What should I include in my personal statement application for college?

I'm starting to draft my personal statement for college applications, and I'm not sure what to focus on. I've heard that storytelling is important, but what kind of story should I tell? Should I talk about an academic achievement, personal challenge, or something else entirely? I want to make sure my application stands out and highlights who I am. Any tips or examples of successful personal statements would be hugely appreciated.

Crafting a personal statement for college applications does require thoughtful consideration and careful storytelling. The goal is to provide insight into who you are as an individual, beyond your academic accomplishments and extracurricular pursuits. Ultimately, you have to decide the story that best represents you, but here are some guidelines to help you in the process:

1. Showcase Your Core: Look for experiences or moments in your life that fundamentally shape who you are. These experiences can be big or small, but they should give a glimpse into your personality, values, or worldview. It could be a childhood event that made you curious about the world or a recent experience that challenged your viewpoints.

2. Portray Growth and Development: The best personal statements often show how you've grown or changed over time. Sharing such experiences demonstrate your resilience, adaptability, and willingness to learn from life's challenges, which can be particularly attractive to universities.

3. Reflect on Your Experience: Just recounting an event or an achievement isn't enough. The most compelling personal statements provide deeper insights and reflect on the significance of the events. How did the experience impact you? What did you learn? How will it influence your future actions or perspective?

4. Connect to Your Ambitions: It's helpful if your story can be connected to your future aspirations like your choice of major or long-term career goals. However, this isn't mandatory and you can instead focus on other valuable aspects like personal growth or lessons learned.

5. Make It Unique: As you have heard, avoid cliches or overused topics. The more personalized, the better. Choose the topics that you are most passionate about, and that showcase a side of you that's unique to your perspective.

Here's an example of how these ideas might come together:

Let's say you spent a summer working with your local community garden because of your interest in food security. Don't just narrate how you spent the summer; instead, focus on impactful or transformative moments. You could describe the day you noticed families were taking less produce because they felt embarrassed about needing assistance. This observation might have led you to propose a 'take what you need' system that made families feel more comfortable. This event can show your ability to recognize a problem and implement a creative solution, highlighting your abilities in leadership and community service, and showcasing your awareness of social issues.

Lastly, write and edit your statement multiple times, seeking feedback from teachers, mentors, or peers. Best of luck in your application process!