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How to Write a Personal Statement (with Tips and Examples)

Hannah Yang

Table of Contents

What is a personal statement, 6 tips on how to write a personal statement, personal statement examples (for college and university), faqs about writing personal statements, conclusion on how to write a personal statement.

How do you tell someone who you are in just a few hundred words?

It’s certainly no easy task, but it’s one almost every college applicant must do. The personal statement is a crucial part of any college or university application.

So, how do you write a compelling personal statement?

In this article, we’ll give you all the tools, tips, and examples you need to write an effective personal statement.

A personal statement is a short essay that reveals something important about who you are. It can talk about your background, your interests, your values, your goals in life, or all of the above.

Personal statements are required by many college admission offices and scholarship selection committees. They’re a key part of your application, alongside your academic transcript, standardized test scores, and extracurricular activities.

The reason application committees ask you to write a personal statement is so they can get to know who you are. 

Some personal statements have specific prompts, such as “Discuss a period of personal growth in your life” or “Tell us about a challenge or failure you’ve faced.” Others are more open-ended with prompts that essentially boil down to “Tell us about yourself.”

No matter what the prompt is, your goal is the same: to make yourself stand out to the selection committee as a strong candidate for their program.

Here are some things a personal statement can be:

It can be funny. If you have a great sense of humor, your personal statement is a great place to let that shine.  

It can be vulnerable. Don’t be afraid to open up about hardships in your life or failures you’ve experienced. Showing vulnerability can make you sound more like a real person rather than just a collection of application materials.  

It can be creative. Candidates have got into top schools with personal statements that take the form of “a day in the life” descriptions, third-person short stories, and even cooking recipes.

Now we’ve talked about what a personal statement is, let’s quickly look at what a personal statement isn’t:

It isn’t a formal academic paper. You should write the personal statement in your natural voice, using first-person pronouns like “I” and “me,” not in the formal, objective language you would use to write an academic paper.

It isn’t a five-paragraph essay. You should use as many paragraphs as you need to tell your story instead of sticking to the essay structure you learned in school.

It isn’t a resumé. You should try to describe yourself by telling a clear and cohesive story rather than providing a jumbled list of all of your accomplishments and ambitions.

Here are our top six tips for writing a strong personal statement.

Tip 1: Do Some Serious Self-Reflection

The hardest part of writing a personal statement isn’t the actual process of writing it.

Before you start typing, you have to figure out what to write about. And that means taking some time to reflect on who you are and what’s important in your life.

Here are some useful questions you can use to start your self-reflection. You can either answer these on your own by writing down your answers, or you can ask a trusted friend to listen as you talk about them together.

What were the key moments that shaped your life? (e.g. an important friendship, a travel experience, an illness or injury)

What are you proud of? (e.g. you’re a good listener, you always keep your promises, you’re a talented musician)

How do you choose to spend your time? (e.g. reading, practicing soccer, spending time with your friends)

What inspires you? (e.g. your grandmother, a celebrity, your favorite song)

Doing this self-reflection is crucial for figuring out the perfect topics and anecdotes you can use to describe who you are.

Tip 2: Try to Avoid Cliché Topics

College application committees read thousands of personal statements a year. That means there are some personal statement topics they see over and over again.

Here are a few examples of common personal statement topics that have become cliché:

Winning a tournament or sports game

Volunteering in a foreign country

Moving to a new home

Becoming an older sibling

Being an immigrant or having immigrant parents

If you want to make a strong impression in the application process, you need to make your personal statement stand out from the crowd.

But if your chosen personal statement topic falls into one of these categories, that doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn’t use it. Just make sure to put a unique spin on it so it still delivers something the committee hasn’t seen before.

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Tip 3: Show, Don’t Tell

One common mistake you might make in your personal statement is to simply tell the reader what you want them to know about you, such as by stating “I have a fear of public speaking” or “I love to cook.”

Instead of simply stating these facts, you should show the committee what you’re talking about through a story or scene, which will make your essay much more immersive and memorable.

For example, let’s say you want the committee to know you overcame your fear of public speaking. Instead of writing “I overcame my fear of public speaking,” show them what it was like to be onstage in front of a microphone. Did your palms get clammy? Did you feel light-headed? Did you forget your words?

Or let’s say you want the committee to know you love to cook. Instead of writing “I love to cook,” show them why you love to cook. What’s your favorite dish to cook? What does the air smell like when you’re cooking it? What kitchen appliances do you use to make it?

Tip 4: Connect the Story to Why You’re Applying

Don’t forget that the purpose of your personal statement isn’t simply to tell the admissions committee who you are. That’s an important part of it, of course, but your ultimate goal is to convince them to choose you as a candidate.

That means it’s important to tie your personal story to your reasons for applying to this specific school or scholarship. Finish your essay with a strong thesis.

For example, if your story is about overcoming your fear of public speaking, you might connect that story to your ambition of becoming a politician. You can then tie that to your application by saying, “I want to apply to this school because of its fantastic politics program, which will give me a perfect opportunity to use my voice.”

Tip 5: Write in Your Own Voice

The personal statement isn’t supposed to be written in a formal tone. That’s why they’re called “personal” statements because you have to shape it to fit your own voice and style.

Don’t use complicated or overwrought language. You don’t need to fill your essay with semicolons and big words, unless that’s how you sound in real life.

One way to write in your own voice is by speaking your personal statement out loud. If it doesn’t feel natural, it may need changing. 

Tip 6: Edit, Edit, Edit!

It’s important to revise your personal statement multiple times in order to make sure it’s as close to perfect as possible.

A single typo won’t kill your application, but if your personal statement contains multiple spelling errors or egregious grammar mistakes, you won’t be putting your best foot forward.

ProWritingAid can help you make sure your personal statement is as clean as possible. In addition to catching your grammar errors, typos, and punctuation mistakes, it will also help you improve weaknesses in your writing, such as passive voice, unnecessary repetition, and more.

Let’s look at some of the best personal statements that have worked for successful candidates in the real world. 

Harvard Personal Statement Example

Love. For a word describing such a powerful emotion, it is always in the air. The word “love” has become so pervasive in everyday conversation that it hardly retains its roots in blazing passion and deep adoration. In fact, the word is thrown about so much that it becomes difficult to believe society isn’t just one huge, smitten party, with everyone holding hands and singing “Kumbaya.” In films, it’s the teenage boy’s grudging response to a doting mother. At school, it’s a habitual farewell between friends. But in my Chinese home, it’s never uttered. Watching my grandmother lie unconscious on the hospital bed, waiting for her body to shut down, was excruciatingly painful. Her final quavering breaths formed a discordant rhythm with the steady beep of hospital equipment and the unsympathetic tapping hands of the clock. That evening, I whispered—into unhearing ears—the first, and only, “I love you” I ever said to her, my rankling guilt haunting me relentlessly for weeks after her passing. My warm confession seemed anticlimactic, met with only the coldness of my surroundings—the blank room, impassive doctors, and empty silence. I struggled to understand why the “love” that so easily rolled off my tongue when bantering with friends dissipated from my vocabulary when I spoke to my family. Do Chinese people simply love less than Americans do?

This is an excerpt from a personal statement that got the applicant admitted to Harvard University. The applicant discusses her background as a Chinese-American by musing on the word “love” and what that means within her family.

The writer uses vulnerable details about her relationship with her grandmother to give the reader an understanding of where she comes from and how her family has shaped her.  

You can read the full personal statement on the Harvard Crimson website.

Tufts Personal Statement Example

My first dream job was to be a pickle truck driver. I saw it in my favorite book, Richard Scarry’s “Cars and Trucks and Things That Go,” and for some reason, I was absolutely obsessed with the idea of driving a giant pickle. Much to the discontent of my younger sister, I insisted that my parents read us that book as many nights as possible so we could find goldbug, a small little golden bug, on every page. I would imagine the wonderful life I would have: being a pig driving a giant pickle truck across the country, chasing and finding goldbug. I then moved on to wanting to be a Lego Master. Then an architect. Then a surgeon. Then I discovered a real goldbug: gold nanoparticles that can reprogram macrophages to assist in killing tumors, produce clear images of them without sacrificing the subject, and heat them to obliteration. Suddenly the destination of my pickle was clear. I quickly became enveloped by the world of nanomedicine; I scoured articles about liposomes, polymeric micelles, dendrimers, targeting ligands, and self-assembling nanoparticles, all conquering cancer in some exotic way. Completely absorbed, I set out to find a mentor to dive even deeper into these topics. After several rejections, I was immensely grateful to receive an invitation to work alongside Dr. Sangeeta Ray at Johns Hopkins.

This is the beginning of a personal statement by Renner Kwittken, who was admitted into Tufts University as a pre-medical student.

Renner uses a humorous anecdote about being a pickle truck driver to describe his love for nanomedicine and how he got involved in his field. You can feel his passion for medicine throughout his personal statement.

You can find Renner’s full essay on the Tufts Admissions page.

Law School Personal Statement Essay Example

For most people, the slap on the face that turns their life around is figurative. Mine was literal. Actually, it was a punch delivered by a drill sergeant at Fort Dix, New Jersey, while I was in basic training. That day’s activity, just a few weeks into the program, included instruction in “low-crawling,” a sensible method of moving from one place to another on a battlefield. I felt rather clever for having discovered that, by looking right rather than down, I eliminated my helmet’s unfortunate tendency to dig into the ground and slow my progress. I could thus advance more easily, but I also exposed my unprotected face to hostile fire. Drill sergeants are typically very good at detecting this type of laziness, and mine was an excellent drill sergeant. So, after his repeated suggestions that I correct my performance went unheeded, he drove home his point with a fist to my face. We were both stunned. This was, after all, the New Army, and striking a trainee was a career-ending move for a drill sergeant, as we were both aware. I could have reported him; arguably, I should have. I didn’t. It didn’t seem right for this good sergeant, who had not slept for almost four days, to lose his career for losing his temper with my laziness. Choosing not to report him was the first decision I remember making that made me proud.

These are the first three paragraphs of an anonymous personal statement by a Wheaton College graduate, who used this personal statement to get into a top-25 law school.

This statement describes a time the applicant faced a challenging decision while in the army. He ended up making a decision he was proud of, and as a result, the personal statement gives us a sense of his character.

You can find the full essay on the Wheaton Academics website.

Here are some common questions about how to write a personal statement.

How Long Should a Personal Statement Be?

The length of your personal statement depends on the specific program you’re applying to. The application guidelines usually specify a maximum word count or an ideal word count.  

Most personal statements are between 500–800 words. That’s a good general range to aim for if you don’t have more specific guidelines.  

Should Personal Statements Be Different for Scholarships?

Many scholarship applications will ask for personal statements with similar prompts to those of college applications.

However, the purpose of a personal statement you’d write for a scholarship application is different from the purpose of one you’d write for a college application.

For a scholarship application, your goal is to showcase why you deserve the scholarship. To do that, you need to understand the mission of the organization offering that scholarship.

For example, some scholarships are meant to help first-generation college students get their degree, while others are meant to help women break into STEM.

Consider the following questions:

Why is this organization offering scholarships?

What would their ideal scholarship candidate look like?

How do your experiences and goals overlap with those of their ideal scholarship candidate?

You can use the same personal anecdotes you’d use for any other personal statement, but you’ll have a better chance of winning the scholarship if you tailor your essay to match their specific mission.

How to Start a Personal Statement

You should start your personal statement with a “hook” that pulls the reader in. The sooner you catch the reader’s attention, the more likely they’ll want to read the entire essay.

Here are some examples of hooks you can use:

A story (e.g. When the spotlight hit my face, I tried to remind myself to breathe. )

A setting description (e.g. My bedroom floor is covered with dirty laundry, candy wrappers, and crumpled sheet music. )

A funny anecdote (e.g. When I was a little kid, my friends nicknamed me Mowgli because of my haircut. )

A surprising fact (e.g. I've lived in 37 countries .)

There you have it—our complete guide to writing a personal statement that will make you stand out to the application committee.

Here’s a quick recap: 

A personal statement is a short essay that shows an application committee who you are

Start with a strong hook that pulls the reader in

Tell a story to engage the reader 

Write in your own voice, not in a formal tone

Good luck, and happy writing!

Hannah is a speculative fiction writer who loves all things strange and surreal. She holds a BA from Yale University and lives in Colorado. When she’s not busy writing, you can find her painting watercolors, playing her ukulele, or hiking in the Rockies. Follow her work on hannahyang.com or on Twitter at @hannahxyang.

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How to Write a Strong Personal Statement

• Ruth Gotian
• Ushma S. Neill

A few adjustments can get your application noticed.

Whether applying for a summer internship, a professional development opportunity, such as a Fulbright, an executive MBA program, or a senior leadership development course, a personal statement threads the ideas of your CV, and is longer and has a different tone and purpose than a traditional cover letter. A few adjustments to your personal statement can get your application noticed by the reviewer.

• Make sure you’re writing what they want to hear. Most organizations that offer a fellowship or internship are using the experience as a pipeline: It’s smart to spend 10 weeks and $15,000 on someone before committing five years and $300,000. Rarely are the organizations being charitable or altruistic, so align your stated goals with theirs
• Know when to bury the lead, and when to get to the point. It’s hard to paint a picture and explain your motivations in 200 words, but if you have two pages, give the reader a story arc or ease into your point by setting the scene.
• Recognize that the reviewer will be reading your statement subjectively, meaning you’re being assessed on unknowable criteria. Most people on evaluation committees are reading for whether or not you’re interesting. Stated differently, do they want to go out to dinner with you to hear more? Write it so that the person reading it wants to hear more.
• Address the elephant in the room (if there is one). Maybe your grades weren’t great in core courses, or perhaps you’ve never worked in the field you’re applying to. Make sure to address the deficiency rather than hoping the reader ignores it because they won’t. A few sentences suffice. Deficiencies do not need to be the cornerstone of the application.

At multiple points in your life, you will need to take action to transition from where you are to where you want to be. This process is layered and time-consuming, and getting yourself to stand out among the masses is an arduous but not impossible task. Having a polished resume that explains what you’ve done is the common first step. But, when an application asks for it, a personal statement can add color and depth to your list of accomplishments. It moves you from a one-dimensional indistinguishable candidate to someone with drive, interest, and nuance.

• Ruth Gotian is the chief learning officer and associate professor of education in anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, and the author of The Success Factor and Financial Times Guide to Mentoring . She was named the #1 emerging management thinker by Thinkers50. You can access her free list of conversation starters and test your mentoring impact . RuthGotian
• Ushma S. Neill is the Vice President, Scientific Education & Training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. She runs several summer internships and is involved with the NYC Marshall Scholar Selection Committee. ushmaneill

Partner Center

3 Essential Books for Writing the Personal Statement

1. The Elements of Style,  E.B. White and William Strunk, Jr.

We know what you’re thinking. “A grammar book? Who even reads this?!” But it’s a classic for anyone who wants to brush up on the rules of standard American usage. Plus, it’s super short and you’ll know exactly where to look for answers to your trickiest syntax questions.

2. On Writing the College Application Essay,  Harry Bauld

This is the definitive book on the college essay – and believe it or not it’s actually a really entertaining read. Even though it was written in the 80s (literally before you were born) it offers amazing advice that is still applicable today. It’s also a great companion read for College Essay Academy , and will help you reinforce what you learn from each video lesson.

3. On Writing,  Stephen King

Yes! You get to read a Stephen King book where no one gets murdered or haunted. Even though the book generally describes King’s approach to fiction, the writer of some of the world’s most riveting stories has some amazing advice about storytelling. (And some bold opinions on adverbs.) He also shares details about his life and personal anecdotes that might just inspire you in your own personal writing.

BONUS pick for parents: Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be,  Frank Bruni

Are you already freaking out? Don’t. Frank Bruni’s honest take on the value of a college education sheds new light on this stress-filled and high-pressure topic. You will be fine. You all will.

About Thea Hogarth

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Give College Essay Academy a Try.

Written by Thea Hogarth

Category: Essay Tips

Tags: advice , college admissions , college application , college essay , common application , elements of style , frank bruni , harry bauld , personal statement , recommended reading , Stephen King , strunk and white , tips , writing

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What books can I read to help me write my college personal statement?

What is a personal essay? What does a college personal statement sound like? You’ve looked at tons of sample personal statements, but none of them are particularly inspiring. How do you find your voice as a writer?

The most important part of a personal statement is trusting your own voice, which is why these examples of confident, strong writers will help you find out who you want to be.

Here are three beautifully written, fascinating books of essays that will help you discover how to turn your life into a compelling story. These aren’t examples of personal statements that were written for college applications: they’re books by writers who have discovered how to turn nonfiction into a compelling story. Reading these essays instead of, or in addition to, your stereotypical “admissions essay” collection will help show you how you can come alive on the page by having the guts to write from confidence, rather than to try and fit into some sort of “perfect” college applicant mold.

John McPhee, Pieces of the Frame .

McPhee has been a New Yorker writer for decades, and he’s mastered the form of the long-form, well-researched, narrative, nonfiction essay. Even though McPhee usually writes pieces that are far longer than your personal statement will be, every essay is a masterpiece in structure and concision: he tells the full story, but he doesn’t include anything that doesn’t need to be there .

Important tips to take from McPhee’s writing:

1. Write about places that are important to you.

Check out “The Search for Marvin Gardens” (about Atlantic City, New Jersey) and “Travels in Georgia” for two examples of essays that tell stories by focusing on particular locations. If you have a place that’s particularly important in your life—your grandparents’ ranch in Montana, the community theater where you auditioned for your first show, your elementary school that burned down— try describing the location itself , and what makes it so special.

2. Use direct quotations.

Part of what makes McPhee such a compelling writer is how gracefully he brings in other people’s voices. Like a great dance partner, he makes other people look and sound terrific, and the quality of dialogue makes the people in the essay come to life. Instead of summarizing what people say, let them say it directly .

3. Senses are your friends.

McPhee often makes a scene pop by suddenly putting in a smell, or a sound, or a texture, when every image until that point has been visual. Remember that we exist in the world in three dimensions . What does the salt water in the ocean taste like? What do the weathervanes on the barn sound like? What’s the texture of the gravel driveway?

Leslie Jamison, The Empathy Exams .

Jamison balances clarity and laser-sharp prose with harrowing, deeply personal subject matter: her writing never flinches from brutally honest self-examination, but she also never relies on sentimentality or clichés to get her emotions across. Check out the title essay, “The Empathy Exams,” for a brilliant example of writing gracefully and delicately about a very intense subject matter: that is, the author’s abortion.

Important tips to take from Jamison’s writing:

1. Let the subject matter speak for itself.

When you’re talking about something very private, write as specifically as you can , without zooming out to give morals or justify your actions.

2. Details are important, but always keep the point of the story in mind.

The only person who can tell your story is you, because you were the only one on the ground for it. So you want to bring us into the scene of the action. But you’ve also got to remember that you only have a really limited space. Why are you telling this story? What’s its purpose? What takeaway message are you sending?

3. Chronological order is your friend.

Often, when you’re trying to craft an essay, it can be easy to fall into the trap of trying to find the one best way to tell the tale without even being aware of what the story you’re telling is.

Stephen Jay Gould, Bully for Brontosaurus .

Gould was a groundbreaking biologist who made major discoveries about the way evolution works, but he was perhaps most famous for his essays, which made complex scientific issues accessible to all readers. You don’t have to come up with new theories of evolution to write a personal statement -- but you can let your own passions, whatever they are, shine through as you write.

Important tips to take from Gould’s writing:

1. Don’t underestimate your reader.

Gould is a master at explaining very complex concepts in simple terms, but he never dumbs down his argument for the masses . The very thing that makes him so engaging is the way that he’s unafraid to present unfamiliar ideas . If you’ve worked hard at something -- lacrosse, trumpet, Rubik’s cubes -- and you’re passionate about what you do, let that come through in your college personal statement!

2. Write about what you love.

Gould has a terrific prose style—he’s witty and light without going overboard—but what shines through most clearly in his writing is that he’s passionate about his subject matter.

3. You don’t need to be complicated to sound smart.

The most knowledgeable writers are often the ones who are the clearest to follow. Writing coherently about something very technical or very theoretical doesn’t mean that you don’t get it—actually, it means just the opposite.

While it might seem like the best books to read before you write your college personal statement would be books of other admissions essays, these can get claustrophobic and paralyzing. You might feel like everything under the sun has already been written, or you might come up with some sort of cookie-cutter false “ideal” version of a college applicant. Reading well-crafted personal essays by writers unafraid to let their voices shine will help inspire you to let your own passions come through, which will help you pop on the page.

Adrienne received her English PhD from Harvard University, her MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and her BA from Princeton University. She is a nonfiction writer and poet, and teaches in the Writing Program at Princeton University.

Related Content

17 Books for Economics Personal Statements 2022

Which books should you read for your economics personal statement?

After reading this post you will have some ideas for books to read, depending on your specific interests.

There are books for different areas of economics, including game theory, public economics, mathematics in economics, development and more.

First, for a complete guide to economics personal statements, including other supercurricular activities and how to write and structure your statement, click the blue button (paid resource):

Books by category

Economics Rules by Rodrik

• A good introduction about the uses and limits of economic models.
• Covers several different models and settings from the 2008 financial crisis to second best theory.

The Economist’s View of the World by Rhoads

• Another good introduction to economic thinking, this time about some of the ways in which economists think. 
• This includes opportunity costs, incentives, marginal economics, market failure and government intervention.

Game theory

Thinking Strategically/The Art of Strategy by Dixit and Nalebuff

• How you can apply game theory to lots of different settings, such as politics, sports and business.
• Examples of questions covered: When should voters vote for an enemy? Why might “burning bridges” be an effective strategy? How can it pay off to be unpredictable? Game theory attempts to answer these questions and more.
• My favourite chapter of Thinking Strategically is the chapter on “Brinkmanship”. By taking an enemy “to the brink”, in other words forcing the enemy to accept greater and greater risks on their current path, you may encourage your enemy towards a more acceptable, less risky outcome. This is a good starting point in explaining how nuclear war evolves and maybe, how we can reduce the likelihood of such a war. 

Co-opetition by Brandenburger and Nalebuff 

• How game theory can be applied in a business setting. Bringing together competition and cooperation.
• Particularly suited to those with interests in business economics and case studies of different businesses.
• A highlight for me is the “tactics” chapter of the book. What do job interview processes, peacocks and book publishers have in common? This chapter is about the importance of information or a lack of information. When might it be beneficial to obscure information? Information is a key consideration in game theory and there are important takeaways for business behaviour and the design of compensation schemes or interview processes, for example.

Mathematics in economics

Mastering Metrics by Angrist and Pischke

• An introduction to key econometrics techniques, such as the idea of regression.
• Natural experiment methods, such as difference-in-difference methods, instrumental variables and regression discontinuity design. This is the basis for a lot of undergraduate econometrics.

The Drunkard’s Walk by Mlodinow

• Mostly about statistics and probability (not about economics). 
• Learning about probability will be key for economics, for example for discussing stock price fluctuations or econometrics.

Development economics

Banker to the Poor: Micro-lending and the Battle Against World Poverty by Yunus

• Features the roots of the idea of microcredit – giving small loans out to those who cannot normally access funds from traditional banks. 
• Yunus is the founder of Grameen bank, one of the most well known examples of microcredit in action.
• I would also recommend supplementing this with reading about the evidence of the effects of microcredit. For example papers by Duflo and Banerjee on the effects of microcredit.

Development as Freedom by Sen

• A case for defining development in terms of freedom and that development is not just about increasing incomes.

Economic history 

The Ascent of Money by Ferguson

• Origins of money, banking, financial bubbles and panics.

Why Nations Fail by Acemoglu and Robinson

• A historical examination of why some nations are rich and others are poor.
• Focuses on the importance of “inclusive institutions” (such as enforcement of property rights) as opposed to “extractive institutions”.
• I also recommend looking into Acemoglu and Robinson’s (2000) paper on institutions as well as academic criticisms of their conclusions from other writers (for example by McArthur and Sachs).

History of economic thought 

The Worldly Philosophers by Heilbroner:

• Covers several key economists in history, from Adam Smith, Malthus and Ricardo to Keynes and Schumpeter.

Macroeconomics 

Austerity by Alesina, Favero and Giavazzi:

• Discusses the effects of fiscal austerity (reducing the size of the government budget deficit relative to GDP) and when this might be an effective policy.
• A good introduction to thinking and economic modelling in macroeconomics.

The Subprime Solution by Shiller

• Discusses causes of and solutions to global financial crises. Focusses on the importance of behavioural aspects of economics and finance.

Behavioural economics

Misbehaving by Thaler

• Covers key ideas in and the history of behavioural economics.

The Price of Inequality by Stiglitz

• Good discussion of the dangers of inequality, including how it affects living standards, politics and the economy, and what can be done about it.

Environmental economics and public economics 

Growth for Good by Terzi:

• How economic growth can mitigate, rather than exacerbate, the impacts of climate change.

Fragile Futures by Tanzi:

• How economists and governments should deal with uncertain events, including pandemics, climate change and other disasters.

Other questions

Why put books in the personal statement.

First of all there are personal benefits derived from reading. You can understand new ideas which you can apply to the real world and achieve personal enjoyment from reading.

For the purposes of personal statements, reading can act as a signal that you study beyond the standard curriculum. So you would be a motivated student at university.

How should I use books in a personal statement?

It is not a good idea just to name-drop the book, without any further discussion. How can the person reading your statement tell if you have actually read it?

The best way to discuss a book is to mention your own opinion of or takeaway from the book. Do you agree with the book? Did you find anything particularly surprising or interesting? Does the book help explain other phenomena you have observed, or link to something else?

So, when reading a book, I highly recommend making some notes on key ideas or points from the book and your own thoughts. You can then return to these points in the future or come back to them when writing your statement.

To read more about economics university applications (personal statement, supercurriculars and Oxbridge applications), click the link here .

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50 Real Law School Personal Statements: And Everything You Need to Know to Write Yours (Manhattan Prep LSAT Strategy Guides) Proprietary Edition

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• ISBN-10 1941234542
• ISBN-13 978-1941234549
• Edition Proprietary
• Publisher Manhattan Prep
• Publication date October 6, 2015
• Language English
• Dimensions 6 x 1.25 x 9 inches
• Print length 368 pages
• See all details

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Manhattan Prep; Proprietary edition (October 6, 2015)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1941234542
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1941234549
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.3 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.25 x 9 inches
• #33 in Law School Guides (Books)
• #124 in LSAT Test Guides (Books)
• #296 in Graduate School Guides

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