Transcript The UC Personal Statement: Strategies for Students

The Personal Statement:
Strategies for Supporting
Freshman Applicants
UC Counselor Conference 2008
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Overview
• Purpose of the personal statement in UC
admissions
• Case study (two parts)
• Instructions and questions
• Writing strategies for students
• Feedback strategies for educators
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Purpose of the Personal Statement
• Part of UC’s comprehensive review process
• Opportunity to provide information that
supports and augments the review process
• Helps readers know and understand applicants
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Purpose of the Personal Statement
• Adds clarity, depth and meaning to
information collected in other parts of the UC
application
• Completes the application for admission
• An admission decision will never be based on
the content of a personal statement alone
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A Message From UC Faculty
• While it is acceptable to receive feedback or
helpful suggestions, applicants’ personal
statements should reflect their own ideas
and be written by them alone.
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Case Study: Part I
• Read the personal statement in your binder.
• Think about these questions:
What’s important to this applicant?
What qualities/characteristics define this applicant?
Which of these qualities/characteristics is most
prominent?
Do these qualities appeal to you? Why?
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Instructions and
Prompts
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Instructions
• Two questions
• Students respond to both questions.
A
maximum of 1,000 words total
 Students should stay within the word limit as closely
as they can. A little over—1,012 words, for
example—is fine.
• Students choose length of each response.
 If
they choose to respond to one prompt at greater
length, we suggest the shorter answer be no less
than 250 words.
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Prompt #1
[Freshman Applicants] Describe the world you
come from — for example, your family,
community or school — and tell us how your
world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.
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Prompt #2
[All Applicants] Tell us about a personal quality,
talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience
that is important to you. What about this quality or
accomplishment makes you proud and how does it
relate to the person you are?
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Additional Comments
• Use Additional Comments box for clarification,
expansion on important details:
 Additional names
 Visa issues
 Additional IB exams
• Describe anything else that you have not had the
opportunity to include elsewhere in your
application.
 500-word
limit
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Writing Strategies for
Students
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Steps to Writing an Effective
Personal Statement
Draft, Get Feedback, Revise
Develop Topic and Thesis
Read Critically
Gather Information
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Personal Statement: Writing for College
College
• Unknown audience:
Students write for a
community of scholars.
Personal Statement
• Unknown audience
• Writer-determined topics
• Writer-determined
topics: Students choose
the topics.
• Analytical and reflective
response
• Dig deep: Analysis and
reflection are key.
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Important Strategies
• Students are encouraged to write about special circumstances
that have influenced their educational experience:




Re-entry
Small or alternative learning environments
Learning and/or physical challenges
Veterans
• Read critically and write analytically.

Think like an admissions reader by capitalizing on the
relationship between readers and writers.
• Use a writing process.
• Get good feedback.
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Think Like an Admissions Reader
• All readers have expectations of writers, revealed
in readers’ questions, observations and
interpretations of the application.
• Writers fulfill readers’ expectations by addressing
these questions, observations and interpretations in
the personal statement.
• Writers can anticipate readers’ expectations by
completing and critically reading their
applications prior to writing a personal statement.
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Critical Reading and Analytical Writing
• Level one: Facts
• Answers to L1 questions
provide details in
paragraphs.
• Level two:
Interpretation
• Answers to L2 questions
are topic sentences of
paragraphs.
• Level three: Meaning
and significance
• Answers to L3 questions
are thesis statements of
essays.
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Case Study: Part II
• Student Profile: Use the Levels of Questions
strategy with this profile.
 What
data do you find?
 What patterns do you see?
 What questions would you ask?
 What inferences would you draw?
 How well does the essay align with the profile?
• How would you advise this student to proceed?
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Writing Process
• Read the application critically using levels of
questions.
• Draft.
• Get feedback — give readers at least a week to
respond.
• Revise for organization, clarity and meaning.
• Proofread.
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The Educator’s Role
Help students:
• Understand the role of the personal statement in the
admissions process
• Recognize the relationship between reader and writer
• Understand the reading and writing tasks of the personal
statement
• Use a writing process
• Obtain appropriate feedback
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How to Give Feedback to Students
• Request the application and the personal statement,
not just the statement.
• Ask students to provide you with a list of questions
they would like you to answer.
• Comment on ideas and the level of persuasiveness,
not grammar.
• Help students find readers who resemble their
target audience.
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