Personal Statement
Writing Guidance:
Perhaps the most critical part of your application for nationally competitive awards is the personal statement. Your success hinges on it for scholarships like the Marshall, Rhodes, and Gates Cambridge. Typically around 1000 words, your personal statement should connect past and present experiences with your future goals.
Your personal statement must present a clear, logically developed, well-illustrated set of points. This statement must be a unified whole, rather than a string of observations. Tailor your statement to its audience (faculty members, business people, and experts in the area defined by the scholarship).
Use First Person Perspective
Because most scholarship essays require reflection on personal experience, it is appropriate to write in the first person. Use this opportunity to tell your story and convey your character, personality, values, and lived experiences. Strong scholarship essays balance thoughtful analysis with authentic personal insight.
Connect Your Experience to Goals
What drives you? What unique and interesting experiences have influenced you as a student and thinker? Make sure the connections between your statement and academic goals are apparent and justifiable.
Find Your Voice
Write in a clear, engaging style, and avoid jargon and convoluted prose. Be honest, positive, and upbeat.
Capture Attention
A well-considered opening line is important. Be sure that each topic sentence makes a point or lays out an idea that is developed and illustrated by the paragraph that follows. Allow a reader to follow your argument by reading only those first sentences.
Give Your Essay Momentum
Create a thread that connects different parts of the essay - an idea or image that unites the essay as a whole.
Finish Strong with Final Paragraph
Your final paragraph should be specific and visionary, rather than just a summary.
Review Examples of Success
Our office is happy to provide students with examples of personal statements. Please contact our office at awards@uark.edu to schedule an appointment. Remember, these essays represent countless reviews and rewrites.
Feedback and Support
Revise frequently and bring your statement to our office frequently for us to review.