Quote as a Personal Statement beginning... Corny or Catchy?? :S

We can only assume how admission tutors (AT) think.

One scenario is,

1) AT sees a quote at the beginning of PS
2) AT thinks - 'oh, yet another quote, yet another unimaginative applicant'
3) AT skims through the rest of PS without paying any attention to it
4) AT rejects an applicant without having a look at applicant's predicted grades, the rest of UCAS and/or reference. Reason for rejection - 'PS'. Time taken: < 1 minute.

Apart from the fact that most of them have only forced relevance, as illustrated by the OP's inability to think of one, the use of quotations has a number of disadvantages and few, if any, advantages. They have a strong tendency to be irrelevant, corny, cliches. They represent what someone famous said about something unrelated to the candidate's application; the matter would be very different if a famous and relevant person had said something positive about the applicant's interest, ability and potential in the subject being applied for - but this is never the case. On the plus side, they demonstrate that the candidate either has access to a dictionary of quotations or can use an on-line search engine. That isn't very much is it? And we had a poster here a week or two back who managed to misquote his quotation. Not impressive.

Perhaps the worst thing about using a quotation is that it wastes space. You have to quote the words, and then go on to explain their (usually rather tenuous) relevance. When you consider that most applicants have difficulty in squeezing their statements into the space, this is negligent use of the space that is available and demonstrates poor judgement.

My firm advice is to steer clear.

Apart from the fact that most of them have only forced relevance, as illustrated by the OP's inability to think of one, the use of quotations has a number of disadvantages and few, if any, advantages. They have a strong tendency to be irrelevant, corny, cliches. They represent what someone famous said about something unrelated to the candidate's application; the matter would be very different if a famous and relevant person had said something positive about the applicant's interest, ability and potential in the subject being applied for - but this is never the case. On the plus side, they demonstrate that the candidate either has access to a dictionary of quotations or can use an on-line search engine. That isn't very much is it? And we had a poster here a week or two back who managed to misquote his quotation. Not impressive.

Perhaps the worst thing about using a quotation is that it wastes space. You have to quote the words, and then go on to explain their (usually rather tenuous) relevance. When you consider that most applicants have difficulty in squeezing their statements into the space, this is negligent use of the space that is available and demonstrates poor judgement.

My firm advice is to steer clear.

Terrible idea.

disagree. i did and got offers from lse,wariwck, ucl, and birmingham.

I cant find a decent quote and have completely scrapped the idea tbh dudes
I'm applying for audiology and just want something a bit different for my beginning.
I'm getting there ;D

What if an admission tutor will be put off by a quote at the beginning of PS and will have a negative attitude towards the PS throughout the process of reading (assuming that process will actually take place)?

You can't ascribe your offers to your wonderful quotation, though, can you? For all you know you might just have squeaked offers, despite dropping that particular clanger.

whats your problem with quotes then?

You obviously haven't read this thread very well if you don't know the answer to that. I detailed my views very clearly, and they were quoted by other posters at least twice.

You obviously haven't read this thread very well if you don't know the answer to that. I detailed my views very clearly, and they were quoted by other posters at least twice.