Writing Your Personal Statement

Personal Statements should be clear, concise, and informative. Details and concrete examples will make your essay distinctive and interesting. Students with good academic records are assumed to be honest, sincere and conscientious, so avoid cliché words and phrases. Before you begin writing, create an outline and choose what you want to discuss and the order you want to discuss it. Give your Statement direction by defining a thesis or a main point you wish to communicate. Stay away from including extraneous material that does not support your main point.

Format

Your format will reflect your level of professionalism. Your statement of intent should be limited to two pages or less (unless a program requests additional pages). Be concise. As a good rule, a single-spaced, 10-12 point-size font, with reasonable margins is best. Before uploading your Personal Statement, ask an adviser, a trusted colleague, or a faculty member to read and comment on your work. Aim to revise your statement at least once.

Opening Paragraph

Introduce yourself and your reasons for pursuing graduate study. This is your chance to demonstrate your unique qualifications. Include whether your family, a professor or someone in your community has influenced your chosen field of interest. Be sure to use concrete examples from your life experience and personal qualities to distinguish you from other applicants. Describe, and provide examples of, your determination to achieve your goals, your initiative and ability to develop ideas, and your capacity to work through problems independently.

Qualifications

In on to three paragraphs, build a foundation for your forthcoming work. Discuss your experiences with the following:

1. Explain why you chose your field. Discuss your academic, professional or volunteer background and how it may have led you to your interest in obtaining graduate education.
2. List your expertise and accomplishments in your profession and major field. Include any research or related professional work you performed. Mention the project and professor with whom you worked.
3. Describe your undergraduate studies, current career track or volunteer activities and how they relate to what you intend to do in graduate school.
4. Include specific experiences that demonstrate your motivation and inspiration for continued study.
5. List other relevant experiences such as jobs, community activities, leadership in school organizations, awards, honors, and etc. Be sure to include names of supervisors, organizations, and other important details.
6. Mention specific faculty with whom you are interested in working with at SCSU.

Closing Paragraph

To close your letter, leave the reader with an understanding of your qualifications and your view of why you will be successful in graduate school. 

• What do you hope to experience or contribute while you are a student at SCSU? 
• Describe your plans or goals after you have received your graduate degree.
• Explain how your graduate program will assist you in reaching your goals. 

Remember that your audience is made up of professionals and experts in your field, so you won’t need to explain your understanding of the field, but rather show your sincerity and ability to successfully complete graduate education.

Program-Specific Requests

Applicants to the Master of Social Work (MSW) program are to submit a short essay in addition to their Statement of Intent. See the program's page for details on the short essay requirement. Upload the essay in the online application.