Career Planning Guide

Personal Statement 

Lifelines for Tutors and Writers

Hello. This is a resource with examples of personal statements and methods of creating one. This resource contains links to different online resources -- some need access through the UIC library. 

Examples of personal statements from chat forums, websites and libraries:

Universitycompare.com : This website lets you read other University students' personal statements. They also allow students to browse other universities to read their version of a personal statement. Additionally these also have different majors regarding the personal statements like accounting, finances, engineering, nursing, psychology, law, etc. Free Services.

Mc.Libguides : This website helps answer what a personal statement is, its purpose, the requirements of writing one. They give advice on how to get started, what you can write about and how to structure it. This site also has links to other universities personal statements that are mainly centered around medical schools. They also provide online appointments, citation guidelines, and how to make a powerpoint  presentation. And a bunch of other writing related resources. Free Services.

How to write a personal statement for students (not just for students in universities):

Personal statements how to/what it is.: An explanation of what a personal statement is and how to go about writing one. This is a PDF not a website. This provides sentence starters, what skills can be mentioned, qualities to highlight and website links to other resources regarding the do's and don'ts of a personal statement. They also have 3 examples of student statements and questions/responses to University/College interviews. This document is 8 pages long. Free Services.

College advisor.com: This website is a way to answer questions of what a personal statement is and why it's important. And when to start writing one they also work alongside the Common App resource usually provided to high schools entering college. They state that the Common app site provides prompts regarding personal statements. Both of these resources are free.  Free Services.

University of Pittsburgh school of medicine: This is a PDF document not a website. Being provided by the University of Pittsburgh school of medicine so this document has limited help. This whole document is of the top 10 accepted personal statements for these universities, being used as a resource for others to read into. They also have a disclaimer of plagiarism. In total their are 18 pages.  Free Services.

University of Washington: This is a website aimed at explaining what a personal statement is and what it should communicate to other universities. What makes it compelling, and how to get started. They also go over examples of both good and bad papers. This advice can be both similar and different from each university.  Free Services.

Going merry.com: This is a website that mainly goes into getting started with writing personal statements about what topics students can write about, the purpose of writing one. Overall what to brainstorm about regarding the personal statements. They also provide counselors and scholarships to look into.  Free Services but needs a sign up.

How to write a personal statement from a scholar's perspective. (These statements are in books.):

how to help students write personal statements.: This has a free online book and one for purchase. This gives students tips on how to write a personal statement, what it is, how it's used for scholarships and what colleges want from it, how to have authenticity when writing, etc. This is again a book meaning it's pretty dense. Can be found free online on Google books but can also be purchased.

How to writer the perfect personal statements: This book is free online as well and is either a chapter out of the book or is the full copy but short. This again follows the format of addressing what a personal statement is and how to go about writing one for general usage asking questions to the readers. Similar to Gilda Williams, How to write about Contemporary Art. Can be found free online on Google books but can also be purchased.

How to writer a effective personal statement for dental nursing: This is similar to the previous ones of how to write a personal statement but for those in dental school, and is accessible through their Library online. Can be found from the Library but can also be purchased.

 How to writer a competitive personal statement: This follows the format of addressing what a personal statement is and how to go about writing one and is accessible through the UIC library. Is accessible through the UIC library. 

*Overall I hope you all are able to find this document useful for personal and future sessions! Good Luck! :D *

This resource was prepared by Staff Tutor Star.