Planning your personal statement
If you're at school or college, your tutors might have asked you to start planning what to include in your personal statement. If they haven't, then we'll suggest it instead...
Why have a personal statement?
Your personal statement is quite important, because it's the only part of the application that tells the universities and colleges about you as a person, and it's the only part where you can say exactly what you want. It can be used for good or evil, but remember it may have an impact on whether you're considered for a course or not.
You'll need to give it some time - so starting it over the holidays is a good idea. Writing about yourself isn't fun, but it makes your application much more interesting to admissions tutors, as well as making you think about why you're applying to university.
Where to start?
When you're deciding what to write, first think about the course you're applying for - if you were the admissions tutor, what would you want applicants to talk about in their statement? The two most important things you can tell them are:
- why you're applying for the course
- why you're suitable to study it.
So first of all, explain why this course stands out above the others for you, then tell them why you're the best student to study it. Think about:
- what made you consider it - why this course?
- which areas interest you most and why - is it the course as a whole or a specific module?
- whether you've studied all or part of it before - do you have experience that you can draw upon? Have you studied something similar?
- evidence that shows you understand what will be expected from you - how much do you know about the subject and the teaching methods?
- any skills/experience that you can bring to the course - what makes you the ideal student for this specific course?
On the main website we've listed some of the reasons universities gave last year when an application was unsuccessful and it was something about the personal statement. Take a look at the UCAS website to see the examples - this should help you make sure that yours doesn't fall into the same category.
What else to include?
Whatever you say, always try to link it to the course that you're applying for. Some areas to write about are:
- Skills and achievements - Universities like to know the types of skills you have that will help you on the course, or generally at university.
- Hobbies and interests - Think about how your hobbies, interests and social activities demonstrate your skills and abilities. If there's anything that relates to your course or to the skills needed to complete a higher education course, include it - the more evidence the better.
- Work experience - Include details of jobs, placements, work experience or voluntary work, particularly if it's relevant to your chosen course(s). Try to link any experience to skills or qualities mentioned in the Entry Profiles in Course Search.
- Future plans - If you know what you'd like to achieve after completing a university course, explain how you want to use the knowledge and experience that you gain.
If you've got a list of topics and can't decide what to include, talk to your friends or ask other students in the forum on yougofurther.co.uk what they think could help your application. As you've only got a limited space, you might need to be brutal about what stays and what goes.
How to write it?
It's important that your personal statement is written in your own style - the last thing admissions tutors want is a load of statements that all look the same. But it needs to look and sound good - check spelling, grammar and punctuation.