personal statement plagiarism?

so i am starting to write my personal statement, and was wondering whether if i used 3 exact books as what my friend wrote on their personal statement (who is in uni now) and plus put 2 books that i've chosen by myself, will it count as plagiarism as I have mentioned similair books?

Reply 1

Admit-One

Universities Forum Helper

No, many people applying for that subject will likely be mentioning the same titles. There is a sensibly high % match allowed before your choices are notified.

NB. Don’t just list titles. Demonstrate that you read and thought critically about them. You’d almost certainly be better served by writing in detail about one than name dropping three.

Reply 2

bololo

If you wrote different things about them then it's fine. Also most people write about the same 3-5 books for the same course (like for law there are some books that basically everyone writes about). So seriously it is fine.
It is also normal to have information/inspiration from your friends abt what to read. As long as you have your own conclusions and descriptions there is nothibg to worry about.
I had the same acrivities as my friend as we did everything together and there was no issue.
Just make sure the titles are the only thing in common