How to write a perfect personal statement for high school students applying for studying in the United States
How to avoid formulaic writing in personal statements of high schools studying in the United States
Don't quote famous sayings
Don't emphasize the importance of specialty.
Don't introduce your birthday and birthplace.
Don't emphasize your cleverness and diligence.
The most common or serious problem of China applicants in PS writing is sameness? Formulaic writing? . This formulaic way of writing is actually quite harmful. Students' common writing content can usually be divided into the following parts or modules: the first part talks about nonsense, the second part talks about diligence and intelligence, and the third part talks about extracurricular activities. Generally speaking, after reading the last sentence, you can have a hunch that 90% of the statements are impersonal and you can use a different name for all applicants.
Start with the beginning? Formulated? Writing. The most serious thing is to quote famous words. Many students expect to achieve some amazing results by quoting famous sayings, but in fact it will only backfire. In another professor's place, he has seen it countless times, so when he sees you quoting this sentence in PS again, he is bored and eager to escape. So, don't quote the famous words in PS again. Not only can't surprise the other person as you think, but it will also make people feel that you are just an uncreative student, and there will be a kind of disgust and disgust in his heart, so the admission notice and scholarship may pass you by and pass you by.
Let's imagine: if you are a professor in a domestic university, you are faced with a group of international students who are at a loss and want to apply for a scholarship in your hand. If you meet the applicant for the first time? But all you have to do is climb a flight of stairs, and you can broaden your horizons by 300 miles? As the beginning of a PS, you will be surprised and even delighted: Ah, an international student should know so much about China's traditional famous sentences and use them properly! But, next, in the thick stack of application materials in front of you, what about the second and third articles? In the personal statements of different candidates in the future, you will find that they are all like this! You will definitely feel bored and even cheated!
The second feature of candidates is that they like to reveal the importance of their major in the first paragraph. For those students majoring in computer science, he will write proudly? Computer science is the foundation of all disciplines and the star of 2 1 century? Yun Yun; Students majoring in chemistry usually write? Chemistry is a science, and you must devote yourself to it? And so on. I don't know that the professors who study PS know more about the importance of this subject than you do, and you don't need to tell them anymore. As for encouragement, education or encouragement, it is even more unnecessary: has he been in university or graduate school for a long time? Have to? Dedication is a fait accompli. There is really no need to say such a cliche in PS with limited space. It only shows your mediocrity and boredom.
The third mistake is that I like to introduce my specific date and place of birth. Like what? I was born in x year x month x day? , or? I was born in Chongqing, Sichuan? Wait a minute. For China students, when introducing themselves from an early age, it is customary to tell each other their basic information first. This mindset leads China students to take pains to introduce their place of birth and time of birth in detail when writing PS. In fact, in your application form, this information has been filled in, so this introduction is particularly unnecessary? Unless you can deduce or dig out materials that are beneficial to you from the names of your birthday and birthplace. If you really want to celebrate your birthday, you can only celebrate your birthday once every four years unless it is February 29 of a leap year, so that your birthday will have some special significance in your PS.
The fourth mistake is that I like to explain the purpose of writing this PS at the beginning. For example, this document is to facilitate my application for admission and scholarship. ? What is the purpose of writing this article? What is this? It's no use talking? How to write. Because everyone knows what PS writing is for, there is really no need to waste your breath. For example, write a love letter to a girl you like. Do you want to make it clear in the article? The purpose of writing this love letter is to express my feelings for you? It's completely redundant.
The above writing patterns are all formulaic writing patterns that China students often commit at the beginning of PS. I hope everyone will take a warning when writing PS in the future.
In the middle of formulaic writing, there are usually two situations: one is to exaggerate how hard you work, and the other is to highlight how smart you are. There is absolutely no need to write these two things. First of all, for you who want to apply for a North American scholarship, you must have graduated from college, passed the TOEFL, are preparing for the GRE or passed the GRE exam. These have fully proved your diligence and cleverness, so you really don't need to praise yourself. Furthermore, for foreign professors, there are already hundreds of thousands of China students who have worked hard in their land, and most of them have successfully completed their studies, which has fully demonstrated the intelligence and diligence of China students. What China is most recognized and acknowledged by the west is our undergraduate degree. Therefore, if you graduated from Huada University and passed the GRE, you should emphasize your wisdom and diligence in PS, which will only lead to the same content.
There are also many examples of thousands of people when proving their wisdom and diligence. It seems that everyone says that they have been in the top three percent from kindergarten to graduate school. Moreover, they got the first place in the province in the college entrance examination, and the most modest statement among them is that they are the first in the city. More people are simply too good to take exams at all, and they are recommended to enter school without exams. There are only six places for hundreds of thousands of candidates nationwide, and he is one of them.
To illustrate his diligence and cleverness, a classmate said that he had to hide in the toilet to study when he was in college, because he was so proficient in every subject that the whole class chased him to ask questions. There was no choice but to hide in the toilet. This classmate's diligence and cleverness can be described as the pinnacle, but I believe that smart readers will never pay tribute to him: because such an example makes this classmate look extremely pretentious and selfish. It is impossible to impress foreigners or try to fool others with such things. Faced with a large stack of PS, foreign professors have a good idea of whether the content is true or false, which is written by the applicant himself and which is copied or copied from others. People who make up personal statements must be ignorant, so when writing in PS, don't write divorced from reality.
Many people have such a misunderstanding: since there will always be false ingredients on the packaging, they will write their own advantages into the application materials. Actually, the so-called? Packaging? It refers to how the applicant can reasonably explore and effectively show his true strength and potential in the application materials, so as to help him stand out from many applicants, rather than fabricating facts.
When talking about our study, if the other person knows more about your study, we'd better say less. Because the curriculum of most universities in China is not much different from that of foreign countries. For example, electronic engineering, or economics, everyone knows what you are studying. I remember that a computer major student listed his main courses when introducing his learning content, followed by a sentence. I even studied calculus? This sentence is obviously redundant.
The third part of the applicant's common writing module can be called? Extracurricular activities? . Originally, it should be a theme library to show personality or interest, but in recent years, almost all the content has been the president of the student union, participating in the English corner and the Hope Project. Everyone says he is the president of the student union, and the most modest one is the president of the student union. Everyone took part in Project Hope, or won a gold medal, a silver medal or a bronze medal in the English corner. As for what specific work he did during his tenure as chairman to serve his classmates and what specific contributions he made to Project Hope, it is unknown. Not only do they have no concrete examples, but they also like to brag. In this regard, there is an extreme example. What about yourself? Grades? At that time, the classmate said that he was elected as one of the five members of the Standing Committee of the All-China Federation of Students, and actually became the leader of the national students. When he was in office, he promoted the approval of the National People's Congress to start the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, and so on. This public achievement is indeed meritorious, but it is a bit outrageous.
The next common writing module is about studying abroad motivation, that is, expressing determination. Most students like to talk about how backward our country's research level is in his field and how powerful the other side is. That's why he went abroad to study, determined to study hard, and then returned to China to build the motherland. Building the motherland is a good thing, but if everyone expresses their determination in such a general way, it will be empty and cliche, and the other party will feel bored after reading it. And for foreign professors, it is their responsibility and obligation to award scholarships to those he thinks are qualified. As for whether you will stay in the United States or return to China after your studies, he generally doesn't care, nor does he care particularly.