Make Your Personal Statement Count: Defeat the Cliches

While most of us are busy getting acclimated to the rhythms and routines of a new school year, one group of students—college bound seniors—are already a year ahead of us.

For graduating seniors, fall is synonymous with college application season, which means these next few months will likely be daunting, hectic, and uncertain. Acceptance to college is never a given, but its often and most easily achieved bysubmitting a great application with an even better personal statement.

As many of us know from experience, the personal statement is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it gives students an excellent opportunity to express their intellectual and creative abilities. A well-written personal statement is often the deciding factor in pushing “borderline” applications into the acceptance pile.

On the other hand, there are many essay-writing pitfalls that can just as quickly land your student’s application in the rejection pile or waiting list. Of all the personal statement blunders, the one that students run into the most is loading up their essay with clichés. Learning how to avoid the most common clichés should be your student’s first step toward writing a winning personal statement.

What is a cliché?
Simply put, a cliché is a greatly overused phrase, expression, or idea.

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