In conclusion, this is my third post on A Journey to the GKS Series. Before this one, I had written about how to fill out the GKS application forms, and I had previously written about my experience studying for the GKS application back in 2016. This time, I'll be giving tips on how to write a personal statement that is one of the essays needed for the GKS application. I spent about three months writing both of the essays while I was preparing to submit my application. I remember that I started writing as soon as I decided to apply for the scholarship in November, put it off for around a month, went back and forth to make the required changes, and finished it just a few days ago.
The essay template that included things to include and recommendations for the GKS application forms was really helpful, in my opinion. I've always loved to write, but writing an essay in English for school was especially difficult for me because it's not my first language and I never learned how to write academically. Some of the advice I've given here is something I wish I had known while I was writing my essays for the GKS Application.
Personal Statement Template (2021 GKS Application)
Find the identification of your application first. "What motivates me to apply for this program and study in Korea?" Why should I be chosen from among hundreds of candidates by the reviewer? Throughout the process of preparing my personal statement, I kept coming back to these questions. I eventually identified my application's identity as I dug deeper into the explanations; it was a concise statement that would ideally make an impression on the reviewers and accurately represent myself.
I see a Personal Statement as a stage to promote myself. It tells a story about me, my personal values, and significant events that happened in my life that led me to aspire to study in Korea and apply for the GKS. The goal is to convey my story in the most impactful way possible so that no matter how ordinary it is, the reviewer will still remember me after reading hundreds of similar or even better stories. To do this, I don’t think I can merely rely on a list of achievements and experiences I have because they probably aren’t so outstanding among other applicants. That is why I need to put an identity into my application, to make my story stronger than my own name.
In my case, “an applicant majoring in Family Studies” is the identity that I highlighted. Given that Family Studies is not a common field of study especially in India, regardless of how important it is for our society (don’t get me started into Family Sciences 101. Lol.), I guess it was the strongest point of my application that granted me a seat for an interview in the Korean Embassy. I could be wrong, but the interviewers asked about it during the whole interview session.
Second, make your essay hook. If you put yourself in the reviewer’s shoes who has to deal with a hundred applications, how will you sort it out? There are sure other points such as grades that are quite easy to determine. But, when it comes to essays, how will you rate it and choose from a pool of applicants? Just like its name, a Personal Statement should be personal yet interesting. Personal; it tells who the applicant is, his/her experiences, achievements, and values. Interesting; no matter how different every applicant’s life story is, the reasons to study abroad and apply for the scholarship might not be so unique, thus, the way it is written should be fascinating and impactful. That is how an essay hook will make your application stand out and assure the reviewers that you deserve one seat until the final round.
There are many ways to write an essay hook; quotation, question, strong statement, metaphor, etc. You may try many different ways before finding the one that matches the big picture of your essay. An essay hook is aimed to attract the reader from the beginning of your essay. This is also related to the whole picture of the essay and the information in the next paragraphs. As I decided to emphasize my major in Family Studies, I open my essay with a story about my own family and what values I grew up with. I also wrote about how people used to ask what my major was about and whether it really was necessary to learn about family sciences at university. I keep this point as the whole idea of my essay which helped me to explain why I had to go to a Korean university.
Third, be reflective. Reflecting is such a habit to me. You know, that tendency to lay awake in your bed and replay what has happened that day in your head and what you could’ve done to make it better, or at least, to make yourself feel better. Well, I learned that doing it isn’t always good. But, when it comes to reflecting on your past experiences and achievements in your Personal Statement, I can never stress enough how important it is. After mentioning all your precious achievements and writing how eventful your life is, you need to explain what lessons learned that you learned, what skills you learned, and how they contribute to who you are today. It might sound cliché to write about how your leadership skills have been sharpened through many organizations, but I don’t think it will do you bad to show that you have learned from your experience.
Fifth, make an outline. To me, an outline always does wonders. You might have ever practiced it for school assignments. It’s really as simple as starting from the points mentioned in the essay instruction; (1) family background, (2) latest education, (3) significant and relevant experiences (working, internship, organization, clubs), (4) motivations to study in Korea and apply for the GKS. You can write down ideas for each point and add a few sentences for the explanation. As you develop each point, you may want to write it in 1-2 paragraphs and keep it as your main idea. This will surely help your writing stay on track, lead the plot, and transition from one idea/point to another without jumbling up.
Sixth, don’t expect to finish it in one night or even one sitting and then submit it on the next day. Only after giving it some time and re-reading it a few days later, you will notice every mistake in your essay, those misspellings-wrong tenses-wrong expressions, even if you’ve been very meticulous especially when it comes to writing. Also, I can never stress enough how you should stop yourself from editing those punctuation marks or misspellings while typing because it will put your idea on hold and take much time to finish your first draft.
Finally, ask someone to proofread your essay and give feedback. I received a lot of help from my English tutor who gave valuable feedback on my essays. Having someone read your essay sort of allows you to get through the pre-review and the nerve-wracking of the application screening process. Also, your essay will look different from someone else’s perspective so it’s important to get their feedback even if it’s as simple as word choices. Especially, because a Personal Statement is an essay about ourselves, we can easily understand it but it can be hard to be objective. Your best friend will tell you some confusing parts, things that you should explain better, or simply tell whether the storytelling is interesting enough.
There are a lot more awesome tips all over the Internet on how to write a great Personal Statement essay. These are basically what I did when I wrote my own for the GKS application. I have no idea exactly which part of my application granted me the scholarship, but I believe that the Personal Statement had its big share. For another essay, Study Plan/Statement of Purpose, you can check my post about it here.
I decided to write A Journey to GKS series based on my experience as a GKS awardee in 2016. Just like other awardees, I also received a lot of chats and DMs from people asking about GKS applications. It’s not that I’m tired and annoyed by answering the same questions over and over again, that I decided to post it online, really. That is practically what I’ve been doing in the past four years which, at some points during my student life in Korea, turned out to help me cope with the situation and keep me on track as I was reminded how far I had come.
Just recently I changed my mind about writing and posting it online so anyone can read it and I can re-read it (for whatever reasons), after joining a mentorship program (supported by the Indonesian Student Association in South Korea aka Perpika) as a mentor for the Indonesian students and graduates who are interested in studying in Korea and preparing for the scholarship application. I mentored a similar program from MITI Klaster Mahasiswa back in 2017 called Youth Connection but I guess at the time I wasn’t feeling okay enough to share it. Now that I graduated safe and sound, I guess posting it online won’t hurt. So, this is the second post of my ‘A Journey to GKS’ series, and I’ll try to post the next ones as soon as possible.
As I’ve mentioned in my previous post about my journey to GKS, I decided to go for this scholarship application the second I learned about this program. One of my thoughts at the time is how simple the application looks. And it is indeed simple, at least for me who had never applied for such a program and dealt with forms in English. The guideline also states everything clearly. Of course, I got a lot of help from GKS awardees I met online who were very kind to share their experience. But, I tried to do my share as much as possible by doing my research on the Internet in advance, making sure I didn’t irritate them by asking trivial questions I could easily access on the Internet or even the application guidelines, and avoiding the questions which are more on self-preference, such as “Is it okay if my recommendation letter is folded?”
GKS-G (for graduate) and GKS-U (for undergraduate) Application Forms are all over the Internet. It can be downloaded from various sites, such as Study in Korea, Korean Embassy sites, some Korean university sites, and Topik Guide. Along with the application guideline is a separate file of the application forms (although the complete guideline includes the forms as well), University Information, and FAQs files. These are the first references and ammunition that no single applicant should ever miss. You might have your sister as a GKS awardee and you can easily ask every single detail, but really, that kind of mentality will get in your way someday. So, go get the guideline and read it! (Sorry, I’m being too enthusiastic here.)
Thankfully, the application forms have stayed pretty much the same over the years. Minor changes might have been made as well as the regulation changes. However, it does not affect that much to the application procedures, thus making it easy for the applicants to prepare the applications way earlier even before the opening period. And that’s what I did back then. I downloaded the application guidelines from the previous years and noticed that the forms stayed the same, so I started to practice filling in the forms and preparing the required documents.
The first part of the application forms includes the application checklist. Depending on the program you apply to, either Undergraduate or Graduate Degrees, the required documents are slightly different. The application checklist for the Graduate Degree Programs consists of all required documents for three different degree programs (i.e., Master’s, Doctoral, and Research Programs) so the list is a little bit longer. As for the Undergraduate application, three types of documents are required for certain documents (graduation certificate, transcripts, certificate of citizenship, and awards). I might be wrong on this since I had no experience in preparing for the undergraduate application, but here is what I understand about the difference between the original, official notarized translation, and copied documents.