Key Points
1.
The personal statement plays a crucial role in differentiating your application from that of the other students.
2.
Focus on your interest in the subject instead of your interest in a particular university.
3.
Personal statements for Oxford and Cambridge require extra emphasis on academic interest.
4.
Demonstrating interest in the subject and keeping within the word limit are two of the most common difficulties faced by students writing their personal statements.
Introduction
In this section, we’d like to tell you more about how to write a strong and persuasive personal statement.
Why is the Personal Statement Important?
Scores for the A-Levels and IB exams are grouped into bands (A*/A/B/C/D or 7/6/5). This includes the predicted grades that you submit in your UCAS application.
Therefore, from the university’s perspective, a student who scores 99% is identical to a student who scores 91% for his or her subject. Both students will have their grades reflected as either A* (in the case of an A Levels student) or 7 (in the case of an IB student).
So how should the university decide who to pick? This is where the personal statement comes in. It helps to showcase your personality and academic interest. These are the things which will help you stand out from the crowd.
Personal Statement Structure
These days you can find plenty of personal statement templates on the internet. But in truth, there is no magic formula for writing a compelling personal statement. The best personal statement is one that is written in a style which suits you.
Having said that, good personal statements tend to share certain common features. Here’s the first similarity: they all have a coherent structure.
Having a clear structure is often just as important as having good content. You’re not the only applicant. The admissions officer has to read hundreds, even thousands of applications. If your personal statement doesn’t have a good structure, you’re going to lose the attention of your reader even before he or she gets to the content.
One common strategy involves splitting the personal statement into 3 parts:
1.
Academic Interest - Why are you interested in this course?
2.
Academic Excellence - Do you have the ability to excel in your course?
3.
Extracurricular Interests - Do you have other skills which make you a suitable applicant?
Personal Statement Content Part 1 - Academic Interest
The UCAS application is a common application that is sent to the 5 different universities that you’re applying to. This means that the personal statement received by each university is the same. So instead of writing about why you’d like to study at a particular university, focus your personal statement on the subject that you are applying to. If the university you’re applying to has an interview as part of the admissions process, you will have the chance to explain your choice of university at that stage.
For students applying to both US and UK universities, do note that US college essays require a different approach from the UK personal statement.
(a) Personal Aspirations and Experiences
For many students, demonstrating their passion for the subject is the most challenging part of writing the personal statement.
Here’s one tip. Use examples. It sounds empty when you say “I am really passionate about medicine”. Everyone can say that. But actions speak louder than words.
Is there any particular experience in your life which inspired you to choose your current path? For example, we’d had students who in their youth, had to spend a long time in the hospital. As a result, they developed a strong desire to become researchers because they wanted to help find cures for serious diseases.
For subjects like medicine and law which lead to professional qualifications, what you hope to achieve in a professional capacity can also be a motivating factor. A classic example would be a student who wishes to read law because he wants to become a judge in future.
Another way to demonstrate passion for a subject is through work experience. Why? Because if you’re interested in a subject you’d naturally spend more time learning about it. You also sound more credible when you make a statement like “after shadowing a barrister at Gray’s Inn, I am certain that a career in law is what I want”. The admissions officer gets the impression that this is a student who has thought clearly about his or her subject and is serious about it.
(b) Academic Interest In the Course Material
The personal statement is one of the few places where you can write about your interest in a subject in great detail without being called a nerd.
Asides from topics which were taught in school, you are free to talk about subject areas which were not covered in class that you decided to read up on in your free time. In the process, if you’ve read any notable books or journals, feel free to cite them in your personal statement. Going beyond the standard school curriculum is a very good way of demonstrating your academic interest in a subject.
It is also a good idea to demonstrate to the admissions officer that you’ve done your research. What sort of modules does the university offer for your subject? Which of these are you particularly interested in and why?
(c) Academically Related Activities
Another way to demonstrate your interest in a subject is through the activities that you undertake at school. These activities should have a strong connection to the course that you’re applying to. For instance, if you’re applying to do Physics and you write about your time as a member of the Physics club (where you tried to replicate famous experiments from the 18th century), that’s an example of an activity which is academically related to the subject you’re applying to.
Some students believe that they should only write about high profile events or competitions. That’s not always the case. Suppose we have a student, John. John is interested in Literature. He participates actively in a book reading group where each week one member does research on a novel and gives a presentation to the rest. This would be a perfectly legitimate activity for John to write in his personal statement. It is an activity which is academically related to the subject that he wants to study and that’s what matters.
Personal Statement Content Part 2 - Academic Excellence
Obviously, the universities will be looking to admit students who can excel in their subject. You can demonstrate your academic ability by writing about your grades in school, the subject prizes you won as well as the competitions you took part in.
For instance, if you are a Chemistry applicant, mentioning that you achieved a Bronze in the Royal Society of Chemistry Olympiad or an award for topping the cohort in Chemistry would help to showcase your academic abilities.
Having said that, don’t worry if you do not have any awards. While they help to showcase your talents, there are other ways to demonstrate your academic interest in the subject, like the academically related activities we talked about in the earlier section.
Participating in academic competitions can also give your application a boost because these competitions (essay competitions as well as science and math olympiads) often require more from students than the usual examinations in school do.
High standards are imposed on students in terms of their mastery of the subject matter; submitting an entry for an essay competition will often require extensive research and extra reading on the part of the student. In contrast to the science and math olympiads where many Distinctions are awarded, essay competitions are more competitive in the sense that there is often only 1 winner and 2 or 3 runner ups. Having said that, it is still worth participating if you are able to. The process of preparing for and writing these 2000+ word essays is a wonderful opportunity to deepen your understanding of the subject.
Personal Statement Content Part 3 - Extracurricular Activities and Achievements
The last part of the personal statement is about other qualities that you possess which make you suitable for the course. Do not just write down every single extracurricular activity that you’ve taken part in.
Always remember, you are applying for a place at the university. The extracurricular experience you write about should demonstrate some skill or trait that makes you suitable for that subject. For instance, if you are applying to read Law, writing about a debating competition which you won would be really relevant because it demonstrates your ability to communicate effectively. On the hand, if you won a prize for baking, that’s great! But you probably shouldn’t write that in your personal statement because it is not very relevant.
Always use your experiences to showcase a particular attribute. Leadership, perseverance and organisational skills are just some examples of the attributes which universities look out for in students.
Personal Statement Content Part 4 - Oxbridge Personal Statements
If you intend to apply to either Oxford or Cambridge, there is an additional point to bear in mind when writing your personal statement. Our previous section talked about extracurricular activities. You can still write about these in your personal statement, but the emphasis should lie squarely on your academic interest in the subject. This should take up between more than one half and two thirds of your personal statement because the two universities pay close attention to the applicant’s academic potential.
Personal statements which have been kindly contributed by current and former Oxford and Cambridge students can be found at: www.gurume.co.uk/pages/personal_statements.
Conclusion
In sum, everything that has been written above comes together in your personal statement to help answer one question: why should the university make you an offer?
Always remember that universities are ranked. Newspapers like the Guardian and the Times rank universities based on various criteria including academic excellence and the likelihood of graduates securing jobs. These rankings are in turn affected by the type of students which the university accepts. Your personal statement in a sense, persuades them that you can add value to their university.
Common Pitfalls
(1) Starting too early
It is good to start preparations early. But there can be times when starting too early becomes problematic.
Many schools ask their students to start drafting their personal statements before the summer vacation. However, it is often only during the summer vacation that students have time to undertake the activities or projects which can later be used in the personal statement.
So students often find that they have to squeeze the new information into an earlier draft of their personal statement. This can actually be harder than writing a new personal statement from scratch; the number of drafts needed to complete the personal statement may increase and the new information often causes the word limit to be exceeded.
If you find yourself in such a situation, instead of using up the entire word limit in your first draft, considering leaving some space for the activities that you will only undertake during the summer vacation.
(2) Cutting down content
Many students also have difficulty bringing down the word count for their personal statement. That is perfectly understandable, particularly where the student is really passionate and has written pages and pages about his or her favourite subject. Now this is where having a second opinion helps. An unbiased third party (like a classmate or a family member) can tell you which sections are more impactful and which sections can be omitted from your personal statement.
Sometimes, with the right words, an idea which takes five lines to express might only require one. To that end, you can try asking your English teacher for comments. He or she can give you advice on how to keep your sentences short and succinct.