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PPE and Int. Relations Personal Statement

Hi all,

I am a student studying in an American high school. I want to apply to International relations primarily. I will apply to LSE for int. rel., and I also will apply to a Cambridge college, and possibly an Oxford one. However, Oxbridge don't offer a direct Int. rel. course, instead Cambridge has HSPS and Oxford has PPE. In this case, how should I shape my personal statement? Thank you.
Reply 1
Avatar for simsim96
simsim96
I have to admit, that's going to be difficult. My suggestion would be go through the course content of all of them (lse,Oxford and Cambridge) and try to find common modules/ topics covered. Try to focus ur personal statement on those particular topics.




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Original post by Barleywolf
Hi all,

I am a student studying in an American high school. I want to apply to International relations primarily. I will apply to LSE for int. rel., and I also will apply to a Cambridge college, and possibly an Oxford one. However, Oxbridge don't offer a direct Int. rel. course, instead Cambridge has HSPS and Oxford has PPE. In this case, how should I shape my personal statement? Thank you.

You can only apply to one or other of Oxford and Cambridge, not both. Use the PS builder tool as a guide.
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/personal_statement_builder/
Decide which course you really want to study in advance and apply for that. A PS aimed at different courses will fail to prove that you are interested and informed enough about any of them to be given a place.
(edited 9 years ago)
Reply 3
Avatar for Barleywolf
Barleywolf
OP
Thanks for the heads up, I did not know that. But Cambridge HSPS includes the politics and international relations, so I think I should be fine with a PS about politics and international relations-I trust my writing skills, and the subjects are not very hard to tie together.
Original post by Barleywolf
Thanks for the heads up, I did not know that. But Cambridge HSPS includes the politics and international relations, so I think I should be fine with a PS about politics and international relations-I trust my writing skills, and the subjects are not very hard to tie together.


If you apply for one course at 4 of your choices and then for something similar at Cambridge you should tailor your PS to the majority course (ie in your case Politics & IR). Then use your Cambridge SAQ to provide a "custom" PS for the areas of the Cambridge course not addressed in your standard UCAS PS. Cambridge know that their courses are unique which is why they give 1,200 characters space in the SAQ for that to be addressed.
Original post by Barleywolf
Thanks for the heads up, I did not know that. But Cambridge HSPS includes the politics and international relations, so I think I should be fine with a PS about politics and international relations-I trust my writing skills, and the subjects are not very hard to tie together.


It's worth bearing in mind that the content expected from a UK personal statement is very different to what US colleges are looking for. I also believe the UK personal statement has a much tighter limit in terms of characters/lines. In general, a UK PS is probably expected to be more tightly focused on your choice of course.

On this page from the LSE website, there's lots of information about what LSE look for in an IR personal statement. I'd take that as a starting point and think about how you can fit everything they want in, as well as potentially discussing other subjects. LSE is very competitive, and say that the PS is important to them, as they don't interview.

http://www.lse.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/howToApply/departmentalAdmissionsCriteria2015/internationalRelations.aspx

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