Quote as a Personal Statement beginning... Corny or Catchy?? :S
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Re: Quote as a Personal Statement beginning... Corny or Catchy?? :STo start it, I would say it was a bad idea. If it's relevant and you're determined however, post the entire statement into the PS helper threads and see what they think.
I did that, and I had a relevant quote at the end and they liked it I think. It all depends on how you use it and what it's linking to I'd say...But at the start it is at risk of being too cliche! -
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Re: Quote as a Personal Statement beginning... Corny or Catchy?? :SWhat if an admission tutor will be put off by a quote at the beginning of PS and will have a negative attitude towards the PS throughout the process of reading (assuming that process will actually take place)?(Original post by Nfixlol)
i think it can be a pretty good idea, tbh, as long as what follows is really ******* good
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Re: Quote as a Personal Statement beginning... Corny or Catchy?? :SThis.(Original post by goldsilvy)
What if an admission tutor will be put off by a quote at the beginning of PS and will have a negative attitude towards the PS throughout the process of reading (assuming that process will actually take place)?
Do you think after decades of reading the same old guff year after year any admissions tutor will be impressed with a quote. I doubt you could find one they hadn't read loads of times before anyway! -
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Re: Quote as a Personal Statement beginning... Corny or Catchy?? :Sso what? it's not the quote they're going to base their judgments on anyway, it's what you write following the quote and how you write it.(Original post by hypocriticaljap)
This.
Do you think after decades of reading the same old guff year after year any admissions tutor will be impressed with a quote. I doubt you could find one they hadn't read loads of times before anyway! -
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Re: Quote as a Personal Statement beginning... Corny or Catchy?? :SThere is nothing you can really do that will truly stand out considering the amount of personal statements admissions tutors have read. Don't include the quote if it is using up valuable character space that you could use better, but if you have space I don't see a problem.
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Re: Quote as a Personal Statement beginning... Corny or Catchy?? :SApart from the fact that most of them have only forced relevance, as illustrated by the OP's inability to think of one, the use of quotations has a number of disadvantages and few, if any, advantages. They have a strong tendency to be irrelevant, corny, cliches. They represent what someone famous said about something unrelated to the candidate's application; the matter would be very different if a famous and relevant person had said something positive about the applicant's interest, ability and potential in the subject being applied for - but this is never the case. On the plus side, they demonstrate that the candidate either has access to a dictionary of quotations or can use an on-line search engine. That isn't very much is it? And we had a poster here a week or two back who managed to misquote his quotation. Not impressive.
Perhaps the worst thing about using a quotation is that it wastes space. You have to quote the words, and then go on to explain their (usually rather tenuous) relevance. When you consider that most applicants have difficulty in squeezing their statements into the space, this is negligent use of the space that is available and demonstrates poor judgement.
My firm advice is to steer clear. -
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Re: Quote as a Personal Statement beginning... Corny or Catchy?? :SWe can only assume how admission tutors (AT) think.(Original post by Nfixlol)
so what? it's not the quote they're going to base their judgments on anyway, it's what you write following the quote and how you write it.
One scenario is,
1) AT sees a quote at the beginning of PS
2) AT thinks - 'oh, yet another quote, yet another unimaginative applicant'
3) AT skims through the rest of PS without paying any attention to it
4) AT rejects an applicant without having a look at applicant's predicted grades, the rest of UCAS and/or reference. Reason for rejection - 'PS'. Time taken: < 1 minute. -
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Re: Quote as a Personal Statement beginning... Corny or Catchy?? :SWell let's be honest, that's just bullcrap isn't it?(Original post by goldsilvy)
We can only assume how admission tutors (AT) think.
One scenario is,
1) AT sees a quote at the beginning of PS
2) AT thinks - 'oh, yet another quote, yet another unimaginative applicant'
3) AT skims through the rest of PS without paying any attention to it
4) AT rejects an applicant without having a look at applicant's predicted grades, the rest of UCAS and/or reference. Reason for rejection - 'PS'. Time taken: < 1 minute. -
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Re: Quote as a Personal Statement beginning... Corny or Catchy?? :SAssuming your PS is read at all, then any part of it may have an effect on the admissions tutor. Not necessarily a positive effect, but an effect nevertheless. Quotations have a strong tendency to give the impression that the candidate has run out of things to say, or can't think of anything original, or hasn't the judgment and ability to write a statement that is interesting without being tedious or corny.(Original post by Nfixlol)
so what? it's not the quote they're going to base their judgments on anyway, it's what you write following the quote and how you write it.
