STUDENT STATEMENT TIPS AND EXAMPLES TIPS FOR WRITING YOUR STATEMENT:
Composing a student statement can be intimidating, so we encourage you to begin well before the deadline in order to take pressure off yourself and improve the quality of the final draft.
In your Student Statement-describe the following as it applies to you:
· Your educational & career goals
· Why have you chosen these goals
·Include any personal experiences that have impacted the pursuit of your education
·Special circumstances or unusual hardships that you have faced
Do:
· Write it yourself.
· Include brief descriptions of your specific achievements.
· Keep your statement focused.
· Make your statement easy for the reader to follow.
· Use spell check and proofread your statement for missing words, typos, and repeated words. ·
Show the reader you have taken time writing this statement and that it was well thought out.
Don’t:
· Spend too much of the statement describing other people and their lives. The statement should be about you.
· Spend the entire statement writing about the hardships or obstacles you have faced or overcome. Readers want to know where your life has been, but it is equally important to discuss your goals and what led you to them.
· Use odd or creative fonts on your application or personal statement. Make the documents easy to read and let the information speak for itself.
· Copy or plagiarize. Share thoughts or ideas with others, but do not use someone else’s statement as your own.
EXAMPLES OF STUDENT STATEMENTS: There is no single student statement to follow. However, here are a few examples of what other students have written.
#1
My goals are to work with children, helping them to maintain their sense of self. I would like to do this through being a children’s counselor or teacher. I would like the opportunity to be able to pass along the information I have learned, that no one person other than oneself can keep one from achieving one's goals and that everyone has the potential to share with the world their unique talents, gifts, and abilities. While one may find motivation in one's hopes for the future, one must not devalue the steps one takes to get there, because it is through one's past joys and hardships that one comes to be who one is in the future. As Ursula le Guin so aptly stated, "It is good to have an end to journey towards, but is the journey that matters in the end.
Resources:
https://www.cabrillo.edu/services/finaid/pdf/STUDENT%20STATEMENT%20TIPS%20AND%20EXAMPLES.pdf
See personal statements listed:
What is a personal statement: http://www.psd1.org/page/848