the really important part is your personal statement. the bio is kind of a weird thing, basically it can be short and it should explain if there have been any circumstances in your life that have hampered your trajectory. it's more about "who you are" than a "why i want to study architecture, and at berkeley, mind you." don't worry too much about the bio. the personal statement is the important part. the disclaimer is that i have no affiliation to berkeley whatsoever.

I applied to Berkeley (and was admitted), and I agree--the two essays were a big hassle. I applied to the Ph.D. program , so it was a little different, but same required essays. I hated writing the bio. In the end, my bio was more about my overall education, slipping all of my various programs and work experiences into a grand narrative. I think my transcripts are difficult to read straight out of the pile, so I directed my bio to positioning all the subjects I studied in relation to each other and in relation to what I had been doing in the office up until then. I didn't take the bio as far back as high school, but I did take it back to my undergraduate and then just explained the trajectory of my education/work experience from that point forward.

There was definitely some overlap, but my statement of purpose was really to the point: here's what I am doing, here's what I want to do, here's why I think I'm capable of doing it, here's where I want to be twenty years from now. My statement of purpose was about my future area of specialty and I mentioned specifically the faculty in the department with whom I expected to work. It was really about my research goals and less about me, I think. So, I guess for an M.Arch., the statement of purpose would be more about your design/practice goals, the bio more about "here's how everything fits together in my life."

helps to mention in your bio that you are a tri-racial vegan Sufi mystic who was raised by Mennonites in Paraguay speaking only Czech and Amharic

I always find it amusing when people ask questions like this. It's a fucking *personal statement* and a *bio*. how much clearer could it be? i know all this grad application stuff gets stressful, but just take a few deep breaths and consider what you're asking people for help with (ie, probably the thing that is least possible for any of us to give you any help with). How you choose to write your personal statements and/or bios in your grad applications is obviously going to be a very personal decision regardless of anything we say on these boards, so just go write the damn things and, I promise, you'll feel like a million bucks.

joed, you seemed to have missed the point of my question. I was not asking if someone could tell me my own biography (though ochona somehow knows my personal history...creepy) I asked a very specific question about overlap in the two essays.

IMPORTANT: THERE ARE ONLY TWO ESSAYS NOW FOR BERKELEY, NOT THREE. THE BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY IS NO LONGER PART OF THE APPLICATION PACKAGE.
i called the office to ask for them to clarify between the biog essay and the personal history and the person on the phone said that they had removed the biog essay but hadnt updated the website.
if someone wanted to call and double check this, id love the backup. but this is what the person in the grad arch office told me the other day.

so can someone else check this and call berkeley too? i trust the person that i spoke to but knowing that someone else had this verified would be excellent.

Actually, joed, the difference between the two wasn't clear in my application materials. I asked many people--including some people at Berkeley--about the difference between the two. And guess what...the answers helped. So don't mock people for asking questions.

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