3 Choices I Made That Made My Personal Statement Stand Out

I will be the first person to say that personal statement writing is difficult, and at times impossible. It must be distinct from your resume in content, but consistent with the personal sketch. It must communicate and convey passion, but must be written with restraint and clarity.

Here are three choices I made that, I believe, made my personal statement stand out.

1. I spoke about soft skills specifically, not just the experiences that helped cultivate them.

In reviewing other’s personal statements and application materials prior to writing my own, I too often read about the experience and less about how it changed the applicant in a positive way.

This may in turn cause your personal statement to feel too similar to a fellow applicant.

Moreover, if 1000 law school applicants had the same job with the same responsibilities, their summary of the position would be nearly identical. But, I posit that the ways in which the experience of that position impacted the applicant would be different in nearly every case.

It is important to remember that it is not a specific title, position or rank within a student organization that will make you a fantastic candidate for law school (or any professional program). Rather, it is the lessons you have learned, the positive traits you have gained and the skills you have refined.

If speaking about your experiences and the skills you have gained in isolation of one another seems rather odd, collect your thoughts at the end of the statement. Find a cohesive skill or characteristic that is demonstrated throughout.

At the end of my personal statement, I added this to summarize and connect some of the experiences I had previously mentioned. I tied them all to one broad act — planting seeds in the pursuit of the growth of others.

Throughout university, I have impacted women and men of all ages, planting seeds of change. With Alia, I have planted seeds of accessibility. With my WWIL and EGLS mentees, I have planted seeds of success. Some of my greatest accomplishments have been in the pursuit of helping others.

2. I quantified the results of my experiences as much as possible.

It can be tempting for many applicants to use the personal statement as a platform to reiterate and share their favourite experiences during their undergraduate experience. It is critical that not only are the most impactful positions and opportunities you were given explored in the statement, but an applicant must also focus on quantifying the results of those experiences, where appropriate.

At Huron University College while serving as Philosophy Department Representative for Huron University College Student’s Council, I had the opportunity to personally mentor and provide peer editing assistance to many of my fellow students.

In my personal statement, I mentioned the cumulative hours I personally spent alongside my fellow philosophers, helping them clarify their thoughts and improve their writing. This was a fantastic way to communicate my level of commitment and dedication to the position.

When I served as VP Communications for one of Western’s largest student-run organizations, Western Women in Leadership, I oversaw the management and operation of all social media platforms. In my personal statement, I included important KSFs and mentioned data sets that clearly demonstrated a rapidly growing and consistently engaging digital presence.

These clear quantitative indicators give powerful insights into the impact of your role in the organization. When included with a demonstration of strong soft-skill development, this combination is impressive and memorable.

3. I was authentic. If you’ve got a great story, share it with passion.

In my opinion, writing with passion is difficult. It can be tough to compose an emotional piece with mature writing style and restraint in diction.

However, I share this final tip to encourage you to speak from the heart, where you find it appropriate to do so.

In this section of my personal statement, I wanted to accomplish three things:

1. I hoped to speak about an experience that truly changed my life. It deeply impacted me. I sincerely felt that no written piece deemed ‘personal’ could omit it.
2. I aimed to share a story, not for the gold star, or pat on the back, but to demonstrate how my diverse set of experiences at Western University exposed me to unique opportunities to become an advocate.
3. I aspired to articulate with detail and precision, experiences that took place over an entire academic year. This can be difficult with the maximum word and character count of many personal statements. However, with crisp and concise language, it is possible!

As part of my Spanish 2200 class at Western University, I had the opportunity to join a weekly English-Spanish conversational group. Every Friday afternoon for the duration of the academic year, I traveled by bus to the London Library and spent two hours with newcomers to Canada.

One week, I met Alia. Along with her family, she immigrated from Chile 5 years previous in search of a better life. At first we discussed our hobbies and the weather, alternating between Spanish and English. As we grew to know one another, the conversation deepened to include long-term goals and challenges.

One day, Alia communicated to me that she had difficulties accessing proper health care in Canada. After suffering in pain for many days, Alia traveled to a local walk-in clinic.

Her language skills were not advanced enough to communicate her symptoms to her doctor. Understandably, her physician refused the use of Alia’s 13 year old son to translate for her, as often family members may omit, change or add words, resulting in an incorrect diagnosis.

As I learned, Alia was not given the proper antibiotics due to this lack of communication with her doctor, and as a result, was hospitalized. She was unable to work for several weeks, greatly impacting her family’s limited finances.

Her story sparked something within me.

I knew then, I had to advocate on behalf of Alia and all other immigrants who were facing language issues. I began an inquiry into recent advances that could help in the translation from patients to physicians. In March, I presented a speech on the importance of improving medical care for non-English speaking newcomers to Canada at a Western University competition — I placed 3rd.

This was a pivotal moment in my desire to become a lawyer. I knew that a career in law would provide me with many opportunities to improve people’s lives, like Alia’s.

I believe a successful lawyer must compassionately advocate for societal improvements and dig deep for the answers. I was proud to give Alia’s story the voice it deserved.

Writing about personal experiences, challenges and successes can be tough. It may seem at times, that our individual stories lack excitement and uniqueness. Or, that our postsecondary path to law school cannot be articulated in 5000 characters or less. What is most important, in my opinion, is to remember that this is a personal statement. Speak truthfully and candidly from the heart — and always spell check!