个人陈述指在申请过程中按照学校要求写一篇有关申请人过去背景，目前成就和未来目标等的文章。个人陈述最常见的两种叫法是：Personal Statement和Statement of Purpose。还有Statement of Intent, Statement of Objectives, Academic Statement, Academic Objectives等叫法。大部分学校只要求一篇个人陈述，但是个别学校(例如：加州伯克利，密歇根安娜堡)要求两篇个人陈述：此时Statement of Purpose偏向于申请者的专业方面的技能和潜质，Personal Statement偏向于申请者的成长经历、感悟和体会。如果学校只要一篇个人陈述，不论它的叫法是什么，都应该偏向于申请者的专业方面的技能和潜质方面去写。
个人陈述都要写什么
1. Introduce yourself, your interests and motivations介绍你自己、你的兴趣和动机
2.Summarize your undergraduate and previous graduate career总结你的本科或者研究生经历
3.Discuss the relevance of your recent and current activities思考近期或者目前你所做的事情对于你继续深造的关联性
4.Elaborate on your academic interests详细阐明你的学术兴趣
个人陈述写作技巧
1. 录取委员会想从你个人陈述的字里行间里，读出你的自我激励、你的能力，以及你作为一名未来的研究生的潜力。
2. 所有的事情都能从积极的角度去考虑。写一篇积极主动的，而不是消极被动的个人陈述。
3. 所有的事情都用具体事例去展现;不要直接说出来你是一个坚持不懈的人，而是要通过事例展现出来。
4. 如果有一些重要的因素影响了你的学业成绩，比如说贫穷、疾病或者过分繁重的工作，请列举出来。写这些原因的时候，请用一种积极的肯定的角度去写，以此向录取委员会展现你虽然遇到了困难阻碍却依然坚持不懈。对于这一点你可以在PS中详细的说明。
5. 确保你所写的所有内容都能展现你对于所申请专业不是一时兴趣，而要展现对此专业的持续性和专注。
6. 除非学校有特别要求，个人陈述请尽量简短。通常为500到1000单词(单倍或者双倍行距，12号字体)，尽量避免表述不清及结构混乱。
个人陈述范文精选（附详细点评）
申请专业：公共关系
On March 15, the World Consumer Rights Day, 2013, CCTV exposed that the food served in McDonald’s was expired. Maybe for many companies, it was a terrible and crippling blow, but for McDonald’s, it was not as consumers there were still as crowded as before. Why, I wondered. “That’s the magic of PR” A friend of mine told me. “It has observed the 5s rules, namely shouldering the matter, sincerity, speed, system and standard” He added.
Recommended by him, I started to read the books about PR, such as Public Relations Practices by Allen H. Center and the Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR by Al Ries. From those books I learned that public relations are the organized effort to communicate information, and to build image of and to change people’s attitudes and behavior towards, a client or a cause. As a profession with long history, it had its beginnings in the early twentieth century, but until the end of World War I there were few persons in the United States or elsewhere whose full-time jobs involved this work. PR field experienced its phenomenal growth in the decades following World War II. And the real exponential growth and consolidation happened during the 1990s with new internet technology and social media websites changed social media tactics along with them. It was also during this period that specialties for communicating to certain audiences emerged within certain market segments. "The 1990s were a time of explosive growth for public relations and corporate communications”, says in one famous textbook. And now with the emergence of new social media platforms, like Twitter, Facebook and Linkedln, public relations would embrace its even brighter future. Cara Stewart, founder and principal at Remarx Media put that "The most important platforms for PR pros in the future will be the ones most targeted for their clients and Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are 'fun;' getting nitty-gritty into community sites that are industry-specific is less 'fun,' because PR pros have to really understand clients’ technologies, business models, services and more. Really, it’s more about PR pros becoming better PR pros and understanding their clients’ businesses, as well as what their clients do ... Social media is not a one-size-fits-all solution."
Motivated by what I have read, I devoted myself to the PR practice. In August 2013, I took my internship in …… where the veil of PR was revealed, where I applied what I have learned from books to actual use and where I was thoroughly fascinated with PR. It was also this internship that made me eventually decide to pursue my further study in America where PR is advanced.
In ……, I focused on integrated marketing strategies that help align HP’s brand with the expectations of its audiences. And I worked with ……. to helped HP develop a narrative that clearly defines its vision and value to stakeholders, cre
