Personals statement crisis

Deep breath and calm.

Have you narrowed down to the kind of thing you want to study? Have you looked at unis? Open days etc. Do you have a short list? unfortunately only you can decide what you want.

Have you started a PS at all? If you haven't getting one done in a day is going to be difficult. You could also consider postponing applying for now. Some unis allow applications after the 15th january and its worth bearing in mind you could get what you want through clearing. You could concentrate on you alevels between now and june. Then decide what you want after summer xmas.

If your failing your A levels why are you even looking to university... It's significantly tougher...

Maybe reassess your options and look into something more practical.

Your also kind of limited with those A levels... So STEM and economics are out, no maths...

You can look into business, or geography with business... Or possibly humanities.

Either way, you need to ask yourself.... Do I want to be an office worker later. Or would I rather do something like plumbing or more practically.

What type of person are you really.... That is what you need to figure out ASAP.

Remember, these decisions will influence the rest of your life.

I re-wrote my personal statement completely in the couple of hours before sending my application, and spent only a few hours on it in the first place. A whole day is more than enough time to put something reasonable together.

With regards to which course to choose, obviously this is a conclusion you have to reach yourself. There are a few pertinent things to consider, however:

1) It is not unusual, at many universities, for people to move between cognate subjects early on in their university career.
2) You may wish to consider joint honours courses in two subjects you are considering, that way it would usually be fairly easy to focus on one of them.
3) The above advice regarding clearing is good. Many people completely swap their course in clearing.
4) Should you choose a course and find out you hate it you would be able to make an application through UCAS to gain a place on a different course. Obviously there are funding implications, but typically you get one spare year of funding so that isn't usually an issue.
5) You could do an 'Open' degree at the Open University. This would negate the impact of you failing your current course, but you would need to find a way to meet your living costs.


If you are commited to making a decision today then just choose the course you are most likely to want to study and then you can deal with changing your mind if and when it happens. Obviously, given you are failing, make sure the choices you make are realistic. You may well end up with more generous grades this year but that isn't going to magically turn Ds into Bs.

I still don’t know what I want to study at university so I still haven’t even started my personal statement. My schools deadline was yesterday but I want to hand it in by today. I don’t know what to do. I’ve researched so many courses but I just genuinely do not know what to study. I’m so stressed. Also I’m failing all 3 of my a levels subjects so it wouldn’t make much sense for me to apply for a course in a subject area I’m failing in, like I just can’t get myself to do it. I take English literature, sociology and Geography.

I do not want to take a gap year. I want to go straight to University after my a levels but i still don’t know what to study. I’m so conflicted, stressed and anxious.

I’ve tried to speaking to people but it’s no use so I thought I’d try here.

Any advice will be appreciated. Thank you.

I’m looking to university because I have no other choice. The reason why I failed my mocks in September is because simply I didn’t revise, but since then I’ve been trying to revise and get myself together. E.g in my sociology essays. I got an E in September, in November got a C and this week I received an A. I’m making improvements. If I keep up the hard work and continue revising, I shall be fine by June - when my exams are.

I could get into STEM - many unis offer foundation years.

I don’t know if I want to get into humanities as I’m not interested in many of the career prospects. If you hadn’t noticed yet, I have no idea what career path I want to do in the future.

I’ve tried asking myself several times what kinda of person I am but I just don’t know.

Out of my subjects, I find geography the most interesting and I’ve just started to enjoy it but I have been consistently getting U over the two years. Unlike my other two, where I got C’s in my year 12 mocks (in March). I know I shouldn’t apply for the course, but honestly out of everything I’ve researched I’ve found geography the most intriguing? Any advice to this?

Many graduate schemes don't require a particular degree. There are a few schemes (and particular jobs, like engineering for example) which will. The admissions tutors will see your predicted grades unless you have any actual grades (but they know that the August grades this year were kind of a mess), so that won't necessarily be a problem and you should focus on a subject that you enjoy.

Listen to me. Relax.

Take your time with your personal statement. No need to rush it before Jan 15th.

Contrary to what people think (and trust me I know from my life experience), A-Levels/Uni mean jack-all in the real-world nowadays. Make sure to work hard so that you can build your character, but it is character, not qualifications, that helps people to make their millions. I've seen it in my life, so don't worry. I wish you the best.

Hello lovely. Firstly relax. You have a entire four weeks to put it together. Focus on your skills and qualities. Work hard too. Demonstrate your ability to possess those skills and mindset etc as well. Use a few different real life examples as your supporting evidence. Type it up in black only. Best of luck to you.

Firstly, I would say that if you don't find anything worth studying at uni, then you don't have to go. You could go into a trade/straight into employment. People these days get pressured into entering a course they don't like, and then struggle to find employment afterwards. If you genuinely don't see the appeal and are struggling academically, then uni might not be right for you and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

I still don’t know what I want to study at university so I still haven’t even started my personal statement. My schools deadline was yesterday but I want to hand it in by today. I don’t know what to do. I’ve researched so many courses but I just genuinely do not know what to study. I’m so stressed. Also I’m failing all 3 of my a levels subjects so it wouldn’t make much sense for me to apply for a course in a subject area I’m failing in, like I just can’t get myself to do it. I take English literature, sociology and Geography.

I do not want to take a gap year. I want to go straight to University after my a levels but i still don’t know what to study. I’m so conflicted, stressed and anxious.

I’ve tried to speaking to people but it’s no use so I thought I’d try here.

Any advice will be appreciated. Thank you.