On Personal Statements and Pancakes

Dude, I really like the personal statement. I especially like your five questions. Your five questions are the nuts and bolts of it. I like the way they seem to be the climax of your other statements and as such kinda linger in your mind and keep coming up after reading them in the morning, like a profound burp after an excellent breakfast. Mmmm... Seriously, though, I like how the questions are first of all, interelated and as such build on each other. That makes each succeeding one more potent and leaves me with a feeling of solidarity about the questions as a unit. You can tell you've put time and thought into constructing them. And secondly, I like the way they take relevant, cross-disciplinary questions, and focus them into the context that you're going to be specializing in. Questions about first causes and objectivity (#1,2), meaning and presuppostitions (#3,4), and their applications for community (#5) are at the root of what we're all about. And the things you are gifted to discover in God's grace to you and through in these areas are going to be blessings far beyond the specific context of Philosophy of Science. It makes me excited! Outside of the questions themselves, I like the way the statement feels informal and personal, yet with an obvious demonstration of academic credibility and potential. Good choices on the book titles too. I like Meesh's comments and your responses... in fact, I would add to the #4 comment of hers to just go ahead and take out the parenthetical statement altogether. You make it contingent with the "perhaps" lead in. Doubling it with the parentheses somehow unjustly displays a "lack of confidence". I checked on some Doctoral Adminstration website to see generally what a person should include in personal statement, but my notes are clogged somewhere in this stupid computer for the moment, so I can't include them. Basically, they told me that you touched on exactly what people want to see in a personal statement: personal background, goals, how those work together for being at their program, dispaly academic credibility and literary capability, etc... I'd say you confidently receive a big "rock on", man! Overall: Delicious!