Original post by ksophiett
Not sure if anyone needs this but I’ve gotten a history offer for Cambridge undergrad twice now so I just thought i’d start this thread incase anyone wants to ask for advice or help on anything concerning applications?
Congratulations on your offer. Well done!
I would like to apply to Cambridge for a History degree. I understand that it is important to do the reading to show your passion and interest for History. Is there anything else that I should be doing to stand out e.g. research ?
Also, it would be useful to know how to structure the academic personal statement.
Original post by Aimyy
Congratulations on your offer. Well done!
I would like to apply to Cambridge for a History degree. I understand that it is important to do the reading to show your passion and interest for History. Is there anything else that I should be doing to stand out e.g. research ?
Also, it would be useful to know how to structure the academic personal statement.
I would like to apply to Cambridge for a History degree. I understand that it is important to do the reading to show your passion and interest for History. Is there anything else that I should be doing to stand out e.g. research ?
Also, it would be useful to know how to structure the academic personal statement.
Hi! I hope ksophiett doesn't mind me answering on this thread. If you do, just say so and I'll keep quiet from now on, haha
Reading is definitely important! However, you don't need to mention a lot of books in your personal statement (you probably shouldn't), as it's better to mention around three of them and talk about them in more detail. You only have 4000 characters after all!
I'd personally try to look for some kind of (voluntary) work experience. Look at museums, historic buildings/sites, everything you could connect to history in a way. I don't think it would disadvantage you if you don't have any relevant work experience, but my interviewers definitely seemed interested in mine. So if you can't find anything, it's no big deal, but if you can, I'd definitely take the opportunity.
For the structure of the personal statement, I personally started with an anecdote, then talked about some of my favorite historical periods and connected those to the books I read. I ended with a brief mention of an extracurricular activity and what I've learned from that, as well as my (vague) career plans. I originally wrote a hispol PS though, so it also featured some political topics, and its structure might be slightly different from a history PS. I'd definitely try to make your personal statement as personal (lol) as possible, so don't talk about the content of a book; talk about what you've learned from it or what you think about it.
Hope this helps! Although I'm sure the creator of this thread has some great suggestions as well
Original post by ksophiett
Not sure if anyone needs this but I’ve gotten a history offer for Cambridge undergrad twice now so I just thought i’d start this thread incase anyone wants to ask for advice or help on anything concerning applications?
i want to apply for
1) Law at Cambridge
2) Anthropology and Law at LSE
3) Politics, Philosophy, Law at KCL
4) Politics, Philosophy, Law at Surrey
5) Law at Bristol
Is it possible to write a personal statement for these? I'm aware there are lots of subjects but in my personal statement, I would talk about anthropology, philosophy and law. Can I just ignore politics?
Original post by Labda18
Hi! I hope ksophiett doesn't mind me answering on this thread. If you do, just say so and I'll keep quiet from now on, haha
Reading is definitely important! However, you don't need to mention a lot of books in your personal statement (you probably shouldn't), as it's better to mention around three of them and talk about them in more detail. You only have 4000 characters after all!
I'd personally try to look for some kind of (voluntary) work experience. Look at museums, historic buildings/sites, everything you could connect to history in a way. I don't think it would disadvantage you if you don't have any relevant work experience, but my interviewers definitely seemed interested in mine. So if you can't find anything, it's no big deal, but if you can, I'd definitely take the opportunity.
For the structure of the personal statement, I personally started with an anecdote, then talked about some of my favorite historical periods and connected those to the books I read. I ended with a brief mention of an extracurricular activity and what I've learned from that, as well as my (vague) career plans. I originally wrote a hispol PS though, so it also featured some political topics, and its structure might be slightly different from a history PS. I'd definitely try to make your personal statement as personal (lol) as possible, so don't talk about the content of a book; talk about what you've learned from it or what you think about it.
Hope this helps! Although I'm sure the creator of this thread has some great suggestions as well
Reading is definitely important! However, you don't need to mention a lot of books in your personal statement (you probably shouldn't), as it's better to mention around three of them and talk about them in more detail. You only have 4000 characters after all!
I'd personally try to look for some kind of (voluntary) work experience. Look at museums, historic buildings/sites, everything you could connect to history in a way. I don't think it would disadvantage you if you don't have any relevant work experience, but my interviewers definitely seemed interested in mine. So if you can't find anything, it's no big deal, but if you can, I'd definitely take the opportunity.
For the structure of the personal statement, I personally started with an anecdote, then talked about some of my favorite historical periods and connected those to the books I read. I ended with a brief mention of an extracurricular activity and what I've learned from that, as well as my (vague) career plans. I originally wrote a hispol PS though, so it also featured some political topics, and its structure might be slightly different from a history PS. I'd definitely try to make your personal statement as personal (lol) as possible, so don't talk about the content of a book; talk about what you've learned from it or what you think about it.
Hope this helps! Although I'm sure the creator of this thread has some great suggestions as well
Thank you so much. This is very useful. If you don’t mind me asking where did you do your work experience and what books did you read as the list is huge online and don’t know where to start.
[start]I understand you cannot discuss what questions are asked in an interview but can you give me an example to explain what it means when people say the interviewer will challenge you on your opinion and everything you say. Sounds daunting![/start]
Original post by Labda18
Hi! I hope ksophiett doesn't mind me answering on this thread. If you do, just say so and I'll keep quiet from now on, haha
Reading is definitely important! However, you don't need to mention a lot of books in your personal statement (you probably shouldn't), as it's better to mention around three of them and talk about them in more detail. You only have 4000 characters after all!
I'd personally try to look for some kind of (voluntary) work experience. Look at museums, historic buildings/sites, everything you could connect to history in a way. I don't think it would disadvantage you if you don't have any relevant work experience, but my interviewers definitely seemed interested in mine. So if you can't find anything, it's no big deal, but if you can, I'd definitely take the opportunity.
For the structure of the personal statement, I personally started with an anecdote, then talked about some of my favorite historical periods and connected those to the books I read. I ended with a brief mention of an extracurricular activity and what I've learned from that, as well as my (vague) career plans. I originally wrote a hispol PS though, so it also featured some political topics, and its structure might be slightly different from a history PS. I'd definitely try to make your personal statement as personal (lol) as possible, so don't talk about the content of a book; talk about what you've learned from it or what you think about it.
Hope this helps! Although I'm sure the creator of this thread has some great suggestions as well
Reading is definitely important! However, you don't need to mention a lot of books in your personal statement (you probably shouldn't), as it's better to mention around three of them and talk about them in more detail. You only have 4000 characters after all!
I'd personally try to look for some kind of (voluntary) work experience. Look at museums, historic buildings/sites, everything you could connect to history in a way. I don't think it would disadvantage you if you don't have any relevant work experience, but my interviewers definitely seemed interested in mine. So if you can't find anything, it's no big deal, but if you can, I'd definitely take the opportunity.
For the structure of the personal statement, I personally started with an anecdote, then talked about some of my favorite historical periods and connected those to the books I read. I ended with a brief mention of an extracurricular activity and what I've learned from that, as well as my (vague) career plans. I originally wrote a hispol PS though, so it also featured some political topics, and its structure might be slightly different from a history PS. I'd definitely try to make your personal statement as personal (lol) as possible, so don't talk about the content of a book; talk about what you've learned from it or what you think about it.
Hope this helps! Although I'm sure the creator of this thread has some great suggestions as well
Hello, I don't mind you replying on the thread at all, your advice was pretty much spot on as well! I would only add a few things about the structure of the personal statement, personally I did mine by centring almost my entire thing on a theme with each paragraph on a topic within that. For example, mine was on the status of women primarily but I covered throughout and linked together women in the Anglo Saxon era, Norman era and Mycenaean Greece. I found this allowed me to have a central argument whilst scattering about 3 books throughout along with mentioning websites, a documentary and things such as my EPQ and an essay I wrote for a competition.
I feel like that shows your ability of thought and capability to create an argument as well as showing Cambridge your academic achievements in relation to History. But definitely going with the advice from Labda18, the focus is that creation of the argument over just putting facts in about whatever time periods you're looking at!
And for standing out from other candidates, you could possibly show a niche historical interest, for example I have a friend who got into Medicine at Oxford by showing her interest in forensics and her work experience in a morgue. I think it was definitely something that got her remembered. But aside from the personal statement, the interview and the admissions test hold more weight so I don't think there is a need to be standing out too much in the personal statement as of right now. Hope this helped!
Original post by kwakraon
i want to apply for
1) Law at Cambridge
2) Anthropology and Law at LSE
3) Politics, Philosophy, Law at KCL
4) Politics, Philosophy, Law at Surrey
5) Law at Bristol
Is it possible to write a personal statement for these? I'm aware there are lots of subjects but in my personal statement, I would talk about anthropology, philosophy and law. Can I just ignore politics?
1) Law at Cambridge
2) Anthropology and Law at LSE
3) Politics, Philosophy, Law at KCL
4) Politics, Philosophy, Law at Surrey
5) Law at Bristol
Is it possible to write a personal statement for these? I'm aware there are lots of subjects but in my personal statement, I would talk about anthropology, philosophy and law. Can I just ignore politics?
Personally since I only applied for one subject, I don't have much experience in this area but I do have some advice that I can think of.
I think it might be best to research for each of those courses what the personal statements should look like so you can get an overall view of what the universities and courses are expecting and how different they are from one another. That might be able to tell you if you can either ignore or just briefly mention the politics side as well.
With the Cambridge application, I think they would be expecting a personal statement that is primarily law so I think if you centre your personal statement around law with adding side things of anthropology, philosophy and maybe politics, you have a good chance of achieving a place. So I do think it is possible to write a personal statement for your subject combinations but you'd have to be careful and make sure Law is the primary subject in it because of that competitive Cambridge application. Sorry I couldn't as helpful as I would have wanted to be but I hope my advice helps regardless!
Original post by Aimyy
Thank you so much. This is very useful. If you don’t mind me asking where did you do your work experience and what books did you read as the list is huge online and don’t know where to start.
[start]I understand you cannot discuss what questions are asked in an interview but can you give me an example to explain what it means when people say the interviewer will challenge you on your opinion and everything you say. Sounds daunting![/start]
[start]I understand you cannot discuss what questions are asked in an interview but can you give me an example to explain what it means when people say the interviewer will challenge you on your opinion and everything you say. Sounds daunting![/start]
Hello again, I'm mirroring Labda18 here but I hope they don't mind me replying back to technically their question but for books I would say anything that interests you rather than reading lists online. It's good to start with some fundamentals such as 'Thinking about History' by Sarah Maza as I feel like gives a basis of how Cambridge want you to think about history, if that makes sense.
But for the general books, anything that interests you! The interviewers will be able to tell if you are passionate about the topics you are reading compared to having just picked a book off a reading list online!
And with the interviewers challenging opinions, it's just a thing of you'll say an answer to something and they'll say something back that either adds to your answer or changes your opinion sort of. I think they just want to see how your mind works historically and if you can adapt under pressure when someone says something that contrasts your original opinion. Hope this helps!
Original post by ksophiett
Hello, I don't mind you replying on the thread at all, your advice was pretty much spot on as well! I would only add a few things about the structure of the personal statement, personally I did mine by centring almost my entire thing on a theme with each paragraph on a topic within that. For example, mine was on the status of women primarily but I covered throughout and linked together women in the Anglo Saxon era, Norman era and Mycenaean Greece. I found this allowed me to have a central argument whilst scattering about 3 books throughout along with mentioning websites, a documentary and things such as my EPQ and an essay I wrote for a competition.
I feel like that shows your ability of thought and capability to create an argument as well as showing Cambridge your academic achievements in relation to History. But definitely going with the advice from Labda18, the focus is that creation of the argument over just putting facts in about whatever time periods you're looking at!
And for standing out from other candidates, you could possibly show a niche historical interest, for example I have a friend who got into Medicine at Oxford by showing her interest in forensics and her work experience in a morgue. I think it was definitely something that got her remembered. But aside from the personal statement, the interview and the admissions test hold more weight so I don't think there is a need to be standing out too much in the personal statement as of right now. Hope this helped!
I feel like that shows your ability of thought and capability to create an argument as well as showing Cambridge your academic achievements in relation to History. But definitely going with the advice from Labda18, the focus is that creation of the argument over just putting facts in about whatever time periods you're looking at!
And for standing out from other candidates, you could possibly show a niche historical interest, for example I have a friend who got into Medicine at Oxford by showing her interest in forensics and her work experience in a morgue. I think it was definitely something that got her remembered. But aside from the personal statement, the interview and the admissions test hold more weight so I don't think there is a need to be standing out too much in the personal statement as of right now. Hope this helped!
Thank you so much. That is really helpful !
Original post by Aimyy
Thank you so much. This is very useful. If you don’t mind me asking where did you do your work experience and what books did you read as the list is huge online and don’t know where to start.
[start]I understand you cannot discuss what questions are asked in an interview but can you give me an example to explain what it means when people say the interviewer will challenge you on your opinion and everything you say. Sounds daunting![/start]
[start]I understand you cannot discuss what questions are asked in an interview but can you give me an example to explain what it means when people say the interviewer will challenge you on your opinion and everything you say. Sounds daunting![/start]
Hi! ksophiett answered most of this, but just wanted to add that I did my work experience in a classical history museum! I also did some sort of research project (ig it's similar to an EPQ) about a topic I could relate to this work experience.
In terms of reading, like ksophiett says, just read whatever interests you! It would be great if you found a way to connect them in your personal statement. You don't have to compare all of your books or anything, but your text has a better "flow" if you're able to make connections between your paragraphs. Hope this helps!
Original post by kwakraon
i want to apply for
1) Law at Cambridge
2) Anthropology and Law at LSE
3) Politics, Philosophy, Law at KCL
4) Politics, Philosophy, Law at Surrey
5) Law at Bristol
Is it possible to write a personal statement for these? I'm aware there are lots of subjects but in my personal statement, I would talk about anthropology, philosophy and law. Can I just ignore politics?
1) Law at Cambridge
2) Anthropology and Law at LSE
3) Politics, Philosophy, Law at KCL
4) Politics, Philosophy, Law at Surrey
5) Law at Bristol
Is it possible to write a personal statement for these? I'm aware there are lots of subjects but in my personal statement, I would talk about anthropology, philosophy and law. Can I just ignore politics?
I doubt you will get any offers with that course selection across those universities. They are competitive, and you will be beaten out by applicants who demonstrate far greater focus, grades and experience directly related to each specific course.
To start with, either do Law for undergrad, or leave it for a conversion course after undergrad.
Just pointing out, in response to the questions about personal statements, that the whole format of these is changing from next year so prob best to structure according to the questions on the new format.
Original post by Labda18
Hi! ksophiett answered most of this, but just wanted to add that I did my work experience in a classical history museum! I also did some sort of research project (ig it's similar to an EPQ) about a topic I could relate to this work experience.
In terms of reading, like ksophiett says, just read whatever interests you! It would be great if you found a way to connect them in your personal statement. You don't have to compare all of your books or anything, but your text has a better "flow" if you're able to make connections between your paragraphs. Hope this helps!
In terms of reading, like ksophiett says, just read whatever interests you! It would be great if you found a way to connect them in your personal statement. You don't have to compare all of your books or anything, but your text has a better "flow" if you're able to make connections between your paragraphs. Hope this helps!
Hiii, sorry to ask this but is there a way you can elaborate on where you did your work experience and what research project you did?
Original post by yb21
Hiii, sorry to ask this but is there a way you can elaborate on where you did your work experience and what research project you did?
Yes of course! I'm international so this might not apply to UK students, but I did some sort of high school dissertation that's compulsory in my country. It's basically a research project that you have to spend 80 hours on. My work experience consisted of organising lectures for children and guiding creative activities in the museum. So it was quite small-scale, but a lot of fun nonetheless! Hope this answers your question ^^
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