Writing your personal statement/application letter: get as many opinions as possible

When preparing your personal statement/application letter (different programs have different names for what is essentially the same thing; I'm going to be calling it "personal statement" from here on) the more opinions and advice you can get on how to improve it the better. This is one instance where you may not have to worry about too many cooks in the kitchen, provided you remain the chef in charge.

The sooner you begin working on your personal statement, the more different opinions you can get on it. There are many, many sources of advice you can look to, as well. Ask your family, your teachers, your adviser(s), your mentor(s), your career center, and anyone else you can think of. Each person you ask will have a different opinion to give you, and will present you more opportunities to make your personal statement better. You will note that I did not include friends in the initial list, because this is an area where you may want to be wary. Friends who are your competition for an internship position have the potential to give you bad advice, in hopes of improving their own chances. While true friends will give you good advice, this is a time to evaluate just how close you are to your fellow students.

In addition to receiving advice on how to make improvements to your personal statement, each time someone reviews it for you you will end up looking at it again. Each time you look at your personal statement is a chance to catch something you missed before, and to be inspired to add something new. Keep looking at and revising your personal statement, even if you don't have a large pool of people to give you advice.

While reviewing your personal statement several times is beneficial, you should also realize that it will be very difficult to ever be 100% happy with it. What's important is to realize that your personal statement doesn't have to be perfect, but it should be the best you can reasonably make it before you send off your application(s). Don't drive yourself insane trying to make it perfect.

Both you and members of your social support system should review your personal statement several times. But do so within reason, so that you have time to spend on the other parts of your application as well.

Volunteer

If I could give just one piece of advice to someone starting out as a dietetics student it would be this: volunteer as soon and as much as possible.

One of my biggest regrets from being an undergraduate dietetics student is not starting volunteering as soon as I decided on my major. Volunteer work, or work experience if you are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work in the field, is a key component of an internship application that is looked at by programs. In Pennsylvania in 2009, 7 of 15 internship programs ranked volunteer experience as one of their top five criteria when evaluating applicants, and in California 14 of 27 programs valued it in their top five as well. Other internships in both states value volunteer experience as well, though not as highly("Applicant Guide to," 2009).

Volunteer work is a great way to display your dedication to the field of dietetics, and when filling out your application form is something you will be asked to list and describe (Dietetic Educators of Practitioners, 2004). Additionally, volunteer work is a great topic to write about in your application letter/personal statement, and can lead to meeting people who you may want to ask to write you letters of recommendation.

More than just experience in the field, volunteering is valued highly by many internship programs, and may help make your application process go smoother, easing the pain of writing an application letter or finding someone to write a letter of recommendation.

Source(s): Applicant Guide to Supervised Practice. (2009)., Dietetic Educators of Practitioners (2004). Dietetic internship program application form. Retrieved from http://www.depdpg.org/index_580.cfm