AIM Personal Statement

navy2016

5-Year Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2009
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What would be some good things to put in the "optional" personal statement part of the application?


put academic stats (nowhere on the application does it directly asks for test scores/gpa/ranking)?

Also, how long should these essays be? Would 3-5 paragraphs be decent (get to the point and not too boring)? Or, try to make them even shorter?
 
When I applied (for AIM 2009), the personal statements were limited to 500 words each. As long as it is shorter than that and contains something unique that formed who you are today, the length matters very little since the panel will keep reading if they like what they see.

In other words, write as many words as you feel are necessary to effectively get your points across.

Instead of writing about your GPA/class standing and all of those fun statistics, I would recommend mailing in a high school transcript, SAT/ACT scores, etc. Some applicants will be wasting that valuable essay space where the evaluators really want to get to know the applicant and his/her ambitions. I think by doing this you'll really get an edge over the general applicant pool.

That said, using your GPA and those statistics to support your success in high school is fine. Just make sure you focus on clubs, extracurriculars, sports, etc. too.

-Andrew
 
Since the personal statement is limited to 500 words, the other essays should also be about 500 words?
 
In the three times that I've filled out applications for USCGA (1x AIM, 2x USCGA), they always post the word limit right below the essay prompt. If it's not there, e-mail/ask your AO or call Admissions.

-Andrew
 
Ds just submitted his essays, I don't think there was a posted word limit.
 
Length of AIM Essays

Knowing that there had been the 500 word limit in the past, but not seeing anything in the instructions, I called USCGA admissions for clarification. I was told that there isn't a limit, but they prefer that the essays be approximately 500 words long (they have a lot of essays to read!). In response to my follow-up question, I was also told that unlike the Common Application, there isn't a space limitation built into the online application. (On the Common App, if the essay is too long, the excess is simply cut off.) I've advised DS to stay in the neighborhood of 500 words, but to focus on substance and grammer, not the word count.
 
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