I'm currently in Year 12 studying psychology, philosophy and politics. I want to apply to study law at university, and I have some questions about what I can include on my personal statement.
Firstly, I do have work experience, but not in law. My work experience is in general surgery in a hospital (and will be doing optometry work experience in the Easter), but I know that I can tailor this experience to law in my personal statement as I've already done it on a scholarship application and my teachers approved. I've also attended a networking careers day at a top law firm, so this is something I'll be mentioning too.
Secondly, I understand the general structure that most successful personal statements follow, and I have planned out elements of it, but the ones I have questions around are academics and wider knowledge.
For academics, all my subjects can link to law very easily and I have a few ideas or case studies that I can use to demonstrate that. I'm just wondering, should I mention all my subjects or would this be too much? I know there's a 4000 character limit so I'd like to know if it's better to focus on one or two more in depth or just briefly mention every one of them. I'm also thinking of doing an EPQ on either counter-terrorism in the UK or the rehabilitation of s*x offenders, so would that be better to mention instead of one of my subjects, or should I just put in all of it?
In regards to wider knowledge, I know most people say you should read a book - especially if the degree your applying to has a lot of reading in it. I do have a book about the ethics of organ transplantations that I can read and link to philosophy and law, but I don't know if I want to have this much focus on healthcare law, since my work experience is already going to cover this. I do like listening to podcasts (no, not just true crime), so I wanted to know, is this would be something I could include instead? I think I might benefit from this more, since I want to practice in commercial law within either a real estate or competition law practice group and I'll be able to demonstrate my more niche interests through podcasts. I'm really into agriculture regulation (within competition law) and real estate development, so I can definitely find some podcasts that talk about these topics, but I'm not so sure about books. I'm trying to keep my knowledge up to date as well, so as a politics student, I enjoy watching debates in different Houses about these topics.
If there's anyone who has done a personal statement (law or non-law) and can answer some of my questions I'd be extremely grateful! As well as this, I would love to know what course you applied for and what universities gave you offers, as I'm mainly targeting Russell Group universities.