Application Essay

sailornurse · Jun 2, 2016

Welcome to AN. I see this is your first post. While we would like to help you with your essay we need to see what you come up with so far and then we can help you tweak it feel free to post it

windsurfer8, BSN, RN · Jun 2, 2016

Be careful basing your application essay off a message board. The "advice" you receive may not even be from a nurse. On this board are nursing students, CNAs, LPNs, RNs, NPs, and people who just have a thought about nursing.

leighfost · Jun 2, 2016

Thank you! I've been on the side lines for a few years now, reading and learning. Finally decided to reach out and join the community.

I'll submit something as soon as I can figure out where/how to start... I have so many things I want to say but can't seem to get started.

leighfost · Jun 2, 2016

Good point Windsurfer8

Zoey10 · Jun 2, 2016

Hey! I was in your shoes not too long ago. Like windsurfer8 said, we are not necessarily a community of admissions counselors, so take advice on here with a grain of salt. That being said, some tips from someone who has read a lot of student papers and edited a lot of personal statements from friends/family:

1. Keep it focused. It is totally normal to have a LOT to say in your personal statement, but keep in mind that you need to be judicious about what you consider important enough to share. If the institution has specific questions that you need to answer, try writing short answers to those and incorporating those responses into your essay. Also, as with classic essay outlining, try writing a few short sentences about what you want to say, and then putting in examples of how you will support this claim. (Ex: "I learned a lot from this experience." 1. I changed my thinking in this way. 2. I went and did this differently. etc)

2. Don't make the personal statement a resume. The most common critique I've offered is to explain how an event affected you or how you worked to contribute to a project. What did you learn, and how did you change? Showing personal growth throughout employment, school, and life in general is much more interesting than a list of accomplishments, and this will allow your "voice" to come through.

3. Proofread. Work on your personal statement, walk away for a day or two, and read it again for random grammatical errors from editing and copy/pasting clauses that spell check will not catch. You most likely not catch these the day you are writing your essay since your brain kind of "auto fills" in what you wanted to say.

4. Make it personal. I know a lot of sites say this, but it's true! This your opportunity to show who you are aside from your grades, employment, letters of rec, etc. The best personal statements I've read are ones that seem to sound like I'm sitting in a room and listening to the individual who wrote it. Remember that the admissions counselors are reading a LOT of these, and if your goal is to stand out, you have to seem like a human they would want to meet for an interview, not a robot with amazing stats.

Again, I am not an admissions counselor, so take all this advice with a grain of salt. My advice is purely based on having read a good number of family/friends' personal statements, and experiencing reader's fatigue associated with having to go through a stack of essays (finding an essay that was framed in an interesting way or peppered with personality was such a blessing in a stack of papers from people who all had great accomplishments/resumes). I mean, who knows, maybe the admissions counselors hated my "let me tell you a story" approach and would have preferred a more straightforward essay about my accomplishments (but I'm starting school in the fall, so they must have thought it was at least ok ). Hope this helps, and good luck with apps!