Each school or organization has its own guidelines for length and font. While some personal interest statements ask specific questions they want you to answer, others are wide open for you to write whatever you wish.


These kinds of formatting requirements usually aren’t very complicated. Typically, they mandate the use of a common font in a specific size, with an additional specification for the margins around the page. It’s important to follow these instructions—they’re not always nitpicking—because the admissions team wants the document to easily transfer across platforms.;
, Transcripts, resumes or CVs, job histories, and applications are all important documents to have in front of you. This will help you remember extracurricular activities, personal experiences, work experiences, classes, and more.


Avoid making your personal interest statement a restatement of your resume. Over the course of application season, the admissions officer will read hundreds of personal interest statements, most of which will be poorly written and interchangeable. The point of gathering these documents is to jog your memories of your successes and failures and what you learned from each, not to provide a narrative account of your academic career., There are a few consistent ways personal statements are organized. They are organized around a single event, a series of events to illustrate a theme, or an account of the general personal journey that put you in a position to send in an application.Single event narratives recount something in your life that was the proximate cause (or but-for cause) of your academic goal. For instance, “After my grandmother was swindled out of her house, I knew I wanted to be a lawyer” recounts the event that spurred you to go to law school--but for your grandmother getting swindled, you wouldn’t have pursued a legal education.
Series of events narratives use multiple occurrences to illustrate a personal quality you think is important or the proximate cause of your goal. Perseverance, for example, is not a quality that can be demonstrated by simply writing about one event. You’ll have to tell the story of more than one event in order to show how you persevere.
Try to avoid general personal journey narratives if you can. They have a tendency to slip into a restatement of your resume. Instead, try to turn those narratives into series of events narratives, sticking to milestones and highlights.
Look over the requirements for your personal statement.
Gather materials.
Brainstorm possible themes and answers.
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