Personal Statement

Im soon going to apply to universities as Lancaster my first choice, I want to study accounting and finance. idk what to write or how to begin my personal statement, I have some work experience in accounting and other certificates. Any tips anyone?

Reply 1

Ghostlady

Original post by failingRN

Im not sure whether the format of personal statements its different to last years, but when my daughter applied last year, she started with the 'meaty part' of the personal statement.
She wrote down all the things she did to help support the application but also written the benefits she got out of it. By doing that its conveying the message that you really enjoyed what you did and also promotes your passion for the subject,
She did a MOOC which is a free course in animal behaviour on line. (eldest did chemistry). perhaps theres something in accounting or finance you can do. She did the course, she did not have to pay for the certificate at the end.
Once she got the list down and the benefits, she then structured her sentences around that and polished them up a bit so she was not repetative with the same words (thesaurus worked pretty well at times).
The final paragraph was what she wanted to do after the degree and how she felt that university was a great way to get to where she needed to be.
The first paragraph is usually the hardest. No fancy quotes, nothing like since i was a baby i wanted to study finance. Perhaps something that you saw or read which helped maade up your decision as to why you want to study your subject.

Reply 2

Lancaster Student Ambassador

Official Rep

Hi!

I'm currently a third year Psychology student at Lancaster, so I can't give any specific advice with regards to accounting and finance, but I can give some advice which will hopefully be helpful for personal statements in general!
If the format hasn't changed since I started (which I believe it is going to change, but I'm not sure that it has yet), here's some advice that I found useful when writing my personal statement. The main thing that I tried to get across in my personal statement is why I was passionate about Psychology, and the things that I did that either amplified that passion or helped me to learn more about the subject. You mentioned that you've got work experience in accounting and that you have other certificates - that's amazing! Those are good things that you can write about. I would probably try to write about those experiences, and talk about them in terms of how they relate to your passion for accounting and finance, and how they've helped you to understand it. I believe that the UCAS website also has a helpful guide to writing personal statements, which should be able to provide you with more tips!

Best of luck!
~ Cathryn (Lancaster University Student Ambassador)