The point of a personal statement is for us to gain a deeper understanding of who you are apart from your education and work experience. It explains why you’re the right fit for the program and a worthwhile applicant. It’s also an opportunity to highlight important factors that may not be readily available in the rest of your application.

All applicants are presented with a series of short-answer personal statement essay questions. Each essay has a 250 word maximum. Questions 1-2 are required from all applicants, while questions 3-4 are optional (your response is voluntary and not answering these questions will not affect your admissions decision). 

 Question #1: Please describe pivotal experiences, opportunities, and/or challenges (including any financial or access barriers) that have influenced your educational and professional development.

Question #2: At Illinois, we value a student’s ability to contribute to a community of inclusion, belonging, and respect where our graduate students can learn and collaborate productively and positively. Please provide an example of how you contributed to or engaged with a community of students or colleagues with different perspectives, abilities, and experiences to achieve a positive outcome, and reflect on what you learned from this experience.

Question #3: If you believe that your academic record does not demonstrate your true capabilities, please explain why. You may also discuss any gaps in your academic and professional experience.

Question #4: If there is something that you would like to share with the admissions committee that you have yet to discuss in other areas of the application, please do so here. If needed, you may also use this space to expand upon the topics discussed in the above essays.

Maintain a professional tone throughout your writing. Feel free to share personal details, but avoid oversharing and do not feel obliged to share more than you are comfortable with. 

Proofread. We can’t emphasize enough the importance of rereading your work. Your personal statement is also an analysis of your writing skills, so ensure you have proper grammar and spelling throughout. In addition, we recommend having multiple people look over your statement before submission. They can help with the proofreading and give advice about the statement’s structure and content.