Any scholarship to study abroad requires an applicant to submit a personal statement as one of the primary selection criteria. The personal statement is a common requirement for college applications and scholarship requests. Explaining the student’s situation in this way helps the board decide whether to grant the student aid or allow them to enroll in college.
A student shares insights into their character, skills, and experiences. Statements like these help reviewers of scholarship applications understand how the requested funds will be used and how they will benefit the applicant. Every year, thousands of students apply for scholarships, and the applicants with the best personal statements win. Acquiring superior quality necessitates not only excellent writing skills but also an awareness of what makes a statement excellent. To differentiate yourself from the other applicants, your personal statement must have a strong organizational framework and be written very effectively. In the statement, you should paint a picture of yourself not only as a person but also as a student and a possible beneficiary of the scholarship. This presents an opportunity for you to tell your tale.
When writing a personal statement, you should avoid plagiarizing other people’s work. And write something original about your life, your passion, and the hard work you’ve put in.
So, in essence, the personal statement is a brief (two-page) essay in which you explain why you want to attend the school you have chosen, what you hope to get out of it, what you hope to learn from it, and what unique qualities you bring to the program you are applying to as well as how the scholarship will help you achieve those goals.
Structuring your personal statement
The following are some pointers to assist you in structuring your personal statement into four easy parts:
Introduction
Introduce your topic in a way that immediately catches the eye of the reader. Tell me about yourself, including your identity, your hometown, and your ancestry. Please describe any exceptional personal or family situations that have contributed to your need for financial help. It states who you are, your home district/state/country, family background, and any other particular needs or circumstances in you or your family that necessitate financial assistance. It also states any other unique needs or circumstances in your family that warrant financial assistance. As the old adage goes, you only get one chance to make a good first impression. Even if academics wouldn’t judge you only on the basis of the opening, you could argue that you’ve already won half the battle if it’s an excellent one. It does an excellent job of setting the stage, and readers of the review will feel compelled to read it all the way through to the finish.
Body
Please explain why you should be awarded the scholarship over the other applicants. What have you accomplished up to this point? Your argument will need to start being supported at this point. Why did you decide to enroll instead of another school? What exactly do you study at the university? How did you decide what to study in college? What are some of your positive traits, accomplishments, work experience, internships, volunteer work, leadership experience, extracurricular activities, personal challenges that you have overcome, and other similar things?
Explain your past and current accomplishments, your current course of study (including your major and why you chose it), and why you decided to enroll in the college that you are currently attending or will soon enroll in.
Personal Connection
Make a connection between the chances that being awarded the scholarship will bring and the goals that you want to achieve. What are your future plans? Make sure that your strategies for achieving your goals are clear and concise. Where do you intend to move after this? Which is the greatest level of education that you intend to attain? in other words, associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. What do you hope to accomplish with your career? How do you intend to put your education to use so that you can advance in your chosen field? Describe the relevance of your chosen field of study to the world we live in today. If you want to have a successful career in politics in the future, for instance, you should explain how earning a higher degree, such as a master’s or a Ph.D., will help you become a more effective politician, and so on and so forth. Each component of the text should be persuasive enough for the reviewing committee to choose to shortlist you.
Conclusion
The fourth part is your final opportunity to influence the reader and make an impression on them. How would receiving the scholarship affect your academic career and your plans for the future? Give a brief summary of the reasons why you should be awarded the scholarship. The student’s key focuses should be on gaining an understanding of the document’s structure and producing high-quality work.
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Importance Things to Note
Length
Although scholarship review committees get hundreds of applications, they only have a small amount of time to read through them all and select candidates who meet the eligibility requirements. If the individual reviewing your statements decides that your personal statement is too lengthy, they may set it aside and examine the shorter ones instead.
In order to boost your chances of qualifying, you not only need to write an excellent piece of content but you also need someone to read it. If you want to make the best impression, your statement shouldn’t be less than 200 words or more than 500 words long.
Always be succinct, focused, and organized.
Make sure that the order in which you present the information in your personal statement is logical. You should imagine how a person who doesn’t know you might react to hearing it. In order to have a sense of how individuals who read your personal statement will actually react to it, it’s a good idea to get their comments. Not only will you be able to keep your reader’s interest if you avoid writing drawn-out and lengthy responses to essay topics, but you will also show that you have given serious consideration to your writing.
Connection Level
The readers want to know more about you, and the only way to do that is to give them some information about who you are. After all, the term “personal statement” implies just that: an expression of the writer’s individuality. Here’s where you can tell the reader everything they need to know to make a well-informed judgment regarding you. An outstanding personal statement effectively conveys your unique characteristics and highlights the ways in which you have used and developed these traits in response to opportunities and difficulties.
Originality
Instead of writing what you believe the readers want to hear for a personal statement, you should focus on showing who you truly are and what you care about. Remember that the same people who read your application can read a lot of other applications, and they can tell immediately if what you write is honest and genuine. It’s vital to remember that some programs require interviews of their finalists, making it easy to spot people who have lied on their applications.
Proofreading
Editing your personal statement numerous times is a must before you send it in. Have a conversation about your writing with other people. also, rewriting it in its entirety to check for errors in both the content and the presentation. Focus on correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling, and make sure to double-check your work before submitting. To further boost your application for a scholarship, it is strongly suggested that you take advantage of the resources available on campus.
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Here are some excerpts of personal statements for scholarship applications.
Personal statement for scholarship: Example #1
When I was seven years old, I made the easiest decision of my life when I opted to play soccer. After playing college soccer at the Division I level for four years, I faced the toughest decision of my life at age 15. To fulfill her dreams, she had to look beyond the possibility of making the U.S. women’s national team. I decided to switch gears from player to coach in the summer following my college graduation while I explored potential careers. A girl was caught in the net and smashed her head on a pole at one of the first workouts I coached. Naturally, I made my way over to offer assistance. parents were urged to dial 9-1-1 while it was determined whether or not the girl was conscious. For approximately two minutes, she drifted in and out of awareness before she finally looked at me and introduced herself. As the paramedics made their way to her side, I kept her awake by talking to her. She insisted on staying with me as the EMTs checked her over. Until it was time for her to be taken somewhere else, I stayed by her side. The need to serve others became immediately apparent to me.
Simultaneous with my foray into coaching, I started doing volunteer work at UCLA Harbor. In the medical field, I observed ER doctors, orthopedic surgeons, and family doctors. As an athlete, I was inevitably drawn to the field of Orthopedics. Most of my time was spent observing the interactions between patients and their doctors, PAs, nurses, and techs. Patient care, like soccer, relies heavily on coordinated efforts from a group. Preparing the emergency room for a trauma patient was surprisingly streamlined. Not as chaotic as I had anticipated. The trauma team was informed by the communications center that a 79-year-old woman had sustained head trauma. The trauma team then moved the patient to an appropriately equipped room. As the patient entered the room, everything ran like clockwork. The team’s members all knew their assignments and carried them out with precision despite the urgency of the situation. I received the same buzz I get during soccer games, and I decided then that I wanted to go into medicine. Although I was exposed to the possibility of working as a PA, my sights were set on becoming a physician. To that end, I have submitted my application to medical schools.
Even after being turned down by medical schools, I considered reapplying. Researched how to become a PA after observing some in action during a shadowing experience at Harbor-UCLA. The ability of a PA to work in a wide variety of medical fields really jumped out to me. In the orthopedics division, it was also seen that PAs had more time to spend with patients post-surgery, which allowed for more in-depth discussions about rehabilitation and infection prevention. This method of treating patients was closer to what I had in mind. My plan B was to get my EMT certification so that I could use that experience toward my PA application.
In the end, being an EMT served as more of a purpose than merely a requirement for PA school. These people were coming to see me on the worst day of their life, whether because of medical issues or tragic events. A patient who could only communicate with us in Spanish called about discomfort in their left knee. I had to act as a translator for the paramedics because I was the only person present who could speak Spanish. Since the patient looked to be experiencing only minor knee discomfort, the paramedics decided that a code 2 transfer to the hospital was all that was required. I smelled a terrible odor coming from the patient on the way to the hospital. The patient went unresponsive suddenly, so we upgraded our transportation and rushed there with lights and sirens. When we got there, the patient began to recover. The triage nurse came up to us and commented on the unpleasant odor. The nurse told us to get the patient into a bed right away and warned that they may be septic. questioning the whereabouts of an idea. When we followed up with the patient later that day, we learned that she was in the latter stages of advanced breast cancer. Since her primary grievance was not related to her breasts, she did not bring up the fact that she had carefully bandaged any open sores she may have had. Furthermore, she failed to include it in her relevant medical history. Osteoporosis brought on by cancer cells’ spread to her bones was the source of her knee pain. This phone conversation has always stayed with me since it solidified my desire to one day be a doctor. Being an administrative assistant, you’d be able to multitask.
Everything I’ve been through has prepared me for a career as a physician assistant. Learning about and then practicing medicine across numerous subspecialties would allow me to complete the loop from patient to caregiver. I enjoy pre-hospital care but have always yearned to expand my horizons. If given the chance, I would gladly take on the responsibilities of a PA in a hospital setting, where I would be able to see patients through to the completion of their treatment.
Personal statement for scholarship: Example #2
Since I would hate for my younger siblings to experience the prejudice that Black people in the United States still suffer today, eradicating racial inequality and discrimination is a top priority of mine. Why are Black teenagers four times as likely to be incarcerated as White teenagers, despite the fact that we won our independence struggle and prompted the enactment of the 1964 Civil Rights Act? “That happened so long ago. You must overcome this, “what my White friends say about racial injustice. Why, then, did my White seventh-grade classmate say incredulously after I won Nazareth Academy’s Spelling Bee competition, “You know….when I first saw you, I didn’t think you were going to be smart?”
Using the internet and a social media campaign called “It’s Not Over” I hope to help put an end to racism in today’s society.
The purpose of It’s NotOver is to challenge the common belief that, just because discrimination based on race is illegal, it no longer exists in practice. Although the 2016 presidential election breathed new life into the concept of a “divided America,” it also demonstrated the power of social media. I’m hoping that by shedding light on the pervasiveness of racial inequality, I can spark a new wave of reform in the United States along the lines of the current Time’s Up movement. Also, like Time’s Up, I hope to attract the attention of millions of people and motivate them to take action against this issue worldwide through my #It’sNotOver campaign by tapping into the influence of celebrities.
Although I believe that social media can be a powerful tool in bringing awareness to these issues, I am aware that not everyone has access to the internet. Yet, I pray that my campaign will move those who are able to take action because of our global solidarity on this issue to do so. Even though I know I will face hostility and criticism from those who either don’t think this problem exists or don’t support our cause, I’m willing to put up with it if it means that our society as a whole can finally learn to accept each other’s differences.
Personal statement for scholarship: Example #3
High school was a formative time for me in terms of my scientific curiosity; I did very well in physics, chemistry, and mathematics. Since my high school did not offer an advanced calculus course, I enrolled in one at a community college and got an A. So, it made sense to study electrical engineering as a profession.
My keen interest in engineering can be attributed in large part to the fact that I was able to take a wide variety of engineering courses during my undergraduate studies. I’ve also had the good fortune to study a variety of humanities topics, all of which have been interesting and informative, helping me to see things in the world from a fresh and unique angle.
For my master’s thesis, I decided to focus on quantum electronics, but laser technology has always been an area of fascination for me in the field of engineering. It’s just me, an undergraduate, in a class of maybe 25 others. My other passion is electromagnetics, and I got a taste of its many practical applications last summer while working as a technical assistant at a famous local lab. I learnt a lot about microstrip and antenna design in particular. The supervisors here thought I did a good enough job that they wanted me to stick around when I finished school. After I finish this degree program, I intend to get a master’s degree in science. I plan to pursue a doctorate in electrical engineering after finishing my master’s degree. In the future, I hope to get a job in the private sector conducting research and development. The combination of my theoretical training and my natural flair as a scientist makes me certain that I can make the most impact in the realm of research and development.
I have heard nothing but good things about your institution, and recent talks with numerous of your school’s alums have just piqued my curiosity further. In addition to your great faculty, I’ve heard that your campus’s IT resources are top-notch. I’d be honored if you’d consider letting me continue my education at your prestigious institution.
Personal statement for scholarship: Example #4
The rain started as the sun was setting. There was a black car by the side of the road with lights and sirens going off next to it, and the car was a total wreck. While unconscious, I found myself trapped inside the car. Emergency medical services rescued me, and they took me to the clinic. The next morning, I woke up and tried to get out of bed, but the effort was so painful that I yelled, “Mom!” My mom burst in and yelled, “Ashley, stop moving around, you’re only going to make it more uncomfortable.” I looked completely blank on the outside. “What the heck happened, and why am I wearing a sling?”
When I wasn’t entirely conscious, the ambulance transported me to the local hospital, where I was examined for hours before being released with a sling and the news that all of my scans and tests had been negative. We had follow-up appointments the next day, in a different city, with doctors who had treated us previously. The severity of my wounds proved to be far greater than initially thought, and I need emergency surgery as a result. Complications after the accident were a challenge, but the care I received immediately after and over the subsequent years helped me appreciate the value of competent doctors and PAs (PAs).
As a medical assistant in the field of neuro otology, I have learnt and developed more in the past year than I ever imagined possible. The past two years I’ve spent working as a medical assistant have been extremely educational. Taking a thorough history from patients that includes their specific symptoms and concerns is one of my primary responsibilities. As a result of my efforts, I now have a deep understanding of the inner ear, the vestibular system, and how they interact with one another. The satisfaction I get from knowing I’ve made a difference in people’s lives is immeasurable. When I learned to perform the Canalith Repositioning Maneuver on patients with Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo, my responsibilities at the clinic expanded quickly. After applying the procedures successfully, it is evident from the patient’s reactions that they have a good effect on the patient’s everyday life. My day is instantly brightened by their happy expressions.
After participating in volunteer work, job shadowing, and post-college medical experience, I was convinced that medicine was the only field for me. Seeing a doctor and PA pair up at Moffitt Cancer Center only piqued my interest more in the job. Their collaboration was fascinating, as was the PAS’s capacity for autonomous operation. According to the PA, getting to learn about and use several different areas of medicine is a huge plus. As I’ve progressed through my education and training, I’ve realized that my interest in the medical field is just too broad for me to specialize in any one area. The freedom to explore other fields of medicine and the prospect of actively participating in patient care rather than just observing from the sidelines both appeal to me.
As I worked to overcome the ongoing challenges brought on by my accident and my family’s financial situation, I was also pursuing my own education. These difficulties contributed to my underperforming academically as a freshman and sophomore. After enrolling at USF, I made significant academic progress that resulted in a gradual increase in my grade point average (GPA) until I graduated. What I once thought would be an insurmountable barrier to my progress is now merely a source of inspiration for future challenges, thanks to my accomplishments.
If I pursue a career as a PA, I can be assured that my standard response to the question “how was your day?” will be “life changing.” What motivates me to work hard is the opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives, just like the PA I aspire to become would. There is no way I will ever give up on this desire, this aim, this mission in life. I’ve been informed that, beyond my credentials, I’m a kind, friendly, and strong woman. A future me, having matured and advanced in my PA career, will serve as an exemplar for those who share my values and career aspirations. PA appealed to me because of the team environment. There is no other field I would rather work in than one where I can help people and feel like my life has meaning. Acceptance into a reputable school is not the end goal, but rather the next stage on my path to becoming more like others I admire.
Personal statement for scholarship: Example #5
I learnt early on to take care of myself and my family as the child of immigrants. My parents worked hard to provide for my younger brother and me, despite the fact that they spoke English. My grandparents, on the other hand, scarcely spoke English, so I was always the one to translate for them at doctor’s offices and other places where they needed to engage with native English speakers. I’m still translating for them and giving my grandparents lessons in conversational English. The more time I spent with my loved ones, the clearer my career goals became.
My parents instilled in me, at the tender age of five, the significance of education; they themselves were born in Vietnam and had just a primary school education. As a result of this setback, I now take nothing for granted and always give it my all, like when I started the Badminton Club as a sophomore and the Red Cross Club as a junior. Having a plan in place before starting each new club has helped me stay on top of my leadership duties. I grew as a manager and a person the more I participated. My leadership style has always been consistent with the way I treated my younger cousins and siblings. My parents always modeled good leadership for me, and I’ve carried it on in my many roles of authority. By helping my younger siblings and cousins develop good character and succeed in school, I have gained valuable experience in the role of role model. I help my classmates plan school service projects by connecting them with local charities and coordinating the creation of team uniforms.
Aside from my morals, the medical area is where my heart lies. Since I was 14 years old, I have dreamed of a career in pediatric medicine. My passion for healthcare has helped me break out of my shell in a variety of settings, including my volunteer work with hospital patients, my job tutoring youngsters at Kumon Math and Reading Center, and my badminton team. I thought I just wanted to be a pediatrician until I participated in the 2017 Kaiser Summer Volunteer Program at Richmond Medical Center. This course broadened my horizons in terms of the variety of medical specializations and career paths offered to me. Although I have always had a passion for medicine, I found that focusing solely on practicality wasn’t going to cut it in the medical sector. This realization sparked a huge interest in business for me. Due to my enthusiasm in this area, I hope to one day join the administrative staff of a healthcare facility.
I plan to double major in Managerial Economics and Medical Science in the future to fulfill my ambition of becoming a physician. To this aim, I plan to attend UC Davis and major in biological sciences, where I hope to be actively involved in campus life. During my internship with Kaiser Permanente last year, I was able to begin building relationships with key personnel with the company; I hope to continue this trend after graduation. My goal is to make connections there in the hopes of landing a job at one of their locations. The NCS Foundation scholarship appeals to my interests, principles, and future goals, and I hope to be awarded it so that I can further my education and pursue my professional goals. I intend to put this grant money to good use.
connection with Kaiser Permanente, which I began developing during my internship last year. By making connections with them, I can increase my chances of landing a job at one of their locations. I am applying for the NCS Foundation scholarship because I believe it will help me achieve my goals and aspirations, and because the financial support will allow me to focus on my studies. With the help of this scholarship, I intend to apply to a study abroad program where I may immerse myself in a new culture while also furthering my academic goals.
Personal statement for scholarship: Example #6
To the extent that it is possible, I have revised my essay and would like to submit that version instead. About 150 characters too many, and I can’t think of anything to remove. I’m also working on getting over why I want to be a PA and what sets me apart from other candidates. We’d be very grateful for any assistance you can offer.
The summer I spent shadowing a PA in the ER taught me many valuable lessons, including the importance of always cleaning up your own sharps, working well as a team, never mentioning how “quiet” a day is, and the value of a warm blanket and a smile to patients. I realized how much I enjoy working in a hospital setting, where I get to meet new people every day and make a difference, however tiny, in their healthcare journey. My time spent shadowing in a level II trauma center not only strengthened my resolve to become a PA in the area, but also allowed me to formulate my own philosophy of patient care. My primary motivation to become a PA, however, came from much more personal sources than hospital shadowing.
The text message came from my father the summer before my senior year at the University of Miami. After a few weeks of feeling ill, he decided to visit the hospital for some standard diagnostic testing. Even though he works in the emergency room, he never used to regularly visit the doctor because he never got sick. As soon as the test results came back, he was admitted to Cleveland Clinic’s main campus. As he joked about getting a room where he could watch the Indians game, he assured me that everything was fine and that I shouldn’t worry. Early the following morning, the results of his tests came back, and they confirmed his worst fears: he had acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Thirty days into his routine, high-volume chemotherapy regimen, he contracted an infection that quickly led to total organ failure. While spending almost two months in the intensive care unit, he went in and out of a coma and was seen by “every specialist except gynecology.” After two weeks of dialysis he came to, but he was so weak he needed two more months in an inpatient rehabilitation facility before he was strong enough to come home on Christmas Eve.
The nicest gift a girl could have asked for, but not without its difficulties. He remained severely frail and wheelchair-bound. Because of the steroids, he needed to check his blood sugar levels before every meal and take a handful of medications multiple times a day. Because of his low neutrophil count, the entire house required regular deep cleaning. When I was a kid, my dad was the rock of the family since my mom had two strokes and she couldn’t work. The world turned upside down for us was terrifying. Fingersticks and insulin injections are no big deal now that I know how to be careful and not pierce his paper-thin skin. When his PICC line was clogged, I showed him how to flush it (a trick learned from my own experience with IV antibiotics to treat osteomyelitis a year prior). Because of the peripheral neuropathy-related loss of proprioception and motor control, I had to learn to block his knees with my hands whenever he started walking to prevent him from falling too far forward.
It was a difficult decision between going back to school to get my degree and taking care of my mother. tried to put off returning to school as long as possible while still in Cleveland.
This was the day before classes began for the spring semester. I kept visiting as much as I could. We had to make some major adjustments to our way of life to accommodate my father’s inability to work and the resulting increase in medical expenses. Everywhere we went, we checked the accessibility to make sure his wheelchair could get in and out without incident. My mom told me one night that in their entire marriage, she had never spent so much time with my dad. Fighting cancer is more than just a physical struggle; there are a number of uphill fights that must be fought when a cancer diagnosis has been made. I have a unique and thorough understanding of the difficulties that patients and their families face due to health problems as a result of standing by them through all of these setbacks with my own family.
Since then, my dad has gone back to work as an emergency room doctor, and he always greets patients with a warm grin and the knowledge that he is lucky to be alive and well. Medical science has always fascinated me, long before my father became ill. I have always had an insatiable curiosity and a need to understand the world around me. I saw illness and injury as a mystery to be unraveled, thanks to my education in the body’s systems and the study of anatomy and physiology. My father encouraged me to consider becoming a physician’s assistant when I was taking care of him. You should become a physician’s assistant, he advised, “if you love medicine and truly want to spend time with patients.” I found this to be the case during my time working as a shadow in the Emergency Room. Assistant physicians (PAs) are on the front lines with patients, completing tasks such as reviewing symptoms and suturing wounds while keeping patients informed and at ease. This frees up doctors to take on more complex tasks such as fielding calls from experts and writing detailed notes. The improvement in the quality of treatment provided is obvious. I hope to bring the empathy and perspective I’ve gained from caring for my own family and from my time shadowing doctors in the emergency room to my work so that the health care of others can be improved.
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Your personal statement needs to be well-organized and prepared so that you stand out from the crowd. You need to be creative if you want to compose a winning personal statement. Write an essay that makes the reader curious about you and your life after they finish reading it. And usually in less than two pages! In the statement, you should describe who you are as a person and as a student so that the scholarship committee may get to know you better. It’s a chance to tell your tale. where you come from and how long you’ve lived there.
Spending time and energy on a personal statement for college or scholarship applications is not uncommon. But if you use the tips we’ve given you, we have no doubt that you’ll be able to write an outstanding one that will boost your application’s success rate and raise your chances of getting into your dream school and obtaining scholarships to help defray the cost.
