Make an impact with your Personal Statement

Writing your Personal Statement may be a daunting prospect, it is difficult to get the right tone without sounding pretentious or arrogant. This is an important opportunity for you to differentiate yourself from the crowd and get the offers you want. The more intense the competition, greater value is attached to the Personal Statement.Here are some tips to keep in mind...

Structure

• Clarify your thoughts before committing to the UCAS form
• Break your statement down into four or five paragraphs
• UCAS Apply allows 47 lines (4,000) characters – use them wisely!

Content

• Why does this subject interest you?
• Evidence of genuine enthusiasm for the subject
• Any specific books or works that epitomise your interests
• Why you chose your A Level/IB subjects
• Breadth of your interests and responsibilities
• What relevant voluntary activity or work experience are you involved in?
• Do you possess other skills that relate to your studies?
• How have these experiences impacted upon, changed or developed your character?
• Involvement in extra-curricular activities demonstrates commitment
• Evidence of time management skills and responsibility
• Skills such as teamwork, leadership, being enterprising and resourcefulness

Add weight to your statement - make it PERSONAL to you!

• Finish off on a positive note
• A sentence about what you will gain from studying in.. the UK, at university, this degree, this particular subject...etc

Imagine........ you are an Admissions Tutor of a Business Studies degree who has to appraise hundreds, possibly thousands of UCAS applications and make offers. Imagine too, that each of those applicants is predicted to obtain AAB and a B at AS level. The Admissions Tutor will be looking for a blend of interesting, well rounded applicants with varying experience; they will be motivated and committed students able to get the most out of university life.

Imagine....... you are a strong applicant for a Business Studies degree, you are a School Prefect.

Each week you participate in a number of sports, captaining the team for one of them. You are taking your Duke of Edinburgh Award, participate in the Model United Nations and are a key member of your school debating society. You help out as a regular volunteer with your local environment group and have a job for a few hours each week. You desperately want to go to Y University as they have a great Students’ Union with inter-university teams covering all your interests but the competition is tough.

So, how do you go about writing a good Personal Statement, how do you secure that offer and see off the competition? It may be easy for you to define yourself through your sporting and social activities and want to prioritise those but bear in mind that first and foremost the Admissions Tutor is interested in his/her subject and are looking for commitment and motivation to study that subject.