Okay to refer to American university system?

Hi TSR, I'm in somewhat of a rare situation. I'm currently a first year American uni student, but I'm applying to UK unis (forgoing my current degree and starting as a first year in 2025) due to some severe administration issues I'm facing. Would it be okay for me to refer to American concepts such as "major/minor" and "non-major electives" freely in my personal statement to explain my issues, or should I aim to explain them?

(edited 2 weeks ago)

Original post by kleinzoo

Hi TSR, I'm in somewhat of a rare situation. I'm currently a first year American uni student, but I'm applying to UK unis (forgoing my current degree and starting as a first year in 2025) due to some severe administration issues I'm facing. Would it be okay for me to refer to American concepts such as "major/minor" and "non-major electives" freely in my personal statement to explain my issues, or should I aim to explain them?

Those terms would be fairly well understood. However, don't focus on why you are leaving, focus on why you want to join. You need to give positive reasons for wanting to go to the UK uni/course, not negative reasons for moving on from the US.

Reply 2

kleinzoo

OP

2

Original post by threeportdrift

Those terms would be fairly well understood. However, don't focus on why you are leaving, focus on why you want to join. You need to give positive reasons for wanting to go to the UK uni/course, not negative reasons for moving on from the US.

For sure, to my understanding that's what a personal statement should normally aim to do. I'll probably use 20-30 percent of the space to explain why I'm leaving, and the rest to explain why the course is right for me.

Original post by kleinzoo

For sure, to my understanding that's what a personal statement should normally aim to do. I'll probably use 20-30 percent of the space to explain why I'm leaving, and the rest to explain why the course is right for me.

I really wouldn't;t advise that. There's no value in explaining why you are leaving, at best it's neutrally wasted space, but the chances are it just makes you sound like a problem. You need to focus your application on positive reasons why you want to do this course. that's what everyone else will be using the space for. Don't disadvantage yourself.

Reply 4

kleinzoo

OP

2

Original post by threeportdrift

I really wouldn't;t advise that. There's no value in explaining why you are leaving, at best it's neutrally wasted space, but the chances are it just makes you sound like a problem. You need to focus your application on positive reasons why you want to do this course. that's what everyone else will be using the space for. Don't disadvantage yourself.

Hmm, Oxford referenced that "If you are currently studying at a university outside the UK and are thinking of applying to Oxford to start the first year of an undergraduate course, you should make very clear in your application why you do not wish to continue on your current course." This is where I took my approach from. Maybe there's another place for me to put down this information but I never found it on UCAS. If it helps me, I'm facing a structural problem caused by the university which isn't specific to me.

(edited 2 weeks ago)

Original post by kleinzoo

Hmm, Oxford referenced that "If you are currently studying at a university outside the UK and are thinking of applying to Oxford to start the first year of an undergraduate course, you should make very clear in your application why you do not wish to continue on your current course." This is where I took my approach from. Maybe there's another place for me to put down this information but I never found it on UCAS. If it helps me, I'm facing a structural problem caused by the university which isn't specific to me.

yes, but you can still do that by looking forward. So you don't say - "my Minor subject is taught by junior faculty members with no training. My Major is 20 years out of date and doesn't cover developments since X or the work of Y".

Instead you need to say. 'I want to make the move to Oxford because the depth of teaching experience and research activity is very much stronger than my current university and I believe this will give me a stronger grounding to consider a future career in academia. The Oxford syllabus clearly considers developments since X and the work of Y, which my current programme does not. I think the developments of X are particularly significant to the subject because............ I am also eager to make a module in Y because I think their work ............"

Reply 6

Admit-One

Universities Forum Helper

21

Oxford is an outlier in the sense that you other choices won't care about this much. So you'll need to weigh up how much you are targetting them, potentially at the expense of some wasted space for your other choices.

Reply 7

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by kleinzoo

For sure, to my understanding that's what a personal statement should normally aim to do. I'll probably use 20-30 percent of the space to explain why I'm leaving, and the rest to explain why the course is right for me.

I think even for Oxford, 20-30% of your PS on that is too much. I think maybe a couple sentences would be sufficient. The personal statement is a very short piece of writing, and as above it's not really relevant for other unis and will make your PS weaker for those.

Depending on the rationale even one short sentence may suffice, e.g. "I wish to study Sanskrit which is not available at my current university" or whatever it may be.

Reply 8

kleinzoo

OP

2

Thanks to everyone for the help! I've modified my PS as appropriate.

Okay to refer to American university system?

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