Personal Statement

just started writing it and was wondering if any others are as well? After looking at a few other personal statements, is it possible to stick some ideas or a few lines in them? I dont mean simply copy and paste, but do you think admission tutors will actually notice?
Also is there a word limit on this? thanks

Reply 1

lodzinski

there is a character limit - 10,000 i think - check the ucas site. PS's tend to follow very similar structures - personally i tried to be a little different just to get noticed, as otherwise im sure the statements make very boring reading - if you see a very goo phrase then you could copy and paste it in, but don't do too much as it can get spotted and damage your chances.

Reply 2

Fishfinger Sandwich

There is a word limit, and its quite a low limit. I remember working on mine for ages trying to cut it down, whilst still saying all the things I wanted to say. My first draft was so bad it was funny. It was like "hello, my name is...and I study...blablalba...at...I enjoy my subjects because...etc etc.
If I were you, I wouldn't use the crappy template your college gives you (if they do).

Reply 3

babelicious_1986

the word limits 4000 but its called character limit not word limit as it includes apostrephes, full stops etc... im writing mine also, finished 1st draft bout 3 weeks ago just really need to edit it & make it flow a bit better, mine shud stand out frm most of d rest as i have quite a lot of experience in other areas that most ppl wont have on there own ps.

Reply 4

Jussterr

Be aware that whilst the character limit is 4000, the setup of the actual UCAS window that you're supposed to type your PS into is different from whatever word processor you happen to have used. So once you get your UCAS account and you're ready to paste your PS into it, you'll find that not only are you over your character limit, you're also over your line limit.

I wouldn't worry about paragraphs too much with your PS. I put them in mine, so in effect I was 2/3 lines short of the line limit, but the empty lines marking new paragraphs were also counted as lines. I think it's 47 lines(don't take my word for it though.)

Make sure you have an intro, a body for why you want to do the course, particular interests and then a paragraph for any extra-curricular activities that you may have been involved in, explain WHAT YOU'VE ACHIEVED/LEARNT FROM THEM! Don't just list what you've done, you'll sound like a pretentious prick.

Don't stress too much over it. It'll change about 20 times. I even chanaged my mind about the courses I was applying to about 3 times.

Good luck.

Reply 5

WokSz

The whole paragraphing issue is simply to make it more legible. Just focus on emphasising why you want to study the subject.

Reply 6

suek

Uhh, guys, to clear up confusion...

"Character limit" refers to every single letter, apostrophe, space etc. It doesn't mean 4000 words to include apostrophes and spaces!!

4000 characters is a lot less than 4000 words..

Reply 7

mtbab

yeh 4000chara limit or 47lines whichever comes first, which is about 500words.

there are three options to formatting your PS

theres the block of writing

Spoiler

Or you can start a new line, when you want to start a new para:

Spoiler

Or you can have line break between each para. a line break counts as one of your 47lines, so this is not recommended if you have lots to day, even though it looks the prettiest

Spoiler

In reality Admission Tutors are used to reading all PS's in all formats and they do manage to read them, so don't worry that if you choose the first one you'll be at a disadvantage. I'd recommend the second one, you don't waste lines and it still looks organised.

NOTE don't try to to indents for a new para, that doesn't work on UCAS

Reply 8

rachd_22

im still confused about the word limit. is it 500 words (4000 characters) or 4000 words.

Reply 9

forpolarbears

It is based off a combination of character & line limits--you can only have 4000 characters but they also limit how many lines these characters can comprise.

Reply 10

Pippak

rachd_22

im still confused about the word limit. is it 500 words (4000 characters) or 4000 words.

It's 4000 characters. Mine was probably about *checks* 650 words. I paragraphed, but did not put line breaks between paragraphs.

However, when you enter your personal statement on the UCAS site there is ALSO a line limit. So you can have 4000 characters OR 57 lines, whichever is smaller.

Remember that TSR has PS helpers, so post a draft in that forum (you, the helpers and the moderators are the only people who will be able to see it) and we'll give you some feedback. We all have slightly different methods but we tend to cover everything from structure to grammar to content. We won't write it for you, but will tell you if there are certain areas to focus on or certain parts of your statement that don't make sense :biggrin: