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Into-Through-Beyond

A guide to structuring your personal statement

Posted on by Caroline Hertz

structuring personal statement

If you have the germ of an idea for a personal statement — a story, an experience, an image — but you’re struggling to turn that idea into a crafted essay, then this is the exercise for you.

Part of the reason why writing a personal statement can feel like such a daunting task is because, when it comes to a personal statement, there are truly no hard-and-fast rules. The content? Up to you. The structure? Wide open. While that freedom leaves lots of room for your unique creative voice, it can also feel overwhelming when you’re just getting started.

We’ve seen lots of amazing personal statements utilize an incredibly broad range of structures — and by no means should you take the following guidance as an irrefutable limitation. That being said, many successful PSes follow an “INTO-THROUGH-BEYOND” framework. Below, we’ve laid out this simple three-part framework, in order to help you turn your germ of an idea into a developed, supremely crafted essay.

INTO

Personal statements often begin with an INTO, which, simply put, offers a way for your reader to get INTO the essay. Your INTO might be an image, a moment in time, the introduction of an overall metaphor, etc. It might be a sentence, a paragraph, or a series of paragraphs. All that matters is that your INTO piques your reader’s interest and draws them into the essay.

THROUGH

Your THROUGH provides immediate and overall context for your INTO. For example, if your INTO is the image of a cupped hand holding a heap of whole nutmeg, your THROUGH might explain that this hand belongs to your grandmother, and she’s holding out spices so that you can make Masala Chai together. Your THROUGH might go on to provide the overall context that you struggle to make perfect Masala Chai despite your grandmother’s patient guidance, which makes you insecure about your authenticity as an Indian-American.

BEYOND

Your BEYOND lays out the significance of your INTO and your THROUGH. It connects your INTO and your THROUGH to who you are now or who you want to be. The BEYOND can be powerful, funny, sad, dry, or clever — but avoid sappiness, if you can.

Example of INTO-THROUGH-BEYOND Structure

Check out this essay taken from the book “50 Successful Harvard Application Essays.” In this essay…

  • The INTO is the student’s description of the specific emotional experience of never seeing her name on any customized name-specific merchandise.
  • The THROUGH covers the next five paragraphs and situates that disappointment in a larger story about the student’s identity, her family, and her struggle to come to terms with her unusual name.
  • The BEYOND takes the form of a moment that contrasts with the opening moment — someone pronouncing her name perfectly — which connects to the student’s newly formed sense of pride around her name.

Begin mapping out a compelling INTO-THROUGH-BEYOND structure for your personal statement ideas. You can write in bullet points or full sentences, but write as much as you can. The point here is for you to get an idea of the structure and flow of your eventual essay. How might you grab your reader at the beginning, allowing them a window into something truly vivid and specific? How might you contextualize that opening so that the essay can become about you more broadly? How might you close out your essay in a pithy and powerful way?

Need more personalized guidance on brainstorming or crafting your personal statement? Contact our college admissions team.

Caroline Hertz