Sample Personal Statement Essay: Three Common Themes

A great sample personal statement essay is one with coherent ideas, concise facts, engaging stories, relevant information, and interesting introductions. These qualities are exactly what the admissions committee look forward too before going over the insurmountable pile of admissions essay they receive every year.

«Over the years, the admissions committee of different academic institutions has been noticing trends in how a sample personal statement essay is composed», says Daniel Wade, an editor from essaywriter.nyc company. Here are three most commonly used themes in sample personal statement essay writing:

• Rise from adversity
• Quotable quotes
• Life as a metaphor

Rise from adversity

Everybody loves the underdogs. People easily sympathize with tragedy-stricken individuals who climbed high mountains, swam wide seas, and crossed windy roads just to overcome the challenges of life. Every year, college applicants take advantage of this fact by composing an admission essay that centers on how they rose from adversity. This adversity, which may be the loss of a parent or the acquisition of a disability, is always used to tell a good story.

The admission evaluators, however, are not after the cinematic qualities of your story. A well-written sample personal statement essay about how you transformed from the token chubby classmate to the school homecoming king is enough to secure you a slot in your chosen university. You have to support your movie-worthy story with the life-changing lessons you learned along the way. How did you overcome your fears? What did you to improve your way of living? How did you handle your problems? Like any underdog story, the ending of your sample personal statement essay is already predictable. You have to remember that people are not so much interested on how a story ends but how the protagonist made it through the closing credits.

Quotable quotes

One of the most commonly used introductions in a sample personal statement essay is a quote. Whether it is something Thomas Jefferson mentioned or something Angelina Jolie said, a quote will always be present in at least 50% of the total number of sample personal statement essays submitted every year. Many applicants start their admission essays with a specific quote that made a difference to their lives. Most types of sample personal statement essay that started with a quote usually centers on the same quote throughout the essay.

When writing a sample personal statement about a quote, you have to explain how the meaning of the quote changed your life. Quotes are all inspiring but the admissions committee is more interested on discovering why the quote means so much to you. It is not enough for you to mention the quote and give an overview of the person who said it. You have to explain its relevance to your life. How did the quote inspire you? What did you learn from the quote? Quotes are included in a sample personal statement for a special reason, and by that, I don’t mean an attention-grabbing introduction.

Life as a metaphor

My life is an elevator – one minute I’m up, the next minute I’m down. Sounds familiar? Well, it should be because describing life as a metaphor is one of the most commonly used themes in writing a sample personal statement essay for college. Like quotes, applicants have a huge tendency to compare their life with other objects. Some are rosaries that are full of mysteries while some are journals that are full of secrets.

A sample personal statement essay featuring metaphorical references is promising yet dangerous at the same time. It is promising because a well-written admission essay with lots of impressive metaphorical concepts will reflect your creativity and philosophy. It is also dangerous because poorly explained metaphors, no matter how brilliant the ideas are, will only confuse the readers.

Specific theme of the sample personal statement essay

Another noticeable similarity among all types of sample personal statement essay is their specific theme. One sample personal statement essay may focus on “adjusting life in a foreign land” while the other may concentrate on “overcoming the challenges of peer pressure,” depending on which topic is assigned by the school or which subject is chosen by the applicants. Like any literary piece, admission essays have to be written with a single theme. Adding anecdotes or facts unrelated to the central theme will only cause confusions to the evaluators and incoherence to the essay.

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