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How many of you have used the word "Fascinated" in your PS?

Reply 80

EvenStevens

17

Meh, as long as it gets you in, there's no problem with cheesy quotes! :-P

Reply 81

PaperMoon

I am fascinated...as to why almost every applicant must write the words "from a very young age..." somewhere in their application.
So you are basing your whole future on a non event which happened when you were 8, and the admission tutors are meant to be impressed by that.Hmmm.

Reply 82

Naranoc

13

Tom

Heh, if you could read the PS-helpers thread there's more than a few there. We've certainly seen some good ones :biggrin:

Just out of curiosity, roughly how many Personal Statements do you guys have to deal with during the whole period?

Reply 83

talie

I used fascination :frown:

Reply 84

Tom

15

Naranoc

Just out of curiosity, roughly how many Personal Statements do you guys have to deal with during the whole period?

I really don't know actually. Several hundred at least, maybe heading for 500?

Reply 85

limechateaux

I used fascination :frown:

And maybe passion. But I think my academic advisor told me to cut passion! haha.

Reply 86

Shockley

15

The problem is putting into words what you really feel and sometimes when your hopes are pinned on one course that you really want to do, the personal statement is the most difficult part because you are trying to convince a panel of strangers that you want it more than anything and in a way its like creative writing; you are trying make someone you have never met believe in you. It's difficult to do that without using the cliche words because we're only human beings and can't spill out our true feelings.

Reply 87

EvenStevens

17

Well, the English language is one of the richest in synonyms on the whole planet. So at least we've got options. :P

Reply 88

Tom1390

1

Tbf, if you want to justify a passion, saying that you've developed your interest from early on will be the first thing that pops into most peoples' heads - because that's the most easy to give evidence of a passion. It's just a shame the expression's overused.

Besides, saying a passion was spawned when young doesn't implicate you based your life around some toy you played with when 5. It's merely a side bit of psychoanalysis that would be a winner, if 99.9% of applicants didn't use the exact same tact. The thought's there, but the uniqueness isn't.

Reply 89

Rudrax

12

In my opinion it sounds lame, cheap and slightly desperate. As if you're trying so hard to convince the admissions tutors that you are by saying it when in fact the word is so clichéd it has little value.

Reply 90

Prudy

15

Rudrax

In my opinion it sounds lame, cheap and slightly desperate. As if you're trying so hard to convince the admissions tutors that you are by saying it when in fact the word is so clichéd it has little value.

Mmm. Potentially. If used in a standard form: "I have been fascinated by X since I was a foetus". Then yes. But if used appropriately it's fine. It's not the word that makes it sound desperate but the sentence, and indeed the application, as a whole.

Reply 91

limechateaux

EvenStevens

Well, the English language is one of the richest in synonyms on the whole planet. So at least we've got options. :P

Really? I thought my English teacher said it wasn't..

Reply 92

blahbloo

15

Crap, I used fascinated twice! But no passions or anything. :smile:

Used it well obviously as the interviewer saidi that I had a superb personal statement. :biggrin:

Reply 93

Excalibur

15

Rudrax

In my opinion it sounds lame, cheap and slightly desperate. As if you're trying so hard to convince the admissions tutors that you are by saying it when in fact the word is so clichéd it has little value.

I agree. The word's true meaning has got so watered down with over-use that it's just cringeworthy to use it now. In some cases it's used well, but the majority of the time people write like "My passion and fascination for the subject makes me suited to the course". Tells you nothing. I deliberately avoided using "fascinating" (and its variations) and "passion" because of that.

Reply 94

MGT_90

10

PaperMoon

I am fascinated...as to why almost every applicant must write the words "from a very young age..." somewhere in their application.
So you are basing your whole future on a non event which happened when you were 8, and the admission tutors are meant to be impressed by that.Hmmm.

I suggested that I'd seriously had interest in my subject for two years or so at a stretch, and so far my choices don't seem to think it was a problem, so evidently it's not a necessary phrase.

Dodging "passion" or "fascination" is harder. Some of the synonyms are even worse. I dread to think who used "infatuated" from looking a synonym for "fascinated" in the thesaurus without knowing what it meant. "Enamored" is not much better, and "seduced" is entirely inappropriate in context.

I'd rather use "fascination" or "passion" than use the many abysmal synonyms.

Reply 95

Rokit

16

I have found one incident of "fascinating" in my ps

I never use words like "passion" unless I actually 100% mean it

Reply 96

Nally

10

Naranoc

Haha, I'd love to read a list of all the various crap quotations people include in their PSs. "Man is by nature a political animal"... xD

I once was working through a pile of UCAS forms of people applying for the same course and four in a row used the exact same quote!

Reply 97

inkblot

Nally

I once was working through a pile of UCAS forms of people applying for the same course and four in a row used the exact same quote!

See that's exactly what I mean. Imagine being an admissions tutor seeing the same sentence every single day in at least 2 applications. It would be worse if it was one of the ones that start the personal statement. You might be impressed by it the first couple of times but after seeing it a dozen times or more it would have no impact anymore and it's essentially a wasted sentence that the they will just ignore.

Reply 98

arpeggio

12

Tom

Heh, if you could read the PS-helpers thread there's more than a few there. We've certainly seen some good ones :biggrin:

I can't wait to be a PS helper... Mainly because I'm nosey and want to know what goes on in that secret bit of TSR I'm not allowed to go into :redface: