This is a real personal statement written by a student for their university application. It might help you decide what to include in your own. There are lots more examples in our collection of sample personal statements.
As a child seeing the complex circuitry and components within a computer, and then seeing how all these came together to produce the images I could see on screen, has fascinated me. For as far back as I can remember I have longed for, and pursued a deeper understanding into the way computer systems work. I feel that to expand my skills and understanding of computer science to a professional level, I need to study the topic at degree level. My hope is that this will give me access to a prosperous career in computer science.
Computer Science is an area which within my lifetime has gone from being exclusive to the highest academics, to being deeply integrated into everyones lives, and despite the massive leaps we have made so far, I feel that we are just scratching the surface with what can be done. This progress is something that I yearn to be a part of.
This burning desire for an understanding and natural inquisition for the subject has certainly not left me, as I have picked up many skills in computing throughout my time including exemplary experience with CAD, Photoshop, and 3D rendering packages which show that I can learn to use new software quickly and easily, and can adapt easily for different workflows and interfaces. More relevant are my skills in web design, I am proficient with HTML and CSS standards, and have tinkered with PHP and Javascript. At one point I was asked if I could design a website for a charity oriented trip to Uganda for my school, and am currently on the schools web team, maintaining, updating, and even overhauling sections of the schools website.
Most importantly of all however is my programming experience. I can confidently write basic command line computer programs for multiple operating systems in Pascal, and Visual Basic . With Visual Basic in particular I have made some more complex programs which utilize GUI, such as a simple maze game, and a Guess The Number game with a persistent leader board using file I/O. As well as these I have also had brief experience with C-Sharp and C++ and am currently learning to program in Objective-C by studying the book “Programming In Objective-C 2.0” by Stephan Kochan. As well as the language and syntax this also covers advanced concepts like Object Oriented Programming. This is something that I very much enjoy, as I like taking the time to overcome the logical challenge, which stems from my enthusiasm for mathematics. In my spare time, I have also seen through a project to convert an old laptop, into a headless webserver running linux. I have a good understanding of hardware too, having changed graphics cards and RAM in computers in the past, and over-clocked components. All of the above skills and experience have been obtained in my own time, and under my own initiative. I feel this shows a high degree of interest, drive, and the ability to independently study. It also gives me a good all round knowledge from which to base my studies.
The A-Levels I have chosen to study have also helped me to pursue an interest in computer science, particularly maths, which is of course crucial to the subject as it gives a greater understanding of number logic, and, especially with the Decision Maths unit, will give me the skills I need to write complex algorithms. My Double-ICT also has helped, as it has included programming, hardware, and networking modules which relate directly to computer science.
My Skills are not limited to computer science however as I have a wide range of interests that I pursue in my spare time. My most prominent pursuit is drumming. I have been playing the drums for about 4 years now, and have performed live with bands a number of times. I have also completed my Level 3 Drumming Certificate. With me you get a well rounded, social individual who would integrate into the university environment well, both socially and academically and whom is well prepared and researched for the course I wish to study.
Reviewer comment:
Skills section is effective however can expand more here on the relevant work experience and why this was a beneficial experience for the applicant
Programming experience paragraph is excellent as it goes into detail on what the applicant has done and why it was interesting
Too much is included about A-levels
Lots of randomly capitalised words
Cliched first sentence
Tone is a bit informal
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