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What do you put in a personal statement introduction

I am really struggling with my introduction, I have attempted to write mine with my
'personal trigger' for why I want to study the subject, how my subject relates to current affairs or society and what aspects am I looking forward to looking at in more detail and why, but this has taken me 1500 characters :s-smilie: .

What should I cut out? Or does anyone have a shorter list of what to include?

Thanks

ps. I have looked at the personal statement megathread and it has not helped
Hi,

Firstly, this is a really important part of the personal statement, so it's good you've got a lot to work with.

Is your personal trigger important? Does it sound cliched at all? How much have you spent on this- if it's more than 1-2 sentences, cut it back to that length.

WRT current affairs/society, what is the subject? I think this might be better going into another section, especially if it's a science subject, or something like English Lit, which doesn't have a direct link to current affairs. It might be better to put this in a seperate paragraph, and talk about specific articles you've read about current affairs involving your subject and what your opinion is. Make sure you are specific here.

The last bit is good, but see if you can rephrase this more concisely. Cut out any sentences which state the obvious- e.g. if you were applying for Psychology, saying something like "I am looking forward to studying clinical psychology because I have an interest in mental illness" is pointless as you are just explaining what clinical psychology is.

Have you written the rest of your personal statement, and how many characters are you over by overall? It may be you could cut down other sections if you want to keep everything in your introduction.
Reply 2
Original post by Worms


ps. I have looked at the personal statement megathread and it has not helped


Have you looked at the PS library for examples

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