How to write academic personal statement?

I am a college admissions mentor at ReadyEdgeGo, and my team specializes in personal statements. While there is no one formula for a personal statement, here are a few common ingredients that we have seen over the past 5 years of helping students:

1. Answer the prompt completely. Make sure you identify each section of a prompt and answer them in your response.

2. Don't laundry list your accomplishments. You have enough room to do this elsewhere in the extracurricular and activities section

3. What do you want the reader to remember about you? Too often, students write about too many characteristics or experiences, that they lose focus. The reader ends up not remembering anything!

4. Make it feel like a story. Grab and command the reader's attention with vivid imagery when possible, and have a clear climax or pivot point.

5. Start early. Before you know it, you're in the middle of senior year and you're knee-deep in classwork, SAT prep, and sports/music...oh, and there's college apps, too. Utilize the end of summer to get a head start; it'll make it easier in the Fall when everyone typically pulls their hair out.

Feel free to shoot additional questions to ReadyEdgeGo. We offer personalized and really affordable help on personal statement guidance, so check us out!