Personal Statement help, please?

Police studies? Interesting choice, are you a police officer?

As for the personal statement, honestly it's horrible to think about it but once you sit down, remove all distractions and start churning out stuff it's not so bad. In fact I wrote mine in one sitting and has been very well received by readers/tutors alike, you'll be amazed at what you can get done if you focus.

You will find a wealth of information via google, but honestly I wouldn't get too involved as you'll end up subconsciously trying to imitate other peoples'. Start with an opening paragraph of why you want to study the course, make it fresh and interesting to read, avoid cliches that end up as jargon, keep it moving and flowing nicely each paragraph.

It's only about a page of writing, so the rest is just work experience, life experience etc. any relevant academic stuff. If you're doing police studies then getting involved with a police service in your area will be advantageous, though I'm not exactly sure what the course entails.

Sum it all up briefly with a nice concise spiel about your suitability to the course, but only if you're providing them with new information. Don't repeat yourself, and keep it formal yet interesting with fine grammatical command. Don't make yourself sound pompous either! Apologies if I'm making it sound complicated, but it's genuinely easy once you get going - which is the hardest part!

Thanks man.

I'll keep it all in mind.

And I've got my aims on being a police officer, or mostly the CID one day. I suppose Criminology might be a better option? But I'm not entirely sure on that. Police studies is more than suitable in my opinion.

Cheers, again.

Good on you mate, I'm currently training in the Met. It's certainly exciting stuff! Criminology is a good choice, even sociology has good parts for understanding what makes people tick. The police love anything that shows you are fair, calm and logical so while I don't know what police studies covers, I can vouch for criminology/sociology being very useful.

Good luck! What force you thinking of applying to, if you don't mind me asking?

I'm pretty settled on Police Sciences/Studies now anyway, so I doubt I'll switch about and mess my head about haha.

I see where they would come into police work but I just like to think this course would entitle everything I need, for the future. It claims that it does on the description anyway. But, I have to do the foundation year first before a Honors of some kind, anyway.

I would probably end up at South Wales/Gwent police because of the proximity but I would prefer to move away from Wales, in all fairness.

Yeah that makes sense, I'm sure police studies has got it covered. Wherever you end up applying just make sure they don't need other courses first - some places required a CKP or other which is like "police studies" but is specifically required by some police forces before they'll hire you! Also the met has a graduate entry scheme where you get higher pay and faster rank movement, which is good, but I think some other forces might start adopting it sometime in the near future.

you could apply as a special too, that'll get your foot in the door.

Yeah that makes sense, I'm sure police studies has got it covered. Wherever you end up applying just make sure they don't need other courses first - some places required a CKP or other which is like "police studies" but is specifically required by some police forces before they'll hire you! Also the met has a graduate entry scheme where you get higher pay and faster rank movement, which is good, but I think some other forces might start adopting it sometime in the near future.

you could apply as a special too, that'll get your foot in the door.

Hah, yeah I suppose it would be wise to check for such things. But as far as I'm aware, this course covers almost everything like that, in order to save yourself the hassle later on in your potential policing career.

That does sound like a good system, I will have to look much further into it.

And yeah, maybe. But at the minute I'm working in a factory to make up for the extra bucks I need. Maybe sometime in the new year I could do that, who knows?

Do you know much about being a special? E.g. the hours they expect?