MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
A PERSONAL GOAL STATEMENT FORMAT
FOR GRADUATE SCHOOL A LICATION
The first paragraph of your personal statement, one or two sentences, should make clear the purpose of your writing: to present an interpretive summary of your background, academic interests, and future goals as justification for your admi ion to a program of graduate study.
The second paragraph interprets your background for the graduate admi io committee. This paragraph should establish your academic preparation for the program to which you have a lied. If you have been a strong student throughout your undergraduate years, you may call attention to what you believe have been strong combinatio of courses, which seem to fit your pro ective graduate program well. If you have had u and dow as an undergraduate, you may call attention to progre ive improvement in your studies: i.e., the difference between your junior/senior GPA and your freshman/sophomore GPA or your record in selected course work that is directly related to the kinds of course work that you will undertake as a graduate student. If you scored well on whatever graduate examination that you took, you may want to cite that fact as well.
Keep in mind that graduate admi io committees want a urance that you will be a succe ful student. If you have had relevant experiences, you may mention them here, too. Some graduate programs such as a lied sociology or social work or resource development, etc. look for evidence that you have already sought out ways to tra late your academic background into practical, profe ionally oriented a licatio . In short, this paragraph should a ure the graduate admi io committee that you have matured during your undergraduate years, that your intellectual and profe ional interests have taken shape, and that you have begun a co cientious progre toward profe ional development.
In this example format, the third paragraph will be a description of your profe ional goals. (This paragraph and the next, however, could be reversed.) Though your letter takes the general shape of a summary of your interests and background, it also builds an argument for your admi ion to a particular graduate program. The logic of this argument ru this way: I know what interests me; I know that I would like to engage in this work as my profe io and I believe that the nece ary, most logical way to a ure me of succe in this profe ion is to earn this graduate degree. This paragraph describes what you know about the profe ional careers to which this course of graduate study may lead. Generally, people who pursue graduate degrees tend toward any of four profe ional occupatio : academic, public service, private industry, or self-employment (i.e., writers, lawyers, physicia , etc.). Though you do not have to commit yourself to one career only, you are best served by presenting to the admi io committee as ecific an idea as po ible about what you intend to do with their degree. If you know that you would eventually like to be a busine co ultant ecializing in labor market analysis, say so. Such a statement indicates to the committee that you are goal oriented, that you are capable of identifying what you want and of developing a systematic mea to attain it. This paragraph, in conjunction with the previous one, a ures the admi io committee that you are an a licant with a purpose.
The fourth paragraph, which describes what you intend to study in graduate school, should tighten your argument.
Now that you have made clear your interests, background, and profe ional goals, you must make the case that the best way for you to bridge your undergraduate years and your succe ful performance as a profe ional is to study what this particular graduate program offers. Be as ecific as you can. Learn what courses this graduate program offers. dentify its faculty members and what research they are conducting. Know the program's reputation, its strengths and its weakne es. Your undergraduate profe ors can be of very great a istance in this regard. As you describe your reaso for a lying to a particular program try to link your interests with what you know is available through that program and its parent college or university. If you know that it encourages practicum experience, omething you want, say so. If some of your undergraduate texts or a ignments have utilized materials produced by that program, say so. Offer suggestio about combinatio of courses or faculty advisors that you think might be e ecially imaginative or productive. This paragraph, thus, accomplishes two ends: you place this graduate program in the continuum of your own profe ional development and you demo trate that you have a lied to it as the result of an informed, reflective selection proce of your own.
Your personal statement should close with a brief summary of your background and goals, again just a sentence or two. This last statement reaffirms both your preparation and your confidence that your choice of this graduate program is right.
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