5 Tips in Writing Personal Statement for Korean Scholarships

Global Korea Scholarships

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The Global Korea Scholarship (GKS), used to Korean Government Scholarship Program (KGSP), is a scholarship provided by the Korean Government via National Institute for International Education (NIEED), which is part of the Korean Ministry of Education. This scholarship has been provided awards for international students who are interested to continue their studies both in undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.

Within the scholarship application, the GKS demands their applicants to write personal statement with in different topics and it has to be written in a single page. Sometimes, this is challenging situation for applicants, and how to write it efficiently. In this article, it is provided the strategy and tips for writing the personal statement which focuses on the GKS Scholarship and could be used in other scholarship.

Personal Statement

The first thing that we must define is "what is a personal statement?". From the words, a personal statement is a statement that you write to define about yourself regarding your purpose to study in certain universities/ colleges or applying scholarships. However, it must be noted that, this personal statement acts as a supplement material which helps the reviewer board to understand your characteristics. In summary, a personal statement consists of:

• yourself
• purpose for studying
• reasons behind the decision on the university or scholarship
• characteristic of the applicants
• supplement material

From the above bullets, we could understand that there are five strategies that must be done when writing the personal statement. Now, let's start from the strategy number one, which is also part of the GKS scholarship application.

Describing Yourself

In the beginning of writing the description about yourself, let's answer this single question firstly:

1. What degrees do you want to take? Bachelor? Master or Doctorate?

Now, if your answer is a bachelor degree, note that, the admission committee wants to know you whether you are a potential person or not. Thus, in personal statement letter, you should have demonstrated your potential in a very effective and efficient words.

• leadership
• trust
• attitude
• inspiration
• motivational
• communication

Potential (adj) having or showing the capacity to develop into something in the future

Potential (noun) latent qualities or abilities that may be developed and lead to the future success or usefulness

In building paragraph could be started by the things, activities or hobbies that you have been doing until now. By showing the daily life situation, try to make the readers (admission committee) to be able to conclude your potential. Have a look an example of "potential words"; however, this is based on the medical article.

Anemia is a common disease for people in which the sufferer experiences dizziness and fatigue. Sometimes, they also show pale skin with cold on both hands and feet, which also signs of shortness of breath. These symptoms are the sign of insufficient composition of the bloods in supporting the human metabolism.

When we want to develop the paragraph that shows our potential, there are certain indicators that are required. In the paragraph above, it is written the indicators as the "symptoms", so we could draw a conclusion about the lack of blood composition in supporting the metabolism. Thus, if you have started yourself in joining local community to teach local children, then your symptoms are?

• preparing teaching material
• preparing outdoor equipment
• designing flashcards
• setting up games for groups

Now, how about for Master or PhD Degree?

Unlike the bachelor candidates, master and doctorate applicants are chosen not based on their potential anymore. The reviewers want to know that whether the candidates are suitable to be awarded or not. Thus, the suitable factors are based on:

• How prepared you are to take your master or doctorate degree?
• The reasons why you are interested in this program or field in particular
• The reasons why this scholarship is suitable for you

It seems that these three factors equal to motivation. Yes, indeed. However, generally, the preparation of personal statement is merely based on the purpose of studying, which leads to; for instance, going to the most popular universities.

Purpose of Studying and University

Regarding purpose of studying, several aspects are essential to understand. When we talk about a purpose, it is not about the reasons of the studying. It is about what is the relationship between your previous for instance your undergraduate degree to your master programme.

It is very important to focus about the field, the programmes, or for PhD is the research. Are there any particular reasons why did you choose the programmes, and try to find the relationship in between the previous undergraduate degree. Therefore, when you explain the purpose of the studying, don't mention individual professor or individual research centre. The reasons behind this are the professor or the person that you mention may not be there anymore, and the same goes to the centres. Subsequently, it is better to precisely described what you wan to study.

There are several words that you can use for purpose of studying such as:

• Advanced knowledge
• Judging yourself
• Understand the potential of yourself

So, you can use these words, which can be useful in order to overcome the problems you have encountered. For instance

Studying in material science would help me to encounter the problem that I have had during undergraduate studies, such as the basic understanding of radio synchrotron. Thus, studying in this program would improve my theoretical and practical skills which may be important in the future for university in the laboratory staff

Note that, the above paragraph implies the weakness; however, it is mentioned with different expression. This also answer the reasons why did you choose the university.

Characteristic of Applicants

Selling yourself is also an important part within the personal statement. To do so, several things must be implemented, such as:

• Show you as an individual
• Providing strong characteristics
• Ensure no to put the CV documents

What I am trying to say is, most of these statements include any information which can be found in the CV or any supporting materials, such as:

I am graduated from..., My study was about..., I received my IELTS

So, instead of explaining who you are, the statement tends to tell about the CV documents. Therefore, shaping yourself in the statements are important.

A characteristic means something special about you, and the attribution that you have. Previously, one of the examples are attitude. Thus, you need to demonstrate these characteristics via certain events or experiences that you have. It doesn't have to be the position you had, such as president or chief of something, but, it is more like the demonstration of yourself in managing or deciding something. Have a look an example below

During my internship years, I was instructed to carry a class that is composed of local tribes. The problem that I had was about communication; thus, I designed a flashcards for the children in the next meeting which is very fun for them to study.

This is one of the example that you can use to explain your decision making and analysing skills, which are also demonstrated in the situation of your internship time.

Conclusion

Statement of purpose is a letter that is written by the applicants to express their personal characteristics. This letter is used to sell yourself, to ensure the admission board about you are potential candidates or the most suitable candidates. As a letter of showing individuality, expressing your purpose of studying which are based on your previous experiences would shape yourself in the eyes of the readers.