Yesterday I got the chance to talk to students in their junior and senior years at the college who are thinking about what comes next -- "life outside of St. Norbert." The subject of our talk was the personal statement.
Back when I was a graduate student, I ended up (through a series of interesting turns) helping medical school applicants to write their personal statements. Most of those I helped were successful candidates. What I learned from that process is that most of us don't think too much about what those statements do or who's reading them -- it helps to talk about your ideas about yourself with someone else before you dive into writing that draft. And the purpose of that statement is, I guess, to introduce yourself to the application board, and to try to make a positive impression upon them.
While you're writing, I told the SNC folk, think about your audience as real people. Try to imagine what sorts of preconceptions they might have about you, coming from a Catholic liberal arts college (a small one) in the Midwest. Anticipate their thoughts and then offer them crunchy details (specifics), memorable tidbits, that will counter those preconceptions (if they're negative) and reinforce them (if they're positive). Above all, I said, be specific -- don't just say "I want to help people." Duh. All doctors should want to help people. What do you mean by "people" -- who do you want to help? And when you said "help," what does that really mean?
I could tell that my audience was partially excited and enthused about what I was saying, and partially scared witless. One man said, "Oh, so the goal is just to be as ... unique? ... as possible?" And the emphasis he put on "unique" made it sound a little like cat piss. He also asked where the "creativity" should end and the "facts" should begin.
This morning, it occurred to me that the digital space is all about that personal statement. Those of us who maintain social media sites have already constructed at least one public identity (if not a slew of them), and think all the time about who we're writing for and what we want to accomplish. Well, we should be thinking about those things, ideally. We use photos and quotes and links and pithy bon mots to decorate our self-tree and show whoever we've invited into the circle who we are and what we think we're here to do. Perhaps the "statement of purpose" should be phased out in favor of some sort of electronic site with an introduction page -- just two or three paragraphs like the star on top of the self tree, a shining overview of what's below.
Perhaps if we think about the personal statement as a "snail mail" equivalent of a significant post, it won't be as daunting. And it'll come out more authentic.
Interesting idea.
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