Should i send Durham an extra personal statement?

"However, there is no requirement for an applicant to submit a substitute personal statement to us, nor will providing a substitute personal statement give any automatic advantage to an applicant."

I have a medicine personal statement, and want to apply to do pharmacy at Durham. Should i send them a pharmacy personal statement (although they say they don't need one)?


Also, if i send a pharmacy personal statement similar to my original medicine one, will it get flagged for plagiarism?


Thanks

If they say they don't want a substitute PS, that is presumably what they mean

The similarity checking is done by UCAS. If you did write a new PS based to some extent on your original one, you would be sending it direct to the uni, not via UCAS. So, it's only the uni that would see the similarity, and as they would know that both are written by the same person I doubt if it would bother them.

Don't think i'll send them one then thank you

We understand that submitting one personal statement in the UCAS application can create problems for some applicants; such as those who want to apply to slightly different programmes or want to apply to universities that have different preferences for the academic and non-academic content of a personal statement. You can now submit a 'substitute personal statement' directly to us by uploading a Microsoft Word document which would replace the personal statement in your UCAS application to Durham. Our admissions selectors are required to use this substitute personal statement in place of the original statement submitted with your UCAS application. However, there is no requirement for an applicant to submit a substitute personal statement to us, nor will providing a substitute personal statement give any automatic advantage to an applicant.

If you read the whole text:



This is an opportunity to write 4000 words on your undying love for pharmacy and (what is now almost unique to Durham) how you will be a good egg playing the flute and wing three-quarters whilst running the Winnie the Poo Society. You would be a fool not to take the opportunity.

I'll have to think about it do they still want 4000 characteristics/47 lines- if so what font and size should it be (as this can affect the number of lines)? Is it the same for all universities asking for a second personal statement (eg UCL)?

I think should stick to the spirit of the length restrictions but not get too worked up about them.

I'll have to think about it do they still want 4000 characteristics/47 lines- if so what font and size should it be (as this can affect the number of lines)? Is it the same for all universities asking for a second personal statement (eg UCL)?

I think should stick to the spirit of the length restrictions but not get too worked up about them.

Agreed.

In that case, a uni should be clear about what it wants.

In this case - very interesting, didn't know Durham was doing this. I shouldn't worry overmuch about it, but since this would be replacing your original PS it would need to be roughly the same length and cover the same essential points. I would use Arial 11 as that is a standard font that everyone can manage, and use the character limit as your bench mark rather than the line count (as Word does this differently anyway from the UCAS system).