Personal Statement vs. College Essay

Hello, everybody. Welcome. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. Today we are on go over the differences between a personal statement versus a college essay and we are joined here today with Natalie Pacheco, who is an alumna of Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, but also an admissions counselor of Pennsylvania College of Art and Design. If during the presentation you have any questions, please feel free to enter them into the chat area, which will be located on the bottom right corner of your screen and we will bring them up during the Q&A, which is the second-half of this.

Session for now, sit back and enjoy listening to what Natalie has to say. Take away Natalie.

Thank you, Julia. So today we will be talking about personal statement versus college essay and what we mean by that is personal statements.

For us and for our application are a short essay that makes that make it personal. That is personal to you. So you'll be talking about yourself and why you want to attend a college such as ours versus a college essay. They are typically prompts that you need to answer. So to just give you a little bit of a background, our personal statements tend to be art related topics, while college essays can be general.

Topics instead. So where you'll see college essays are, for example, a common app. So you can apply to us through common app, you'll just be doing a college essay. It's a little different, but it'll still count as the personal statement for our requirements.

These are just some examples of the prompts that you'll see on common app. So for example, some may ask.

For you to talk about your background, identity, your interest. Some will ask you to discuss any obstacles that you may have faced and how did you learn and what was your experience. Others can be reflecting over something that has challenged your belief or an idea that you hold, and some can ask you to reflect on things that make you happy or things that made you happy or thankful in a surprising way.

Umm some other prompts can include discussing accomplishment or discuss a topic or an idea that kind of made you lose track of time. And the big thing that they also have is share a essay or on a topic of any choice. And here is when you can include a more art related topic. So they do give you quite an array of different questions and then you get to pick which one you want to talk about.

Umm.

They kind of dial it back to talk about our personal statements. The big questions, since they're a little open-ended, some questions that can help you kind of get an idea of what to write are why you or who are you? Do you have any goals or motivations, any influences or interests? And also, why art? So why are you pursuing an art career or going to an art school?

Why art school and also why pcad? So these are the kinds of questions that you can think about to kind of help you get.

Started on a bit of an outline for what you want to write about.

Also.

Their personal statement is a supplement of your portfolio to for the application. So we do get to see your portfolio and the works that you do and the incredible pieces that you have. But in for us to really get to know you, we really use their personal statements. It really helps us to get an idea of who you are as a person, especially since when we are viewing your portfolio usually students submit it online and we don't get to meet you.

The person before that. So having those personal statements really help us as well.

Next is.

Actually writing it. So when writing the personal statement, it's always good to have a beginning of middle or an end, or in other words an introduction. The middle part, which is basically the prompt that you're trying to answer and then the conclusion. 1 trick I usually do when it comes to that is I'm mostly write the middle part first, and then the beginning part I write once I have everything.

And then the ending part is typically, UM, a little bit like the beginning. It'll usually sound the same. You'll go over some similar topics. One way to kind of one example, to kind of make things a little bit easier is if you listen to a documentary and you go through the 1st minute of an episode.

Or the main series of the documentary. You'll notice that they almost go through.

The they give you ideas or plot points throughout the episode without really spoiling anything. So that can be kind of what the introduction would be. And then the ending part of the conclusion typically is how they end the documentary. So they almost kind of give you an overview of what you watched. But in that case, since in our case as a reader, since we got to read it well, you'll be able to include information that you might have not really spoiled.

In the beginning. So that's kind of how in general that would work.

Next thing that you should do to kind of help you as you write your personal statement would be to brainstorm and outline. That can really help if you are struggling with how or really what to write about. And usually that is where you would kind of dump a lot of your information that maybe you do want to talk about, but you're not sure of the ordering and necessarily. So that is where you would just throw ideas together and then once you have everything.

You can start assembling things in certain orders. Maybe there are certain talk certain topics that.

You're not sure if you really want to keep, so that is where you'll be able to.

Put stuff and remove things as you see fit. And also, is there a theme or thread? In other words, is there some kind of?

General smoothness when it comes to writing or or in our case reading it. So in other words, our ideas kind of jumping around or are things really smooth and cohesive and really bring things together. So that is another thing to think about as well, especially when you're deciding what order to put things in.

And then once you have everything together, that is where you should start to do your first draft. So definitely make that first draft to really kind of pull things together. And then is there any way once you finish your first draft, is there any way to refine the things that you have written down?

Other things to think about when you're writing it, especially this particular phrase, as long as I can remember so.

I always use this. I know friends and families that love to say this. When you're kind of going back and thinking about things, especially as the writers case, you tend to say that when you talk about your art experience. So, for example, you might say, as long as I can remember, I've always been drawing or painting, and that is true. That is true of all of us. But instead of just limiting yourself to that phrase, really go deep into like.

How long have you been painting or drawing? Was it in a particular?

Where we're like location, where you at home? Was this during art class when you were in elementary or middle school or high school? Were there any influencers around you like your teachers, your parents, older siblings, aunts or uncles or other family members? And then think about any objects around you like where you.

Drawing something you were seeing in front of you where you just scribbling on a piece of paper, but from that moment on is what kind of inspired you to keep drawing and other things are how are you feeling? So was it a challenging experience? Was it something that you tried for the first time and really liked it? And that's what kind of helped motivate your art experience as you grew up. So instead of saying as long as I can remember, really try to.

Dive into that memory, especially since you're writing it down and us as a reader. It really helps us to understand your journey as an artist, and overall really helps to paint a picture in our minds about your art experience.

Next is be specific. So sometimes we kind of run into anecdotes or stories and that really is great when it comes to writing, but always make sure to add details or add any information that can help support it. So kind of like how we we talked about earlier about the as long as I can remember phrase here, this is where we get specific and adding things like.

If you were good at art, did you get any kinds of awards or honors? Did you you when you say you helped that in your art class, did you? You can describe the type of work that you do or you can describe classes and at a certain time, but I usually stay 2 hours after to help out for after school club, their activities. You can also talk about the years that were involved. So have you been doing it since freshman year?

UM, sophomore, junior, senior year. You can get really detailed with some of the stories and some of the things that you write about and also if you are dedicated to something, express how with examples. So definitely you have.

An array of things to really talk about and show, and that is something that you can also do in your outline portion to count to help gather all that information together.

Next.

This is something that really applies to a lot of our students, where it's OK to not know exactly what you want to do after high school or college. So, for example, you love to do art, and that is something that really motivates you and you're not sure really what you want to do after high school, and that's OK. This part of the college experience is about discovering yourself, and you can do that when you explain it in your statement as well. So definitely don't feel pressured.

You already know what you're going to do in high school. I mean after high school, so that is OK.

Also, did you have any leadership experiences? Were you part of, let's say if you were part of the art club where you are the President and the secretary, the Vice President? Did you do any community events that involved your art? Did you paint any murals or did you involve yourself in any art related community activity?

Also involve your family. If your family was a pivotal part of your art journey growing up, for example, did you have a family member that gifted you an art set that for them and giving it to you really sparked your motivation to pursue art?

Umm, also work. Sometimes works well. Sometimes job will offer spaces for students to host their.

Art pieces. For example, in restaurants you can also talk about other interests, especially if they have some kind of connection with your art or include other interactions as well. You don't necessarily need to make 100% of your personal statement just art. You can also connect different things that may have supplemented your art journey as well.

And then general reading tips. So definitely have a flow or a structure. As I mentioned earlier, it's definitely important to keep the reader engaged and not confuse them by jumping around different ideas or different things that don't really flow together. So definitely as you are.

Going through the draft processes, definitely let someone else read it and give opinions on it. Especially since you can get stuck after looking at your draft for so long it may not.

Issues like that may not pop to you as obviously when compared to someone else that can read it for you.

Keep thoughts in a single paragraph when possible. Also use transitions and it is OK you can look up examples of transitions online that really helps to.

Started a paragraph off really well and then continue the flow and the structure of your personal statement as you move on through the different paragraphs and then carry through a threat. So just as we were talking about earlier, make sure that the flow is really nice and that things aren't jumping around.

And then engaging and and you versus over formally, but still professional as well. So I would say definitely make sure that your voice is very authentic so that almost like if we were meeting you in person we can almost hear your voice through your personal statement.

Umm. And this information is both useful for their personal statement through US or the college essay through common app.

And also wanted to talk about some editing tips. So like I said before the force the first drafts are very, very important. Definitely if you can print it out.

Proof. Read it. Read it aloud. Hand it off to someone else so that they can also see it like I mentioned before.

And definitely make sure that it's accurate to your experience and make sure that it is authentic as well.

Definitely have it feel like we are listening to you in person.

And that can be something that you can work with over time, just so that you have.

An idea of what would be authentic for you on paper.

And then lastly, be bold and creative and yourself. Make a personal statement. Literally.

And thank you for listening.

Thank you so much, Natalie. That was great information. We do have a few questions that have come in. So the first one that we have is.

Does the Pcad focus on grammar when writing this essay?

Hmm, that's a good question.

So grammar isn't something that we will necessarily penalize, penalize you for, but it is very important to like in the proofreading process to really catch those errors ahead of time, just so that it really doesn't interfere with the reading experience with the person that has to read your personal statement. So yes, that is a good question.

Are there anything that you would advise not to include in your personal statement topic wise?

Umm.

Much hold on.

Elaborate further.

Yeah, so.

Thinking about like you know you are going to get personal and personal statement, is there any personal topics that you would advise not to or advise students to be aware of or weary of including into their statements together?

In terms of things that are too personal.

Umm hmm.

So when I'm what I think that the person is asking is a little bit about like, you know?

Thinking about some personal things that we've read, just being wary that like, you know, you're an admissions counselor, sometimes not including two personal items are is more beneficial than going into full detail. So.

Thinking about keeping it concise, thinking about not spilling out your whole family history or any like.

Situations that have gone through that.

But making sure that you still get your point across. But just a reminder, you know this is a professional essay that you are submitting to a college and we are taking this into consideration for your application process.

Yes, now I understand.

So the other one that we have is how much does the personal statement affect your emissions process into pcad?

Is it like 70 percent, 30%?

I would say.

I can't really put a number to it, but I feel like so hmm. I guess the best way I can describe it is without a personal statement, we have a very, very, very difficult time really assessing your application. Your personal statement really lets us see or or read who you are.

So it is very important for us to get to know you through that.

And especially for students that are able to, like I said before, it is a supplement of your portfolio. So if there are things that are obvious that are in in your portfolio that you want to almost kind of dive in and sort of explain your personal statement whether it's you started doing.

For example, you started doing art classes really, really, really late into your high school years, but you can explain maybe the story behind it, like maybe a family member or a friend or an artist that you met maybe have motivated or inspired.

Your pursuit to go to art college. So that really, really helps us kind of putting the pieces together and connecting the dots. So I would say I can't put a number to it, but it's very, very important and very helpful in the application process.

And just to add on to that, we do take a consideration in all of the requirements equally.

So definitely make sure that you are putting time into this. Make sure it is saying what you want to say and getting your point across. Like Natalie said, it is one of the requirements and we do take it into consideration, but it's not.

Any more than one requirement or the other.

And then the final question that we have, Natalie is?

If you are someone who is just starting to think about the personal statement or a college essay, do you have any like one big pinpoint advice that you would give to all students?

I would say.

Maybe two things I would say definitely start earlier.

Especially so that if you are someone that just take that needs a little bit more time, a little bit more editing to really.

Right, the personal statement in a way so that at the end is very cohesive, very understandable to read. Definitely take your time, don't wait till the last second.

And I would say maybe ask the help of your teachers or your friends or anyone that has. I would consider like really good experience in writing just so that you have feedback. And then my second one.

Would be to definitely.

Right. Things like, especially if you have difficulties on what to write about, really write things down about topics that you may want to write about just so that you next you don't necessarily need to stress out about what to write about.

I feel like those are.

2 tips that I would give students that are doing their personal statements.

Thank you so much, Natalie. And just a big back off there just because I know that I've encountered a few students who have similar questions and like how do I get started? One took that I always did, especially considering that my brain goes into like 20 different ways at once and I'm not sure which pathway would I take with writing. What I do is I tend to just start writing and just let everything in my brain out and then I kind of edit down. So if you're somebody who struggles with kind of thinking about initially.

That you want to say or if there's a bunch of ideas that you want to say, I definitely would consider that as an option.

But thank you so much, Natalie. Your presentation was great and hopefully everybody learns something through this and hopefully this helps you start your college essays and personal statements. As a reminder, these webinars are being recorded, so if you want to watch it, all you have to do is let us know. Thank you everybody who joined it live tonight to watch this presentation. And thank you anybody who is joining in the future, if you do have any questions.

After this, please feel free to e-mail admissions at pcad.edu and we'd be more than happy to help you or answer any questions that you have. But for now, have a good night. Bye everybody.