Common Application: Personal Statement
Please write an essay (250 words minimum 500 words maximum) on a topic of your choice or on one of the options listed below. This personal essay helps us to become acquainted with you as a person and student, apart from courses, grades, test scores, and other objective data. It will also demonstrate your ability to organize your thoughts and express yourself.
1. Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
2. Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.
3. Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.
4. Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.
5. A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.
6. Topic of your choice.

496-word version
A couple of months before going to Honduras in February, I decided to take a scuba diving course as it was an exceptional opportunity for me to “dive into” a novel experience...

UW-Seattle: A. Personal Statement (required)
The Personal Statement is our best means of getting to know you and your best means of creating a context for your academic performance. When you write your personal statement, tell us about those aspects of your life that are not apparent from your academic record:
- a character-defining moment
- the cultural awareness you`ve developed
- a challenge faced
- a personal hardship or barrier overcome
Directions: Choose either 1 or 2. Recommended length: 2 pages. (500-650 words)
1. Discuss how your family`s experience or cultural history enriched you or presented you with opportunities or challenges in pursuing your educational goals.
- OR –
2. Tell us a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it.

600-word version
A couple of months before going to Honduras in February, I decided to take a scuba diving course as it was an exceptional opportunity for me to “dive into” a novel experience. Although the decision was rather spontaneous, it did render me “again” a lasting lesson that I had nonchalantly come to slight amidst my responsibilities as a young adult...