Application essays
Your application is how you introduce yourself, your interests, and sometimes your project ideas, to a selection committee. Your application essays should give the committee members a sense of who you are, your motivations and interests, and how the scholarship, program or opportunity aligns with your past experiences and future goals.
Writing these essays takes time. It may take multiple drafts before you are confident and ready to submit your application. Give yourself time to brainstorm, draft, and redraft, and remember to proofread and edit your essays. Seek feedback from your professors, advisors, writing centers and other mentors. You can refer to our Scholarship Cycle Timeline page here.
Scholarship advisors are available to read and give feedback on application essay drafts. Sign up here for an advising appointment.
Strategies for Writing Application Essays and Personal Statements
Reflect on your purpose for applying, your past experiences and your future interests.
Remember, a personal statement is more than a listing of your achievements. Describe how your interests/plans/perspectives have developed, and which specific experiences have been critical to that development. Connect why your goals are what they are and how that relates to the scholarship.
Know your audience and how to address them appropriately.
Learn all you can about the selection committees: Do your own research on their websites and socials, as well as communication with past award recipients, graduate students, interns, faculty, etc. Scholarship websites and application materials often list the selection criteria, so use this information to determine the level of technical detail and explanation needed in your application materials. For graduate school, thoroughly research program websites and faculty members' CVs and their lab website. Important Note: Do not write your personal statement based on what you think the selection committee wants to hear. It should be an honest depiction of who you are, what you want, and how you plan to get there.
Begin drafting with the expectation that you will write multiple drafts.
The first draft is typically general, containing vague statements and ideas that could have been written by anyone. Multiple drafts are necessary to take those general ideas and focus on the specific and concrete information you’re trying to convey. During the drafting stage, do not limit yourself to a certain number of pages or words. Write out all of your ideas first, no matter how long your document becomes, then make choices about what is most important, and edit it down. This makes it less likely that you leave out important information from your final essay.
Revise, Revise & Revise Again.
It can take many drafts to distill your writing down to a final product that directly, concisely and persuasively presents your points. Continued editing and revising is absolutely critical to remove words, sentences, even whole paragraphs, that don’t actually contain any real information.
