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Durham Postgrad Personal Statement

Hi all,

I'm applying for an MA in Archaeological Conservation at Durham for 2016 entry.

So far the application form is very straight forward; the only thing I'm struggling with is the personal statement. It's required to be a maximum of 32,700 characters.

Is it essentially an extended personal statement a la UCAS, just with a postgrad spin on it? ie: Why you want to do the course, why you're suited to it, why they should pick you etc.
Do I need to mention my interests outside of work/study?

Has anyone had to write a postgrad personal statement like this before and would be willing to share some knowledge?

Thanks,

Clare
You need to talk about why you want to do the course and what skills and experience you have that'll help, how it fits with your careers plans and why the uni. You need to be very specific about all of these things so definitely nothing like a UCAS statement which is one statement for several unis.
There is a lot of false and misguiding statements on various websites regarding 32700 characters.I will ask all concerned to refer to the following facts in the context of my own personal statement submitted for Durham:

1)32504 characters 2)352 lines 3)12 paragraphs 4)5062 words 5)9 pages 6)Line and paragraph spacing:1.15 7)Characters without spaces:27446

So do not exceed 5200 words and a total of 15 paragraphs,do not double-space your material.

My 9 page Personal statement of 5062 words and 32504 characters has been considered by Durham University and I have received an offer letter from the university for M.SC in Arab World Studies(2 Year Intensive Program)
(edited 7 years ago)
This is the advice I give to my students :

Answer these points :

1) Why this course/subject?
2) Why this Uni//Dept?
3) Why you should choose me.

The 3rd one is where you really sell yourself and make it clear that you are the most ideal person they could possibly find and they could only choose you.
Thanks for the replies! I submitted a statement of roughly 29,000 characters and was accepted onto the course.

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