Personal Statements
If you are applying for University in the UK you will need to write a personal statements as part of your application.
Your personal statement is a key part of your application and helps university admission departments make the decision on if they will offer you a place.
All admissions departments use sophisticated software that is able to pick up personal statements that have been copied or plagiarised, it is of utmost importance that your personal statement is your own work.
Jackie, our careers adviser has put together some tips and resources for getting started on your personal statement. Remember to save your personal statements as a word document so that you can edit and amend it.
How to write a Personal Statement
The most important thing to remember about writing your Personal Statement? You just need to start it! Honestly, that’s the most difficult part. Start getting ideas down and you can make sense of and condense them later. The sooner you get it started, the more in control and less panicked you will feel about getting it done.
UCAS have devised a useful worksheet to help you overcome that initial fear:
https://www.ucas.com/sites/default/files/ucas-personal-statement-worksheet.pdf
There is a wealth of resources out there to help you. This is an opportunity to help ensure you’re looking in the right places.
The most obvious place to start, as referred to above, is UCAS.
Make sure you watch the video at the top of this UCAS page. It will help you to approach things in a productive way.
The University of Leicester Admissions Team have also created a great video guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtMqq1ixIJE&list=PLkBZZhQeuA80RRX0f914N2lHuZkUqs85n&index=9&t=0s
Have a look at the link which goes through the Top 5 most commonly asked questions about Personal Statements: https://www.ucas.com/connect/blogs/personal-statements-quick-fire-questions-answered
Make use of the documents that UCAS have devised to help you through this process. Work through this page on the UCAS site methodically and it will help to ensure you keep moving in the right direction.
Once you have your UCAS Account you can use the UCAS Personal Statement Builder noted below:
Have a look here for some example Personal Statements:
https://universitycompare.com/personal-statement-examples/
Do not plagiarise though.
And finally, this following link should, if you’re still feeling a bit daunted, help you make a start::
If you get stuck, ask for help. It’s what the Sixth Form Team and Careers Team are here for.