On a grad school personal statement, WHERE in the statement is it

A

Anne

Member
appropriate to discuss why you did poorly? ok so it says that in the personal statement you have to discuss why you want to study at that school, and what your research interests are. BUT i was told by many people that I need to explain why i did so bad one semester, and it was cause of personal problems. so my question is, where in the personal statement should i discuss this, and how vague can i be without them going this is B.S.


basically, i don't wanna be like, i think i would be a good fit because xyz, oh and by the way I got D's in the fall 2008 term because i had personal problems. any ideas?
 
C

CorinneGe

New member
you should definitely try to explain that. it's going to be extremely detrimental for your application because it sends up a red flag. be as real as you can- if it was a personal problem try to appeal to the reader's emotional side without trying to gain sympathy. don't make excuses for it, take personal responsibility for it.
 
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