Sample personal statement masters program

You can also decide whether to address things like setbacks or gaps in your application as part of your narrative.

Have a low GPA for a couple semesters due to a health issue? Been out of a job for a while taking care of a family member? If you do decide to explain an issue like this, make sure that the overall arc is more about demonstrating positive qualities like resilience and diligence than about providing excuses. A great statement of purpose uses specific examples to illustrate its key messages. This can include anecdotes that demonstrate particular traits or even references to scholars and works that have influenced your academic trajectory to show that you are familiar and insightful about the relevant literature in your field.

Describing how you worked in a plant lab during undergrad and then went home and carefully cultivated your own greenhouse where you cross-bred new flower colors by hand is much more specific and vivid, which makes for better evidence.

A strong personal statement will describe why you are a good fit for the program, and why the program is a good fit for you. This shows that you are informed about and genuinely invested in the program. Plan on going through multiple drafts. Another important thing here is to avoid cliches and gimmicks.

The first will make your writing banal; the second is likely to make you stand out in a bad way. The personal statement is not a confessional booth. If you share inappropriately, you may seem like you have bad judgment, which is a huge red flag to admissions committees. You should also be careful with how you deploy humor and jokes.

When in doubt, err towards the side of being as inoffensive as possible. You should be professional, but conversational.

Our graduate school experts have been kind enough to provide some successful grad school personal statement examples. Overall, this is a very strong statement both in terms of style and content.

It flows well, is memorable, and communicates that the applicant would make the most of the graduate school experience. This is a strong, serviceable personal statement. And in truth, given that this for a masters in music composition, other elements of the application like work samples are probably the most important.

However, here are two small changes I would make to improve it:. Want to improve your GRE score by 7 points? We have the industry's leading GRE prep program.

Built by world-class instructors with 99th percentile GRE scores , the program learns your strengths and weaknesses through machine learning data science, then customizes your prep program to you so you get the most effective prep possible. Paragraph One: For twenty-three years, my grandmother a Veterinarian and an Epidemiologist ran the Communicable Disease Department of a mid-sized urban public health department.

The stories of Grandma Betty doggedly tracking down the named sexual partners of the infected are part of our family lore. Grandma Betty would persuade people to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases, encourage safer sexual practices, document the spread of infection and strive to contain and prevent it.

As a physician assistant, I would possess the knowledge and skills needed to diagnose and provide the care needed for my patients. My position as the high school athletic trainer allows me to get acquainted with all of the athletes, however, to be even more effective I get involved in the community of the school and strive to learn more about the people with whom I work.

For the last three years I have been a substitute teacher for the junior and senior high school. I have also volunteered for many functions that the school provides for the students including school dances, the community-based alcohol prevention program called Every 15 Minutes, and the annual junior and senior retreat which involves a true bonding experience for all participants.

Developing meaningful relationships with the students enhances my effectiveness by opening lines of communication and building trust. It is my firm belief that a patient will only speak openly about a self-perceived flaw including injury with someone he or she feels comfortable.

I sincerely want to be that person for my athletes now, and for my patients in the future. The diverse injuries, illnesses, and diseases I have encountered as athletic trainer have provided me with a variety of wonderful experiences.

I have witnessed both tragedy and triumph with my athletes and coaches, on and off of the field or court. Most injuries have been inconsequential in the long term, even to those experiencing the pain in the moment.

They know that they will heal and progress in their sport and continue on their journey in life. Fighting for and winning state championships is all well and good, but there are far more important concerns in this life we live. I have witnessed young lives being taken, and those who battled relentlessly to overcome all obstacles, and it is these individuals who have changed how I view medicine, how I view myself, and how I view my future in the world of medicine.

These people have enriched my life and have taken ahold of my heart and mind, motivating me to push forward. Keep fighting. Keep battling. He was told he would live a much shorter and less satisfying life, but he never gave in to his diagnosis. He made his life what he wanted it to be, overcoming many obstacles and living out his dreams.

Seeing him fight for each day of his life has had tremendous influence on me. I know it is my time to fight for what I want and keep moving forward. The door flew open and slammed against the adjacent wall. The room was dark and all I could make out were figures and the noise of chatter and children crying. As my eyes adjusted to the sharp contrast in darkness from the blaring sun outside, I made my way to the counter.

I took a seat and waited for my turn to be seen at my local health department. As an adolescent without health insurance, I have seen first-hand the demand for providers that can offer available healthcare. My experiences at the local health department made me dread going, never knowing if I would see the same provider again.

Like many others in my situation, I just stopped going. After these experiences, I knew I wanted to be the stability for the underprivileged and financially burdened. I began my role in healthcare as a pharmacy technician. It was this job that solidified my interests in the science of medicine. It was also this exposure which showed me that primary care providers play a huge role in the health system. However, it was not until I began working in registration for the Emergency Department of my local hospital that I could see just how important this role is; patients sitting for hours to be seen for a fever and headache because they do not have any other option for healthcare.

These observations pushed me to continue in medicine. After moving home to pursue this career, I climbed my way from a unit secretary to a patient care technician where I had my first hands-on experiences with patients. I remember a particular incident where while I was assisting a patient to the bathroom, she began sweating and complaining of blurred vision. With the nurse by my side, we got Ms. Kay safely to the bed and began treating her with intravenous glucose.

I was so excited and proud of myself for recognizing the symptoms and being able to react without hesitation. It is moments like this one that I recognize my desires are not only to treat patients, but also diagnose illnesses. After working closely with many health providers for nearly ten years, none stood out to me like Mike, a physician assistant on the cardiothoracic surgery unit. I have seen him take the extra time to go over every medication a patient had not only to ensure there was no drug interactions but to explain and write down the uses of each for when they returned home.

Understanding these problems and taking the time to address them through patient education and support can greatly improve the quality of life for those in our communities. PAs help to carry out this idea of preventive medicine over episodic care as a team. A team-based care system is very important to me. I learned the value of a solid support network while struggling after the death of my cousin. The pain of losing my best friend, and the personal disappointment I felt after failing two semesters, made it difficult for me to continue on my career path confidently.

However, with the backing and trust of my peers, much like a PA in their practice, I was able to push forward and overcome these trials. I was taught stress-management and determination through these hardships and they will aid me as I endeavor this challenging and evolving career as a PA. We come from several backgrounds and experiences that allow us to integrate together and ultimately provide better patient care.

I am confident in my ability to translate my skills into my studies as well as future practice and become a successful PA. I am also confident in my ability to relate and help close the gap in available healthcare as a primary care provider.

Mary was a patient we brought to and from dialysis three times a week. At the young age of 88, her mind was starting to go and her history of CVA rendered her hemiplegic, reliant on us for transport. Mary would stare through us and continue conversations with her late husband, insist she was being rained on while in the ambulance, and manipulate us into doing things we would never consider for another patient, i.

But, it was Mary, and Mary held a special place in our hearts just out of sheer desire to please her in the slightest- never successfully, might I add. Mary complained about everything, but nothing at the same time. So, that Thursday afternoon when she nonchalantly stated she had chest pain, it raised some red flags.

With a trainee on board, the three man crew opted to run the patient to the ER three miles up the road, emergent, rather than waiting for ALS. I ran the call, naturally, it was Mary, and she was my patient. Vitals stable, patient denies breathing difficulty and any other symptoms.

Mary look at me. Increased facial drooping; stoke alert, pulling in now. We took her straight to CT, and I have not since seen her. Mary was my patient, and everyone knew it. My ambulance is my office. EMS has given me more experience, hope and disappointment than I could have ever asked for as an undergraduate.

It has done nothing short of fuel my desire for advancement in the medical field. So chin up, put your shoulders back, walk proud, strut a little. Celebrate them. The scars you bear are the sign of a competitor. Hope that someone will see past my mediocre GPA and undergraduate transcript, and afford me the second chance I know I deserve. I proved my capability and motivation in high school and my last two years of college when I refocused my goals and plan.

I am ready, prepared, and willing to do whatever it takes to reach my aspiration of providing the highest quality care of which I am capable. After years of dabbling in medical occupations, I have finally found the one I want, and my desire to live and learn has never been stronger.

I have since reworked my essay and would prefer that the second copy be considered if possible. I am about characters over the limit and I am not sure what to cut or where.

I also am working on conveying the message of why I want to be a PA and what I can offer that is unique. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Most importantly, I learned how much I love coming in to the hospital each day, excited to interact with a wide variety of patients and have a positive impact, no matter how small, in their healthcare experience. Shadowing in a level II trauma center granted me opportunities to develop my own personal philosophy about patient care, as well as furthered my desire to pursue a career as a PA in this field.

My biggest inspiration to become a PA, however, started well before I ever shadowed in a hospital but from something much closer to home. It was the summer before my final year at Miami when I got the text from my dad. He had been sick for a few weeks and finally went to the hospital for routine blood work. When the results came in, they immediately admitted him to Cleveland Clinic Main Campus. He told me he was fine and not to worry, all while joking about getting a room with the Indians game on, so I believed him.

The next morning his tests were back — he had acute lymphoblastic leukemia. His first thirty days of routine high-volume chemotherapy were cut short when he acquired an infection and spiraled into total organ failure. It was the best present a girl could ask for, but not without its challenges. He was still very weak and wheelchair-bound. He had to take handfuls of pills several times a day, and needed his blood sugar checked before each meal due to the steroids.

The house had to be regularly scrubbed from top to bottom due to his low neutrophil count. When I was younger and my mother suffered two strokes, my father had been the one that had kept our family together.

Our upside down world felt like a nightmare. I learned to do fingersticks and insulin injections gently, so as not to bruise his paper-thin skin. I taught him how to flush his PICC line when it became clogged a trick I learned from my own experience with IV antibiotics to treat osteomyelitis a year prior. I had a tough choice to make: return to school and continue pursuing my degree, or stay home and help my mother. I stayed in Cleveland for as long as I could, but eventually went back to school the day before spring semester started.

I continued to come home as often as I could. We now considered ease of access everywhere we travelled to make sure it was safe for his wheelchair. One night, my mother confided that she had never spent so much time with my father in the entirety of their marriage. Cancer is not only a physical fight but a myriad of battles that accompany the diagnosis. Standing strong with my family through all of these hurdles has helped me to develop a comprehensive and unique perspective on the challenges that health issues bring to patients and their families.

My father has since returned to work in the ER, and continues to greet patients with a smile, grateful to be alive and healthy enough to practice medicine. Even before my father got sick, I was in love with medicine, too.

From a young age, I questioned the world around me with a thirst for answers that never waned. As I learned body systems in anatomy and physiology, I looked at illness and injury as a puzzle waiting to be solved. When I was taking care of my dad, he told me I should look into PA school.

While the doctors intercept phone calls from specialists and chart lengthy notes, the PAs are in the room with patients, performing a review of symptoms or suturing lacerations all while keeping the patient informed and calm to ameliorate stress levels. The positive impact on the patient care experience is palpable. Mary had lived at Lutheran Home for about 5 years. She had the warmest smile that spread across her face and seemed to tell a story. It was a smile that reminded me of the kind smile my grandmother used to have.

I remember thinking that this woman truly amazed me and seemed to have an uncanny ability to comfort others. Mary was a selfless, compassionate woman that I admired very much. One day I learned that Mary had fallen while trying to transfer into the shower and had injured her arm and had hit her head.

This incident, followed by more health issues, seemed to be the start to her declined orientation and abilities. Mary was put on bed rest, slowly began to lose her appetite and began to have pain.

For the next few months, I was happy when I was assigned to care for Mary because the statement I had witnessed truly came to life. Mary was not always well taken care of and had no family visitors in her last days. Many times I would try to check in to ensure her comfort, sit with her in my free time or reproach Mary when she had refused a meal to get her to eat a little more. In the end, small things like holding her had, being there for her and talking to her undoubtedly made her day just a little better.

Mary taught me to be patient, respectful and compassionate to each and every person I encounter and I have truly witnessed the improvement that this approach provides in the healing process. I created fictional characters and gave them a voice to talk about the trauma the vulnerable victims of trafficking go through.

The girls were promised a better life in Italy, and they believed their trafficker because they needed a better experience. Poverty and political instability influenced their decision to migrate, but instead of the good life they were promised, they found themselves on the street of Milan. My novel earned me the award of the Outstanding Young Author in Nigeria in the year After my studies at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, I was contacted by an NGO based in the Benin Republic to share stories of the victims of human trafficking on my blog.

After two weeks, I was invited to visit the Benin Republic and see the victim for myself. My short stay interacting with the victims exposed me to the horrible things the victims of trafficking go through.

Apart from writing fiction, I am a media writer and a presenter. I have worked with a couple of media houses in Nigeria, creating content, writing PR campaign scripts, and presenting from my days as a student to date. I was also interviewed with regards to my novel, Agonies. As a media person, I have read a lot of trafficking-related stories, and what the victims go through is very heartbreaking. I am a young lady with a unique voice who is passionate about whatever she decides to do.

I possess excellent communication skills, self-discipline, and creativity. As an undergraduate, I was awarded the Most Creative Female in the Faculty of Arts with regards to my contribution to the faculty as regards gender discourse and creativity.

I hope to be admitted so that I can put my knowledge into practice and work in the media, with an NGO that deals with migrants and people who have been trafficked or the public sector dealing with crime control and criminal justice.

However, I believe that will not be the end of my academic life Postgraduate Linguistics Personal Statement Example. My interest in linguistics was gradually shaped throughout my life by all the different ways in which I have experienced languages: as a learner, translator, and as a teacher. However, it was the times spent living in Russia and later in the UK that made me fully understand that language can be a means of conveying much more than just our thoughts Postgraduate Pharmacy Personal Statement Example.

I am interested in the Masters of Pharmacy MPharm Programme because I am interested in the modules on which it is based. I want to do the MPharm programme so as to extend my knowledge in Medicines.

I would like to get a deeper understanding of how to formulate and administer drugs safely Pursuing a masters degree is a responsibility I owe to myself as well as a commitment I have to others.

I refer to it as a responsibility because I have a proactive outlook on life, which makes me actively seek and go after the things that I want to accomplish in life With the international and local business market expansion in Nigeria and the large structural changes ongoing in the various states, an astute businessman would become relevant in this changing times I have sat in audiences at the theatre and felt a sense of freedom.

At times of stress I played my flute until day turned to night. Painting offers me a window into my imagination and opens a door to escapism Graduate Medicine Personal Statement Example.

Although I have always wanted to be a doctor, at the age of 17 I felt too immature and lacked the confidence required to fully commit to a lifelong career. I therefore chose to study a subject that I believed would be invaluable in my future career, human anatomy Performing and teaching euphonium has been my dream since I was young.

I had great fortunate to be the first euphonium major in Taiwan. This wonderful opportunity helped me to have a unique musical career as an undergraduate student because I gained professional experience teaching and performing domestically and internationally Postgraduate Psychology Personal Statement Example. My enthusiasm to study psychology began as a child due to living with an alcoholic. Through observing and being around someone with such a social problem I was gaining first hand experience of what it was like to live with someone with an addiction I want to study computer science because it pairs together two wonderful things; mathematics and technology.

Archaeology is the material connection between our history and the contemporary present. Analysis of each artifact, site, or feature brings us closer to understanding where we came from, and pushes us towards discovering where we are going Although I have only studied psychology for a relatively short period of time, I have enjoyed the subject thoroughly and have been engaged in intriguing topics such as memory and infant attachment.

I originally intended to study psychology during my college years but, unfortunately, my university didn't have a psychology department Postgraduate Chemistry Personal Statement Example. Chemistry fascinates me, both purely academically and in its varied and massively important applications.

That interactions at the subatomic level can have such wide ranging impacts, both theoretical and practical, is astounding My conviction for medicine has aptly followed a certain period of introspection. A recent family visit to South Africa encouraged thoughtful consideration of my reasons for applying to medical school, and also granted the opportunity to explore healthcare practice in my home country Numbers, numbers, numbers.

We use them to quantify everything. Reynolds number can tell us about the state that a flow is in. However, there are far more complex things that, in my opinion, cannot be quantified solely based on numbers PhD Personal Statement Example. Businesses are woven into every part of our lives and marketing plays a key role in influencing our decisions. By understanding and developing relationships with consumers, businesses can be less obtrusive and more enriching to our lives; this in turn will grow more sustainable businesses