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This one's got to be a two parter.

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There's just too much bad information out there when it comes to how to write

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these personal statements.

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So it's going to take a while to kind of break this down.

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Welcome everyone again.

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This is the pop out with your host Albert Shin.

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And today I want to start a two parter on personal statements.

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Personal statements have a lot of confusing information

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surrounding it, at least in the public.

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And I think people who claim to know what they're doing or what they're talking

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about when they're talking about personal statements have no idea what they're

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really talking about. OK, that's just my personal opinion.

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Don't try to come at me for it.

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OK, so in my opinion, and I think, you know, the people who are in the

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emission side, like the people who are actually reviewing these personal

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statements will probably more or less agree.

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The reason that there are these personal statements is basically twofold.

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One, it's to provide information that the reader cannot find anywhere else

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in your application.

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All right.

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So in other words, it's meant to add new information or at least add to the

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details of some critical information in your application that just isn't there

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isn't like a room for it.

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Right.

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And I'll come back to exactly what that means.

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And second of all, its purpose should be to put the entire application into the

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proper context so that it feels like one holistic person that is applying to the

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university.

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Right.

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Now, these two things go hand in hand, and I'm going to explain exactly how

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that is.

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But the key here is this.

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The goal of a personal statement is not to tell us off story, but to give you

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a story. The goal of a personal statement is not to try to brag about how awesome

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you are.

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OK, the goal of a personal statement isn't even necessarily to sell yourself.

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Right. If you're a salesperson or if you're applying for a job.

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It's not quite you trying to pump yourself up.

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That is not the point of a personal statement.

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The point of a personal statement is to make you feel like a real person in a

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way that makes sense with the rest of the application.

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And to do that, you need to kind of fill in the gaps.

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OK, so in order for me to explain this kind of clearly, we need to backtrack a

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little bit and think about what else is on your application.

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Right. So when you're applying to colleges, there's a bunch of information

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that you put down. Right.

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They're going to get your transcripts, they'll get your GPAs, the kind of

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classes you took, the kind of things that you did in terms of extracurricular

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activities or if you had like work experience or yada yada yada yada.

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Right. Like the things you could list on, let's say like a resume.

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Right. Those are things they're going to have access to.

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If you had leadership positions, if you won a bunch of awards, there's a place

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for you to list all of that stuff.

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OK, so then why ask for a personal statement?

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Well, think about it.

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If you are the one trying to review applicants and you're looking at a list

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of accomplishments, there's a lot of information that is missing.

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Right. What exactly is missing in the application?

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Well, let's think about this.

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One, there's not a clear sense.

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I mean, they could try to guess and assume, but, you know, there's not a clear sense

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of where your strengths and interests are based strictly on your grades and your

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extracurricular activities.

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And this is especially true for students who are extremely well rounded and they do

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everything well. Right.

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Then it's not quite clear what particular thing makes you the kind of person that

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you are. Right.

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What particularly moves you, what drives you, what excites you.

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There's not a sense of, you know, what all of this stuff that you're doing has to do

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with you specifically and your personal goals in college and beyond.

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Right.

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Right. Again, they could do a lot of guessing, like I'm applying for this major

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and you express interest in X, Y and Z, but they're not going to have a good sense

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of who you are as a person just by looking at a list of accomplishments, things that

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you've done. What they need is for you to tell them a story about how all of these

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things kind of tie together.

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Right. So this is the second part of it, right, where I said, you know, we're

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trying to go ahead and present, you know, yourself as a complete person.

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Right. Where all of the stuff that you've done is put into context to explain the

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kind of person that you are.

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Right. But here's the key.

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Right. In order for you to do that and do it well, in order for you to explain

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everything else that is in your application and to explain everything in there well,

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what you do need to do is to fill in the gaps.

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You need to fill in the gaps in your application.

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And by gaps, what I mean is fill in the missing information that is not there that

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there's no space for in the other parts of your application.

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You need to make sure that information gets in there.

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Right. What kind of information that is, it honestly, with the exception of a few

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things, which I'll mention, it honestly doesn't matter as long as it's authentic.

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And this is the key.

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It has to be true to you, true to who you are at your core.

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OK, so let me give you some examples to kind of get us started.

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Right. Suppose you took a bunch of honors classes, right.

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And a lot of range of subjects.

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And then you, you know, took a foreign language and then you did a lot of

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volunteering activity in, let's say, a hospital.

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And then you did some club activities at school.

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OK, some social clubs or something like that.

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OK. All right.

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You're applying for college.

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They want to know what your area of interest is.

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What are you going to have to do?

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You're going to have to explain exactly what it is that you want to pursue, what

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topics you really want to focus in on, because part of college is you're going to

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focus in on some narrower set of academic, you know, curiosities.

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Right.

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So, you know, if you want to go into, let's say the pre-med route, you want to be a

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doctor at some point or, you know, and is connected to your experience at

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volunteering at this hospital.

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Right.

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That's information they actually don't have.

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They know that based on what you said your interests were, they might know that

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you're interested in going into medical school at some point.

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And they know that you did some volunteering activity at a hospital.

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What they don't know is how those things are related to one another.

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Right.

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What they don't know is, for instance, that there was a specific incident that

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happened while you were volunteering and it was particularly eye opening for you.

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And it really changed the course, changed the course of your interest.

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Right.

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Before you had no interest in being a doctor, but after that experience, you

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realize yada yada, you're, you know, that there's some kind of interest in that you

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have in it and you want it to change lives in such and such a way.

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Right.

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They don't have that information.

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They need that information for it to make sense for all these dots to be connected.

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Some applications, it's a little bit easier to kind of make assumptions.

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Right.

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So if you're like heavy, like if your activities are heavy in one direction,

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right, it's clear that that's your area of interest.

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Right.

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But one of the things that they don't know is why you're actually interested in

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those things, what is driving you to go ahead and pursue that particular thing,

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whether it's medicine, whether it's medicine, whether it's medicine, whether

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it's business, right.

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Where does that interest come from?

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Right.

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And there's no right answer to this.

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The only right answer is the honest one.

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It's the answer of you and what led you to come to this place where you have this

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interest or a specific skill set or specific set of experiences that point

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you into that direction.

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Right.

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It could go all the way back to childhood, right.

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It could be something from early childhood, something about, you know,

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experience with parents or caregivers.

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It could have to do with some experience you had from some sort of

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activity you did at school.

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It could involve some other personal experience that you encountered.

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It could be something that you had to deal with, with regards to like a

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family member, right.

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Like for instance, a family member dealing with an health issue, maybe that

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sparked an interest in something or another, or maybe something that your

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friend went through sparked interest in whatever it is that you're now pursuing.

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Right.

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The important thing is there has to be some sort of story because people are not

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robots.

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People are not the kind of beings that just go beep, beep, beep, beep.

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This is the way to go because this is what the algorithm told me to do with my

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life.

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Right.

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That's not the way that people work.

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People are gain interest in something, are passionate about something because

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something sparked within them and that's something that sparked within them.

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It's not innate and you're not born with it.

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Something in your experience, right.

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You might have had some tendencies, but there was some experience that lit a

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fire in you that made you want to accomplish X, Y, and Z.

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Right.

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And what they're wanting to know in your personal statement is what exactly is

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that?

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That story about you, what makes you tick, what drives you, what drives you,

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what makes you who you are.

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That's what they're wanting to see.

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It makes the rest of the application make sense.

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Right.

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For instance, suppose that somebody was applying, took a bunch of science

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classes, you know, all the honors classes were only in science classes, didn't

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really do much in English, took just regular courses in English.

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And then they applied to college, but when they applied to college, they did

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not apply for a science major, they applied as an English major.

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And, you know, the applicant is going to be looking at this application, this

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application makes absolutely no sense.

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If you're so interested in English that you want to pursue it in college, why

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on earth did you take a bunch of science classes when you're in high school?

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Why did you focus on those areas and not focus on, you know, English?

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Well, there might be a story behind it.

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It might, it might seem confusing at first, but, you know, it's

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like, there might be a story that makes absolute sense.

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Right.

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Let me give you an example.

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Right.

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It could be that your interest in English stems from, you know, your passion for

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reading, but unfortunately, because of, let's say you suffered from dyslexia,

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or maybe you are, you know, you immigrated to the United States when you

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were, I don't know, like eight years old.

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And so English is not your primary language and, you know, you tried and

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tried to learn, but you weren't good enough to get into those honors classes.

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But, you know, you'd still had that passion for English literature, let's say.

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And so that's what your real passion is.

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You just happen to be really, really good in the sciences.

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Right.

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But that's not where your passion lies.

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Like that information would be super helpful because now it doesn't seem

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like you're up to something weird or you're not an applicant that doesn't

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make any sense, right?

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You're not a confusing applicant.

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You're an applicant that sounds like a real person with real experience and the

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things that you picked actually make sense.

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Okay.

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Now, this is also true for, you know, aspects of your resume, right?

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The other parts of your application, where the applicant might look at it and be

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like, this doesn't quite make a lot of sense, or there's a sudden shift or a

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change, and I'm not sure what happened here, right?

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And a good example of this, and this happens to some students, right?

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Where they were doing great in terms of their grades.

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They're getting like, you know, B's and A's only.

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And then all of a sudden, one particular semester, their grades take a nosedive.

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Right.

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Maybe it's for a full year, right?

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Or maybe a year of their high school career is just gone, right?

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Like they just disappeared for a year, at least on the resume, it looks like.

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Right.

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Right.

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Like that doesn't make any sense.

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That's not like the standard trajectory of a high school student's career.

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So then the, you know, the applicant, the, you know, admission committee is

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going to look at that and be like, okay, this doesn't make any sense.

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Can you give me some information to help me out?

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And this is what the personal statement is for.

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This is where you can explain exactly what happened.

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Right.

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So it could be, for instance, that you were grieving a terrible personal loss,

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or your family was going through some family, you know, trauma or tragedy.

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All right.

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Or you were going through your own personal health issues.

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Okay.

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The goal here is not to tell a sob story or to make excuses for yourself.

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That's not what this is.

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What this is, is you giving all of the relevant information so that the

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00:13:34,520 --> 00:13:38,440
admission committee can make sense of the applicant and so the admission

243
00:13:38,440 --> 00:13:43,240
committee can look and say, I understand this person that's applying.

244
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All right.

245
00:13:44,520 --> 00:13:51,200
The grades, the SAT scores, all these metrics are merely data points.

246
00:13:51,760 --> 00:13:57,160
And those data points don't actually make sense until you put it all together.

247
00:13:57,720 --> 00:13:57,920
Right.

248
00:13:57,960 --> 00:13:59,080
Until you put it all together.

249
00:13:59,360 --> 00:14:04,120
So if your grades dip one particular semester, but you show outstanding

250
00:14:04,120 --> 00:14:08,960
grades and the rest of them, if you could explain what factors contributed

251
00:14:08,960 --> 00:14:13,080
to that one semester, that would be extremely helpful because now the

252
00:14:13,080 --> 00:14:16,680
admission committee knows, hey, it's not that they're not capable of

253
00:14:16,680 --> 00:14:17,880
having gotten great grades.

254
00:14:18,120 --> 00:14:21,360
They were just going through some stuff that made it particularly difficult

255
00:14:21,400 --> 00:14:25,440
this particular semester, but now they got a handle on it and look at

256
00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:26,400
how well they're thriving.

257
00:14:26,960 --> 00:14:27,240
Right.

258
00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:29,760
That's the information that they need.

259
00:14:30,200 --> 00:14:30,440
Okay.

260
00:14:30,440 --> 00:14:34,520
Another good example that I found with students was, you know, if they had

261
00:14:34,520 --> 00:14:37,160
to work, for instance, because their family was going through financial

262
00:14:37,160 --> 00:14:40,840
struggle, it's expected that the grades are going to take a hit.

263
00:14:41,640 --> 00:14:41,920
Right.

264
00:14:42,120 --> 00:14:43,080
It is hard.

265
00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:43,920
It is hard.

266
00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:46,680
If you are a high school student and you're, you know, during the school

267
00:14:46,680 --> 00:14:50,560
year, you have a part-time job or you're helping out your parents at their store,

268
00:14:51,120 --> 00:14:54,280
you know, 20 hours a week because they need the help, because you're in

269
00:14:54,280 --> 00:14:55,920
financial turmoil, right.

270
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If you had to do all that and it's not something glamorous that you could put

271
00:15:00,120 --> 00:15:04,360
on your resume, that information would be still be super duper helpful

272
00:15:04,360 --> 00:15:05,400
to have in there somewhere.

273
00:15:05,840 --> 00:15:06,560
Why is that?

274
00:15:06,960 --> 00:15:10,440
Well, for one, there could be a lot of life experiences that you bring to the

275
00:15:10,440 --> 00:15:15,600
table from those, from the experience you had, but two, it could do a lot

276
00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:21,360
of explaining of, for instance, why you didn't take all honors classes, right?

277
00:15:21,880 --> 00:15:25,360
Well, honors classes tend to take up more energy and more time.

278
00:15:25,360 --> 00:15:26,200
And more, right.

279
00:15:26,200 --> 00:15:27,800
It takes up more, it takes more out of you.

280
00:15:28,640 --> 00:15:32,480
More that you cannot give if you're too busy caring for your family.

281
00:15:32,880 --> 00:15:33,160
Right.

282
00:15:33,480 --> 00:15:36,760
I've met students who had to take care of, for instance, the elderly

283
00:15:36,760 --> 00:15:37,560
in their family, right.

284
00:15:37,800 --> 00:15:41,680
There was the, both parents were working and you know, their grandmother or

285
00:15:41,680 --> 00:15:46,440
grandfather was living with them and they had no way to care for themselves.

286
00:15:46,440 --> 00:15:50,360
And so, you know, the students would go to school, come back from school and

287
00:15:50,360 --> 00:15:52,640
then do their part in caring for their grandparents.

288
00:15:52,640 --> 00:15:52,920
Right.

289
00:15:52,920 --> 00:15:56,760
It's not that they're not capable of doing the academic work.

290
00:15:56,760 --> 00:15:58,720
They're not capable, they're prepared.

291
00:15:58,720 --> 00:16:00,720
They're able to hold their, hold their own.

292
00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:01,240
Right.

293
00:16:01,760 --> 00:16:04,600
But the reason that they didn't do a bunch of extracurricular activities, for

294
00:16:04,600 --> 00:16:08,560
instance, is that they were too busy doing something else, right.

295
00:16:09,120 --> 00:16:12,840
Something very much valuable and worthwhile, at least I think.

296
00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:13,560
Right.

297
00:16:14,240 --> 00:16:20,560
In other words, personal statements, okay, is not your chance to just

298
00:16:20,560 --> 00:16:24,520
blab about all how wonderful you are and how accomplished you are.

299
00:16:24,880 --> 00:16:32,960
The personal statement is an opportunity for you to explain just who you are in

300
00:16:32,960 --> 00:16:37,440
ways that you just can't show in other parts of your application, because the

301
00:16:37,440 --> 00:16:41,080
other parts of your application, honestly, just does not give you the room for it.

302
00:16:41,680 --> 00:16:46,680
Even if you do, like if you, even if you can list some of the activities that

303
00:16:46,680 --> 00:16:51,760
you've done in high school, you know, the way that it is meaningful for you or

304
00:16:51,760 --> 00:16:56,040
how it impacted you, that's not going to be in any other place in your application.

305
00:16:56,960 --> 00:16:58,640
It's going to be in the personal statement.

306
00:16:59,360 --> 00:17:00,480
It's going to be in the personal statement.

307
00:17:01,080 --> 00:17:01,320
Right.

308
00:17:02,360 --> 00:17:08,280
Which means when you are thinking about what am I going to write about in my

309
00:17:08,280 --> 00:17:13,640
personal statement, I want you to follow a list of questions that you make sure

310
00:17:13,640 --> 00:17:16,400
you answer along the way, right?

311
00:17:16,800 --> 00:17:20,920
In other words, I want you to have a laser focus on the actual

312
00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:22,560
purpose of a personal statement.

313
00:17:22,840 --> 00:17:23,080
Okay.

314
00:17:24,160 --> 00:17:26,520
There's going to be a lot of talk and we're going to get into this right

315
00:17:26,520 --> 00:17:27,720
about the topics you pick.

316
00:17:27,960 --> 00:17:28,040
Okay.

317
00:17:28,040 --> 00:17:30,360
There's going to be a lot of talk about like, you shouldn't pick this topic.

318
00:17:30,360 --> 00:17:31,560
You shouldn't pick that topic.

319
00:17:31,560 --> 00:17:31,800
Okay.

320
00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:34,400
I think those are all supposed to be rule of thumbs.

321
00:17:35,240 --> 00:17:40,760
I think they are not really at the core of what you should be doing with

322
00:17:40,760 --> 00:17:41,960
regards to personal statements.

323
00:17:41,960 --> 00:17:45,400
But I think it's just like a kind of shorthand that people have thrown out there.

324
00:17:46,040 --> 00:17:47,400
I want us to get away from that.

325
00:17:47,880 --> 00:17:51,760
And there's going to be a reason for it is that your story matters.

326
00:17:52,480 --> 00:17:57,480
Whatever aspect of you that actually matters to you, that's what should be

327
00:17:57,480 --> 00:17:58,680
coming out in the personal statement.

328
00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:02,120
And the reason for it is that the personal statement, like I said, is

329
00:18:02,120 --> 00:18:06,760
designed to give you a chance to explain who you really are.

330
00:18:07,080 --> 00:18:07,320
Okay.

331
00:18:07,640 --> 00:18:10,280
So here's some questions for you to kind of answer.

332
00:18:10,280 --> 00:18:15,480
Here's some questions for you to kind of think about and ponder before we talk in

333
00:18:15,480 --> 00:18:18,840
some detail about exactly what to write and how to write it.

334
00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:19,240
Okay.

335
00:18:20,120 --> 00:18:27,000
One, what information about my life is missing in the other parts of the

336
00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:27,560
application?

337
00:18:28,360 --> 00:18:29,000
Okay.

338
00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:31,960
What aspects of my life are missing?

339
00:18:32,760 --> 00:18:33,400
Okay.

340
00:18:33,400 --> 00:18:34,920
This could be work.

341
00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:38,040
This could be, you know, personal matters.

342
00:18:38,040 --> 00:18:39,960
This could be relationships.

343
00:18:39,960 --> 00:18:45,400
This could be, you know, X, Y, Z, just whatever life experience, because, you

344
00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:49,480
know, let's be honest, school is school, but there's a lot of things that happen

345
00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:53,000
outside of school or within school that has nothing to do with grades and all of

346
00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:53,160
that.

347
00:18:53,160 --> 00:18:53,480
Right.

348
00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:56,360
So that's one thing.

349
00:18:56,360 --> 00:18:56,600
Right.

350
00:18:56,600 --> 00:18:59,800
And again, I don't want you to limit yourself here.

351
00:18:59,800 --> 00:19:00,840
All of your life matters.

352
00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:01,000
Right.

353
00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:02,600
So this could be dealing with friendships.

354
00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:03,880
This could be dealing with family.

355
00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:08,520
This could be dealing with, you know, your own personal journeys, health,

356
00:19:08,520 --> 00:19:09,400
whatever else it might be.

357
00:19:09,400 --> 00:19:09,960
Okay.

358
00:19:09,960 --> 00:19:13,000
So what is missing in the rest of the application that you haven't talked

359
00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:15,640
about that, you know, is a part of who you are.

360
00:19:15,640 --> 00:19:15,880
Right.

361
00:19:16,680 --> 00:19:17,000
Okay.

362
00:19:18,040 --> 00:19:22,760
Secondly, does my application actually make sense?

363
00:19:23,480 --> 00:19:28,520
In other words, is everything on my application a cohesive picture of the

364
00:19:28,520 --> 00:19:34,440
kind of person that I really am or are there holes in this story?

365
00:19:34,440 --> 00:19:36,440
Are there gaps in the story?

366
00:19:36,440 --> 00:19:39,720
Is there something about the picture that's being painted that is not an

367
00:19:39,720 --> 00:19:41,080
accurate picture of who I am?

368
00:19:41,640 --> 00:19:41,960
Right.

369
00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:48,920
So, for instance, this includes taking a significant amount of time off or a

370
00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:54,520
sudden change in grade or a sudden change in activity or participation level.

371
00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:54,760
Right.

372
00:19:55,640 --> 00:19:57,720
Any of these things could qualify.

373
00:19:57,720 --> 00:19:58,360
Right.

374
00:19:58,360 --> 00:20:01,960
But what you want to think about when you're thinking about what to include in

375
00:20:01,960 --> 00:20:04,840
your personal statement, you need to ask yourself, like, is there something

376
00:20:04,840 --> 00:20:08,520
about the personal statement that doesn't make sense if you just read it

377
00:20:08,520 --> 00:20:11,640
off on a piece of paper as a list of things that you've done?

378
00:20:12,360 --> 00:20:12,600
Okay.

379
00:20:13,160 --> 00:20:17,880
If there's some things that just don't make a lot of sense, whether it's the

380
00:20:17,880 --> 00:20:22,360
type of activities you're participating in or whatever else, like that needs to

381
00:20:22,360 --> 00:20:23,000
be explained.

382
00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:24,200
These are two things.

383
00:20:24,200 --> 00:20:28,520
So these two first two questions are things that absolutely have to be in

384
00:20:28,520 --> 00:20:29,480
your personal statement.

385
00:20:30,040 --> 00:20:30,520
Okay.

386
00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:32,040
Absolutely have to be in your personal statement.

387
00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:38,840
I'm going to stress, I'm going to stress, okay, those of you who are going through

388
00:20:38,840 --> 00:20:42,280
a lot of hardships, those of you going through a lot of hardships, whether it's

389
00:20:42,280 --> 00:20:46,920
financial difficulty, whether it's, you know, physical or mental health issues,

390
00:20:47,800 --> 00:20:52,280
whether it's like various like learning disabilities, whether it's right,

391
00:20:52,280 --> 00:20:54,600
whatever it is you're struggling through.

392
00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:58,520
And I know students have all kinds of stories that I've talked to a lot of

393
00:20:58,520 --> 00:21:01,960
students and, you know, they've I've heard the range, right?

394
00:21:01,960 --> 00:21:06,040
You know, domestic abuse, alcoholism and gambling addiction in the family, right?

395
00:21:06,040 --> 00:21:08,200
Like there's a whole bunch of stuff that you could be going through.

396
00:21:08,200 --> 00:21:08,440
Okay.

397
00:21:09,080 --> 00:21:09,480
All right.

398
00:21:10,040 --> 00:21:11,720
I'm talking specifically to you.

399
00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:11,960
Okay.

400
00:21:12,920 --> 00:21:15,880
Do not be ashamed of your life experiences.

401
00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:16,680
Okay.

402
00:21:16,680 --> 00:21:19,720
Be ready to put it all out there on the personal statement.

403
00:21:20,440 --> 00:21:23,560
And I'm saying this to you specifically for a reason.

404
00:21:23,560 --> 00:21:23,800
Okay.

405
00:21:24,520 --> 00:21:29,000
You have a lot of potential, but life has dealt you a really bad hand.

406
00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:33,560
And so your potential hasn't been reached or isn't showing in your application.

407
00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:35,080
Okay.

408
00:21:35,640 --> 00:21:40,440
If you were able to meet the basic minimum requirements to apply to college,

409
00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:48,520
then you are worthy of actually writing out all the things that have hindered you

410
00:21:48,520 --> 00:21:50,040
from reaching your full potential.

411
00:21:50,040 --> 00:21:50,760
Okay.

412
00:21:50,760 --> 00:21:53,400
This is not you writing a sob story.

413
00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:56,360
This is not you making excuses for yourself.

414
00:21:56,360 --> 00:22:01,800
This is not a boo-hoo, oh, woe is me, please give me a handout story.

415
00:22:01,800 --> 00:22:03,960
That's not at all what this is.

416
00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:04,840
Okay.

417
00:22:05,400 --> 00:22:12,680
What this is, is a chance for the admission committee to actually see all of your accomplishments.

418
00:22:13,480 --> 00:22:13,880
Okay.

419
00:22:14,680 --> 00:22:20,520
Just because there's no specific award for it doesn't mean that your experiences are

420
00:22:20,520 --> 00:22:22,920
not valuable in the academic setting.

421
00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:23,560
Okay.

422
00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:24,520
Does not mean that.

423
00:22:24,520 --> 00:22:30,040
And it does not mean that your accomplishments are actually reflective of your real potential.

424
00:22:30,040 --> 00:22:30,600
Okay.

425
00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:36,040
Colleges know that life gets in the way of you being able to be your best self.

426
00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:43,720
The question is, can you show that that potential is really there by showing them

427
00:22:43,720 --> 00:22:49,000
that you are still able to do quite a bit with all of the bad things that life has dealt you?

428
00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:49,880
Okay.

429
00:22:49,880 --> 00:22:52,840
So do not make excuses for yourself.

430
00:22:52,840 --> 00:22:54,760
Do not hold your head down in shame.

431
00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:59,240
Do not be worried that you are trying to elicit sympathy or anything like that.

432
00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:00,760
That is not what this is.

433
00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:04,920
This is nothing more than what everyone else is doing on their personal statement, which

434
00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:11,320
is providing information that the, you know, mission committee does not have and two,

435
00:23:11,320 --> 00:23:14,680
putting your accomplishments into the right context.

436
00:23:14,680 --> 00:23:15,160
Right.

437
00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:20,120
There's a difference between somebody keeping up straight A's when they had nothing else

438
00:23:20,120 --> 00:23:22,920
to do in their free time.

439
00:23:22,920 --> 00:23:27,000
They had everything that they needed provided for versus somebody who's maintained straight

440
00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:33,720
A's while also, you know, holding down a 30, 20, 30 hour week job because they had to support

441
00:23:33,720 --> 00:23:35,000
their family financially.

442
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:35,560
Okay.

443
00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:37,400
There's a big difference between the two.

444
00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:42,360
One shows even greater potential because they just weren't given the opportunities to let

445
00:23:42,360 --> 00:23:43,400
that potential fly.

446
00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:44,040
Okay.

447
00:23:44,040 --> 00:23:47,240
And this is what the mission committee wants to know.

448
00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:48,840
They're not looking to give handouts.

449
00:23:48,840 --> 00:23:50,440
They're not looking to give handouts.

450
00:23:50,440 --> 00:23:50,760
Okay.

451
00:23:50,760 --> 00:23:53,320
So in other words, you have to work for it.

452
00:23:53,320 --> 00:23:58,120
You still have to accomplish something to show them that you have the potential, but

453
00:23:58,120 --> 00:24:04,360
you do need to also share all the things happening in your life that impact how to understand

454
00:24:04,360 --> 00:24:07,880
the accomplishments that you have, that you have made.

455
00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:08,200
Okay.

456
00:24:09,160 --> 00:24:09,640
Sound good.

457
00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:10,840
Okay.

458
00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:13,000
Last words.

459
00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:15,720
Last words before we move on to part two.

460
00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:15,960
Okay.

461
00:24:15,960 --> 00:24:24,520
When you write, when you write in your personal statement, okay, you need to be yourself.

462
00:24:25,560 --> 00:24:27,240
This is a personal statement.

463
00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:37,480
This is not some sort of elaborate, revised, you know, edited, you know, what do people

464
00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:38,120
call it?

465
00:24:38,120 --> 00:24:42,680
Like, this is not a way to present yourself as smarter or more intellectual than you really

466
00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:43,160
are.

467
00:24:43,160 --> 00:24:44,120
That's not really the goal.

468
00:24:44,120 --> 00:24:47,240
Now, should you write the way that you text your friends?

469
00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:48,920
No, definitely not.

470
00:24:48,920 --> 00:24:50,680
It's still a professional document, right?

471
00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:52,440
So you should treat it seriously as such.

472
00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:53,960
Should you not have people edit it?

473
00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:56,680
No, you should have it edited by people who know what they're doing.

474
00:24:56,680 --> 00:25:00,120
You should have people look at it to make sure that you're not saying things that you,

475
00:25:00,120 --> 00:25:02,920
you know, make you may look poorly on you, right?

476
00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:05,560
Or be chock full of, you know, writing errors.

477
00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:05,880
Right.

478
00:25:05,880 --> 00:25:06,280
Okay.

479
00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:13,480
What I mean is that authenticity is what captures the audience.

480
00:25:13,480 --> 00:25:18,280
It needs to feel like a real person speaking to the admission committee.

481
00:25:18,280 --> 00:25:19,400
That's what it needs to feel like.

482
00:25:19,400 --> 00:25:19,880
Okay.

483
00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:28,760
Essays that are overly polished, right, or clearly is trying to present yourself as someone

484
00:25:28,760 --> 00:25:35,720
that itself is going to raise red flags because then it starts looking like you are presenting

485
00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:36,840
some sort of facade.

486
00:25:36,840 --> 00:25:40,360
Now, high school students tell me, no, no, no, but I could go ahead and fake it.

487
00:25:40,360 --> 00:25:41,640
I can make it sound like it's real.

488
00:25:41,640 --> 00:25:45,320
Right. Okay. Like they tell me all these things, but I've been, I've been, you know, I'm a

489
00:25:45,320 --> 00:25:46,200
philosophy instructor.

490
00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:46,600
Right.

491
00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:50,120
So I grade a lot of papers like you can tell immediately.

492
00:25:50,120 --> 00:25:50,520
Right.

493
00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:55,000
When you have developed the kind of writing and reading skills at the, you know, highest

494
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:58,520
of levels, which a lot of these people in the admission committees will have, right,

495
00:25:58,520 --> 00:26:02,280
they have graduate degrees, for instance, they're going to know when something comes

496
00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:04,760
off as very unauthentic, right, inauthentic.

497
00:26:04,760 --> 00:26:08,760
So you want to make sure that you are really being authentic.

498
00:26:08,760 --> 00:26:09,000
Okay.

499
00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:11,720
That you are really being authentic, okay.

500
00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:13,240
That you are presenting your true self.

501
00:26:13,240 --> 00:26:17,880
Okay. Again, you should still have somebody edit, right, because your true self might

502
00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:21,640
not be necessarily the best true self that you have.

503
00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:26,360
Okay. But your goal here is to sound like a real person.

504
00:26:26,360 --> 00:26:28,200
Okay. It's going to be a different style of writing.

505
00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:32,920
We'll talk a lot more about this, but it's a different way of writing that's going to

506
00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:39,720
require you, okay, to not write like you do for an academic paper, like you do for like

507
00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:42,040
a, you know, midterm essay at school.

508
00:26:42,920 --> 00:26:44,600
That's not how you should be writing.

509
00:26:44,600 --> 00:26:49,560
You should be writing more like you're sharing a story with a friend.

510
00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:56,440
Okay. And it will hit a chord, no matter what the story, it will hit a chord with the

511
00:26:56,440 --> 00:26:58,520
reader if you're being authentic.

512
00:26:58,520 --> 00:27:02,840
Once you stop being authentic, that's when the audience will start to bore.

513
00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:06,440
That's when they'll start to snooze and stop paying attention.

514
00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:08,520
Okay. It's not about humor.

515
00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:10,040
It's not about being clever.

516
00:27:10,040 --> 00:27:15,560
Okay. If you are a funny person, if you are clever, if that's a part of your DNA, that's

517
00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:18,520
just kind of who you are, then great, include that.

518
00:27:18,520 --> 00:27:20,680
But if that's not who you are, don't put that in there.

519
00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:23,960
Okay. Be yourself.

520
00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:24,600
Okay.

521
00:27:24,600 --> 00:27:30,360
What that means is that you will need to do a lot, a lot of self reflection.

522
00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:37,480
Okay. So one thing that will really help, I think, for students to kind of prepare to

523
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:40,760
write a personal statement when they're writing an essay like this and talking about

524
00:27:41,240 --> 00:27:45,960
themselves in the most authentic way in order for you to be authentic, you need to actually

525
00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:46,840
know yourself.

526
00:27:46,840 --> 00:27:48,760
You're going to have to start doing some reflections.

527
00:27:48,760 --> 00:27:52,920
Okay. So a couple of simple exercises that are helpful to get you started.

528
00:27:52,920 --> 00:27:58,200
One is if you don't do it already, I mean, I don't know how popular this is, but I think

529
00:27:58,200 --> 00:28:02,040
some people do it now in the form of like blogging or vlogging.

530
00:28:02,520 --> 00:28:08,920
But in written form, I, when I was a young kid, you know, used to have a diary where

531
00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:11,480
I would write out my feelings and experiences and so on.

532
00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:13,800
Right. That would be a good place to start.

533
00:28:13,800 --> 00:28:16,360
If you haven't done that before, it's a different kind of writing.

534
00:28:16,360 --> 00:28:19,720
It'll feel a lot different than the kind of writing you do for school.

535
00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:24,200
But there's another exercise that I found to be really helpful for me when I wrote

536
00:28:24,200 --> 00:28:31,480
personal statements, both for applying to colleges, but also applying to graduate schools.

537
00:28:31,480 --> 00:28:34,440
Right. And here's the exercise.

538
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:38,600
Right. I want you to draw a timeline of your life up to this point.

539
00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:47,000
Okay. And I want you to pinpoint memories that have stuck with you.

540
00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:53,160
That are very vivid. Right. These are memories that, you know, you just, you know, you'll

541
00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:58,920
never forget because there's something about the experience that really matter to you.

542
00:28:59,880 --> 00:29:02,120
Right. And I don't want you to censor yourself here.

543
00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:05,960
I don't want you to censor yourself and then tell yourself like, oh, like doesn't sound

544
00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:06,840
like all that important. Okay.

545
00:29:06,840 --> 00:29:08,760
This is one of the things that I struggle with with students.

546
00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:11,640
Right. It's like, look, when you're writing these personal statements, you got to take

547
00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:12,760
all the filters off. Okay.

548
00:29:12,760 --> 00:29:14,360
You can't edit yourself.

549
00:29:14,360 --> 00:29:15,640
You can't edit yourself.

550
00:29:15,640 --> 00:29:18,600
You can't edit yourself while you're writing these papers.

551
00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:22,200
Right. So in this exercise, what I want you to do is I want you to be honest with yourself

552
00:29:22,200 --> 00:29:26,120
and say like, hey, these are some memories that really stuck with me.

553
00:29:26,120 --> 00:29:28,120
Okay. These are some memories that really stuck with me.

554
00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:33,960
Let me give you an example of one that of my own that might sound completely like whatever,

555
00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:35,800
but it has often stuck with me.

556
00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:37,080
I had a recurring dream.

557
00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:41,800
I had a recurring dream where I don't know if you know the movie E.T.

558
00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:42,760
This is from my childhood.

559
00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:43,560
Right. E.T.

560
00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:49,880
The movie where there's this alien thing and, you know, Elliot's the main character has

561
00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:55,480
this alien on a basket on his on his bike and he's riding away from all these like people

562
00:29:55,480 --> 00:29:56,680
who are trying to chase after them.

563
00:29:56,680 --> 00:29:57,960
And then the bike starts to fly.

564
00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:05,480
Right. I had a recurring dream, a nightmare, to be honest, when I was a kid where that

565
00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:11,720
was happening to me in the apartment complex that I was living in, except that the bike

566
00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:13,800
would start to go up a little bit.

567
00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:16,840
I mean, I have an alien with me, but the bike would start to go up a little bit.

568
00:30:16,840 --> 00:30:17,880
I was running away from people.

569
00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:22,520
I don't even know why in the dream, but I was flying a little bit, maybe like a foot

570
00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:23,160
off the ground.

571
00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:25,800
And then all of a sudden it would come crashing back down.

572
00:30:25,800 --> 00:30:29,400
And then whoever was chasing me, the group of people chasing me would be able to capture

573
00:30:29,400 --> 00:30:29,560
me.

574
00:30:29,560 --> 00:30:31,080
And that's when I woke up from the dream.

575
00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:31,720
Okay.

576
00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:32,680
That was a nightmare.

577
00:30:32,680 --> 00:30:32,920
Okay.

578
00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:37,560
But it's something that I still remember to this day because it was a recurring nightmare,

579
00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:39,880
but clearly it had an impact on me.

580
00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:43,560
There wouldn't be a reason for me to remember it if it didn't have that kind of impact on

581
00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:44,040
me.

582
00:30:44,040 --> 00:30:44,680
Okay.

583
00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:50,520
So whatever that is, I want you to, on your timeline, mark all of those moments.

584
00:30:50,520 --> 00:30:52,520
I want you to mark all of those moments.

585
00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:53,160
Okay.

586
00:30:53,160 --> 00:30:58,840
There will probably be quite a few key memories that really were impactful for you.

587
00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:04,840
If you haven't watched the movie Inside Out, especially Inside Out 2, right, that would

588
00:31:04,840 --> 00:31:08,280
be a good set of movies to watch because I think this is going to be really helpful for

589
00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:12,840
kind of opening up your mind to reflecting on these experiences and what they actually

590
00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:13,400
mean for you.

591
00:31:14,200 --> 00:31:20,040
And once you have laid out all of these experiences, I want you to start asking yourself,

592
00:31:20,040 --> 00:31:27,080
right, how these, how did these experiences that are so vivid to me, right, how has that

593
00:31:27,080 --> 00:31:28,280
actually impacted me?

594
00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:29,800
Right.

595
00:31:29,800 --> 00:31:33,880
Now you might need help from friends to kind of point some connections out here, right,

596
00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:40,840
but there's usually an explanation if you are interested in, let's say, chemistry.

597
00:31:41,720 --> 00:31:47,320
It could be the subject itself, but oftentimes there's something else that has contributed

598
00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:49,480
to your having a passion for that thing.

599
00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:49,720
Okay.

600
00:31:50,280 --> 00:31:53,800
If you're interested in history, there might be a reason that you're interested in history.

601
00:31:53,800 --> 00:31:59,880
If you're interested in, I don't know, like I'm trying to think, oh, like I was interested

602
00:31:59,880 --> 00:32:04,040
in political science and game theory and philosophy, right.

603
00:32:04,040 --> 00:32:08,920
You know, when I think about my interest in philosophy, right, yeah, the subject interested

604
00:32:08,920 --> 00:32:11,880
me, but the question is this, why did it interest me so much?

605
00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:19,800
And then I have this vivid memory of my having these arguments with my dad over theology,

606
00:32:19,800 --> 00:32:30,360
over the existence of God, over religion, over politics, over social issues, and over big concepts,

607
00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:33,320
ideas about truth, right.

608
00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:35,960
I would have these discussions with my dad.

609
00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:37,800
I remember my brother was bored of them.

610
00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:42,440
My mom thought it was too much conflict in the house and they didn't like the back and

611
00:32:42,440 --> 00:32:44,120
she didn't like the back and forth, right.

612
00:32:44,120 --> 00:32:49,720
But my dad and I really got into it and we would sometimes return to screaming matches.

613
00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:54,440
But I have these vivid memories and then I was thinking about it, where did my interest

614
00:32:54,440 --> 00:32:55,320
actually come from?

615
00:32:56,040 --> 00:33:00,280
It probably started at a fairly early age.

616
00:33:01,080 --> 00:33:05,400
Something about this topic is interesting to me, maybe because it was interesting to

617
00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:06,120
me before.

618
00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:12,360
And on top of that, I had this space to explore that curiosity with somebody.

619
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:16,520
And so that interest kind of stuck with me, right.

620
00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:19,720
That's something for me, right, is very, very significant.

621
00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:23,400
For you, it's going to be something else, okay.

622
00:33:23,400 --> 00:33:27,080
What matters here isn't the actual event.

623
00:33:27,640 --> 00:33:32,520
What matters here isn't the actual thing that, you know, is meaningful for you.

624
00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:35,080
What matters is that it's meaningful for you.

625
00:33:36,040 --> 00:33:38,280
And that's where you're going to find authenticity.

626
00:33:38,280 --> 00:33:41,000
It needs to matter to you, okay.

627
00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:45,480
So I'll talk more about exactly how to translate that into a personal state.

628
00:33:45,480 --> 00:33:52,840
But for now, what you need to be able to do is to actually talk honestly about yourself

629
00:33:52,840 --> 00:33:53,640
to yourself.

630
00:33:54,520 --> 00:33:57,000
You need to speak honestly about yourself to yourself.

631
00:33:57,240 --> 00:34:00,200
This is the good, the bad, the ugly.

632
00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:03,960
You need to be able to talk about it all because you're not going to be able to present

633
00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:08,760
the best parts of you without also acknowledging the worst parts of you.

634
00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:09,800
Right.

635
00:34:09,800 --> 00:34:12,760
So good or bad memory doesn't matter.

636
00:34:12,760 --> 00:34:18,280
Is it a big major trauma or something that people would all be in shock and all over?

637
00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:20,120
It doesn't matter.

638
00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:23,640
What matters is only it's only one thing that matters.

639
00:34:23,640 --> 00:34:26,360
What matters is that it's meaningful for you.

640
00:34:26,360 --> 00:34:29,880
And one way to kind of detect that this is just one tool, it's not a guarantee, but as

641
00:34:29,880 --> 00:34:34,840
one tool, we're figuring out what actually matters to you is that the memories that

642
00:34:34,840 --> 00:34:41,000
linger, that never go away, the memories that you always seem to come back to, are going

643
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:46,200
to come back to often have left an imprint in you for a reason.

644
00:34:46,200 --> 00:34:52,120
It has left a mark in you because it was something that actually mattered to you, whether it

645
00:34:52,120 --> 00:34:55,560
was good, whether it was bad, whether it was ugly.

646
00:34:55,560 --> 00:34:56,280
Right.

647
00:34:56,280 --> 00:35:01,560
An embarrassing moment, something you did that you're ashamed of, something that you're

648
00:35:01,560 --> 00:35:07,080
excited about and super joyful for, something that someone did to you or that you did to

649
00:35:07,080 --> 00:35:09,160
somebody else, like whatever it is.

650
00:35:09,160 --> 00:35:14,680
If it matters to you, I want you to mark it down, make a note of it, and let's start unpacking

651
00:35:14,680 --> 00:35:15,240
that.

652
00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:19,400
And that's where we're going to find the gem in your personal statement.

653
00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:39,080
Until next time.