When to write your PS

There are lots of discussions on personal statements in this thread....(hence the subject of this forum!) which worries me....should we (ie ppl applying for uni for sept2005 entry) be thinking about writing our PS's now???
Have any year 12's started them already...? When did any year 13/current uni students do them????????????

Reply 1

loftx

7

Katie Heskins

There are lots of discussions on personal statements in this thread....(hence the subject of this forum!) which worries me....should we (ie ppl applying for uni for sept2005 entry) be thinking about writing our PS's now???
Have any year 12's started them already...? When did any year 13/current uni students do them????????????

Most people in my school started a week or two after we returned after the summer holidays. A month or so is plenty, even if you need to get it it before the Oxbridge deadline. You will obviously need to have o good idea about what courses and universities you want to apply for before though.

Reply 2

sparkler

11

yeh, we were told to do notes/a rough copy during summer holdays - which nobody actually did other than oxbridge/medical students

we were then given until half term to complete and send off our ucas forms. during this time all 100 students had to get their personal statements checked by teachers and references written etc.

everybody had it finished long before the half term - it really doesn't take that long to write it - you just gotta get round to the actual writing of it - which took me a while, lol!

:smile:

Reply 3

TheWolf

15

Katie Heskins

There are lots of discussions on personal statements in this thread....(hence the subject of this forum!) which worries me....should we (ie ppl applying for uni for sept2005 entry) be thinking about writing our PS's now???
Have any year 12's started them already...? When did any year 13/current uni students do them????????????

hey we havent started yet we are asked to start thinking about it. Btw wow you are doing tripple maths? Are you crazy? :biggrin:

Reply 4

Sunnyt

TheWolf

hey we havent started yet we are asked to start thinking about it. Btw wow you are doing tripple maths? Are you crazy? :biggrin:

hey bit of advice for all you guys, if you wana get into a good university apply early as poss I handed mine in on sept 1st 2003! I got all my offers by Jan, its worth cus as soon as you apply the admissions tutors look through them and send out offers even though they say they consider all of em by 15th of jan, thats bull i got all my offers by then

Reply 5

hornblower

6

I jotted down a few ideas during the summer holidays, partly due to boredom and partly because I thought I might forget some juicy bits. I was an Oxbridge applicant, so I was told to think about it during the hols. I was one of the first in my year to send off my form; I sent it off the week before the early deadline. Remember there's no harm in thinking about it early.

J.

Reply 6

k@tie

OP

10

TheWolf

hey we havent started yet we are asked to start thinking about it. Btw wow you are doing tripple maths? Are you crazy? :biggrin:

Nope not crazy :biggrin:

Just crap at everything else!!
People have advised me to start drafting it now, but I can imagine it would change competely by the time September comes around so I think I'll just do it in the summer!!

Reply 7

italianmark

Katie Heskins

Nope not crazy :biggrin:

Just crap at everything else!!
People have advised me to start drafting it now, but I can imagine it would change competely by the time September comes around so I think I'll just do it in the summer!!

heh wouldnt worry about ps til the summer.. this girl isnt crap at everything else by the way!

Reply 8

dizzzzzy

1

Katie Heskins

There are lots of discussions on personal statements in this thread....(hence the subject of this forum!) which worries me....should we (ie ppl applying for uni for sept2005 entry) be thinking about writing our PS's now???
Have any year 12's started them already...? When did any year 13/current uni students do them????????????

we did ours after the summer holidays. u dont need to worry about ucas stuff yet - it helps if you sort out your course information first cos that could cause more problems - it did for most ppl at my school

Reply 9

k@tie

OP

10

italianmark

heh wouldnt worry about ps til the summer.. this girl isnt crap at everything else by the way!

LoL! :P thank you. The reason I posted this thread was mainly coza Tom - kept going on about how important it is to start your PS early!

Reply 10

ogs

loftx

Most people in my school started a week or two after we returned after the summer holidays. A month or so is plenty, even if you need to get it it before the Oxbridge deadline. You will obviously need to have o good idea about what courses and universities you want to apply for before though.

us too!

Reply 11

Mioniel

Sunnyt

hey bit of advice for all you guys, if you wana get into a good university apply early as poss I handed mine in on sept 1st 2003! I got all my offers by Jan, its worth cus as soon as you apply the admissions tutors look through them and send out offers even though they say they consider all of em by 15th of jan, thats bull i got all my offers by then

That's not necessarily true. I applied in October and only got one reply before 15th of January. The other universities wrote back and told me I wouldn't hear until then, because they liked to have all the applications in before starting to make offers.

Reply 12

Rikku

I wrote my personal statement in two hours...sent it two days before the deadline.. <b>DON'T EVER DO THAT</b>!!! I was lucky I am an international student, so they had pity upon me, I guess, and I got 4/5 offers (Damn you IR@LSE).. :biggrin:

Reply 13

Nellz

2

loftx

Most people in my school started a week or two after we returned after the summer holidays. A month or so is plenty, even if you need to get it it before the Oxbridge deadline. You will obviously need to have o good idea about what courses and universities you want to apply for before though.

You say that but my school get you to start it after ASs and have the first draft completed before the summer hols start. If you are applying to oxbridge yo need to have at the least the second draft done by that time. Its really extreme.

Reply 14

Dr. Blazed

16

Most people seem to need about a month to complete it well, but I'm already thinking about mine.

Reply 15

blissy

15

Woggle

You say that but my school get you to start it after ASs and have the first draft completed before the summer hols start. If you are applying to oxbridge yo need to have at the least the second draft done by that time. Its really extreme.

I didn't write my personal statement until the last week of September. Really, it doesn't need 4 months consideration :rolleyes:

Reply 16

HammaL

11

Start it ASAP...ideally during ur summer breaks. U'll need to edit it many times so the earlier u start the more time u have to show it to different people and edit it.
My advice would be to pick the unis u wanna go to and read their course modules in detail. See what they gonna be teaching and write a little about them...maybe read a book or two about it and mention it in ur PS. BUT don't make it so obvious...
BTW, Katie Heskins: What course and where are u thinking of applying next yr?

Reply 17

dogtanian

16

I'm in year 12 and we have to have our first draft in on Tuesday, so the week before study leave. I'm not even applying for Oxbridge or Medicine, our school just likes to push us I guess.

Though I resent it now, I am glad at the same time. The earlier it gets started, the more chane it has to be edited, therefore I'll be a lot happier and more confident with it.

Reply 18

loftx

7

I didn't realise some people started so early, I think by this time when last year I still wasn't totally sure what course i even wanted to do at uni. It would be a shame to spend ages on your ps before the summer and then decide after that you want to do a different course.

Reply 19

BazTheMoney

Applications for Medicine needs to be sent of at the same time as Oxbridge don’t they. I'm sure one of the Medics will confirm.

Try and get the Personal Statement out the way early, you really don't want to be hanging around until the start of October before you start. Try and do at least 3 drafts as well, you would be surprised how much the final version will change when compared with the original. But remember, the PS is only one part of a massive application process, few people are accepted or rejected solely on it, makes sure everything else is up to scratch as well.

Time span wise, you really want to get the first draft in by at least the first week after the summer holidays at the latest.

When to write your PS

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