What is an SLP personal statement?
SLP grad school personal statements are probably the single most important part of your application to a masters program. It is what brings everything else together.
It gives context to your GPA and GRE scores.
A well-written personal statement complements the letters of recommendation from your academic sources.
Your personal statement transforms the lists on your resume into rich and meaningful experiences that excite the admissions committee.gra
SLP personal statements defined:
The basic idea behind a personal statement is to talk about your intent to study in that SLP program, and explain why you might be a good fit.
Other names for a personal statement
Different graduate programs have different names for it. You may see different SLP programs refer to it as any one of the following:
- Personal statement
- Statement of purpose
- Letter of intent
- Admissions essay
- Personal essay
- Statement of interest
- Statement of goals
- Statement of purpose
The basic idea behind each of these names is the same.
Some might argue that a “personal statement” is more of a personal narrative whereas as “statement of purpose” focuses more on the program. If you’re worried about splitting hairs, you can read more on the difference between letter of intent and personal statement at GradSchool.com.
How to Write SLP Grad School Personal Statements
I’m going to walk you through the exact steps I used to write the statements of purpose that earned me admissions into top SLP grad programs, and helped me earn over $100,000 in SLP scholarships and funding.
My experience on the topic
Back before I wanted to become an SLP, I worked with a program called Upward Bound as a sort of college coach. I helped dozens of amazing high schoolers become first-generation college students (one of them is now literally a rocket scientist!) through tutoring, ACT prep, workshops, summer camps, and designing customized college admissions strategies.
When I applied for a Fulbright Fellowship, I was lucky that Dr. Marie Orton, took me under her wing and mentored me through the rigorous application that helped me earned the coveted grant.
While completing that Fulbright, I interned at the Institute of International Education’s Office for Latin America. There, I managed multiple international scholarships for partners like Exxon-Mobil, Cargill, and Harvard.
Finally, each year I am deeply honored to serve on the selection committee in Mexico for Fulbright scholars, conducting interviews with dozens of top applicants from Mexico and the United States.
I don’t share all of this to brag. I’m not perfect (heck, I even found a glaring typo in my own SLP masters admissions essay). I share it to let you know that I’m not just making this up. What I’m sharing is based on my experiences, my research, and my work.
I truly hope it is helpful to you.
Two Types of SLP Personal Statements for Graduate School
A general or comprehensive statement has very few guidelines and a very broad topic. This gives you so much freedom to write, which is a bit scary but ultimately super powerful.
Some examples:
- Why do you want to become an SLP?
- Explain your interested in graduate studies at our institution.
- Describe your intentions in pursuing study in this field.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, some SLP masters programs ask very specific questions. Your personal statement should answer those questions specifically. Some schools might provide multiple questions for you to choose from OR multiple questions you must answer.
Some examples:
- What does disability mean to you?
- Explain what “evidence based practice” means to you.
- What three objects would you take with you if trapped on a desert island?
- Other than technology and “apps”, what do you believe is a significant development in the field of speech-language pathology over the past 10 years? How will you incorporate this development into your future practice as a speech/language pathologist?”
Steps to Writing the Best SLP Personal Statements for Grad School
Step 1. Start Early
This should be pretty obvious, but I put it because… well… you need to start early!
DO NOT wait until the last minute to write your essays. I repeat: DO NOT wait until the last minute to write your essays.
You should start drafting your essays about 6 months before they’re due. They don’t need to be perfect, but you need a rough draft.
For my admissions essays to top SLP program, I started around April, and didn’t turn the essays in until October. This gives you plenty of time to change and revise your essays. My first draft essay looks NOTHING like the one that earned me a spot in my first-choice graduate program.
2. Brainstorming & Introspection
If you think you can write your grad school admissions essay without doing this, you’re either 1) a hyper-focused prodigy, or 2) you need to rethink your decision to go to grad school.
That might sound a bit harsh, but let’s not sugarcoat this: Graduate school for speech-language pathology is a big deal, and you need to treat it as such.
You should spend sometime doing some “soul searching” to figure out why you truly want to go. Your conscious rationalization might not even match whats going on in your subconscious once you start probing.
If you’re not very good at introspection, I suggest investing the $14 in my book: SLP to Be. There is a whole chapter on pre-writing exercises, focused on SLP grad school.
In my essays, I started with a (hackneyed) explanation of my passion for teaching inspired by my wonderful high school Spanish teacher. After several months of revising (and guidance from an amazing mentor), I was able to draw a meaningful thread through most major events in my life (literally from birth) and show how those antecedents, more than inspired me, compelled me to go to graduate school.
Ok, that’s a little dramatic sounding – but it was truly an emotional and stirring experience. I even cried once… or twice.
Nothing should be overlooked during this process. Look at everything you’ve done: jobs you’ve had, people who have mentored you, classes you’ve taken, books that have inspired you.
The point is, you really need to look inside yourself and reflect on what you find.
And if you’re stuck, seriously consider my book. Here’s an example of one of the activities included in it:
Sample pre-writing activity from the book, SLP To Be.
Working with certain professors (whether taking their classes, reading their work, or working with them on a project) influences you and forms you as a scholar and future clinician. You pick up their perspectives and ways of viewing the field.
For this activity, you will reflect on the people who have influenced you and how you view the field of SLP (or related fields such as health care, linguistics, or education). Write a response to each question:
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Which professors have most influenced the way you think? What ideas or perspectives did they imprint upon you?
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Have any professors ever said something that stuck with you? What was it? Why did it stick?
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If you have completed any research, what was it about? What was your methodology? What did you learn from the process?
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Are there any professors who you would like to study under at a specific university?
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Is there a book or essay that you found particularly meaningful? Why?
- Have you ever heard conflicting information or thoughts from professors on the same topic? How did you decide whose advice to follow?
Step 3: Word Vomit Everything
“Word vomit” is the highly technical process (<- sarcasm) that you will use to create your first draft.
You’re just going to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and start writing the answer to the question, “Why do you want to go to graduate school for Speech Language Pathology?” without thinking or stopping or editing.
You might think, “AH! But that’s not the prompt!” And you’re right; it is probably not the exact prompt for every school. But I bet it is pretty close, and “pretty close” is good enough for now.
Don’t worry at this point if you have too much content or if it is completely filled with atrocious grammatical errors. This is a precursor to rough draft.
Just try to write without stopping to think or judge, just type any thoughts on why you want to become an SLP. Imagine you’re sitting on a comfy couch having a cup of coffee (or wine, depending on which gets you going better) with someone who asks you why’re interested in the field. You’ve got nothing but time and someone who is super interested in your answer. Tell them everything!
My word-vomit-super-rough-draft was three pages long and riddled with errors, errant thoughts, and all sorts of stuff that (while true) I would never show to grad schools. But the point was to get the answer onto paper!
At this point, no experience is too small. Write about fears, hopes, dreams. Write about things that excite you and things that terrify you. Write about things you would never tell the admissions committee.
The point is to get all of those rambling, errant thoughts out of your head so they can stop districting you. How do you know when you’re finished? When you have every possible motivation to become an SLP written down.
Step 4: Writing Your SLP Personal Statement
At this point you have a good source of raw material from which to build your essays. More importantly, you got all those loose ideas out of your head so they’ll stop distracting you.
Now you’re at an important juncture. You need to focus on a general or specific prompt.
If your school has a specific prompt, answer it. Then jump ahead to these other steps. Chances are, you’ll need to answer a general prompt as well.
Here’s how to do it:
First and foremost, answer the question being asked. Even if it is a general essay prompt, be sure you are answering it. Don’t wander off into left-field and talk about something irrelevant. Answer the question in approximately 1,000 words or less (we’ll cut it down later). Pull generously from your brainstorming (i.e. word vomit) that you did previously.
Next go back to the beginning. You need a hook, or strong opening paragraph. This is where you grab the reader’s attention or lose it. This paragraph will set the tone for the rest of the statement.
Finally, make sure that your essay can answer these three questions:
- How does your background prepare you for graduate studies?
- What do you want to attend our specific school for speech-language pathology?
- Briefly, what are your plans upon graduation?
Those three questions kind of cover the basic information that any admissions committee is going to look for. They might not say it explicitly, but the admissions reader expects to find answer to these implicit questions in your essay.
Step 4: Revising Your Personal Statement
Now, you want to dig in to essay and create a narrative. You need to make sure the essay tells a bit of a story.
You’re going to have to make a lot of tough decisions at this point.
My first piece of advice is to focus on what only you can talk about. If you know one of your letters of recommendation is going focus on teamwork, don’t waste space on that in your essay – focus on something only you can focus on – like how you felt during your first linguistics course or how shadowing an SLP showed you the impact speech therapy can have on a child’s life.
Second piece of advice: don’t be afraid to delete and remove sentences or even paragraphs. Sometimes, you know you need a smoother transition or a shorter way of expressing an idea, but you’re too attached to what’s already written to make changes. When this happens, open a new word document and start typing there until you’ve got the idea out, then copy and paste it into the main essay. Sometimes getting your work out of your sight helps you to get your mind off of it.
I recommend saving each draft on your computer. Save it as “Draft 1.” Then next time you make a big change, make a new copy and save it as “draft 2,” and so on. This helps you to keep track over time of your progress, and lets you easily backtrack.
Aim to revise your essay at least three times over the course of 2-3 weeks. Why does time matter? You need to look at the essay with fresh eyes. Waiting at least a week between readings helps you do that.
Step 5: Get some help
At this point, you need some help. You cannot should not try to do this on your own.
Why? Because we get tunnel vision when reading our own writing, after a few passes we tend to skip things and to think it is a lot better than it actually is. Also, we’re so close to our own lives that we sometimes can’t make sense of it – a third party can make connections we take for granted.
My advice for selecting a mentor:
- Someone who is a talented writer
- This is a tough and delicate thing to figure out. If the person is a professor, do they teach writing courses (good sign!) Are they published? (good sign!) Does they often get asked to write letters of recommendation (good sign!) Have they won grants in the past? (good sign!)
- Someone who works in the field
- Business people write differently than engineering people write differently than speech language pathologists. You want someone who knows your field and what is abuzz in its sphere of influence.
- Someone who has experience with admissions essays
- Many of your college professors have probably served on an admissions review panel for graduate students before. These are the perfect people to give you advice on your essays because they know all of your competition and what reviewers will look for!
As a final note, you don’t have to know your mentor very well before beginning work with him/her. I actually didn’t know my mentor before she agreed to look at my essays. My academic advisor suggested I contact this professor who “had some experience” with Fulbright. I wrote her a polite (and proper) email asking if she could spare some time to work with me. As it turns out, she is an alumnus of the program and a former member of the national selection committee! Her advice was AMAZING (and probably a huge part of why I won the grant!).
Once you have a mentor, ask them to read the essay multiple times. In fact, ask as many people as possible to read your essays.
But remember, just because someone reads the essay doesn’t mean they have to follow their advice! Evaluate who is giving you the information and their familiarity with the field of SLP and with graduate education in general.
Step 6: Tweaking & Customizing
First, a tip on organization. I use Dropbox; it is easy to use and creates automatic backups for free. I suggest creating a folder for each university that you’re applying to. In each folder, create a copy of your “base draft” of the essay. In a new word document, put that school’s specific essay requirements at the top. Into the document, paste chunks of your “base essay” together and start tweaking it.
One thing to help customize your essay is simply to mention the school’s name. You’d be surprised how many people don’t.
Another powerful tool for customization is program fit. Most SLP programs are pretty similar, but many do have speciality tracks or reputations in certain sub-areas.
If you’re interested in a specific area of research, mention the name of a faculty member conducting research in that area. Remember, you’re not committing yourself to anything yet. You’re merely expressing your interest.
Check out the program’s mission statement as well for relevant key concepts.
Finally, make sure you’re following the school’s prompts to the letter. You don’t want to get rejected when some student worker notices essays was 301 words when the limit is 300. Oh and double checking spelling. How embarrassing would it be if you spelt a professor or university name incorrectly? Is it Queens College or Queen’s College? Double check.
This step, of customizing and tweaking, requires a lot of knowledge about the program you’re applying to. Read up on their website to make sure you’re a good fit, and that you’re showing that in your essays.
Step 7: Revise Revise Revise
Once your essay is beginning to take shape and you have a draft you’re excited about, wait a week and read it again.
Here’s some exercises to help with revision:
Make sure you have a structure and flow. If you need ideas, check out this post that gives three basic example structures.
Ask yourself about each sentence and paragraph:
- Is this idea necessary?
- Can I say this in less words?
- Does the admissions committee really care about this?
- Am I trying to humble brag, or is this sincere?
Take sections of your essay and try rewriting them or reducing them to one sentence. You don’t have to use those short bits; it is just an exercise to help increase the quality of your writing.
The most important thing is to revise, wait, and revise again constantly. Even years later looking back at my admissions essays, I see things I could improve upon.
If you need more help writing SLP personal statements...
If you’re still stuck or need more help, you might find my book helpful. It has three chapters on how to write personal statements for SLP graduate school.
Obviously I’m biased because I wrote it… but I really do think it will help.
Do you help people with their personal essays of know of someone I could hire?
Hey Courtney! Send me a message through the “Contact” age (https://thespeechblog.com/contact/), and I’ll see what I can do!
I am curious, do you always put a cover sheet (not a cover letter) with your personal statements?
I did not use cover sheets with mine when I was applying, and I haven’t seen any schools ask for it. Usually in the upper left margin you’ll include a simple note like “First Name Last Name – Personal Statement” and that’s about it.