Customer Reviews

Perfect Personal Statements, 3rd edition (Peterson's How to Write the Perfect Personal Statement)

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I purchased this book without looking through it first and am extremely disappointed. While it did provide some good advice on what not to include in a personal statement, the sample essays provided seemed trivial and senseless. Also, the book seems to be written for kids still in college and recent grads, and focuses mostly on medical and law school admissions. It totally ignores working adults and people seeking admission into other graduate programs, such as human services and education. The time I wasted reading this book could have been better spent actually writing my own admissions essay!

Horrible book. The title should read "Perfect personal statements for law, medical and graduate school rejections"

Do not buy this book.

It's advice is useless at best, insulting at worst. It is full of idiotic phrases such as "use your creativity to..." that are too abstract to be actually helpful. It relies on jargon and a casual tone, which good writing books eschew. The only concrete advice it gives is so obvious as to be disconcerting. What graduate school applicant wouldn't already know not to misspell the name of the university? What kind of mutant would find this book helpful?

Only the collection of actual essays and responses from admissions boards at the end of the book made me not wholly regret spending $4 (including shipping) on this waste of trees. Still, I wish I had my $4 back, along with my belief that the pool of graduate school applicants weren't foolish egotists with no social skills, self-awareness, or basic understanding of the expectations the professional world has for them.

I just glanced at one essay in this book and I found horrible grammatical errors such as failing to Capitilize the name of a university. I'm glad I didn't buy it and hope no one else does either.