UCAS - How to write the dreaded Personal Statement

Personal Statements can be 4000 characters too many, for others, far too few.

Somewhere between an essay and a cover letter, personal statements are the most dreaded element of the UCAS application process (the UK’s university application service to access almost all undergraduate courses in the country).

There are ways to consider personal statements as a series of manageable steps.

We write about them here.

1) Consider your assets - you’ve been learning at school, you’ve done other things outside of school. You have interests and skills. Write them all down, no matter how random and disjointed they appear. You don’t want to miss something essential.

2) Once they are somewhere you can start seeing which ones would put you in the best light for the course you want to do. With each one, assess whether they demonstrate your interest or skills for your chosen course.

3) Try to think of something you find particularly interesting about the subject you might be studying, or have an ambition you want to achieve after the course. This will make you stand out as a special candidate.

If you can put this into words, then you will have the core of your personal statement down. And then you can begin the process of putting it altogether.

It’s not an easy process, and will take many edits. Keep considering what you enjoy and what you have done, and remember to justify this in relevance to why they should pick you for the course.

If you would like more sustained and personalised guidance, we provide UCAS help for recommending courses and supporting the personal statement process.