Personal Statements

[Bryan]

Alright guys, any of you that have applied for unis recently or anyone that works at unis, have you got any advice on writing a good personal statement?

Ive got two weeks to right my first draft of my personal statement, before i go on holiday, as when i get back I'm straight back to college and they wont our first draft in so as we can get our uni applications off as soon as possible.

Any help would be greatfully appreciated

[Siobhan]

found this on a BBC site

UCAS Forms: Personal Statements

UCAS forms (which you need to use to apply for a place at a university) ask for a 'Personal Statement'. This is your chance to persuade a university Applications Officer to give you a place so it's important to really sell yourself.
Remember to make sure yours is clear, succinct and confident. It's your chance to really show them why they want you so it's important to stress why you're perfect for the course, your academic strengths and your enthusiasm for studying this subject at degree level.
Tell Them:

• Why you've chosen the course - what is it that interests you about the subject?
• About any jobs, work experience or placements you've had in your chosen field. If these inspired you to choose this degree - tell them why.
• About any non-accredited qualifications - did you do Young Enterprise or Duke of Edinburgh? They want to know about it, and what you learnt from it.
• About anything else you've achieved, for example, have you got any Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network awards?
• About anything you're proud of that shows you can knuckle down and apply yourself - like running a marathon or raising money for charity.
• About anything that shows you've got initiative.
• About your future - what are you planning to do with your degree anyway?
• If you've got any sponsorships or placements from a company already.
• Why - if you're taking one - you're having a year out.
• About anything interesting from your progress file or national record of achievement.
• About your social, sports and leisure interests - they want well-rounded people after all.

The UCAS website which can guide you through your application section by section.
Read on to find out how to defer your entry to university.

Related Links
For more information about UCAS and other useful contacts check out our Further Information: General or Further Information: University pages.
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[Bryan]

thanks Siobhan, thats a big help! Along with the sheet provided by my careers department I've finally got started on it. Here is what I have so far. If anyone thinks I can improve this in anyway please say.

Degrees in writing interest me as I have always had a keen passion for creative writing, have wrote many short stories and poems when I was a child. When I was in Primary School I had a poem published in a book of school children’s poems. I have also had experience of playwriting, having wrote two plays “Brotherly Love” and “Stairlift To Heaven”, which were performed by professional actors at the Birmingham REP as part of it’s Transmissions Festival, for young writers in the West Midlands aged between 12 and 25. (See www.transmissions.org.uk for more information) I can write fluently, and have a detailed vocabulary for someone of my age, combined with my creativity and vivid imagination, writing has always been an obvious hobby and career path for me. I am interested in taking a course for scriptwriting or creative writing, so as I can develop my writing skills in hope of making a career out of the talent in the future. Ideally I would like to write scripts for prime time television soap operas or dramas, I have a fine a fine appreciation for television and have had experience of writing scripts for television, for the past year I have created a soap opera called Devon Seas of which I post daily episodes on various internet forums. (See www.freewebs.com/devonseas for more information) Alternatively I would like to become a professional author writing either teenage novels or a series of novels influenced by the extravagant era of the 1980s, as shown through American dramas such as Dallas and Dynasty.

[Katy]

Flipping heck Bryan im so not going to get accepted at any unis as i dont no what to write. I have the joys of writing my personal Statement this holiday to. Its a nightmare. That all sounds really good. Basically i have to tery and make myself look good.

[Layne]

I have a fine a fine appreciation .

You put a fine, twice. Apart fron that, its fab and if i were working at the University i'd let you in !

[Chloe O'brien]

Remember to make a few photocopies of the document so you can practice want you want to say. So that when you present the final document it will be well presented, neat with proper spelling and grammar.

[di marco]

i wrote my personal statement last year, this is what we were told to write:

- say why youre interested in that particular subject and why
- what alevel subjects youre taking now that are useful for that degree and what youve learnt from them
- any achievements youve had in that subject, such as getting an award from school/college or any performances you may have been involved in at school/college that you were chosen for cos of your talent (even if you werent chosen for your talent and you just volunteered, lie and say you were chosen cos they will never know and it sounds better!)
- any responsibilties youve had in that subject (at school/college or outside)
- work experience/jobs youve had, especially if they link to the course/career you want to do, if they dont then dont spend too long writing about them
- list your hobbies and interests, especially any sports or team related activities as you can gain lots of transferable skills from those (although dont lie about these cos the interviewer if you get one could ask you about these so you will need to know specifics about them)
- anything youve been involved in outside of school/college thats related to the subject and what you achieved from it
- what you plan to do after uni (if you would want to do a masters or something, or volunteerly work for a while) and what career youd like to do

also, there is a maximum character limit, so make sure you dont write too much, cos of this refrain from writing about your gcses as the unis get sent a copy of your results, also try not to spend too much time on things that happened at school too long ago unless its something unusual. finally try and catch the eye of the person who will be reading your personal statement as that alone could determine whether you get an interview or not

hope that helps

[di marco]

Degrees in writing interest me as I have always had a keen passion for creative writing, have wrote many short stories and poems when I was a child. When I was in Primary School I had a poem published in a book of school children’s poems. I have also had experience of playwriting, having wrote two plays “Brotherly Love” and “Stairlift To Heaven”, which were performed by professional actors at the Birmingham REP as part of it’s Transmissions Festival, for young writers in the West Midlands aged between 12 and 25. (See www.transmissions.org.uk for more information)

i think id take out the web address there cos it will be taking up space that could be needed for something else, also you could add what responsibilities you had while doing them and what you learnt from the experience

I can write fluently, and have a detailed vocabulary for someone of my age, combined with my creativity and vivid imagination, writing has always been an obvious hobby and career path for me. I am interested in taking a course for scriptwriting or creative writing, so as I can develop my writing skills in hope of making a career out of the talent in the future. Ideally I would like to write scripts for prime time television soap operas or dramas, I have a fine a fine appreciation for television and have had experience of writing scripts for television, for the past year I have created a soap opera called Devon Seas of which I post daily episodes on various internet forums. (See www.freewebs.com/devonseas for more information)

i dont know whether id say about posting them on internet forums or not, i dont know how unis would take that bit, but i like the idea about the link cos then they can see your work for themselves

Alternatively I would like to become a professional author writing either teenage novels or a series of novels influenced by the extravagant era of the 1980s, as shown through American dramas such as Dallas and Dynasty.

i dont know what dallas and dynasty are about, so dont know whether writing about those would be ok, but id be careful about refering to tv programmes cos if the person whos reading the personal statement has a different opinion about them then it might go against you, though your career advisor/whoevers helping you at college with the statement would probably advise you whether you should or not

although your statement is very good, a lot better than mine was! good luck with writing the rest, cos i found writing mine really hard!

[Katy]

THis is my first two paragraphs of my personal statement, what do you think?

Law is a subject that I have thoroughly enjoyed whilst studying it for A Level, I would love to have the opportunity to study it further at degree level. As part of the course I looked at sentencing in detail. This fascinated me as I didn’t think that there were so many different types and I can now identify with the sentences given in cases on the news or in the newspaper. I also take Psychology at A Level. This subject is informative about the attitudes and behaviors of different individuals in our society, it had given me the opportunity to try and understand people’s minds. This subject is important to me as I feel it has made me a more observant person in my day to day life.

To further my interest in the subject of I have completed visits to the Magistrates court in Stockport and the crown court in Manchester. I enjoyed the visit to the courts as it showed me the role lawyers play in everyday life and the way they reach a verdict. By visiting both a magistrates and a crown court I was able to witness a broad range of cases.

[Bryan]

Here is the finished article

Degrees in writing interest me as I have always had a keen passion for creative writing, have wrote many short stories and poems when I was a child. When I was in Primary School I had a poem published in a book of school children’s poems. I have also had experience of playwriting, having wrote two plays “Brotherly Love” and “Stairlift To Heaven”, which were performed by professional actors at the Birmingham REP as part of it’s Transmissions Festival, for young writers in the West Midlands aged between 12 and 25. Having my work produced into a theatre production encouraged me to make a career out of my talent of writing. I can write fluently, and have a detailed vocabulary for someone of my age, combined with my creativity and vivid imagination, writing has always been an obvious hobby and career path for me. With my practical experience of writing and my academic achievements in subjects such as English and Media Studies, I feel that a course for script/screen writing would be the most ideal course to take to develop my skills in hope of making a future career out of my writing talent. Ideally I would like to write scripts for prime time television soap operas or dramas, I have a fine a fine appreciation for television and have had experience of writing scripts for television, for the past year I have created a soap opera called Devon Seas of which I post daily episodes on various internet forums. (See www.freewebs.com/devonseas for more information) I would be interested in exploring the Soap Opera genre in more depth as part of the script/screen writing course. Alternatively I would like to become a professional author writing either teenage novels or a series of novels influenced by the extravagant era of the 1980s, as shown through American dramas such as Dallas and Dynasty.

Despite my choice of course being more creative than academic, I have had a successful education, being a productive and intellectual student. I have always enjoy my school and college experience and value the importance of a good education. I have always been a hard working and conscientious student, doing work to the best of my ability and sticking closely to tight deadlines. I have always preferred subjects that have challenged my creativity, which is why I feel a degree in script/screenwriting is best suited to me. As part of my educational experience I have been given various opportunities to work as a team and represent my school. For four years I worked as an assistant Librarian at my school library, giving up my breaks and lunch hours to perform various librarian duties and helping students with their homework and research projects. I was also given the opportunity to widen my skills in wiring and journalism by being a member of the School newsletter team, writing articles on school events and pupils’ achievements. Finally I was given a role of great importance by being a made a prefect, I had to represent the school and guide prospective students and their parents around the school.

Outside of college I have participated in numerous group activities and award schemes. From a young age I have been a member of the scouting organisation, starting from Cub Scouts, and moving up to Scouts and then to my present section at Explorer Scouts. Being a member of Scouts has allowed me to grow as a person, finding self-confidence and being able to develop my social skills and knowledge of practical skills, and most importantly appreciating and benefiting from the importance of teamwork. As a scout I have been given many fantastic opportunities, I have travelled to countries such as Iceland and Switzerland and took part in awards such as the Chief Scout Challenge and the Duke Of Edinburgh Gold Award, of which I am currently participating in. As an Explorer scout, we organise many charity events and fundraising events to raise money for the scout group and for our many scout expeditions, we are currently planning to travel to New Zealand in 2008 to do our Explorer Belt. I am also a young scout leader, giving up a lot of my free time to help with younger scout members.

Having always been up for fresh and exciting challenges, and going to university will be a unique life experience, giving me the opportunity to find some impedance as I move away from home and adapt to a new way of life and broaden my horizons. Taking a course in script/screen writing will enable me to further my knowledge and understanding of a skill and hobby that I hold close to my heart. I believe I have what it takes to succeed in this subject and what I have found to be a challenging and dynamic career path.