Guidelines For Your Personal Statement Your Personal Statement should concisely describe how your background and life experiences – including social, economic, cultural, familial, educational, or other opportunities or challenges – motivated your decision to pursue a graduate degree.
When preparing your Personal Statement, address the following questions:
How well do your personal goals for education and research fit with the interests of our faculty and the research activities within our department? Briefly Describe Research Areas Or Questions That You Find Interesting And Identify Any Specific Faculty, Labs Or Research Projects At MSU That Are Of Particular Interest To You.
How Have You Demonstrated Your Leadership Skills, Or Your Potential As A Leader? For example, you might share specific examples of how you made contributions as an officer in a student organization or how you assumed a leadership role within a team or during a professional internship. You could also discuss your potential for leadership in graduate school and afterwards by sharing your career goals and discussing your capacity to make a distinctive professional or scholarly contribution in your field.
