Top Personal Statements Forum

[simulacra]

The personal statement samples thread is a good idea, but it's flawed. First, many people are posting rough drafts of statements or statements that didn't get them into the top schools. This means that the statements in the thread don't serve as particularly good examples of writing or what applicants should aspire to. Second, the thread is bogged down by people offering advice, or more often, getting in pointless/circular/vacuous arguments about the quality of the statements themselves. The work required to find good personal statement examples is too high.

So, I propose a new thread for examples of successful personal statements for the purposes of guiding people who really don't know what a good personal statement looks like. Please only post your PS if you got into a T14 school, along with your NUMBERS, and maybe a description of what worked and what didn't work in your statement in your opinion. Let's also try to keep other posting to a minimum to 1) prevent people from feeling like their contributions will be criticized and 2) to limit the noise level. I don't want this to seem like I'm bashing the contributions of people on the other thread, which really are helpful and appreciated, but I think this will achieve the goal of the original thread much better.

Anyone?