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Oxbridge Personal Statements

When I was searching for examples of personal statements on google I came across this website: www.OxbridgePersonalStatements.com

Now, I am not advertising for them nor am I condoning the use of their website; I'm just curious really to know what their service is like. It's very expensive at £125 to write you a custom statement but I'm not sure if you'll even get anything that good from them. I've asked a few of my university friends and they told me to be very cautious (I wasn't going to use it anyway) but I was wondering if anyone here has used them and what their experiences were?

lol

I would never ever use anything like that... :s-smilie:

Reply 3

Mike_P

1

If you get to the interview stage by a custom personal statement, not reflecting yourself, would be quite deemed to fail.

Reply 4

wizz_kid

16

tbh, i was gonna post the same thing

Reply 5

Nursebiatch

Pmsl. Who would admit to that considering that Personal Statements are supposed to be just that, Personal to the individual and their circumstances? Oh and £125 for someone to write some twaddle about your life that you had to give them the details for in the first place :-o!

Reply 6

nothingspek

3

Not worth it, just write your own.

Reply 7

Henerz

7

lol too. Can you seriously think that anyone can write your personal statement better than you?

If you want ideas, there's a pretty good section in TSR wiki, but at the end of the day, its really just what you can write about yourself...perhaps this might be worthwhile if you're applying to unis which don't interview and you can't string two words together but you're thinking of applying to Oxbridge, right?

Reply 8

Cirsium

19

Personal statements can break your application but they will not make it.
If it's abhorrent then you might not get an interview - but for most subjects they interview practically everyone, and for hte ones where they don't it's done by admissions test, not PS.
Once you're at interview, for sciences the PS is practically irrelevant, and for arts it just gives them things to start conversations about.
A good PS will get you accepted at places where they don't interview - but at Oxford and Cambridge it's all about the interview so a PS won't help you that much.

Reply 9

Supergrunch

10

Eventually, there'll be a company that will put a lookalike through the interview process for you, if you pay them enough. And pay them even more and the lookalike will take your degree for you, so that you don't have to bother. :wink:

Reply 10

BJack

19

tucker672 and Henerz

lol

This. It's a con and illegal. You might be able to tell from the pricing structure that they're out to rip you off.

Furthermore a brief glance at one of the sample statements reveals that these are far from high-quality. Anyone with a hope in hell of being offered a place should be able to write a better statement on their own.

Reply 11

Tom

15

BJack

Furthermore a brief glance at one of the sample statements reveals that these are far from high-quality. Anyone with a hope in hell of being offered a place should be able to write a better statement on their own.

I was just reading that thinking about how I'd rip it to shreds as a PS reviewer. And that's supposed to be an example of their best work!

Reply 12

Greatleysteg

19

Quote from the sample personal statement:

"I am predicated AAA in my A-Levels...

:rolleyes:

They've also used the American z spelling in words, and it's just generally a crap statement tbh.

Reply 13

BJack

19

Greatleysteg

Quote from the sample personal statement:

"I am predicated AAA in my A-Levels...

:rolleyes:

They've also used the American z spelling in words, and it's just generally a crap statement tbh.

Predicated was the first thing I noticed after the awkward phrasing of the first paragraph. The company also seems to not realize that you submit your GCSE grades separately and your reference should mention predicted grades.

As an aside, the -ize termination is actually British in origin and is recommended by the OED. :s-smilie:

Reply 14

GlitterGlue

misternite

When I was searching for examples of personal statements on google I came across this website: www.OxbridgePersonalStatements.com

Now, I am not advertising for them nor am I condoning the use of their website; I'm just curious really to know what their service is like. It's very expensive at £125 to write you a custom statement but I'm not sure if you'll even get anything that good from them. I've asked a few of my university friends and they told me to be very cautious (I wasn't going to use it anyway) but I was wondering if anyone here has used them and what their experiences were?

If you can afford £125 just for a personal statement.. I'm sure you'll fit right in at your interview..

Reply 15

faber niger

17

If you can't write yourself a decent personal statement, you might as well give up... :p:

Reply 16

cpchem

14

GlitterGlue

If you can afford £125 just for a personal statement.. I'm sure you'll fit right in at your interview..

"So... I'm interested in what you have to say in the last paragraph of your statement"
"Erm... OK. For £500, would any of you be willing to come around to this side of the desk and answer the questions. I'll just, well, sit outside, if you like?"