions I

  • asked her, "What makes you better, or what makes you more qualified, or what makes you

  • a better candidate than 675 other people?", okay? That's what she had to think about and

  • come up with an answer the beset she could and then we worked through it and got her

  • theme, okay?

  • Now, you have your plan, you have your theme, you're ready to go. Are you going to start

  • researching the school? Not yet, you can start thinking about your introduction. All of the

  • other details will come later, because I want you to establish your theme, I want you to

  • establish your story, that's happening in the introduction, okay? The introduction is

  • what is going to make or break your personal statement. This is where you catch the reader's

  • attention, you hold it, and make them want to go on to read the other important information.

  • So, you need a hook. You need that first sentence to just grab the reader's attention and hold

  • it, and that comes in the first sentence. Now, I've seen lots of personal statements

  • where somebody says, "My name is Bill Smith and I really want to go to your school." No.

  • Terrible sentence. Why? A: They have your whole application package, they know your

  • name. They know you want to apply to this school because you sent an application. They

  • know you want to go here. Don't tell them the obvious. You're writing a story, grab

  • their attention. Give them something unique, okay? I had one - I helped one person write

  • a statement. I found out she liked sports. That was her hook. We started straight with

  • the sports analogy. What makes successful people successful? In sports, it's their ability

  • to win, it's their ability to play in a team and to strategize, to have a target and work

  • hard to reach it. Again, I'm obviously paraphrasing here, but that's the key point. We used sports

  • as her theme. Sports is a very good theme, by the way, if you're into sports. But, again,

  • if you're going to use sports, make sure that your CV has a lot of sports stuff on it. She

  • was on two university teams, so it was very good. I think she was captain of one and won

  • a championship with another.

  • Now, what should you not do? So again, don't state your name. Don't state your hometown,

  • don't state your area of study. My name is Bill Smith, I'm from Florida, and I study

  • Economics. They know all that! Don't waste words and time on your personal statement.

  • Now, if any of this information is part of your story. Let's say your name is - you have

  • some strange name, and from your country. Let's say you're not an English speaker. Your

  • name in your country is a regular, everyday name, but when you come to America, your name

  • is very strange, okay, or has a different meaning. So that name is part of what shapes

  • your personality, it's part of what you experience as a person. Then, yes, talk about your name.

  • But, again, don't say "My name is...". Make sure that that name has a link to your overall

  • personality and your overall goals. Same with hometown. If you're from a county like, if

  • you're a refugee from a country, then yeah, you can say "I'm from this place and I had

  • to run away from there to start a new life here, and this is why I'm applying...", etc.

  • If this information is relevant to the story of who you are, use it. If it's not, leave

  • it out. If it's just plain information, they don't need it. They already have it, okay?

  • And even if it is a part of your story, try to incorporate it a little bit later in the

  • essay, in the body, or if it's central, then yeah, use it in the introduction as well.

  • Don't state your interest in the school. Again, you applied. They know, okay? Now, I - I shouldn't

  • have to say this, but I do have to say it. Don't flatter them. "I'm applying to your

  • school because you're the best in the world and you have the best teachers and the best

  • graduates and I want to be a part of that." They don't need to know that. They know. They

  • know how good they are. Yes, you can mention rankings, you can mention how good the state

  • of the art equipment and reputation in the body. Don't do it in the introduction. Don't

  • flatter them, don't fawn. Don't, ah, I so much want to go to MIT, it's such a great

  • school. I love you guys, you're the best! No, they don't need to know any of that. They

  • know they're the best, that's why you're applying there. Do not beg. I really, really need to

  • come to your school because if I don't, my parents will kill me. They don't care, and

  • you're not getting into this school because if that's your main reason for coming here,

  • you're not going to be a good student. You're coming here because you have something to

  • offer them. Don't make it like they have something to give you. It's always about you helping

  • the school, not the other way around, okay? The school needs to want you to come there,

  • because why? Because you have something to offer. You're a leader, you're going to make

  • your classmates work harder. You have fresh ideas. You're going to help everybody be better.

  • If you're saying, "I want to come there, I want to improve my English, I want to get

  • the best degree in the world, I want to make lots of money.", you're not getting into this

  • program. Okay?

  • Don't plead, which basically means the same as beg, please, please, please. Don't explain

  • anything. If you had a bad score in one of your grades, don't explain it in the introduction.

  • You can bring it up later as part of the story. It could be like, "I had somebody in my family

  • passed away", or "Somebody in my family became really sick and I had to take care of them,

  • which is why this particular class, I did badly in, because I didn't have time to study,

  • but after everything was resolved, you'll notice that my marks went straight back up

  • to A's, so it was a difficult time, but it made me stronger." Again, take the bad, make

  • it into good, but don't give an excuse. Nobody wants excuses, they want results, okay? Don't

  • justify anything. Don't say that, oh, my school isn't the best in the country, but my school

  • doesn't have the best reputation, but I promise you that I'm a very good and hard worker.

  • Don't tell them that. Show them that, and we'll talk about show, don't tell. Again,

  • don't give excuses, any of that stuff.

  • And I'm just going to mention very quickly. Whatever your theme is and whatever your introduction

  • is, make it in such a way that whenever you get to your last paragraph, your conclusion

  • paragraph, you can somehow tie it all together and make like, a nice, tight circle and you

  • have a nice package, a full, complete story. Okay?

  • So, we know what a POS is, we know what our instructions are, we know how to plan, we

  • have our introduction more or less lined out, we have our theme. What's next?

  • Okay, so now we're going to look at the next couple of points. Now, before I go on, the

  • thing about the introduction. Once you've more or less written it, you have your idea,

  • your theme, you've put it in - into a way you can start your essay, your personal statement,

  • you're not done with it. This is not the final draft. This is just to get you an idea so

  • that then you can go onto the next part. You're going to do research, and this is very, very

  • important. I mean, every step is very important, but this is super important, because the school

  • needs to know that you know why you're applying to this school. I hope this makes sense. They

  • don't want you to apply because you're applying to every program and every school in the country

  • that offers it. You're applying to this program for a reason. Now, how are they going to understand

  • that you really want to come to this program? Because you will now what you're talking about

  • when you're applying. You will do the research. You will read everything on the website about

  • the school and about the program. You're not going to read the pages of the other faculties

  • because it's not important, but about the school in general, about the students, about

  • the general place itself, the campus life, where it is, why it's famous, what's good

  • about it, what's bad about it, and of course, everything about your area of study, you're

  • going to read about. And you're going to read other things. You're going to read the rankings,

  • okay? Where does this school rank in the world, or in the country, for this particular program?

  • You're going to read reviews, like, what do ex-students say? What do other people say

  • about this school, about this program? You're going to read whatever news you can find about

  • this school and this program, okay? Throughout your research, you're going to collect key

  • words. Now, you have to pay attention. What words keep coming up when - in this particular

  • school? What words do you see regularly on the website? What words do you see regularly

  • when this program is discussed, right? Make a collection of these. You're going to try

  • to use some of these words in your personal statement. That's how they know that you know

  • what you're talking about. That's how they know that you've done the research. You can

  • say, and a lot of people say this, "I really want to go to your school because you have

  • state of the art equipment and you're world-famous." Really? How do you know that? You can say

  • that about most schools these days, right? Don't tell me, show me.

  • So, this is a very key idea in writing. Don't tell me anything, show me. Show me that you

  • understand. Show me that you know something about the school. Don't say "Oh yeah, I know

  • about your school." Okay, anybody could say that, not anybody could show that they know

  • something. Get those key words, make sure you use them. If you're going to talk about

  • state of the art equipment or state of the art laboratories, show me that you have a

  • real concrete example. Like, this particular school has the new whatever system. Put that

  • into your personal statement so they know that you have done some research, okay?

  • What is their pride and joy, okay? When this school promotes itself, what's the thing they

  • concentrate on the most? What makes them the most proud of themselves? What makes them

  • very happy to talk about themselves? Find that out, make sure that you incorporate that

  • into your writing, okay? Again, all you're doing is you're showing them that you have

  • done the research and you have a real reason to apply there. It's not just because you're

  • applying to every school, hoping to get into one, okay? And never mention that that's what

  • you're doing, if that's what you're doing.

  • Incorporate all of this into your theme. Now, you're not going to just randomly throw all

  • of this information into your personal statement. You're going to connect it to the part of

  • the story that is you, okay? How do these ideas, how do these key words connect to your

  • personal story? And, again, never forget, even once you're past the introduction, never

  • forget that this is still a personal statement. This is still a story of who you are, and

  • you're connecting yourself to the school. You're showing how your story and the school's

  • story are compatible, okay, that's what you're trying to show them. Your story makes you

  • a good fit for this school. That's why you have something to offer them, and, of course,

  • they have something to offer you. Make sure that relationship is clear. Make sure that

  • compatibility is clear, okay? Then, once you have all this, go back to your introduction,

  • re-write it in a way that's going to set up the rest of the information that's going to

  • come in the body of the personal statement. Make sure your introduction is brief. Don't

  • make it too long, don't give too many details, brief. Establish the hook, establish the story,

  • make it impressive, and then get into the details.

  • Now, one thing you can do, once you have your theme in the introduction and you know all

  • the things you want to mention in your body, then create a sort of storyline that you can

  • connect each paragraph has a different point. So, this is your main theme, and then there's

  • a subtheme, subtheme, subtheme, subtheme, sorry, and then you're going to connect all

  • of the information that you learned about the school and all the information about yourself

  • into that subtheme, into those subthemes and the story.

  • Once you've done all this, and again, I'm making it much more simple than it is. You

  • need to see a lot of sample statements to know how to write them well. I'm not going

  • to talk to you about grammar, I'm not going to talk to you about sentence structures,

  • about vocabulary. Again, remember, this is not an English test, this is a test to see

  • your ability to express yourself, but again, it's more about showing who you are.

  • But, having said that, when you finish writing it, okay, that is your first draft. You will

  • have many drafts. You shouldn't submit anything until you've gone at least four, five, six

  • drafts deep, okay? You're going to re-write, you're going to edit, and then you're going

  • to edit some more, and then you're going to edit some more. And then, you're going to

  • give it to a friend that you trust, or to a professional, somebody who you know can

  • look at it and see all the things that you missed and give you feedback and then you're

  • going to re-write and then you're going to edit some more, okay?

  • Now, you're going to have many drafts. By the end, you should have zero spelling mistakes,

  • zero grammar mistakes, zero punctuation, capitalization, word usage, zero mistakes anywhere, because

  • any mistake shows carelessness, and you don't want to be careless. You want to be meticulous;

  • you want to be perfect so that they know that you took this very seriously and you're going

  • to put the same effort into your studies. At the end of the day, schools want to admit

  • students who will succeed, because when a student succeeds, the school succeeds. When

  • you graduate from this school and you go get a good job and you start making connections

  • and networking all over the place and people ask you, "Oh, where did you go to school?"

  • and you say "Oh, I went to this school", this school looks good, okay? That's what they

  • want. They want you to be successful and then go promote them, because they made you successful,

  • okay? Show them that you're not careless, have zero mistakes in it.

  • And, again, make every single word work for you. Every word should have a purpose. Every

  • sentence should be saying something, so be moving the story along. It should be creating

  • a full picture of who you are, what you can offer the school, why you think the school

  • can offer you something in return, and the relationship you're going to have. And, ideally,

  • find someone you trust, someone who is good with the language, who is good at writing,

  • good with English, get them to put fresh eyes on this thing. You will read this thing 100

  • times, 200 times. Mistakes, you're not going to see them because you've read it so many

  • times, you know in your head what should be there. If it's not there, you're not going

  • to see it anymore. Get somebody with fresh eyes to read it for you, give you feedback,

  • make corrections, etc. And again, re-write, edit, edit, edit. Don't be afraid to hire

  • a professional editor, okay? There are people, there are agencies that do only this. Again,

  • it might not be very cheap, but it's worth it because this is basically the story of

  • you. This is what the admissions committee is going to decide your future on, this piece

  • of paper, okay, or this statement. Make sure it's perfect, make sure it's telling a story,

  • make sure it's impressive.

  • Now, I'll give you an example. I helped a young woman apply to medical school, okay?

  • So, she sent me her first draft, and I, again, I told her no, we have to start from scratch,

  • here's a list of questions, answer me. From all the answers that she sent me, I wrote

  • her - I helped her write, sorry, a completely new personal statement, because there was

  • information in there that was super valuable that she didn't even think to include. She

  • didn't think to include the sports that she participated in. Her grandmother was the first

  • woman to graduate from a medical school in her original country. That is very important.

  • Why? Because it shows that you have a legacy to live up to. It shows that you come from

  • a family where education is very important. It shows that you are determined; you want

  • to live up to your grandmother's reputation. You want to be the next in the line of family

  • members who accomplished something. It shows determination. The school - the admissions

  • committee, they want to see that you're determined, that you're motivated, that you're going to

  • succeed. This story helps them see that, because you have a reason to do it, right? She didn't

  • even think to include this, originally. I helped her include that in her story. So,

  • get somebody to give you feedback. It's very, very important, okay?

  • Now, if you go to www.engvid.com , there's a quiz there, although it's not really a quiz,

  • it's more of a review of the main steps that you have to keep in mind. Go there, think

  • of it as a checklist of what you need to do when you're preparing your personal statement.

  • Now, a lot of you who are watching this video are not applying to university, you're not

  • going to apply to university, but keep in mind that all the points made here can and

  • do apply to you. If you're applying to a job and you have to send a CV or a resume and

  • a cover letter, the cover letter is the same idea. You have to sell yourself. You're not

  • selling the resume, they will look at your resume, they will get all the details of your

  • experience. The cover letter is where you show them a person, okay? Treat the same way

  • as the personal statement. Show them a person, show them why they want you, okay, why they

  • need to hire you, why they would be losing if they didn't hire you. What can you offer

  • them, and what can they offer you, make sure that relationship is clear, and that's why

  • all of these notes apply to lots of people out there, okay?

  • If you have any questions, please go to www.engvid.com again, there's a comment section. You can

  • also visit my website, www.editorproof.com , you can find out more information about

  • what you need to do with a personal statement or if you need some help with that. If you

  • like the video, please subscribe to my channel on YouTube and come again soon for more good

  • videos. I'll see you then.

Hi, welcome to www.engvid.com , I'm Adam. In today's video, I'm going to talk to you

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