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Article: Do universities actually read your personal statement?

She-Ra

Universities Forum Helper

21

Find out here :colone:

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/content.php?r=27258-do-universities-actually-read-your-personal-statement

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 1

emiloujess

20

I can guarantee that universities read personal statements. I spoke to one of the ALS advisors at my university and she knew I had an interest in politics even though I'd never told her. Asked her how she knew, she replied 'oh, I read your personal statement'

Good luck to all future uni applicants :biggrin:

of course they do.

After reading the same old bilge over and over again, I doubt Admissions' Tutors take much notice of them. I suspect prospective students fret about them far more than is necessary.

Reply 4

Inister

16

“Do universities actually look at our personal statements” asked TSR member alevelsuck

hahaha

Reply 5

minamae

I was told by a department once that personal statements are used mainly for distinguishing between students who have missed the mark at results day. If you have the requirements, you'll likely get an offer, but if they have spaces left on results day and 20 potentials this is where your personal statement will pull you through. Hope this helps :smile:

Reply 6

Edtw

6

Oxbridge may look at them less intently (possibly indeed not at all - I think (can't quite remember) Christ Church Oxford admissions tutor told us on the open day that he knows someone who has said he doesn't read them), but by and large they will, and will probably use it as a spring board at the start of the interview, just to get discussion going or settle you down with something you're familiar with (or should be, since you wrote it). Good luck all. :smile:

Reply 7

nexttime

22

Some Oxbridge tutors make a point of not reading them. To paraphrase my former tutor, they're an exercise in creative writing written by a combination of teachers, parents and google and rarely relevant to the priorities of the course anyway.

But this is from two unis who conduct multiple rigorous interviews for every single candidate being considered. When you don't have that luxury you have to go by something. You'd be stupid to not put every effort into your personal statement.

Reply 8

returnmigrant

21

The simple truth is that for courses that are competitive, Unis get more applications than they have available offers, and therefore they have to have some way of ranking applicants. So they read and score personal statements. For other courses, the ones that are difficult to fill, they will not bother - if you have the grades, they will make you an offer.

The important point is that you wont know which of these is the situation with the courses you have applied for. And it will be different for each of the Unis you have applied to. So, you have to write the best possible personal statement you can, because you can't know if it will be read, or not.

Reply 9

RachaelBee

20

I'm 100% certain that my personal statement made the difference between me getting offers and not. That was the thing that contained all the details about my industrial experience, and my coursemates with similar grades applying for the same course were rejected.

Reply 10

username2718212

16

Personal Statements, read or not, are an important exercise that, if written well, can oush you to getting an offer. There were cases in my year group between people that had applied for the same course with similar grades. A few got rejected despite having the same grades and a few got accepted by their choice university. This shows that universities do look at personal statements. You don't just have to have the grades for the course, you have to show that you're passionate about the subject matter and that you know what you're talking about.

Reply 11

RedGiant

22

It will vary quite a lot with the uni you're talking about. For instance, Oxford and Cambridge will barely look at the personal statement really - which does vary slightly between courses. A personal statement for maths is not going to be paid much attention to, where as a personal statement for English or Law will probably be a little more important. That said, for unis where there are no interviews, they become more important. But honestly, just get the best AS and predicted grades you can - rather than try and get an offer by spending months of writing one that you think is "perfect". The admissions tutors have already seen just about anything you could put on there, so it really does not make a huge difference, in a lot of cases. They are also not idiots, they know that it is incredibly easy to get a school's Oxbridge-experienced English teacher to write a "very good" personal statement. Or more simply, just find and modify a copy off google.

Don't ever excuse imperfect grades for intending to write a really good PS - if the standard offer is AAB, try and get A*A*A*.

Reply 12

AMaster1

17

If they weren't going to read the personal statement, they wouldn't make you write one...

It's as much of a hassle for them as it is for us.

We do ~10 drafts (if you're me, then ~50)

They read 50-100 per hour...

Reply 13

Caren1989

3

They read absolutely. Mine was read a year after I studies and now they question that I initially planned to study finance and that I was taking some courses which they think are when I was studying finance degree. I only mentioned that my plan initially was to study finance and I changed my mind after I took some courses which were with work and privately. And not university is questioning my student finance award. I emailed back that it was not a degree as it was just private courses and at work. So it seems that they read your statement even when a year of studies is left.

Article: Do universities actually read your personal statement?

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