Central saint martins personal statement

hi, im a year 13 student hoping to apply this year, I want to study fashion journalism at Central Saint Martins. I have only decided this rather recently so don't really have any experience or knowledge of journalism. personal statements are due very soon and I haven't been able to find much information in regard to this specific course. I was wondering if their was anyone doing the course or similar who could advise me what to focus my personal statement on and what to include in it.im guessing the course is quite competitive and hard to get into so any help would be much appreciated. thank you!!

(edited 1 month ago)

Reply 1

BCU Student Rep

Official Rep

Original post by struggling123456

Hi @struggling123456

I study Fashion Design and prior to university I hadn't really done anything fashion related at school or college, so I was a little worried that I wouldn't have anything to write about in my statement. But, there's probably more to include than you think.

You want to express in your statement your interest and excitement in the subject you're applying for, so keep this as a guide of what to keep referring back to when you're writing. You don't have to explicitly say "I want to study Journalism because..." every time, but it's a good starter to have in your head to make sure you're staying relevant when writing.

I'm sure there will also be lots of educational or extra curricular work you've done, which might not immediately scream 'Journalism', but there will be some transferable skills and experiences that you could apply to the subject. Start by noting down everything you can think of from achievements to roles of responsibility, and everything in between, and you can start to find some key points which link to Journalism.

You can also look over the course webpage for CSM to see if there's any topics listed in the course breakdown that you can address in your statement. Maybe something in particular sparks your interest. And you can also look at recent Fashion Journalism articles to see if there's anything you'd like to comment on or a subject area that interests you.

I liked to finish my personal statement with a sentence or two about my future goals. You're not committing yourself to these exactly as they're written, but it can be a nice touch to suggest what you would like to do in the future and how studying this course could help you do it.

I know deadlines for personal statements are approaching, so the key with this is to start writing. It might feel like a load of nonsense to begin with, but once you have even a few sentences written out, you can start to edit and refine, and find a rhythm of writing.

UCAS also have a great page on their website about statement layout which can be applied to pretty much any subject, so I'd give that a read over too.

Hope this helps and good luck! 🙂
Emily
Student Rep at BCU