In-Class Prompt: the statement I’d never send

Prompts:
1. what personal statement would you never send but want to write?
2. single most important quality you want to convey.
3. what is a personal statement you personally admire?

Prompt 1:

I want you to accept me into your program, because I don’t know what else to do with my life. I’m interested in too many things. I want to go into Library Science and Linguistics, and those are just the things I’m thinking of right now. Can I sign up for two programs at once? I probably can’t handle the workload, but I want to give it the old college try. I’m game if you are. I promise that I’m passionate and interested–I want to help the world and explore knowledge for its own sake, too. I think I’d make a good librarian because I love books and I love people and honestly, I haven’t done any research on the topic beyond that, but I volunteered in my high school library for three years straight and though I’m fuzzy on the Dewey Decimal System, I can get caught up quickly.

I want you to accept me because I care for months at a time. By the end of the semester, I’m raring to jump on the first airplane out of the country just for a taste of some new shore, but I promise I’ll come back. I always come back. And I think I’d make a good linguist because I love puzzles and what is human language but the greatest puzzle we’ve ever found? I’ve never studied computational linguistics, but I’ve read enough science fiction that I think cracking the code of human language is the first step to viable AI. I have no idea if that’s true, but that’s why I want you to teach me. I have all the passion in the world; I am a vessel waiting to be filled; teach me to be a scholar. I want to do your research. I think it’s ludicrous that I couldn’t find a single linguistics paper on the structure of Ladino, but if you trust me with the grant money, I’ll write it. Let me be your explorer. I’ll discover worlds. I’ll bring back treasures. And if I’m not creative enough to come up with the solutions just yet, at least I think I can recognise the correct problems, and then we can work on it together, because that’s what scientists do, isn’t it? I’m not competitive. I want to work with you. I don’t even need first author rights. I’ll take a mention in your acknowledgments, so long as I can help. 

I’m puppy dog helpful, I’ll run at your heels, I’ll let my natural curiosity carry me forward as far as it will go and when that’s reached its limit, I’ll soldier on through sheer determination. I don’t know if I have the head or the heart of a scientist, but if you’re willing to let me find out, I promise you won’t be sorry.

I’m pretty sure this is all entirely true, and the reason I won’t send it is because it doesn’t have much in the way of details and sounds far too desperate. And to be honest, I don’t even know if I want to go to grad school, which is why my research on the requirements of the personal statements has been so haphazard. I’ll take a good look at the requirements and see if I can improve my understanding of how this is supposed to work.

Personal Essay Requirements

I’ll include a few, because I legitimately don’t have plans for any particular one.

McGill University’s Linguistics PhD program:an essay in which the applicant describes their reasons for applying to graduate studies and indicating qualifications, qualities, or circumstances the applicant feels to be significant; usually provides information about educational and professional goals and discusses the applicant’s interest in the desired field of study.

University of Pennsylvania’s Linguistics program: Your personal statement is an important part of your application. The admissions committee looks not only at the general background and qualifications of the applicants, but also at the fit between your specific goals and interests, and the kind of research conducted by the members of the graduate group. A length of two or three pages is usually appropriate.

The most successful statement will demonstrate that you understand the kinds of work conducted by members of the faculty with interests related to yours, and why Penn is a particularly appropriate place for you to study. You should be clear about your goals; it is acceptable to have wide interests or not to be entirely focused yet, but you should show that you understand what it means to pursue advanced study in the areas of interest that you identify. Personal anecdotes about how you became interested in linguistics, or childhood experiences with language, do not generally contribute to the effectiveness of the statement.

The personal statement is the place to describe your past training in linguistics or in related areas. We welcome applications from those with limited formal training in the field, but in such cases it is especially important to demonstrate your understanding of what graduate work in linguistics will entail, and to emphasize aspects of your educational background that will contribute to your success. We do not normally expect a resume or CV, but if your work or educational history is complicated, you might wish to include one.

When you are asked to specify your area of concentration, please choose from among these categories: syntax, semantics, pragmatics, phonology, phonetics, sociolinguistics, historical linguistics. If you are interested in an interdisciplinary pursuit such as computational linguistics or psycholinguistics, specify that in addition to at least one core area of study, such as syntax, pragmatics, or phonetics.

Note that applicants are not expected to work out arrangements with individual faculty members before applying. The application is made to the graduate group as a whole, and students who matriculate in the program are assigned appropriate advisors after they arrive. Nevertheless, it is entirely sensible to identify how your research interests relate to those of the faculty at Penn.

University of Washington Library Science program: Your personal statement should be between 750-1000 words and should communicate to the admissions committee your aspirations for your future in the library and information science professions. Among other things, it could discuss:

• What you hope to accomplish from this program
• Reasons for choosing the our MLIS program
• Special interests and abilities
• Tentative goals for your professional career
• Your experience with information technology
• Your leadership experience and potential for leadership in the profession.

Since we welcome applicants who have varied cultural, educational, and socioeconomic backgrounds, we encourage you to discuss your personal history, family background, and influences on your intellectual development, especially if you want us to include these factors in the review of your application.

University of Rhode Island’s Library Science program: The personal statement is in essay form, and there are as many good ways to write it as there are applicants.

• Content is important. The best personal statements often show that the student knows what librarianship and information services are really about and has good ideas about how to work through institutions to make a difference in people’s lives. Some applicants take the opportunity to explain apparent weaknesses in their records, or highlight the relevance of special life experiences. We hope to recruit future colleagues who will enjoy their work and help create new ways for libraries and information services to serve our communities in the decades ahead. (One use of your personal statement: your interests and goals help the committee chair assign your initial academic advisor.)
• Form matters, too. Employers in our field are looking for good communicators, and the personal statement serves as a writing sample. Good statements are clear, well-organized, and informative.

CUNY Linguistics program: Each candidate is asked to write a personal statement describing why he or she wishes admission to the graduate program. This statement should discuss problems and concepts that have interested the applicant and show how the applicant has thought about them, being as specific as possible. The personal statement provides the candidate an open-ended opportunity to convince the admissions committee that he or she has the required commitment to research. Although the committee understands that many candidates may be unprepared to define specific topics of interest, an expression of curiosity in some definable area of language is expected. It is in the personal statement that applicants may choose to explain any aspects of their personal or academic records that they think need clarification.

This is what I’ve found so far.