Personal statement for Masters Students

Marcus Amudipe

The process or the decision to apply to a graduate school can be a huge significant move towards attaining and reaching your career and academic goals. The process as a result of the brilliant arrays of candidates who intends to apply for it, or the candidates who have already applied for it in some ways makes the process quite a breathtaking and intimidating one.

Using the Nigerian context as a case example, many young students’ graduates from the various Nigerian tertiary institutions hoping to advance their academic pursuit for various reasons which are-

1. To give them an edge in the Labor Market– it has now become a major feature among students or graduates in Nigeria to always pursue advanced graduate studies right after graduating from any of the Nigerian Universities. This is because of the high numbers of graduates which are being produced yearly in the various tertiary institutions across the 36 states of the Federation. In the light of this job search in Nigeria has become a very competitive one due to the limited job opportunities in Nigeria which are caused by various factors ranging from corruption to bad leadership among every other factors.
2. Career Pursuit– Also within the Nigerian context and every other nations of the world, in order for any individual to advance their career or academic pursuit, it is quite important that they go for their Master’s degree program as they cannot jump this requirement. Also it is important that they ace this short academic pursuit for them to move on to the next step.

From the two aforementioned points, it has been clearly emphasized that there is a need for graduates in Nigeria who are seeking this opportunity to ensure that they are well prepared for this.

There is a quota or specific numbers of people that can be accepted each academic session by the university or tertiary institution within and out Nigeria. Thus it is quite important that they attach all levels of seriousness and dedication to each stages involved in the application process. 

One of the important documents which will be expected from you during the application process is the Personal Statement which must be attached to your application documents. 

Post graduate schools over the last few decades has made it a culture to request from aspiring students a well written personal statement as they believe it is one of the most important ways to reach out to these candidates with the view of knowing them better, their experiences, qualifications and their plans for the future.

What is a Personal Statement?

For the sake of this subject, in defining Personal Statement; the scope shall be limited to one fitting that of a Master’s Degree student. A personal statement can be defined as a short personal summary which is always submitted to Universities admission board in order that it might help you to have an edge above others who are to be considered for the opportunity. 

A personal statement is considered one of the most important parts of your application documents as it gives you the means to sell yourself to the admission board in a simple, easy to understand and well-structured paragraphs. It gives you the opportunity to highlight your skills, experience, qualification, and every other detail which you feel will make the admission board consider you for the admission spot.

You must bear it in mind that a well-written, structured and well-detailed personal statement will give you the opportunity to stand out among other applicants or candidates in the application process.

Adding to the aforementioned, your personal statement must be able to attend to certain important and critical questions which are, who are you? Why are you applying here? Why are you choosing this particular program or course? What are your personal interest and experience and how do they relate with the program that you are applying for.

The importance of writing your own personal statement as an aspiring Master’s Student

We have already laid much emphasis on what personal statement is, moving forward; it is Important that aspiring master’s student understands that there is a need for them to personally see to it that they write their personal statement themselves. Lifting already prepared personal statement off the pages of websites will do your application no good, what I imply here is that you must not copy and paste already made personal statements on the internet for your personal use. It is harmful to your application chances as it will be noted by your admission   committee which will reduce your chances of getting admitted. 

I do not imply to say that you should not seek help from others or use the services of good platforms that can guide you through the process of writing a good personal statement. The internet is filled with various platforms that does just that and one of this platform is LMWritingHub. This is an online platform which offers to job seekers and students across Nigeria a platform to seek opportunities when it comes to job search in Nigeria, career advancement, educational opportunities among other services. They have seasoned and well experienced professionals and contents that will put you through your application process with ease and no challenge. 

Back to the main discourse, it is germane that you understand that your personal statement is all about you, and you must in return use it to highlight your person in a very good light. The university which you are applying to wants to meet you, know you and also know why you will be a good addition to their university. Seize the moment to showcase you and not copy someone else or lift what was written by another.

The feature of a great Personal statement

When writing your personal statement, it is not just about writing nor using good adjectives or fancy words to qualify you. It is more about writing relevant details which the admission body or committee wants to read or see. When you begin to include details or information that is entirely not irrelevant to the subject matter, it does you no good. It is not a time for you to tell stories or use big or ambiguous words. It is simply an opportunity for you to showcase or sell yourself in simple and well-detailed terms. 

Think of it as if you are searching for jobs and you are in the process of convincing a recruiting firm or agency why you are the best candidate among the various numbers of applicants who applied for the job. 

Also avoid the use of bad grammars or typos when writing your personal statements.

Thus arising from the aforementioned, before you venture to start writing your personal statement as an aspiring Master’s student, kindly do the following as listed below

You have to:   

• Go through the institution website; do not make it a habit of jumping right at it without going the extra mile of getting to know the institution. Read about the requirements needed of you and make sure that you possess the right qualities that will make you fit for the program.
• Study the program that you are applying for, you can to do this is by visiting the admission portal of the university or speak with the admission officer. Some universities especially foreign universities do provide the services of mailing applicants with the prospectus of the university which contains relevant information which will give you a good understanding of the program.

After doing the above, it is also important that you are able to answer the following questions, when you have the right answers to them it will help you in no small way to plan the structure of your personal statement.

These questions which some of them have been mentioned earlier will be stated below for emphasis sake.

• Your reasons to study a masters and how you think this will benefit you
• In what way or manner does the program that you are applying for fit your skill sets 
• In what way do you stand out unique among others
• What are your plans for the future, short or long term plans

• Also in what way will your course/work impact the university, department or faculty or that field of work.

However when answering this question, it is important that you explain in the case of you changing from your field of undergraduate to a new one in your Master’s application. While doing this, make the admission board understand why you are changing to a new course or discipline.

Structuring your Personal Statement

Divide or arrange your words in paragraphs for the purpose of having a neat and tight structure in your personal statement, do well to ensure that each paragraph is in tandem with one another. Let there be a progressive though flow process. Do not talk about ‘A’ in the first paragraph and jump to ‘D’ in the second paragraph. 

In the light of these your personal statement must:

• Have a good, strong and interesting introduction. When you start on a boring note, the admission committee may easily get bored reading your file and lose interest
• Your introduction must set the pace for the next paragraphs
• Personal statement is not an opportunity to write in pages or chunk out large numbers of words. Keep it short and simple. Tailor it to be between 250 words and 500 words
• Your sentences must not be long, do well to keep it between 25 words to 30 words.
• Engage the use of headings just in case you intend moving away from discourse.
• Whenever you make any claim or assertion, do well to back such claims up with a valid proof.

For example

My passion for Literature sterns from my interest for folklores, that is why I published my first two books at the age of 15 about them.   

• Do not over use sentences or words; show your mastery of English by using good dictions.
• Your conclusion must be a summary of all the main details which you have provided, let it also reflect your achievements and also ensure that it mirrors your desire to be admitted to study.

Content

In writing your content, do well to ensure that your personal statement showcases your intensity, motivation and desire for the program, and as a result of this, be intentional with your use of words.

• State good, strong and convincing reasons why you have picked the institution, as well as the course which you picked.
• Highlights the various works which you have done in this field o study or the experience which you possess that you think will prove vital to helping you secure the admission
• Showcase and highlight in positive terms why you think you stand a chance among the various candidates who applied for the course or program.
• State your future plans either long term or short term and also highlight how the program will help you to meeting these various future plans.

Language

• Avoid spelling errors or grammatical mistakes when writing your personal statement
• Avoid the use of big words or long sentences.
• Do not exaggerate, avoid the use of excessive adjectives
• Employ the use of exciting language to make your personal statement an engaging one.
• Avoid the use of abbreviation in the course of writing your personal statement.
• Go through your work to avoid mistakes, ask a friend or a relative to help you go through it before you submit it.

Conclusion

Obtaining a master’s degree is great; it is always a welcome development for both your career advancement and academic pursuit when you decide to step out of your horizon with a view to expanding it. However in the process, you must recognize the great opportunities and benefits that come with taking such steps and you must treat it as such. In the process of writing your personal statement as an aspiring Master’s degree holder, do well to take cognizance of the key factors listed in this article as they will go a long way  in ensuring that you have an impressive and well detailed personal statement which will ultimately make you stand out among other applicants.