By Julia Snider on November 26, 2008 12:00 PM
For many of you, the administrative process of applying to graduate schools (i.e. obtaining transcripts, recommendation letters) is incredibly simple. Most of it is out of your hands, actually: so much so that, after you contact your recommenders and request your transcripts, you can have a cup of coffee, sit back, and wait for everything to arrive.
If you are at all like me, then you took care of these administrative details right away, but procrastinated on the personal statement part of the process reasoning that "It'll be easy" or "I just need to think about it more" or "I work better off the cuff and will do it the night before." Okay, truth be told, I didn't tell myself any of these things. What I actually said to myself was "Ahhhhhhhh!!!!! How can I compose something with the right amount of wit, charm and confidence so as not to sound desperate, but rather intelligent, self aware and a necessary person to include in their master's program?"
After countless false starts, I ended up reconciling to myself to the fact that the essay, while important, was not something I needed to give myself an anxiety attack about. I needed to reframe my thinking and understand that it was truly an opportunity rather than an assignment. The evaluating committee did not know me. Through this essay, I could share a bit about my passion for Theater and Theater Education and elaborate on why my skills, experience, and perspective would be an asset to the program. And so I wrote a draft that shared exactly that.
I then found a few people whose grammar, editing, and writing skills I respected and asked for their advice about my essay. This process was invaluable in that I was able to step away from my work, look at it through someone else's eyes, and then reword as necessary. What resulted was an essay that represented me in all aspects. It was not so formal as to loose my laid back writing style, nor too capricious as to suggest that I had not given the essay serious consideration.
And THEN, after I was all done, I sat down and had a cup of coffee!
These are some good tips. The process can be daunting, and you should get all the help you can from people you respect.