I often emphasise to my students that there is no single right way to write a UCAS statement - a good personal statement can take many different forms. However, an effective statement will tick five important boxes.
These principles apply regardless of where you plan to study or which course you have chosen. Whether you are applying to Oxford or Cambridge, a Russell Group university, or another university in the UK, admissions tutors are looking for the same core qualities in a personal statement.
Below are five key guidelines that I encourage my students to follow:
1. Be relevant
Put simply, your personal statement needs to tell the admissions tutor why you want to study your chosen subject, and provide evidence to support this. The first of the three UCAS form questions asks this directly. It’s up to you how much of your word count you devote to this first question, but the answers to all three of the questions should be clearly linked to the course you wish to study.
2. Be clear
Remember that the person reading your UCAS statement will be smart and knowledgeable, but may not have a great deal of time. It’s therefore in your interests to make yourstatement as easy to read as possible. Rather than trying to sound clever, focus on getting your point across in a straightforward way. Break each of the three responses into clear paragraphs (each new idea should have a separate paragraph), and stick to short sentences and simple language.
3. Keep it personal
It’s called a personal statement for a reason – the focus needs to be on you throughout. It is easy to slip into talking about your chosen subject and stop talking about yourself, so be alert to this. Remember that the reader will be a subject matter expert – you don’t want to start telling them about their own subject! They are interested in you, and your interests, so keep the focus firmly on this.
4. Provide evidence
As well as telling the admissions tutor why you like your subject, you need to show them. If you don’t evidence your statement, it will end up sounding like a sales pitch – full of claims, but with nothing to back them up. If you find a particular topic interesting, go into detail about why. The second and third questions on the UCAS form ask specifically about what you have done, so make sure that you answer these questions directly, and keep the activities relevant to your chosen course. Be honest in how you describe your activities, and don’t be tempted to exaggerate. The reader will be put off if it just doesn’t sound realistic!
5. Be reflective
The tone of your statement should be self-reflective. This means you should avoid just listing everything you have done. It’s important to talk about specific activities, but don’t forget to talk about the impact that these had on you. Did they motivate or inspire you? Did they change your mind about something or introduce you to a new area of interest? You don’t get ‘points’ simply for having done particular activities, so think of the statement as a chance to demonstrate a curious and reflective nature.
If you follow these guidelines, you are well on your way to writing a great personal statement. I will explore these issues in more details in future posts, so do revisit this page over the coming months to learn more, and please get in touch if you are interested in personalised support in writing your UCAS statement.
