Personal Statement Writing

If you want to study for a degree at university then you are going to need to write a personal statement for your UCAS form. We know this fills you with dread, the idea of filling a piece of paper with a statement about yourself; but fear not, help is on hand.

The applicants advice book provided by UCAS click here reminds you that your personal statement is "your opportunity to tell universities and colleges about your suitability for the course that you hope to study. You need to demonstrate your enthusiasm and commitment, and above all, ensure that you stand out from the crowd."

There are three important things to remember when writing your personal statement:
1. It is your work - UCAS and Universities check the statements against databases for plagarism.
2. It is about you - the universities want to know about you; what you want to study and why, where you want to study and why, what experience you have that will help in your studies, what you like to do in your free time and why, and your goal from your university studies.
3. It will form the basis for any interviews you are asked to attend - then it will be obvious if you have not be involved in writing your personal statement.

When we help people write personal statements we take a paragraph breakdown approach. This makes it easier to focus on the content, ensures nothing is missed out, and in the end ensures the statement provides what is needed for the readers. The paragraph breakdown we use is as follows:
P1 - what you want to study and why you are interested in that
P2 - what you have done that relates to your course subject
P3 - details of your work experience
P4 - details of your school experiences
P5 - your outside school interests focussing on responsibilities held
P6 - focus on your goal of studying at university and a closing statement

We hope that this short article will start to remove some of the fear associated with writing personal statements. If you think some professional input would be valuable then please email spinningcareers@gmail.com who are happy to help you in the writing process.

Good luck with your application and future studies.