Personal statement... in March?

Hi all! Wondering if anyone has been in my situation?

Following on from a quarter-life crisis, I recently realised all my post-school years were a mistake and I should have gone to university. Now I'm frantically trying to see what's still open in March.

Surprisingly, a fair amount, at pretty good places? Only NOT the same one subject at 5 different universities.

At this stage, given I'm clearly applying late as hell and at 21, would they still be so rigid on the "your personal statement needs to focus on 2 or 3 specific ideas from reading about your one chosen subject" rule? Can I really not write something a little more general about my personality, interests, and motivations as opposed to somehow doing 5 different deep dives on the last few interesting subjects available?

How different are the different subjects for which you've applied? Are there any themes which are common to some of them? If so, perhaps focus on those themes.
A few points:
• As you've correctly observed, the "in March" part of your title isn't particularly relevant: there are still plenty of courses are accepting applications and which have spaces to fill.
• Although you can only submit one personal statement via UCAS, some universities will allow you to send them an additional one, directly. So check whether any of your target universities allow this.
• Many universities pay no (or little) attention to personal statements anyway. Their perspective is that the amount of help and support available to different candidates varies so much that to judge the candidate using something potentially heavily influenced by others would be unfair.
• No university has any interest in your "personality, interests". Sorry. Motivations, possibly. However, they're trying to judge your chances of succeeding at the course for which you've applied. So tell them something which will help them judge that.

Hi all! Wondering if anyone has been in my situation?
Following on from a quarter-life crisis, I recently realised all my post-school years were a mistake and I should have gone to university. Now I'm frantically trying to see what's still open in March.
Surprisingly, a fair amount, at pretty good places? Only NOT the same one subject at 5 different universities.
At this stage, given I'm clearly applying late as hell and at 21, would they still be so rigid on the "your personal statement needs to focus on 2 or 3 specific ideas from reading about your one chosen subject" rule? Can I really not write something a little more general about my personality, interests, and motivations as opposed to somehow doing 5 different deep dives on the last few interesting subjects available?