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Personal statement - Twitter

I'm currently writing my personal statement and am just mentioning my wider reading. I am applying for Economics and was wondering: should I mention that I follow a lot of notable economists and quality economic organisations?

It sounds trivial, but it's actually been a good resource for wider reading. So i was thinking it would be relevant?
The thing with wider reading, is that it's not just about name dropping (and accademic publications are prefered anyway). You have to reflect on what you've read, and why it interested you/furthered your desire to study economics. I don't think you could effectively do this with a tweet. You also don't want to alienate the admissions tutors, which you might do if they were very traditional. As economics is a competitive subject, it would be best to just stick to more traditional media.
There are much better ways to do this. Try finding some academic journals (use google scholar) or find some classic texts (not something on the A Level curriculum), read those and then reflect on them.

Any idiot can follow people on twitter, but only good applicants do wider reading and reflect on it.

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Reply 3
Original post by Origami Bullets
There are much better ways to do this. Try finding some academic journals (use google scholar) or find some classic texts (not something on the A Level curriculum), read those and then reflect on them.

Any idiot can follow people on twitter, but only good applicants do wider reading and reflect on it.

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Yes I do that already. But I also read a large number of blogs/posts by notable economists thanks to Twitter, which is why I thought about mentioning it on my PS...
Reply 4
I know how you feel, I follow the bloggings of some chemists in industry/academia to keep up to date with what's up in the world of chemistry but I ultimately decided not to mention this in my personal statement. As someone mentioned above, you might get a fairly traditional admissions tutor who may not appreciate the value of online media beyond the superficial level. Even mentioning that I listen to subject-related podcasts was a fine line for me, tbh.
Original post by Scratchyjam
Yes I do that already. But I also read a large number of blogs/posts by notable economists thanks to Twitter, which is why I thought about mentioning it on my PS...


To be honest, I think there's more value (in terms of a PS) in focusing on traditional academic sources. You've only got 4000 characters, and you won't be spending much (if any) time at uni looking at Twitter for your course.
Reply 6
Original post by Origami Bullets
To be honest, I think there's more value (in terms of a PS) in focusing on traditional academic sources. You've only got 4000 characters, and you won't be spending much (if any) time at uni looking at Twitter for your course.


Yeah I guess you're right, thanks for the advice. I did ask my head of 6th form who's been in the game for a long time and really knows her stuff and she said that it may perhaps be seen as a valid resource. But like you said, I might as well just mention other 'proper' sources. What is this google scholar you mentioned earlier?
(edited 10 years ago)
Original post by knope
I know how you feel, I follow the bloggings of some chemists in industry/academia to keep up to date with what's up in the world of chemistry but I ultimately decided not to mention this in my personal statement. As someone mentioned above, you might get a fairly traditional admissions tutor who may not appreciate the value of online media beyond the superficial level. Even mentioning that I listen to subject-related podcasts was a fine line for me, tbh.


I think there is actually a massive difference between a blog post and a tweet. Although a blog post is not peer reviewed or traditional media, it is long enough and detailed enough that you could reflect back on it in your PS. A tweet is only 140 characters, and I just don't think there's enough depth in a tweet to count as wider reading.

Whilst there might be issues with mentioning a blog post, I think it could work if you also had a bit of reading from traditional sources that you focused on more. I just don't think there's anything you can do with twitter, apart from name dropping, which isn't worthwhile anyway.
Reply 8
Original post by SlowlorisIncognito
...


Ahhh I think we've had a misunderstanding. The reason why i've asked mentioning Twitter is because I use it as a portal, so to speak. Meaning I read notable economist's blogposts as a result of following them on Twitter, if you understand what i'm saying...?
Original post by Scratchyjam
Yeah I guess you're right, thanks for the advice. I did ask my head of 6th form who's been in the game for a long time and really knows her stuff and she said that it may perhaps be seen as a valid resource. But like you said, I might as well just mention other 'proper' sources. What is this google scholar you mentioned earlier?


http://scholar.google.co.uk/

It's a special version of google that only searches academic journals. It's got me through my degree so far :wink:

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Reply 10
Original post by Origami Bullets
http://scholar.google.co.uk/

It's a special version of google that only searches academic journals. It's got me through my degree so far :wink:

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Cracking, this'll help me loads. Thanks a lot!
Reply 11
Original post by SlowlorisIncognito
I think there is actually a massive difference between a blog post and a tweet. Although a blog post is not peer reviewed or traditional media, it is long enough and detailed enough that you could reflect back on it in your PS. A tweet is only 140 characters, and I just don't think there's enough depth in a tweet to count as wider reading.

Whilst there might be issues with mentioning a blog post, I think it could work if you also had a bit of reading from traditional sources that you focused on more. I just don't think there's anything you can do with twitter, apart from name dropping, which isn't worthwhile anyway.


Mm, I agree with you. I just chose not to mention it in my PS because I thought I should prioritise traditional media. There's more room for misinterpretation when you mention new media because they might assume you're only into it when it's dressed up in shiny packaging, I suppose, or that you can't hack reading relatively 'dry' books on it. An English Lit applicant would probably be burnt alive for mentioning that they liked the Lizzie Bennet Diaries. :tongue:
Use the tweets and blog posts as a starting point for more research into more academic documents and ideas you could discuss in your PS rather than using twitter as the wider reading.
I wouldn't name drop Twitter, could be a bombshell and hit a nerve with some people. I think you should just mention a bit about online activities etc.
Reply 14
Original post by Scratchyjam
I'm currently writing my personal statement and am just mentioning my wider reading. I am applying for Economics and was wondering: should I mention that I follow a lot of notable economists and quality economic organisations?

It sounds trivial, but it's actually been a good resource for wider reading. So i was thinking it would be relevant?


You could do this without using the word twitter, when you bring twitter into it does make it sound less proffesional, anyone can follow some economist on twitter and favourite or retweet what they say. However if you were to communicate with the economist, challenge if you disagree or ask them questions.
Or research them to look at any articles.
Then you can say in your PS, try to do it in a way that you stand out, after all as stated anyone can follow someone on twitter, its doing that bit more, challenging what they say that makes the difference between an average candidate and a candidate that jumps off the page.
Original post by Scratchyjam
Ahhh I think we've had a misunderstanding. The reason why i've asked mentioning Twitter is because I use it as a portal, so to speak. Meaning I read notable economist's blogposts as a result of following them on Twitter, if you understand what i'm saying...?


You really didn't make that clear in your opening post at all. If you do decide to include this in a PS (and I would still prioritise at least 2 examples of traditional media) then you need to be really clear about exactly what you've read. If you want to talk about a specific blog post, then mentioning you found it via twitter would really be a waste of characters.

I think what you're doing is a good thing to do, and I can see why you've found it interesting. However, a personal statement of 4000 characters may well be too short to mention everything you want to in it, and with wider reading, your priorities should be peer reviewed/respectable sources.

Remember, the focus of your PS should be your opinions and why you want to study economics, not things you've done to find other people's opinions.

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