The Student Room Group

Application Surgeries - How do I write my personal statement? Q&A with Uni of Surrey!

Welcome to our fourth and final Application Surgery - a series of live video Q&A's helping you with your decisions about university and application advice.


We're running Q&A's with experts live at 5pm every Thursday in November - so make sure you keep an eye on the Applications and UCAS forum for more information.


You can see our full program of events here!


On Thursday 26th November at 5pm, we're continuing with our next and final session:


How do I write my personal statement?


We are joined by Dan Rolfe, Deputy Head of Student Recruitment at the University of Surrey.


We'll be giving a short presentation introducing how to start, complete and ace your personal statement, followed by a Q&A with Dan who will be answering your questions live. You can start off by posting your questions below now :smile:




Come back here at 5pm on Thursday 26th November to join in!


Having trouble seeing the stream?


Spoiler

(edited 3 years ago)
How do you make your application unique?
How do you know that what you are writing will wow the person who is reading?
Tell me more about unique approaches to writing a personal statement.
How many applicants do Surrey reject because of their PS?
Reply 4
Does your personal statement content have to match what is written on the reference?
E.g: My teacher is writing that I am an Ambassador, do I have to mention this on PS if I don't have space.

Would work experience and extra-reading be classed as an extra-curricular?
Would an EPQ be classed as an extra curricular?
How do you start a personal statement?
Hi Everyone,

I am currently a Student Ambassador here at Surrey and studying a degree in Psychology.
If you have any questions about Surrey, university life or questions in general, I would love to answer these for you!

Becca
How does one condense to match the word limit? How much do I write about on one topic?

Thank you.
Original post by StrawberryDreams
Welcome to our fourth and final Application Surgery - a series of live video Q&A's helping you with your decisions about university and application advice.


We're running Q&A's with experts live at 5pm every Thursday in November - so make sure you keep an eye on the Applications and UCAS forum for more information.


You can see our full program of events here!


On Thursday 26th November at 5pm, we're continuing with our next and final session:


How do I write my personal statement?


We are joined by Dan Rolfe, Deputy Head of Student Recruitment at the University of Surrey.


We'll be giving a short presentation introducing how to start, complete and ace your personal statement, followed by a Q&A with Dan who will be answering your questions live. You can start off by posting your questions below now :smile:




Come back here at 5pm on Thursday 26th November to join in!


Having trouble seeing the stream?


Spoiler




good morning, i'm taking a nursing for both adults and children course , i got it checked by my teachers but she ept telling me to chnage this and write morehre , do this, and that , for that reason i lost a place in 2 unis i really wanted to go. now i want to write it as sson as possible for my third one
Original post by lorena12
good morning, i'm taking a nursing for both adults and children course , i got it checked by my teachers but she ept telling me to chnage this and write morehre , do this, and that , for that reason i lost a place in 2 unis i really wanted to go. now i want to write it as sson as possible for my third one

Hey! No worries - do you have any particular questions about writing your personal statement we can help with? :smile:
Reply 9
Original post by University of Surrey Student Rep
Hi Everyone,

I am currently a Student Ambassador here at Surrey and studying a degree in Psychology.
If you have any questions about Surrey, university life or questions in general, I would love to answer these for you!

Becca

Hey Becca,

How diverse is the Surrey University community? On average, what is the percentage of Africans there?

Thank you!
Original post by TagnalL
Hey Becca,

How diverse is the Surrey University community? On average, what is the percentage of Africans there?

Thank you!


Hello,

I have got some information from the recruitment team here at Surrey. - '35 per cent of the c.17,000 students at Surrey are from outside the UK, helping to demonstrate both the diversity of our student body and the international reputation the University enjoys. There are currently approximately 300 students from Africa at Surrey'

We also have a huge range of societies one of them being the African-Caribbean Society. As a member you will be able to join in attend various events and social that is held by the society. Here is the link for the society in order to provide you with some more details: https://activity.ussu.co.uk/acs

If you need any more help or questions please let me know! I hope this helps :smile:

Becca :smile:
Original post by tinygirl96
Tell me more about unique approaches to writing a personal statement.

for which program do you intend to apply???
If I am applying to both biology and biomedicine programs how do I write about both the programs in one personal statement
Original post by Christine9918
If I am applying to both biology and biomedicine programs how do I write about both the programs in one personal statement

why are you applying to both? Which would you pick if you get offers from both?
Hey everyone! :wavey:

Just tagging you in for the start of our live Q&A 'How do I write my personal statement?'

Dan is going to give a short presentation, then will be answering your questions live, so feel free to post them in the thread as you're watching. :yep:

The video should automatically appear at the top of this page (or in a little box on the left hand side). If you can't see it, you can try:

Refreshing your page

Hitting F5 on your keyboard

Clearing your cache

Disable your adblocker


You will also be able to watch the stream back later, so don't worry if you miss anything.

Hope it's helpful!

Spoiler

Reply 15
Original post by University of Surrey Student Rep
Hello,

I have got some information from the recruitment team here at Surrey. - '35 per cent of the c.17,000 students at Surrey are from outside the UK, helping to demonstrate both the diversity of our student body and the international reputation the University enjoys. There are currently approximately 300 students from Africa at Surrey'

We also have a huge range of societies one of them being the African-Caribbean Society. As a member you will be able to join in attend various events and social that is held by the society. Here is the link for the society in order to provide you with some more details: https://activity.ussu.co.uk/acs

If you need any more help or questions please let me know! I hope this helps :smile:

Becca :smile:

Hey Becca,

Thank you for the information, it was helpful!
Original post by TagnalL
Hey Becca,

Thank you for the information, it was helpful!

You're welcome, no worries at all :smile:

If you have any more questions or queries please let me know.

Becca (2nd Year Psychology Student)
Original post by StrawberryDreams
Hey! No worries - do you have any particular questions about writing your personal statement we can help with? :smile:hi

Hi,
I got my personal statement done, it's not 60-100% perfect, but as long as I can get into a good uni, I'm fine. I've currently lost 3 places, but I have 2 more to go.
If I don't get into any universities, I will come back to you.

Thank you.
How do I make my application unique?
Original post by Abbiemc967
How do I make my application unique?

You don't need to make it 'unique' - focus on it being genuine and relevant to your course choice

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