If you’re a rising senior (12th grader) going into your application season in the fall, now is a good time to work on your personal statement!
WHY?
It’s not too early, and you may actually have the luxury of time to think, contemplate, and reflect. You can ask yourself questions such as
1) Who am I?
2) What activities are meaningful to me and why?
3) What are my values?
4) How have my life experience shaped me for who I am?
These thought provoking questions take a lot of effort, time and energy to really think through.
While many of these applications deadlines may seem way off – say in November, even December or January – remember, you will have lots of time commitments when school is back in session. You not only have to attend class, do homework, study for tests, but you’ll have commitments during the year for your extracurricular activities as well.
On top of that, your applications will demand a lot of energy – it isn’t just about filling out the application, but there are also other moving parts to it, such as arranging for teachers to write letters of recommendation, having transcripts ordered and sent to schools (where applicable), arranging for test score reports to be sent (where applicable – nowadays many schools allow self-reporting – please check).
This doesn’t leave you with a lot of bandwidth for deep thought during the fall term. Instead, your efforts will and should focus on execution (submission) while maintaining your level of expected scholastic achievement (grades) during the term.
So if you’re not working on your personal statements (the ones that are not expected to change) already, you’re strongly recommended to do so before school starts in the fall. You will have less stress during the busy application season, which will help ensure better quality of applications in the upcoming months. Make it a goal to get them finished by the time you return to school in a few short weeks.
