Who Are You?
Tips and Resources to Think About Yourself
If you are working on your personal statement for The Common Application or other college applications, the first step is to start to think about yourself.
Sounds easy enough.
Who am I?
What am I like?
How did I get this way?
What do I care about?
How do I learn?
Why do I matter?
For some students, reflecting on and analyzing their backgrounds can be a snap.
They enjoy that type of introspective, heady thinking.
For others, it can feel intimidating and baffling.
No matter how you feel about this process, you need to know who you are—or at least have some opinions about this—in order to write a meaningful college application essay about yourself.
In a personal statement essay, the most important content is where you showcase your ability to take a close look at yourself.
It’s not so much what you see, as how you can demonstrate the ability to step back and size up who you are and how you came to be that way—and why it matters.
The good news is that “getting deep” and self-reflection aren’t that difficult.
First, decide that it’s time to do a little soul searching.
Yes, it’s possible to learn how to push your thinking to a “deeper” level.
This is what college is all about!
(Do you have a Fixed or Growth Mindset? HINT: You want Growth to excel in college and life!)
So in your personal statement, make sure to show your target colleges that you already can self-reflect, analyze, examine, question and think (especially about yourself)!
Here are my best posts to help you learn
to bring more depth to your college application essays:
Learn what core qualities and characteristics make you you:
Learn how to use these in your essays:
Defining Qualities Rock College Application Essays
Find out what values matter the most to you:
Find Your Core Values to Rock Your Essay
More help on figuring out what you care about the most:
Teach yourself how to move beyond narrow, black-and-white thinking:
Best College Application Essays Have a Touch of Gray
Find out if a life lesson you learned applies to everyone in the world:
Do You Have a Universal Truth in Your Essay?
If you take the time to read these posts and turn the magnifying glass on yourself, I’m confident you will discover insights, observations and ideas to bring depth and meaning to your college application essays.
Here’s that Fixed vs Growth Mindset Question for you. I LOVE this!
Image Via Brainpickings.com
Good luck!
