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Personal Statement is no longer Personal??

I've been giving my PS to teachers to help me and they have changed EVERYTHING - now I refuse to believe it was that bad. They keep changing it better their own personal subject even though I'm applying for English and English combined with Media, and it's getting annoying.

I've already missed my College issued deadline but I can't put it off any longer so my teachers can make my PS sound ridiculous and impersonal.

What should I do? :s-smilie:
Reply 1
They're the ones that should know what they're doing. Although I'm not sure why teachers from other subjects were butting in. Your PS should be about why you want to do that course at uni and why they should let you on it. If you go on too much about other subjects, they might think you're applying to something else and haven't got your heart set on English/English + media. At my sixth form you could get any teacher you wanted to check your personal statement. Most people picked the teacher of the subject most relevant to what they wanted to do. You could even get them to write all of your reference, otherwise all of your teachers wrote a little bit which was put together by your tutor.
Reply 2
Original post by nic-nac
They're the ones that should know what they're doing. Although I'm not sure why teachers from other subjects were butting in. Your PS should be about why you want to do that course at uni and why they should let you on it. If you go on too much about other subjects, they might think you're applying to something else and haven't got your heart set on English/English + media. At my sixth form you could get any teacher you wanted to check your personal statement. Most people picked the teacher of the subject most relevant to what they wanted to do. You could even get them to write all of your reference, otherwise all of your teachers wrote a little bit which was put together by your tutor.


It was my Media and English teachers who were reviewing it :redface: forgot to put that in. So I get why they are doing it but they keep changing the others bit? If that makes sense? I would much rather they stick to their section ^-^
Reply 3
Hardly surprising, all colleges do this.

There is no solution other than you to put your foot down. It's good to get a lot of opinions, but sometimes it clouds your direction and distorts what you were looking to achieve.

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Reply 4
Original post by imjustrach
It was my Media and English teachers who were reviewing it :redface: forgot to put that in. So I get why they are doing it but they keep changing the others bit? If that makes sense? I would much rather they stick to their section ^-^
Oh ok, that's not so bad then. You were making it sound as if you'd given it to your geography teacher or whatever and they edited in how you love geography so much etc etc ...
Reply 5
At my college we gave our PS to our personal tutor. She doesn't teach us anything so she isn't skewed towards one particular subject (if that makes sense) and could look at it objectively. Is that an option for you?

You're statement should have more about English in it as it seems (from your wording) English is the main subject you're applying for, with some English with Media courses? Give it to your English teacher and make sure your English section is as good as it can be. Then I would just integrate a bit of media throughout. But make sure, if English is the main subject, then the focus is on English because that's what your unis will be looking for - a passion for English.

Good luck!
Reply 6
They tried to do it to me aswell, but basically what he said was to take his suggestions on board (he's an English teacher too) and to edit it and see how it looks. But at the end of the day it was my statement, so if it didn't feel like 'me' then to just rework it so it reflects me. I had a problem with the word count in mine as I tended to write quite eloquently..

Because you're applying to English too (so am I!) they need to see how you write a bit aswell I guess.

I'm sending mine off tonight, hopefully!

Good luck!
Reply 7
Thank you everyone! After looking at it I've realised they just keep editing each others recommendations out which is a but stupid but whatever :P
Reply 8
It looks like you have given it to too many people. I did this and regretted it. Everyone (all teachers), will have different views and it can get messy. Stick to one or two teachers you can trust and go from there :smile:

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