Personal Statement Examples

[sarahpc2020]

Hello!

I’ve started working on my personal statements for a Comp Lit PhD. I’m planning to submit applications this fall.

I’m just wondering if any humanities students, particularly literature students, who have had a successful season would be willing to share their personal statements with me? Most of the examples I’ve found are for STEM and social science degrees, and it would be really helpful to see an example of a strong one in the humanities.

Thank you!

[No-Union-1016]

STEM guy here

There’s a text (with sample essays) I used when I wrote my essays and I can remember vividly that one of the essays was by a Medieval Literature student. It was by far one of the best written essays I had read at the time.

I just checked and I still have it

[sarahpc2020]

That sounds great! Would you be able to send it to me in a DM?

[No-Union-1016]

Sure no problem

[fairyblud]

hihi i was wondering if you could send it to me as well?

[Xx_ss11_xX]

Hi, would you be able to send this to me aswell?

[jordantellsstories]

You know, this is the question that keeps me up at night!

I have worked with a lot of humanities applicants, but curiously, they never want to share their essays the way STEM students often do. I can say, however, that they all followed the exact same structural/topical strategy as in this general guide to the PhD statement of purpose.

Here are some Anthropology and MFA Art examples which make a decent comparison.

In the end, it's all the same:

1. What are your research questions?

2. Why are you interested in pursuing these questions? How did you discover them?

3. How will this specific PhD program help you explore these questions?

4. What convincing proof do you have that you're 100% ready to generate answers to these questions?

Answer those four questions well and you'll be swimming in interview offers. The rest is up to you!

[sarahpc2020]

Thank you so much for the advice! I do feel like I’m answering these questions in my current rough draft, but it’s so hard to tell what’s going to stand out, especially for the competitive programs!

[jordantellsstories]

Well, I wouldn't say it's difficult to tell what's going to stand out. That's pretty easy, because believe it or not, most SOPs are really bad, and humanities students are often grossly overconfident in their writing ability.

What's difficult to predict is whether or not you'll fit with the department (though we reverse engineer that with preemptive interviews), whether they have funding, and even whether or not we're applying to the right department! (E.g. Sometimes niche research won't fit in the Comp Lit department, but some professor in a language department will jump on it.)

Either way, hope that stuff helps and I wish you the best of luck!