Okay, so I've been trying to start my college admission essays for UCF but this is the way its worded:
The personal statement is a very important part of your application. It assists the university in knowing you as an individual, independent of test scores and other objective data. We ask that you respond to two of the topics below. Your personal statement should be no longer than 500 words or a total of 7000 characters for both statements (refer to character remaining counter below the essay). The best personal statements are not necessarily the longest ones.
Is it saying that both essays together need to be 500 words? or that each should be?
I think each should be about 500, you can't really say much in 250 words
500 words TOTAL. You can use more words on one of the topics if you chose, but you must address them both and do it in 500 words or less.
Question about structure of personal statement for admittance into UW
This may be a no-brainer to some, but I'm not sure how I should structure this personal statement essay. There seems to be an awful lot more points that the applicant is required to touch upon compared to the normal personal statements (and by normal, I mean the ones I've found through Googling). Should I just try to address the individual sections one by one?
Hey, this is going to be 3 pages, with maybe 9 paragraphs of 100 words each.
The 3 parts of the prompt show your past, present, and future. It is what you are all about. You can cover each of those optional prompts in a paragraph, or you can cover them all in one paragraph. If no military, pretend it is not there... if no hardships, forget that part...
You have an advantage, because everyone else is going to be very MECHANICAL as they attend to each part. You are going to NOT be mechanical. You will focus on one big idea that will be easy for the reader to remember.
Whenever you write anything, there is ONE idea you want to convey. Burn that idea into the reader's mind. Say, it, explain it, and say it again.
That means you will be talking about ONE idea while discussing your past and future. And the theme for the whole essay is YOUR IDEA explained within the context of your culture.
So... you start by simplifying, just like when you do math. How can you explain the IDEA THAT DEFINES YOU in a way that shows how it is related to your culture. How does culture affect this idea that you are all about?
Note: if you are serious about the idea that defines you, you will do some research and cite some articles about recent developments in your field of interest.
Another note: even if you have more than one idea, choose one and use it for this essay... or combine them and expound the overarching idea that encompasses all your ideas. :-)
