Slide 1
How to write a good Personal Statement
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Aims of this presentation
Personal Statements are VERY important! Who are admissions tutors? What are they looking for? What do I include? How do I make it good? How do I get started What should I do when I have finished?
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Who are Admissions Tutors?
• One or more admissions tutors/admissions officers • Lecturer and/or researcher in the subject • Familiar with requirements of the programme • Will understand and have fulfilled any applicable professional standards • May also be practitioner (health related programmes) • Any age, gender, ethnicity, nationality, and background • Busy person…100’s or 1000’s of applications!
To understand how to write a good PS you need to understand who’s going to read it!
When you complete your form it will end up with an Admissions Tutor at the university. There might be one of them for your course, or there might be a team, but these are the people who will make a decision about whether of not to make you an offer.
Who are they? They will be lecturers and/or researches in the subject you’re applying for. They perhaps did that degree themselves, but they will certainly know the following: What kind of student does well at their course What kind of knowledge students need to do well (A-levels, BTECs etc) What kind of other “transferable skills” students need to do well – time management/essay writing/research ability/teamwork
What’s their job? To admit the best people to the course. They want to protect their course. This means making offers to people who: a. Will not drop out (this doesn’t look good for unis) b. Will (hopefully) get a good class of degree
They want to hear you saying things in your Personal Statement that encourage them to believe that you are really keen, committed, and enthusiastic towards the subject you’re applying for – so you should be!
Finally, you need to realise that they’re also VERY BUSY. This isn’t their only job, and they’re not going to have ages to spend reading you UCAS form…perhaps only 5 mins. So the trick of a successful application is impressing someone in a very short space of time!
This is key: remember that your statement might be one of 50 that they read that day…so it needs to stand out, be well structured and well formatted…give yourself the best possible chance!
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Admissions Criteria
Evidence of: – Potential to successfully complete the programme – An understanding of what the programme requires – Independent decision making and commitment – Capability to contribute to programme and university Judged through: – Academic performance to date – Interview or admissions test (possibly) – Reference and the Personal Statement…
This is the wording from Manchester’s admission policy: other unis may vary but we’re all after the best students, so it’s worth noting the above.
Potential: we can tell some of this by your predicted grades, but not all of it! The transferable skills we mentioned before, which will help your studies at uni, don’t always follow from good A-level grades…it’s very important to talk about these things in your Personal Statement! Understanding: this is why research is so important – are you choosing the subject for the right reasons? Are you aware of what studying this subject will involve? We can tell whether you’ve done your research by whether you’ve talked about the things we’re looking for (see Entry Profiles next slide) Independent: you should be doing this course because you want to – not because your family or your teachers want you to! We can tell this by whether you’re really sounding enthusiastic in your Personal Statement. Obviously it’s good to listen to advice, but at the end of the day the decision should be yours. Contribution: we want people who are going to bring something to the university community – so outside interests are important…any thing that you do “above the minimum” whether it’s inside or outside of college.
We’ll judge the above through the things listed. GCSE grades are sometimes important, and also your AS level grades (if you attend a sixth form that certificates these results). Predicted grades are always the “first hurdle” but you have to have a strong application generally.
Find out whether you’ll be interviewed before you make your application, and also whether you’ll have an admissions test.
The reference is written by your teacher: make sure that they know what your interests are, there should be a good link between your teacher’s Reference and your Personal Statement.
The Personal Statement is the most important part of the application after predicted grades.
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Entry Profiles
You should read Entry Profiles for all the courses you apply for (not all universities and courses may have these) because they’re written by the same people that will consider your application. They’re on the UCAS website and tell you things that the Admissions Tutor will be looking for when they consider your application. They’re vital!
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The Personal Statement
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What’s a Personal Statement?
• 400 words written by applicant to support application • Only chance to convey character of the applicant • You can only write one • Increasingly important element of the application – Especially for competitive courses • Predicted Grades no longer enough to guarantee an offer
It’s actually 4000 characters long and will not let you write more. Paragraph breaks count as just 2 characters so don’t worry about using them – make sure it’s well formatted because this makes your Personal Statement easier to read.
For most courses this will be the only chance that Admissions Tutors have to see the “real” you…it’s called a Personal Statement because it should be PERSONAL – don’t be scared of writing it “in your own voice”. It’s not a good idea to use lots of long words because you think it will sound impressive – it will just end up sounding unnatural and you’ll use more characters! If you can say something with fewer words your message will be more clear.
You can only write one Personal Statement – important because it means the courses you apply for should be substantially similar in content – you can’t sell yourself equally well to both Medicine and Law in the same statement! For joint honours courses, if they have slightly different “joins” then the Personal Statement should concentrate on the common elements between the subjects.
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What should it include?
• Reasons for choosing the course/evidence of research • Exhibit academic/personal abilities needed to succeed • Work experience/voluntary work • Aspirations (career or academic) • Further qualifications • Outside interests • Deferred entry/positive reasons for
For points 3, 5, 6 Admissions Tutors are interested in what’s been learnt from these experiences…they’re not an end in themselves so don’t just list lots of points. You need to explain how these experience are relevant to your course choice e.g. being a member of a sports team shows commitment and good team working skills.
Deferred entry – mostly fine, but check how the university you’re applying to views deferred entry and gap years – it may depend on what subject you’re doing. Make your reasons sound positive – earning money to be able to support yourself etc – travel but NOT a year long holiday! Cultural experiences etc.
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What makes a good one?
• Should be original, interesting and enthusiastic – Varied sentence structure • Should all be relevant - relate present to future – Academic courses/skills – Extra-curricular activities • Application is for the course – not the career • Strong conclusion
This is the most important bit – how to make your statement stand out from the crowd!
Point 1: Remember, they’ll be reading 50 a day! Make yours one they remember and put on the “yes” pile! Enthusiasm should be easy – talk about what has motivated your choice (a book/career/experience etc) This will help you to be interesting – but you can also help by structuring it well, varied etc. Lists are BAD – they’re boring and they don’t tell us much – lists of skills especially – where’s the evidence?! Originality is easy, it’s not a trick, it’s about talking about yourself in relation to the course – there’s only one YOU so don’t get stressed about how you are going to make yourself sound original.
Point 2: The gold standard for Personal Statements – try to connect everything (as far as possible) with either: How it’s influenced your choice of course etc How it will help you to succeed at uni
We’re not interested in a list of facts about you, or a list of things you’ve done – we want a guarantee you’ll do well!
Point 3: Very important – should not sound like a job application! [Two examples] Law: you should be interested in Law as an academic subject [government/society context/structures etc] – not just as a career (although it’s ok to mention this – may be a motivating factor but remember lots of people study law but don’t become lawyers, and you don’t need a UG Law degree to become a lawyer! Medicine: for first 3 years primarily the study of science – if you’re not interested in science then don’t apply!
Point 4: again, about making an impact – don’t waste a good Personal Statement by saying at the end “I also have a part time job in McDonald's”. Conclusion should: Be a summary of what you have said Say something positive about the subject/uni life etc
Remember that your Personal Statement should be mainly about the subject you have applied for. You will of course mention things that you do outside your studies, but always make these relevant to the skills you need to be a successfully student for the course you are applying for. (Use the entry profiles to help you identity what skills you should be including.
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How do I get started?
Brainstorm some points under the following headings: •What HE subject or course are you applying for? •What are your sound reasons for choosing the subject? •How can you show that you have the ‘academic and personal skills needed to complete the degree successfully? •Do you have any job/work/voluntary experience? What have yu learnt from it? •What are your future plans / career aspirations? •Do you have any further qualifications? •What are your extra-curricular/outside interest? What have you learnt from them? Will they help you at uni? Remember – don’t leave writing your statement to the last minute – you won’t do your best if you are rushing
Remember – whatever you say it should show the following: Your interest in the subject Your ability to be a successful student for that course Your commitment to the course / going to university Your enthusiasm for the course / further study How your experiences / interests demonstrate the skills the course requires How the skills you have developed will help you at university
Don’t worry if you haven’t thought about a career yet – you don’t necessarily have to mention this.
Further qualifications can be things like First Aid, Coaching certificates. Music exams etc. If the course that you are applying for is not that relevant to these qualifications you need to highlight the qualities that obtaining these qualifications gave you e.g. motivation, commitment, time management, independent learning etc.
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What should I do when I’ve finished?
• • • • • Check, check, then check again! Don’t rely on computer spell checks Get someone else to read it for you Once you’ve finished a draft, leave it for a day or two then go back to it Check through the points that have been made in this presentation and make sure you’ve used all the advice given. You’ll also get advice from your sixth form so make sure you take everything on board
Spell checks will not pick up miss typed words that are actually spelt correctly – this is something that can easily be avoided so make sure you don’t get caught out!
Get someone else to read through your Personal Statement – they will often spot things that you have missed. This could be a friend, your tutor, or someone in your family.
It’s always good to leave something for a while then go back to it with a fresh mind. Don’t leave writing your personal statement until the last minute – if your are applying for Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Science or any course at Oxford or Cambridge, the closing date is October 15th.
Get writing and Good Luck!