On Thursday night I went to the Personal Statement Workshop held by GRF Magdala and Dr.Hill. The workshop was a very educational experience about tips and philosophy about how to market yourself during the recruiting / graduate school application process.
Dr.Hill started by giving a long monologue on what the personal statement should strengthen and how to strategize for the specific institution you are applying for. First of all, Dr. Hill mentioned that in a general personal statement we should mention our goal, influences and motivation. Admission officers want to know what we plan to do with the degree and the motivation should be unique and convincing for them to proceed. To get ready to write a persuasive and concrete personal statement, it is important to do extensive research on the institution / company beforehand to learn about its prevailing culture, faculty / professionals, publication, research, and what they value. Researching also allows us to see if a specific school / company is the best fit for us.
Another point is the benefit of maintaining a strong network. Dr.Hill mentioned that it is always useful to identify multiple people who you can work with before applying. Using those people to get internal advice is an extremely crucial step, especially for schools in the UK. Dr.Hill gave the example during when he applied to Cambridge that they only care about a personal statement that comes with a clear research proposal on object and different parts of the potential project. Otherwise, they are very likely to reject the application, even the essay is outstanding. Also finding a supervisor is crucial in getting into both Oxford and Cambridge. Any application would be rejected if the applicant can’t find a supervisor before matriculated.
Dr.Hill spent rest of the time giving general advice of applying to jobs / graduate schools. One thing I want to take away is to put in extraordinary time to do research and apply for more than once. When writing a personal statement, never forget to put in a concrete example, or as Dr.Hill described, your “nugget” (not sure if the spelling is correct). Always pay attention to detail, that is also a great advice that I am trying very hard to adapt.
I feel that it was a great investment of an hour of my time learning from Dr.Hill and Magdala about their experience applying and writing personal statements. I also learned to be persistent, bold, and sometimes aggressive in the search. I was sad to know that Dr.Hill will be on a two-month medical leave at the end of the workshop and I wish him better as soon as possible!