Personal Statement Help Question Thread 2014-15

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Reply 60

Interrobang

Original post by atkbm

Thanks, lol but Is It ok to do that?

Yeah - even if you had things to write in it, it should only be a couple of sentences

Reply 61

ladymarshmallow

Just something I've been wondering, but how many books would it be suitable to comment on in the PS? For instance, I'm applying for History and Russian, so am thinking about including 2 Russian books, and 2 history-related ones :s-smilie:

I'm just a bit worried that I won't have time to finish them in time for me to have my personal statement done, redrafted, and refined.

Reply 62

Jkizer

Original post by ladymarshmallow

I'm just a bit worried that I won't have time to finish them in time for me to have my personal statement done, redrafted, and refined.

I personally mentioned 2 books. Reason being because I think too many students simply say stuff like ' I also read xxxx which has shown me the historical context around yyyy'
Then they do it again for another book and it just doesn't really add anything. I mean all your doing is saying I read this book which is about this - anyone can do that and who cares what's it about - that's what the blurb is for.

It's best to take a couple or 3 and BRIEFLY outline them before finding weaknesses in them as it demonstrates critical thinking skills which admissions want to see from a candidate

I only did 2 because my intro is slightly lengthy as is my 2nd paragraph but I'm sure you can fit 3 in at a push.
A few Quality criticisms is far better than just an outline of the book saying how it taught you yyy.

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Reply 63

Digo

Just wandering if I'm applying to both aerospace engineering courses and general engineering courses would a PS pretty much solely concerning aeronautical be enough for a general engineering course or do I have to include other various bits of engineering too ?

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Reply 64

abbymonty

Are spaces included in the character count?

Reply 65

Ecosse_14

Original post by abbymonty

Are spaces included in the character count?

Yep, they are.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 66

liomeeringca

I don't know how to talk about myself in my personal statement - 'myself' meaning extra curricular activities, my work experience and extra reading/research. Everything I write sounds contrived and awkward, like I'm a four year old boasting about how teacher said they did well in recorder class today. :colondollar:

Any general tips?

Reply 67

Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by Szmessh

Hi guys,

I am writing my PS and some of my concerns arised.

- I have written my PS into 7 paragraphs (like 3950 characters, as a wall of text). When I enter this into UCAS (with blank lines, as you guys advised here on the board before), it's way too over the maximum lines. So I tried cutting down each paragraph, but in that case, it's like only 3500 characters, which is quite low (not to mention that still important parts were left out).

Now, I made it into 4 paragraphs (I merged the last two, and the middle two) cut down a few things, and made blank lines again. Now its around 3850 characters. Nothing important is left out, but my problems are: not close to 4000 characters, and the merged paragraphs are not really in a connection.

I have read on TSR many times before that not using nearly all of the characters up, it could give the admission tutor a feeling that you are not that qualified for the course.

What should I do?

- Around 70% (30% is beginning, and ending) of my PS is concentrating on my extracullicar activities. It's an Economics PS and I got a good load of experience to demonstrate my interest, so my PS is basically detailing these: a book, three finals of different economics themed competitions, insight days at two financial instutitons, and work experience (one for a prominent financial site, one for a big bank in our country).

And that's about it.

Reading the TSR PS library anyone who got offers from the top 6 universities all talked a lot about the subject - I mean I also talk about the subject, but it's linked to my experience (competitions, work experience, insight programmes) and that's why I got less space to talk directly about Economics.

Is this OK, or should I change my PS up?

4,000 characters is a limit not a target.

As long as you've written over 3,500 then you're in the right area for a PS being long enough.

It's better to have line breaks between paragraphs and have fewer characters - the improved layout and readability of your PS will increase the impact of what you're saying far more than cramming in a few extra words would.

On your content - you shouldn't just be listing off things you've *done* related to econ. You should be talking about the topics and subjects within economics that interest you and how they were addressed at the events you went to...given the number of EC activities you're listing above I'd be wary that you'd discussed what you got out of each in enough detail.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 68

Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by liomeeringca

Any general tips?

Try to avoid feeling self conscious and just bullet point list things initially...gradually work it up into prose and paragraphs rather than focusing in and getting distracted by your initial wording at the start.

Reply 69

Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by Digo

It shouldn't be difficult to make an aero PS include some mention of the cross overs and intersections with other areas of engineering - you shouldn't ignore gen eng completely but you can include it subtley rather than just wanging in an entire paragraph on "other engineering".

Reply 70

Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by ladymarshmallow

I'm just a bit worried that I won't have time to finish them in time for me to have my personal statement done, redrafted, and refined.

If you haven't finished reading them yet then don't put them in.

It's better to have a single book well discussed and related back to your personal interests and topics that you enjoy rather than 2 half baked references.

Reply 71

Ibrahim-TeamGR

Hi, My name is Ibrahim. I need help. I'm undecided about doing English Language and Literature Combined at degree level. Also I am wanting to reach the goal of being an English Teacher (secondary level - high school) so was wondering of someone could tell me if they think the course I am looking at is suitable.
I just completed my AS year and my results are below:
Sociology - B
English lang&Lit Combined - C
ICT - E
Psychology - E
UCAS points = 130
I need 280-320 UCAS points overallnext year(A2 - Year 13) to gain access into this English Language and Literature course at the universities I want to apply to.
I want to know from people if I am punching above my weight in wanting to do English at university or do you think I can go for English. This has really really been stressing me out and I'm undecided. Am I being a bit too optimistic considering my grades or do you think it's a realistic option for University. I was wondering can someone give me an insight into what the course entails or any advice would be good at this stage because truthfully I'm lost and totally undecided. Any thing you want clarifying or if anything doesn't make sense then please tell me and I will try to clarify but I'm really reslly struggling and haven't come out with it till now. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Many Many Thanks for your time in reading my message and for responding, Ibrahim

Reply 72

Interrobang

Original post by w_icked

Hi : ) Are tutors more interested in hearing about your passion for the subject or are they more interested in hearing about how you (gained) the necessary skills for studying the subject?

Interest in the subject is more important, unless applying for a vocational course like medicine

Reply 73

GeorgieM

Anyone have any ideas of how I can incorporate these kind of things into my personal statement? I'm clueless :frown:

-Brownies
-DofE
-Senior member of Charity Committee
-Sixth form prefect
Oh, I'm wanting to study English :biggrin:

Reply 74

smile:D

Original post by GeorgieM

Anyone have any ideas of how I can incorporate these kind of things into my personal statement? I'm clueless :frown:

-Brownies
-DofE
-Senior member of Charity Committee
-Sixth form prefect
Oh, I'm wanting to study English :biggrin:

To be honest, if you're struggling to see how you can include them- don't , most unis will care much more about the academic side of things, rather than brownies, DofE etc. although you could possibly mention something briefly at the end :smile:

Reply 75

GeorgieM

Original post by smile:D

thankyou for replying :smile:

wups, mine was meant to say volunteering at brownies not just brownies! haha

Reply 76

smile:D

Original post by GeorgieM

thankyou for replying :smile:

wups, mine was meant to say volunteering at brownies not just brownies! haha

Haha, I'd guessed that :wink:

Reply 77

Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by w_icked

Hi : ) Are tutors more interested in hearing about your passion for the subject or are they more interested in hearing about how you (gained) the necessary skills for studying the subject?

Admissions tutors are academics in the subject your'e applying for.

That means that they've studied the subject at A level (if available), undergraduate degree (BA/BSc/etc), probably done a 1 year masters (MSc/MA) in the subject and then spent 3-4 years doing a PhD.

After which they've decided to devote their entire life to researching and teaching that subject.

Almost NO admissions tutor wants to read about "how you gained" skills. They want to know WHY you love *their* subject and WHAT you love about it and they want you to tell them about times that you've DEMONSTRATED the necessary skills for studying the subject (ie don't say "I gained communication skills from doing xxxx" say "This included putting together and presenting a report on my findings to an audience of yyyy").

In summary:

SUBJECT SUBJECT SUBJECT

and if you want to talk about skills then SHOW don't TELL.

Reply 78

Interrobang

Original post by GeorgieM

Anyone have any ideas of how I can incorporate these kind of things into my personal statement? I'm clueless :frown:

-Brownies
-DofE
-Senior member of Charity Committee
-Sixth form prefect
Oh, I'm wanting to study English :biggrin:

They could go towards the end of your PS in your extra curricular activities section, altho don't feel like you have to include all of them. And don't try and link them to your course choice either - you're allowed to do other things just cos you want to/enjoy it

Reply 79

dada55

I'm having a very hard time writing a personal statement that flows well and shows interest in the subject. My problem is that I only recently finalised my degree choice (Engineering) and I haven't done that much that I can talk about. I have a very hard time writing about myself let alone showing enthusiasm and having read other personal statements online as well as the commented ones in TSR, I tend to find faults in every single paragraph that I try to do. Mainly that it doesn't flow at all while some of it feels like "so what" type of sentences. Yesterday I spend a few hours and didn't even manage to get 1 good sentence out, I'm starting to consider a gap year because of this lol.
The simple reason I want to do engineering is because I enjoy both maths and physics and like the way they are applied in engineering and the fact that there are many different and exciting careers possible.

I'm currently reading Structures or why things don't fall down, and although I do actually enjoy it and not reading it just for the sake of the PS, I can't think of anyway to include it in my PS that would actually be beneficial.
I have also been to CERN and involved in racing but again, all my attempts to include it and relate it to engineering have somewhat failed. I just can't get the right balance of informative and enthusiastic language in.

Having achieved decent AS grades, I guess some of the pressure I have is to produce a decently matching personal statement especially since I'm planning to apply to Cambridge. In any case, I feel like my PS will be my weakest part of the application. :frown:

Now I remember why I didn't pick any essay subjects...