Personal Statement

This is the place where you have an opportunity to describe facets about your personal or professional past that are relevant to the objective of making a strong impression of yourself as a skilled professional who will become a leader in the research, professorial, or scientific community of tomorrow.

1) If you have not found a way to discuss your long-range career goals, this is a good place to do it.

Remember that the Ford only supports students who plan to enter the professoriate, so you should not be applying for it unless that is your goal, and you should state clearly in the personal statement what you plan to do on a faculty to use the diversity of the human experience as a tool in teaching and research in higher education.

Remember that the NSF is very interested in supporting future leaders in the world of science, social science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, so you should describe how your future career goals meet this requirement. Be bold! Declare your ambitions clearly and with conviction.

The NSF also has an interest in promoting diversity, so this is a good place to talk about anything in your leadership or community service background that has given you the ability to lead in the diverse global communities of tomorrow.

2) All applicants would do well to discuss their leadership and community service backgrounds in the personal statements for either competition. These experiences show that you have the interpersonal and professional skills that you will need to lead in your career in the future.

3) This is also a place where you can discuss the way that your research will serve society, or how you will use your research for educational purposes. Also, it is useful to include the history of your engagement with diverse communities and your plans to serve society or reach out to communities in your career.

4) Some find it useful to form an intelligent and engaging response to the question: Why do you love your research? How did you come to it? Where do you plan for it to take you in your life?

It is okay to talk about your early life to form answers to these questions, but only briefly. It is particularly relevant if it communicates something substantial about your background that makes you well-suited to interact with diverse populations. However, extensive discussions about childhood experiences and your parents, etc., can seem trite, overly sentimental, and insufficiently rigorous in an application essay.

5) Are there any extenuating circumstances which you have confronted or overcome to get where you are? Do you feel there are things in your application that beg explanation? If so, you can do so briefly in the personal statement.

Remember that overall, the personal statement should be well-written and treat topics and issues that enhance the material presented in the other two statements, making the strongest possible total impression of you.