The Personal Statement

At a minimum, each student will write one essay referred to as The Personal Statement and for most colleges, it is completed through the Common Application (CA). With the CA, students can apply to a number of schools with only the push of a button but keep in mind that many schools have supplemental applications with additional essays. The good news is that those supplemental applications are available through the CA.  If one or more of the colleges on your list uses their own application instead of the CA, the personal statement will still be required but the prompts may be different. Visit www.commonapp.org for a list of participating colleges. 

The personal statement is like no other piece of writing and it has the potential to be powerful because we all have a natural desire to tell our story. I say potential because I know how hard this is. You are asked to be vulnerable, insightful and honest all while trying to believe that you even have a story to tell. I promise that you do. In our work together, I guide my students toward a style of writing referred to as creative non-fiction so that each essay grabs the reader while revealing the student’s authentic voice. I discourage my students from trying too hard to be unique compared to others because it's too much pressure and it's inauthentic.  Instead, I encourage my students to be thoughtful, revealing and relatable. Think “personal perspective” instead of “personal statement”. The ability to reflect on where you've been is valuable to this process but where you want to go with what you have learned and with what you have yet to learn is the goal and journey. When approached in this way, the reader discovers a genuine uniqueness. 

If done well, the essay writing process will be time consuming so it's important to start early and to stay organized. An average of six prompts are released each spring and they are often the same or only slightly altered from previous years. A prompt is a question or statement designed to give students a topic or an idea to use as a springboard.  One prompt may challenge students to talk about failure, while another may ask about a specific event or moment when the student changed their thinking. Because there are many ways to respond to any given prompt, it is important to read them carefully while writing down first thoughts about each. Write anything that comes to mind whether it is a memory, a curiosity about what the prompt is asking or even an irritation. It's not uncommon for a prompt to make the reader feel frustrated and if that happens, take note and consider writing that essay. For the past number of years, there has been an open essay where the student is invited to write about anything at all. It is always important to explore your thoughts and feelings about a topic before trying to put it into a specific box so to speak. If this works for you, do it because if a topic continues to rise to the top, it must be something you want to write about and that is valuable information. After doing this, take a few days to think about each before revisiting the list and deciding if there is one or more that you are drawn to. See FYS News for the 2026-2027prompts.

There are many topics that students are drawn to and those often include family, loss, service trips, travel and sports injuries. Although these topics are tempting, keep in mind that the admissions counselors want to admit you, not the animal you saved, the coach who never gave up on you or the grandparent who inspired your interest in medicine. It's easy to get caught in the trap of writing about an inspirational person or moment but it often does little to show how you view the world and how you think. This doesn't mean that you can't write about a service trip but what it does mean is that you need to stay focused on an aspect of the trip that helped you define yourself and your values, or even make you question yourself and the world. Most often the best personal statements are about a seemingly simple passion, habit, moment or task. My students have written about book organization, pizza dough, sea glass, sticky notes, apple orchards and more. Every essay brought the reader into the student’s life, what they value and how they think. This is your goal: to share your story and to leave the reader changed in some way.

The personal statement is often the longest of the essays and typically the first to be reviewed by admissions officers. This first essay sets the tone and allows the committee to be able to see who you are in writing. Again, although this essay is referred to as a statement, think of it as a personal perspective piece.  Only then will you be able to show who you are and how you think.

If you haven’t done it already, return to the FYS Process to create the contents of your treasure chest and to complete the values exercise. These lists will help your find your story.