Helpful Tips for Editing Personal Statements
Students write personal statements, admissions essays, residency applications, and other “please accept me into your program!!!” essays and send them to Kibin for your expert help. These docs are a great way to earn likes and get repeat direct requests. If the user loves your work, they’ll likely come back to you once they get accepted into the school of their dreams (thanks to you, of course!). Med school applications often come with a ton of secondary essays authors might want your help with as well.
Many first drafts (or even second and third drafts) of personal statements don’t feel very, well, personal. Those of you who’ve been on any sort of admissions committee likely know this already. Writers have a hard time avoiding generic language and structure, so consider more in-depth edits to word choice, sentence structure, and organization. For example, some authors start almost every sentence or paragraph with an introductory phrase. In that case, you could re-organize the sentence structures throughout so the flow feels less repetitive.
Similarly, feedback to help the author’s essay stand out from a pile of other apps is very helpful. This could come from suggesting the author add more details about why XYZ experience helped them gain the skills and knowledge they need for ABC’s program. You could also comment something like “This is a great start to this idea. Could you get more specific about [insert generic idea/description here] to help your application stand out?”
Always check for supplemental application information and make sure the author fully answers the prompt or question. This happens quite a bit with college admissions essays. It’s absolutely okay to tell the student that their essay about the time their dog ran away doesn’t quite fit the prompt “tell us about a time you struggled academically and overcame the challenge.”
Lastly, don’t be afraid to tell the user they might consider scrapping certain parts and starting over, but nicely with guidance, of course. Here’s some great verbiage Crystal shared with me that can help soften the blow: "I know that's probably not what you wanted to hear (I'm sorry!), but my job as an editor is to help you have the very best chance at being accepted, so if I'm not being honest, then I'm failing you, ya know? :) Here's how you could [do something better with advice + links]." Users will appreciate your honesty here because a great essay can really increase their acceptance chances.