Personal Statments for UCAS; My Experience!

Following on from a previous forum posted by our Staffordshire University account, I’m going to talk a bit about what I wrote for my Personal Statement! For me, when I wrote my personal statement it was the second time for me doing it. This meant that I had practice from before of what I wrote last time and whether I think it worked or not! I felt a lot more confident going into it and so I’m going to try and remember what I found worked and what didn’t!

I found it was important was keeping it succinct and cutting out the bits that didn’t matter as much. There were lots of accomplishments I was proud of, like being a Senior Prefect or working hard for my GCSES. But they didn’t really tell someone about who I truly was, just that like a lot of people in the country I was good at school! As well, I actually didn’t mention a whole lot about my A-Levels either. During college I studied Classical Civilization's, Sociology and Graphic Design. The first two subjects had absolutely nothing to do with a Concept Art course! Graphic Design was more relevant but even then, I was being compared to students who had studied Games related courses at college, so I had to stand out more!

As well, in my personal statement I didn’t stray away from any sort of ‘failure’ and choices I had made. I originally went to a different university, didn’t enjoy it, and left before working for a full year. I felt that it was important to talk about as doing something different before meant I realised what it was that I actually wanted to do! And made me think about the career I want in the future and how this course would help me achieve that. It also meant that I was coming to this course prepared for the workload, for the different type of learning and prepared for the stress of it all.

The one thing I also made sure to mention was exactly why I wanted to do the course. If I wanted to stand out it had to be more than a ‘I like video games’ or a ‘I want a well-paying job’. I felt it was important to talk about how I saw my future and what I wanted to get from this course I was coming to do! Which for me, was the different artistic skills and their applications and the fact that I wanted to work in an industry where I could create art but still use my brain and think in a solution-based way! If I’m honest, I wasn’t sure a lot about my exact future then, but I knew doing my course would help me figure it out more (Which it has!)

If you’re applying for a course like mine which is art based, you may not even have to focus on a Personal Statement in the same way. It was still important, but I also knew I would have in person interviews and be showing my portfolio off, so I needed to make sure that the two were aligned. Boasting about skills and accomplishments wouldn’t work if when it came to an interview, I produced nothing of the sort! So, being truthful and honest about my skills was important for both aspects. For example, I had never done any sort of 3D modelling before and was honest about that but also made sure to make it clear that I wanted to try, and I wanted to learn. Being honest about what you don’t know but want to learn is important as it shows why the course is truly important and that it will benefit you, rather than saying you know everything and that you wouldn’t learn anything from being there.

This is what worked for me but mine is very specific to my own history and my own course so what different courses are looking for could be different! I recommend reading the thread posted by the Staffs Uni account here https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7162881 if you haven’t already and following some of the advice there! Personal statements can be scary to write and feel like a lot of work but they’re really not so scary when you get into them! There’s a variety of methods people use to get theirs perfect and no doubt you will find yours! I hope this slight ramble about my own experience in writing one has been helpful, and I hope to post some more threads and advice here soon!

Reply 1

04MR17

Volunteer Section Leader

Brilliant post :grin:

And TSR has a free, confidential, Personal Statement Review Service which you can read about here:
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4237154

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