Association of Southern Mechanical Engineers

How NOT to Format A Personal Statement for the Common Application

Following up on yesterday’s post about the top engineering programs in the country, I thought I would post a great article about formatting a personal statement.  The personal statement is a requirement for the Common Application which is growing in use (by colleges and universities) every year.  What started out as a project for small private schools, is now the largest single application for college.  The Common Application opened the doors for the 2011-2012 application season yesterday.  Now students can apply to something like 400 schools just by checking a box…and sending a check. 

The article talks about what students should avoid in formatting their personal statements.  Sometimes it is easiest to learn how to do something by learning what you should NOT do first.  A quick read with some great information.

According to US News and World Report (who for some reason has the lock on rating colleges and universities in the USA), here are the top 10 Engineering programs in the country for 2011:

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (aka MIT)
2. Stanford University
3. University of California @ Berkeley
4. Georgia Institute of Technology
5. University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign
6. Carnegie Mellon University
7. California Institute of Technology
8. University of Texas @ Austin
9. University of Michigan @ Ann Arbor
10. Cornell University

While none of these schools surprise me, I am a little shocked that Cal Tech is so far down the list.