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Monash  /  Essays  /  Prompt 2

Monash: General course statement (suitability)

Roughly 250 to 300 words where this form applies (confirm the exact figure on your specific course's Supplementary Information Form)

In the space provided, give information about your interests and your suitability for this course, including any relevant experience, activities, or reasons that make you a strong candidate.
What it’s really asking

For the courses that use a suitability statement, Monash wants evidence that you fit this particular program: relevant experience, demonstrated interest in the subject, and reasons you are a strong candidate for it specifically. It is a fit check, not a personality test, so generic enthusiasm scores nothing.

Why they ask it

These statements exist for courses where grades alone do not fully predict who will thrive, so the reader is weighing whether your interests and background actually match the course. Specific evidence of engagement with the subject lets them rank you against other qualified applicants who all cleared the academic bar.

Three ways in
Real engagement with the subject

A project, a job, a competition, or independent work you did beyond the syllabus that shows the interest is yours, not borrowed from a brochure.

A line from your past to the course

Connect what you have done to what this course teaches, naming the specific part of the course that draws you rather than the field in general.

Relevant or adjacent experience

Work, volunteering, or responsibility that demonstrates the skills the course demands, even if it is not a perfect subject match.

✕  Weak opening

“I am a passionate, hard-working and motivated student who has always been fascinated by this field of study.”

✓  Strong opening

“I spent last summer rebuilding our family business's inventory spreadsheet into a small database, and I have wanted to study information systems properly ever since.”

✦ Annotated example · Suitability for a physiotherapy course. Written by EssayLens to teach, not a real applicant’s essay. Tap a highlighted line →
My interest in physiotherapy began on the sidelines, not in a clinic. After tearing a hamstring in my final year of competitive athletics, I spent four months in rehabilitation, and the physiotherapist who rebuilt my running gait did something I have not forgotten: she explained every exercise, so that I understood my own body rather than just obeying instructions. 1I came out of that process wanting to do the same for other people, and I have spent the two years since making sure the interest was real before committing to it. 2I volunteer twice a month at an aged-care facility, where I assist the resident physiotherapist with mobility sessions: setting up parallel bars, recording how far each resident walks, and learning how much of recovery is patience and encouragement rather than technique. 3It is humbling, slow work, and I have learned to celebrate a resident reaching a chair unaided as a genuine victory. 4Academically, I have built the foundation this course demands. I took biology and physical education through to my final year, scoring strongly in both, and I completed an extension research project on how warm-up protocols affect injury rates in junior football, which taught me to read studies critically and question coaching habits that "everyone just does." 5Beyond the academics, I think I am suited to this work because of temperament: I am steady under pressure, I genuinely like talking to people much older or younger than me, and I am comfortable being the calm one in a difficult moment. As a part-time swimming coach for children with disabilities, I have learned to adapt a single instruction five different ways until it lands. 6That is the skill I most want to bring into a clinic: meeting each person where they are, and building back what they thought they had lost. I am applying to this course because I have already chosen the work, and now I want the training to do it well.7
  1. 1Starts with a specific personal origin tied directly to the course, immediately establishing genuine, non-generic motivation.
  2. 2Signals deliberateness and self-awareness, which reassures admissions that the choice is considered rather than impulsive.
  3. 3Evidence over adjectives. Concrete, verifiable tasks demonstrate relevant exposure and a realistic picture of the work, not romanticised ideas about it.
  4. 4Shows emotional maturity and an accurate understanding of clinical reality, qualities that matter in a caring profession.
  5. 5Connects academic record and a self-directed project to course-relevant skills (evidence-based reasoning), reinforcing suitability with specifics rather than grades alone.
  6. 6Names personal qualities but immediately backs each with a concrete role or example, so the claims read as earned rather than asserted.
  7. 7Ends by linking everything back to the profession and to readiness, finishing on commitment instead of a generic thank-you.
Stuck? Start here
  • What is the most concrete thing you have made, built, or done that relates to this subject?
  • Which specific units or topics in this course pull at you, and why those rather than the field in general?
  • What experience, even outside school, shows the skills this course will demand of you?
Before you submit
  • Does your statement name at least one specific project, job, or activity tied to the subject?
  • Have you connected your experience to a named part of this course rather than to the field in the abstract?
  • Have you cut every generic adjective ('passionate', 'hard-working') that is not backed by evidence?

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