The Student Room Group

BOLD Personal Statement?

Do you think its a good idea to go for a perhaps risky approach when writing a personal statement? As in 'I will not lie; i have not known since birth that *subject name* would be the subject that i wanted to study at university.'

Im sure they must read the same old **** over and over (everyone goes a little over the top from what i have seen) so do you think that it would be wise to go for something a little risky to show character and stand out?

Obviously it wouldnt be like this all the way through, there would have to be bits about why you like the subject and so on but instead of writing the usual stuff exaggerations (e.g from an extremely young age ,,,, blah blah blah) but is it wise to go for the honest, realistic approch?

What do you think?

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1
What if the universities hate it ?

You may be looking at an enforced gap year if it all goes wrong.
Reply 2
They want to see your personality, so be bold but not TOO bold. Keep it truthful: "i have known since birth..." probably isn't the truth, right? :P
Reply 3
If you write 'I've known I want to study x since birth' you deserve to be rejected.
Reply 4
You can avoid the clichéd bull**** without going too over the top the other way - just try and demonstrate how you think
You have to be truthful, but writing what is essentially 'I have not known since birth that I wanted to study this subject' is just stating the bleeding obvious.

Be honest, and express yourself. But, for God's sake, don't sound like a ******
Reply 6
ok, so maby people dont actually write 'i have wanted to study x from birth' but you get the idea. eg 'since i was 7' or something rediculous. At the end of the day, when you are really young you're not really thinking about which degree course you want to do and admissions people must know that too. So that makes me think that a more frank approach could be good?
Reply 7
Depends how frank lol.
Reply 8
<(-_-)>
Do you think its a good idea to go for a perhaps risky approach when writing a personal statement? As in 'I will not lie; i have not known since birth that *subject name* would be the subject that i wanted to study at university.'

Im sure they must read the same old **** over and over (everyone goes a little over the top from what i have seen) so do you think that it would be wise to go for something a little risky to show character and stand out?

Obviously it wouldnt be like this all the way through, there would have to be bits about why you like the subject and so on but instead of writing the usual stuff exaggerations (e.g from an extremely young age ,,,, blah blah blah) but is it wise to go for the honest, realistic approch?

What do you think?


I did it when I applied, I put I didn't have a burning desire to do Business Studies until I picked them as a subject for A-Level and since then it's been my favourite subject. And I got in.
Reply 9
alenax
I did it when I applied, I put I didn't have a burning desire to do Business Studies until I picked them as a subject for A-Level and since then it's been my favourite subject. And I got in.


Thats what im getting at ^
Reply 10
I did use "I am not going to lie:" in my statement and got four offers. It had to do with my reasons for choosing the course (practical vs. "passion", good reasons vs. "i luv french boiz!1") though instead of childhood dreams.
Reply 11
I'm not going to lie to you, I think that's amazing, don't get me wrong here but I thought you would get pied off straight talking like that.

It reminds me of Nessa from Gavin&Stacy.
Reply 12
To quote another cliché: "Be bold, be bold, but not too bold, lest that your heart's blood should run cold...":wink:

Seriously, though, I doubt this will impress anyone.
I did the whole "I have always wanted to become X since I was small" - Hopefully it made the reader smile. Always good to have an angels halo, right?

Nobody ever tells me whether my PS was good or bad. In a way, I think my work experience got me the results in the end.
Reply 14
But they'll know you haven't known since birth that you wanted to study that subject at university, and by saying "I will not lie" you're compounding that lie.

So why should they believe any of the other stuff you say?

:juno:
perhaps get others' opinions when u have finished it? or could u tell us some phrases for us to assess? dont go toooooo mcuh over the top and start sepaking philisophy when u wanna apply to engineering loooool.
Reply 16
Well I've put in the personal story thing, that I got into it at the age of 10 and I always knew that it is the one thing I wanted to do.

That was about the only sentence that had any sort of motivation in it, the rest was just a description of how my activities and my life experience fit the course. Then another part of it was describing what I gained from my work experience.

Guess what? I got all five offers from top universities.

They want to see that personal drive behind it, I would strongly recommend though that you don't put anything along the lines of "I will not lie" into your personal statement. The reader assumes that you don't lie. It's a waste of space, it doesn't add any information and makes it look awkward. Do I need to add any more reasons?
Reply 17
<(-_-)>
Do you think its a good idea to go for a perhaps risky approach when writing a personal statement? As in 'I will not lie; i have not known since birth that *subject name* would be the subject that i wanted to study at university.'

What do you think?


If thats your idea of bold then your just the same as everyone else. Personally I went for a completly different approach, and didnt mention my subject choice until about 3/4 of the way through. Everything I talked about was my hobbies and sports, which gradually led naturally onto my subject. The head nearly rejected it because the first few lines were so abstract, but in the end it was very very strong and gave me leeway with my offers.

Everybody writes a life story about how and why they want to study whatever. Try thinking outside the box a bit, and as long as you have the experiance and past history (ie youve done lots of different things) then your PS will be different and memorable.
I think I opened mine with something about my favourite film, depends on the course you're doing really, don't bull**** but if you're genuinely passionate about a subject make it as clear as possible. I applied for media/journalism related subjects so i put in a lot of stuff how certain films/books and whatever had been a huge part of my life....sounds like complete bull**** when I say that back to myself though but it (eventually) got me onto a good course at a fairly respected uni
Juno
But they'll know you haven't known since birth that you wanted to study that subject at university, and by saying "I will not lie" you're compounding that lie.

So why should they believe any of the other stuff you say?

:juno:


Couldn't have said it better myself.

Just be honest when you write it.

Quick Reply