Planning a UCAS Personal Statement

Tips for planning a great UCAS Personal Statement

1) Think about it! A lot. Preferably before you write it…

The two main problems that I see with personal statements is that they do not hang together as a continuous piece of writing and that examples discussed have not been thought through clearly enough to display them most effectively. The reason for this is that people typically just pick up a pen and start writing. This is an incredibly DIFFICULT way to write anything, let alone a summary of why you are a fantastic individual that any University would be proud to have. The first process you need to go through is to think, with as few restrictions as possible, about why you want to study what you are applying for, what makes you a great candidate for that University and what examples you can use to back up the points you are making.

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2) Know why you want to study what you are applying for

Not all students know exactly what they want to do with their lives and careers. (Come to think of it, most people don’t either). However, there is a positive correlation between people that are focussed on achieving a realistic goal and the people who are successful. When writing a personal statement, you MUST have a really clear set of ideas to explain why you’ve applied for a particular course. Put bluntly, simply stating that you find the course “interesting” is unlikely to cut the mustard. Admissions tutors receive hundreds, if not thousands, of applications and yours needs to stand out (in a good way!). Simply, you need to find a balance between being ambitious whilst being truthful.

3) Research, research and more research

After spending a good couple of days thinking about why you want to study your chosen subject at university you will then need to think about what skills you have and what examples you can use to demonstrate these. However, before just charging in here it is worth having a look at the types of skills that the institutions that you are applying for are looking for. If you are applying to a highly analytical course, the University may be looking for skills such as high attention-to-detail and good organisational skills. If the course requires greater social interactions or group work, Universities may be looking for leadership and teamwork skills. You want to demonstrate that you have the skills that these types of courses are looking for. These skills will probably be obvious, but its worth finding out more about what particular Universities are looking for from the UCAS website or directly from University websites.

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4) Think of the most relevant and recent examples

Once you have identified the skills that the University is looking for, it is time to think of examples and experiences that you have that can demonstrate these skills. Although most University applicants have not climbed Everest or built a profitable business from scratch, simply mentioning being a football captain and organising a bake sale can make it difficult for you to stand out from the crowd. Take your time on this step by mapping out ALL of the possible activities that you have been involved with over the past two years. Then select the activities that you think best show off the skills that you are demonstrating that you have. Although there are no rules about how far back you can go for things to talk about, try to keep things recent where you can. Please understand that if the best examples of leadership that you have are five years old, this can suggest that you have not built on your leadership skills since then. As recently stated, this is not a definite rule but more of a rough guide. If you did lead a team to the summit of Everest five years ago, that may well be the best thing to discuss!

5) Pick your three main points

Now that you have a good idea about what information you would like to put into your personal statement, it is time to start organising how it will all fit together. The first step to take in this process is to distil the main points that you would like to make from all of the planning and research that you have done so far. You don’t have to stick to having three main points, but do think about things from the reader’s perspective. Much less would be seen as insufficient and the average reader is unlikely to take much more than three points away from a short piece of writing.

6) Build your personal statement around your three main points

Tell them, tell them and tell them again. You can now plan the basic structure of your personal statement by including the main points that you would like to make in the opening paragraph and then elaborating on each of the points that you are making in three subsequent paragraphs. You should then also have a summary paragraph that reiterates the messages that you are making but in a slightly different format.

7) So can I start writing now? No! Think about how you can make your statement stand out from the crowd

Universities receive huge numbers of applications for the places that they have so it is important that your statement stands out. One way to do this is to have an inspiring and catchy opening statement. Making a bold statement about the course that you are applying for can be a great way to do this. You will obviously need to justify your view to an extent but can use this as a way to demonstrate your knowledge for the subject. You should now have the basis of a personal statement that means that you can start writing. You should have an understanding of why you would like to do the course, what skills the Universities are looking for on these courses and what great examples you have to show off how you have exactly the skills that they are looking for.