UCAS 47 lines Personal Statement

So - Parent here. I’m still finding my way round Student Room - but seeking any advice, experience of ensuring Personal Statement adheres to the 47 lines. If it is under the stipulated character & line count in a Word doc draft does that change (in terms of lines) once transferred to the UCAS form as seen a few worrying posts about formatting. Thank you 😊

Character count won't change, but line count will, as it will depend on how wide your window is in Word. However, as long as you don't include blank lines between paragraphs in UCAS, which is not required or recommend, you should be fine as you will hit the character limit before the line limit.

So - Parent here. I’m still finding my way round Student Room - but seeking any advice, experience of ensuring Personal Statement adheres to the 47 lines. If it is under the stipulated character & line count in a Word doc draft does that change (in terms of lines) once transferred to the UCAS form as seen a few worrying posts about formatting. Thank you 😊

Leaving blank lines between paragraphs IS recommended

Really? I heard the opposite i.e that you start a new line to mark the end of paragraphs, but there was no need to add blank lines. In any case my daughter's PS was already at the character limit so she was not going to cut out content just to add in blank lines.

Tips: Remove any line breaks from your Word document. When the universities view your personal statement, they will be viewing it as one large chunk anyway.

okay, you might be right, but she very happy with her PS and it's done now, so I'm not going to worry about it. Thanks.

Aim for 3,200-3,400 characters for a PS that will fit within the line count comfortably including properly formatted paragraphs.

Thank you - when you say properly formatted paragraphs is that leaving a line between each?

It's unlikely to make the difference between an offer and a rejection (because that's not how PSs are generally used in admissions) - it's just a strong recommendation (particularly from the staff who spend 3 months solid reading these things we'd very much appreciate it if applicants made it easier to pick out important info

ideally yes

Thank you for all the guidance! Kind of wishing UK was like Australian system - get your grades then apply !

So - Parent here. I’m still finding my way round Student Room - but seeking any advice, experience of ensuring Personal Statement adheres to the 47 lines. If it is under the stipulated character & line count in a Word doc draft does that change (in terms of lines) once transferred to the UCAS form as seen a few worrying posts about formatting. Thank you 😊

I got my PS to 4000 characters and 47 lines exactly on word document, but on UCAS, it came to 47 lines and about 4003 characters weirdly. Maybe it was the paragraph breaks being included on UCAS but not Word that gave the extra few characters. (I applied this year)

ideally yes

Can Universities see all a students choices on UCAS ? Or do they only see that they are one of the choices?

Universities can’t see your other choices when they’re making a decision.

When an applicant replies to their offers in April-June then all universities can see an applicant’s other choices (so an insurance choice can see what the firm choice is and the offer conditions and vice versa)