Tips For Writing a Personal Statement

May 25

Do you know how to write a personal statement? Most people don’t. When it comes to applying for university, the personal statement is an important part of the process. Admissions tutors will look at the personal statements and then use those to make a decision about who they accept.

Your personal statement is your way of standing out and convincing a university to accept you on one of their courses. However, there are things that you can do to improve your chances.

Let’s take a look at some top tips for writing a personal statement.

1 - Keep it Simple

The first thing you need to do is keep it simple. Your language should be clear and to the point because affectations do not help. Your typical admissions tutor will have a dozen or more personal statements to read during their workday. They do not want to have to scratch their heads and decipher complex language to understand what you are trying to say.

Keep your personal statement simple and to the point - make sure that you sell yourself in a way that is easy to understand. Your ability to articulate properly will influence your success.

2 - Be Careful With Humour

A lot of people think they are funny. They use humour as a way to put people at ease. However, humour is subjective. It is difficult to convey your humour when you are trying to write a personal statement. There is no nuance, no tone.

You might write something in your personal statement that you consider to be funny. However, the admissions tutor might read it and consider it to be offensive. If that happens, you have damaged your chances.

Therefore, it is sensible for you to try and sell yourself without using humour as a crutch. If you are funny, then you can use that later on, perhaps during an interview. However, humour is incredibly subjective, and so it is not worth taking the risk on a personal statement.

3 - Modify Your Language

From a psychological perspective, mirroring is an effective way for people to present themselves as desirable. We do it all the time without thinking about it - we mirror the language of people we are talking to, and we adopt their mannerisms to make them feel at ease.

You may find that mirroring the skills and attributes the university is looking for will help you to stand a better chance. You can do this by taking a look at your desired course and seeing what kind of learner they are looking for. Do they want somebody who is creative or dedicated? Are they searching for innovation, or an ability to follow instructions?

You need to make sure that you are presenting yourself in the best way. You can do this by mirroring the qualities that are being looked for by your target university.

4 - Remember the Character Limits

Your personal statement has a character limit. You only have 47 lines and 4000 characters with which to describe yourself. This presents a problem for some people. Many learners are used to having more freedom to articulate themselves properly.

The character limit on a personal statement serves two functions. First of all, it is a way to minimise the amount of reading that an admissions tutor needs to do and prevents people from talking for pages at a time. Second of all, it presents a challenge for the learner. They need to learn how to concisely market themselves in the best way.

If you are going to rise to meet the challenge of a personal statement, you need to keep the character limit in mind.

This means no extraneous language. One of the best tips for writing a personal statement is to keep it brief. Anything not necessary, like an anecdote or a small joke, is just not needed.

5 - Proofread, Proofread, Proofread

Writing a personal statement is hard. However, because you are nervous and because you are prone to making mistakes, like everybody is, you may find that there are occasional spelling errors or sentences that don’t read well. That is why asking somebody to proofread your personal statement is a good idea.

We recommend asking two or three people to read your personal statement before you submit it. This can involve speaking to teachers, family members, or respected friends. You want somebody who is going to give you a serious, honest opinion about how your personal statement looks. Plus, this helps to avoid those spelling errors or clunky sentences.

6 - Know Your Worth

Writing a personal statement can be emotionally challenging. Many people find that when they sit down and put themselves under the microscope to identify different characteristics to talk about, it becomes uncomfortable.

You become critical and judgemental of yourself for what you perceive to be a lack of good qualities. It’s important to try and remember that you are a unique person with strengths and assets. You have things that you can offer a university; you just have to think about them. You might not be a star athlete or the smartest person in your class, but you have your own strengths to offer.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to writing a personal statement, we know it can be difficult. It’s hard to sit down and talk about yourself in a positive light, especially when you know there is a lot riding on it. The most important thing that you can do is speak from the heart. Be honest with yourself and the admissions tutors about who you are as a person.

If you’re passionate, let your passion come through. If you want to dream big, show them your ambition. You have to be authentic because admissions tutors know when somebody is trying to sound impressive for the sake of scoring points. One of the best tips that we can give you for writing a personal statement is to just be yourself. If you are true to who you are, then your true strengths will come out.

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