2. What is a personal statement
‘A personal statement supports your application to study at a university or college.
It’s a chance for you to articulate why you’d like to study a particular course or
subject, and what skills and experience you possess that show your passion for
your chosen field’
3. Initial idea
My first thought was to google search how to write a personal statement for
university. The first site that came up was called read.co.uk, it gives advice on
how long it should be as well as explaining the basic requirements on what to
include: achievements, extra curricular activities and other relevant
experience. To clarify this information I looked on the UCAS site and found
advise on write about. They said, the aim is to explain to the university why
your the perfect candidate for the university. This links to the website
read.co.uk as in order to show off your abilities you need to explain your
achievements and extracurricular activities to best portray yourself.
4. Youtube
I typed into youtube how to write a good personal statement. I watched a
couple videos to see if the advice they give differed. The first video said to
start with what's not in your university application as you don't want to repeat
yourself. He also said 70% of a personal statement should be academic and
30% should be personal life. I agree with both of these statements as a
personal statement is very similar to an academic essay.
5. What tips i'll use
● Explain the reason for your choice and how it fits in with your aspirations for the future
● Give examples of any related academic or work experience
● Show you know what the course will involve and mention any special subjects you’re interested in
● Demonstrate who you are by listing any positions you’ve held, memberships of teams or societies,
and interests and hobbies
● Show consistency in your five UCAS choices. It may be difficult for an admissions tutor to take you
seriously if your other choices, and references to them, are totally different. If your choices are
different, you should explain this in your statement. The UCAS form is blind. Admissions tutors don’t
know the other universities you’ve applied to, or your priorities, but you should still be consistent
● Keep it clear and concise – UCAS admissions are increasingly paperless – so most admissions
tutors/officers will read your statement on screen
6. This is the structure i'm going to follow
when writing my personal statement as it
includes all the relevant criteria. I'm going to
do four separate paragraphs ticking each
criteria from this structure and the tips from
the previous slide.
