You CAN’T Cover Everything…

When you start your Personal Statement, it can feel like you need to cram your entire life into a thousand words. You have so many things you've done, there are so many things you hope to do, and there's so much about yourself that you hope the Admissions Committee knows.

But here's the thing... I've read maybe 10,000 personal statements in my life, and in that time the ones I remember the most are almost always essays that feature just 2-3 stories. They focus on depth, not breadth, and use just a few deep dives to tell me who they are and what they aspire to become. This more focused approach pulls you in, helps you get a sense of the writer's personality, and makes you feel like you know them on a deeper level.

By contrast, writers who feel compelled to jam everything in feel as though they're giving you a list, and that comes across as boring and cookie-cutter. Besides, most applications have you submit a CV, so why just turn in another CV, this time in narrative form?

In this video, I talk briefly about why it's important to just accept right from the start that you can't say everything. Doing this will free you up to write a better essay and make the reader want to know more about you.

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