Featured
Story
Green River Offers Additional Services
to International Students
Charlotte West helps Lucy Liu with her personal statement.
Coaching Students on Their Personal
Statements for Transfer
By Charlotte West
When you study
abroad at Green River, we work with
you to develop a comprehensive transfer
plan to a four-year university. We offer
one-on-one writing sessions to support
you in writing your personal statements
for your transfer applications. For
many students, this is a challenging
task as it requires you to reflect and
think critically about what makes you
stand out as an applicant. We believe
the writing process itself can be valuable
experience that will help you well beyond
the application deadline. You'll learn
skills that are applicable to things
such as writing cover letters for jobs
and excelling in interviews.
Even if you are in your first year
at Green River, it's never too early
to start thinking about your personal
statement. Writing these essays is your
opportunity to let the admissions committee
see who you are as an applicant above
and beyond your academic transcripts
and list of extracurricular activities.
It's also a chance to address any issues
or circumstances you might want to explain
in more detail.
Here are five tips to help you get
started:
- Get involved! Keep a list of
activities, events, memories and
experiences both in and out of the
classroom that are important to
you. This will be helpful when it's
time to start writing.
- Ask your friends and family
about what makes you unique. Do
they all use the same words to describe
you? Maybe your mom can remember
the first time you took apart a
toy airplane, which eventually led
you to choose a major in aviation.
- Focus on your strengths,
not your weaknesses. It's okay to
talk about challenging situations,
but make sure you use it to demonstrate
how you have grown and become a
stronger person, not to make the
admission committee feel sorry for
you. In other words, explain, don't
complain.
- Start researching the universities
you are interested in and think
about why that particular institution
would be a good fit for you. There
is more to your education than a
university with a good ranking,
ranging from research areas and
internship opportunities to volunteer
organizations and student leadership
opportunities. Make sure you can
articulate what makes the institution
you are writing about different
than other schools you might be
applying to.
- Be who you are and write
from the heart. Think about writing
a personal statement as a kind of
storytelling. Tell your own story.
Charlotte West received her bachelor's
degrees in History and International
Studies at Seattle University. She was
a Fulbright scholar to Stockholm, Sweden,
where she lived for six years. In addition
to working as a freelance writer and
translator, she works as a part-time international
student advisor at Green River, specializing
in coaching students on their personal
statements.
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