Personal Statements

Graduate School
1

How many personal statements will we need for each graduate school? One? But is it one for each whole university or one for each program? Will there be other kinds of essays required besides a personal statement or does that vary among different schools? If so, what kinds of essays are they and what are some schools that may look for them?

If it helps, I’m interested in applying for a Masters in Math/Statistics/Data Science and some colleges I’ve been thinking about are NYU, Cornell, and URochester. (I’m asking here because I’m struggling to find the exact information I’m looking for online as I keep getting what I don’t need, but I’m still searching.)

2

If you are applying for the same type of program at each school, then your personal statement could probably be used for all of them.

Sometimes there is an additional essay on diversity.

3

The majority of the personal statement (describing research interests, etc) could be the same from program to program, but it’s always nice to see the statement tailored to the particular program a bit to show you actually know something about the program. (But that may be more important for a PhD program than a masters program.)

4

^ Yes, that is true. You should explain why each program appeals to you. Then the rest of the statement can be the same.