As you prepare your application for the Cohere Labs Scholars Program, you will see one of the key questions is to prepare a personal statement.

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We want to know more about your interest in machine learning, as well as your research interests and goals. Please use this space to write a brief (500 words or less) Personal Statement. This is your opportunity to provide context for your experience and let us know what participating in this program would mean to you.

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500 words isn’t very long - make sure you make the most of them! So where to begin?

We’ve compiled some guidelines and questions to help you get started.

Adapted from this resource from Columbia University Center for Career Education.

General guidelines for your personal statement:

Questions to consider in your personal statement:

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Perhaps it will help to see an example? Orevaoghene Ahia has generously offered to make her statement of purpose available as an example of a strong personal statement for a research program application. Although Oreva’s statement is specific to grad school applications and longer than what we are looking for in Scholars Program applications, it is an excellent example of the level of detail and strength in writing that make a successful statement.

Here is Oreva’s Statement of Purpose

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