>> JOANNA FRY: In this short presentation we are going to cover some hints and tips on how to write your personal statement.
Writing your personal statement can be a challenging task, and it can be sometimes really confusing to think about what you should put in, what shouldn't you put it, what universities looking for.
So, over the course of this presentation, we're going to tackle some of those questions and hopefully help you see things a little bit clearer.
Things we're going to think about are:
- where to start, so making some time to think
- doing your research
- how to plan
- how to prepare to start writing.
So, first of all, you want to think about your personal statement, and who's going to read it, and what will they be looking for. The chances are it may be a member of academic staff in the discipline you want to study that's going to look at it, so, they're going to want to see that you understand the subject, that you know a little bit about, and that really you are passionate and motivated to study their subject.
You want to think about where you're going to start, what's the best way to open that up, where are you going to start with your research? Is it best to start thinking about what career you want to do and then work backwards into what courses you might need to do to get there?
You want to think about the things you want to include, and you want to think about things you might want to avoid putting in.
So, your personal statement comprises one-third of your UCAS application. It's a really important piece of writing. This is your chance to make your application stand out, demonstrate your skills and show what you know about that subject and why you're interested in it. It should be really personal and very much tailored towards your personal interests.
It can be useful to think of it a bit like an essay. It should flow properly. It should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. You should yourself, but the meat of your personal statement in the middle, and then round it all up nicely with his conclusion towards the end.
The other thing to think about is that it should be very clearly structured. It should have very good grammar, spelling and demonstrate your ability to express information and ideas clearly in a written format.
In your personal statement, you should always explain the things that you're adding - so things like 'I am the class rep' are really good to put in, but you always need to think about what have you learned from that rather than just listing these things. List the skills that you have developed through being the class rep, what have you learned about yourself, what have you learnt about other things, things like that.
Every single thing you should put into your personal statement should be relevant to your application, so, ask yourself all the way through: so, what does it have to do with the subject I'm applying for? What does this have to do with the career that they hope to have?
Try to use all the space that you're giving in your personal statement, but you need to make sure that it is concise and flows properly.
And lastly, always be positive and always be enthusiastic about what you are writing, because that will really come through when it's been read by the universities.
Things you want to include are a really clear understanding of the subject you've applied for. So bear in mind that there's no standard curriculum for your higher education, so a history degree at one university could be a completely different course to a history degree at another university, so make sure you understand what the universities you're applying to are offering and make that come through in your writing.
Why has this does this subject interest you? What particular things have sparked off your interest? Is it a career move, or is it just purely that this particular subject has always been something that's fascinated you and you want to move your learning in that area on?
You want to think about what things you might have already done to explore the field that you're looking to study, so if you're applying for English, for example, have you been to some plays? Have you watched some national theatre live? If it's a science-related field, have you been to any additional lectures? Have you watched any Ted talks? Things like that, things that just show that you've gone outside of the classroom or the college a little bit and just explored that subject area a little bit more.
We often think that we should avoid the things that we don't know about, but sometimes in your personal statement it's really good to put the things that you're interested in learning more about, so use that as a positive, that you want to develop in that area and immerse yourself in that subject.
And it's also good to put in some non-academic skills that you may have from employment, volunteering, just general life experience. As long as you're tying that into what you've gained from that activity, it should always have some sort of output rather than just a list of things that you've done.
Examples of academic-related activities might be field trips, relevant activities, trips that you've made, lectures that you've watched, things like that.
Work experience and voluntary work, if they are relevant to your course or perhaps have given you a bit of an insight into the subject area that you're applying to.
Any evidence that you have that you read around the subject, so have you looked at different research? Have you looked at projects? Have you read articles or do you subscribe to any particular magazines or channels that develop your skills in that area?
And you want to put in those relevant transferable skills that you've achieved through your interests. You want to show commitment and engagement to the subject, and you want to show that you can take responsibility, that you can work independently, that you can get involved with teamwork, and that you're good communicator. And that will come through and your writing.
Things you might want to avoid are a lack of in-depth awareness or lack of focus on the subject. So biology, for example, is a very broad discipline. There are many different areas, so you want to narrow in a little bit to the things that you're interested in rather than talking about biology as a whole.
Try to avoid over commitment to one institution, so don't mention institutions by name because it will narrow down your choices. You're applying to five, so you need to speak to all five.
Try not to reference the specific course title or subject title because that might not be used by all courses. An example of that is at St Andrews we offer international relations; other universities might offer PPE - so politics, philosophy, and economics. They are very similar disciplines, but they are not the same, so you want to think of these things thematically and talk about them in that way rather than using the specific subject or course title.
If you are applying for a joint subject, try to make sure that you talk about both subjects and how you see them working together rather than independently from each other. So what would you gain from studying two subjects rather than one? At St Andrews, a joint application will be read by two different academics in the two different areas, so you need to make sure that you're speaking to both of those readers of your application.
Things you might want to avoid would be jokes or irrelevant stories. Humour can be really subjective so, sometimes it doesn't come through very clearly in writing what your intention was and it perhaps could be misinterpreted, so try and keep away from that.
Don't repeat material that is elsewhere on the application. So don't list your qualifications; we can see that when we see your whole UCAS application, so it's just wasting space. And on that note, try not to pad out the text with irrelevant material just to fill up that blank space. And on the flipside of that, you want to make sure that you're using all that space, but again it goes back to just using it wisely, putting in relevant information and keeping it concise and on topic.
Avoid writing long lists of unrelated hobbies or activities and achievements. Always pick maybe one or two and explore them in a bit more detail, give an example of what you've learned and what skills that you've gained from things, rather than just listing all the things you've done.
And finally, don't think of this as just a formality before you start university and before you fill out your UCAS form. It's a really important piece of writing, and it will take you much longer than you think it will, and a good personal statement takes time and effort to put together.
So, the first step is to get something down, anything, open up that Word document and just start writing down things that you think you might want to include.
That initially could be bullet points, could be short paragraphs that are maybe not related, just everything you think you might want to put down. And that first draft will really help you build towards your personal statement, and writing what was going to be essentially a short story about yourself and your interest in whichever subject you're applying to.
You might find over the next few weeks that ideas come to you at random times of the day, so use the notes app on your phone, carry a notebook. If you think of something that you think would be good to put into that, just jot it down while you remember, and you can come back to it later and add it into your draft.
Do not expect this to be something that you can complete quickly or in one sitting. You will make many drafts, and a good personal statement, like a good essay, should have several drafts. You will write it and you can shape it up, you can narrow it down, make it really slick and on point while you're writing.
The other thing you want to do is talk to people. Talk to as many people as you can - talk to your tutors, talk to your family, talk to your friends who may have who are already at university. People might remember things that would be relevant you that you have done and things that might be good to put in that you have forgotten, so make sure that you talk to as many people as possible.
This is just the little checklist that will hopefully help you go over the personal statement once you've written it and just make sure that you've ticked all those boxes. So, have you:
- highlighted your key areas of subject interest?
- linked the course that you're currently studying in with your future plans?
- demonstrated you understand the course that you're applying to?
- highlighted your subject knowledge and put that into a wider context? So how does your subject relate to, perhaps, the career you want to go into in the future?
- backed everything up with evidence or examples? So, don't make wild up some unsubstantiated claims in your personal statement, always keep it relevant and use evidence to back up everything you've written.
- shown your motivation and your passion for the subject in your writing?
- kept all your language very positive and putting positive spins on things, and really showing your enthusiasm for studying? You might want to think about mentioning your future career plans or your ambitions once you've graduated university.
- checked your grammar, spelling, and punctuation? This is really important, and I can't stress it enough, it should be well written, properly punctuated, and the grammar and spelling should be really clear and on point. Have it proof-read by other people. Run it through spell checkers. It's really disappointing if a personal statement comes through, and the content is really good, but it's quite poorly written. Your personal statement shows your ability as an academic to write ideas clearly and concisely, so you want to make sure that you are really showcasing yourself to the best possible ability. So give it to someone else to read, make sure it makes sense, make sure there are no spelling mistakes, make sure there are no typos, and make sure it's within the character count in the UCAS form. That's where writing it on a Word document will really help because you can check that word content before you copy and paste it into UCAS. If you copy and paste it into UCAS and it's over the word count, it will just cut off, so it could cut off your final couple of sentences and maybe not give you the final round off of your personal statement that you're really hoping to give.
- thought about extenuating circumstances that have affected your application? So, ideally, we'd want to see them in your academic reference, if possible, but you could mention to things if it's relevant to why you've returned to study or why you've chosen to come to college. Just mention it briefly. It's also possible to send additional documentation to universities, but not all universities will accept additional documents, and they may not be considered within your application, but you can request to send them. These things might be things that will cover ill health, whether that be physical or mental health; that have impacted your study, whether it's school or at college; or any personal issues that have impacted you as you have moved through education, whether that be some time ago or whether it is something that's impacted you in the recent past.
So hopefully with that little short roundup of hints and tips you feel a little bit less like this [image on slide of person looking confused], and a little bit more like this [image on slide of person with paths in front of them], with a bit of a clearer idea of where you need to go to write the best possible application to give you the best possible chance of securing a place at the university of your choice.
If you have any further questions or you would like to discuss this in more detail, please do feel free to email us at lifelonglearning@standrews.ac.uk, and we wish you all the very best of luck with your UCAS applications.
