How To Write Your Undergraduate Personal Statement For The 2024 Entry
Writing personal statements for university is hard. Even the best students struggle to craft a personal statement which gives them the best chance at a university application.
We’re going to help you make the right decisions by taking you through the personal statement process step-by-step.
What is a Personal Statement?
Your personal statement is a way for you to showcase your strengths. Your personal statement is used to show the university why you are the right candidate for undergraduate studies.
How Long Should Your Statement Be?
All personal statements need to reflect UCAS guidelines. This means you have a maximum of 4000 characters, including all spaces and punctuation.
UCAS themselves suggest drafting a personal statement and then amending it on a separate system before uploading it to avoid mistakes.
How to Start Writing
If you want to start your personal statement, then you begin with a short introduction. Talk about why you are applying and what it means to you. Some people recommend that you write the beginning part last to frame your argument once it’s taken shape naturally.
Make sure you avoid generic, cliche-style phrases and explanations. Nobody wants to hear the same personal statement examples rewritten over and over.
Lots of students try to mimic successful submissions or come up with some profound quote about their field. It never succeeds; just be authentic.
How To Structure a Statement
So, how do you structure a personal statement?
Well, there is no set structure or guideline to follow - it is usually up to you how you plan and layout your personal statements. Obviously, it’s hard to know what to do for the best when there is so much riding on this. There are plenty of examples out there if you need them.
If you want to put down a proper structure, try and think about each point you want to include and allocate a sentence or two. The personal statement word limit is 47 lines so use them wisely.
Our Recommended Structure
We’ve been helping to write personal statements for a long time. Here’s what we suggest:
First, start your UCAS personal statement with your intro, and talk about your interest in the degree. Next, write a short piece about how you became interested in studying your field.
After that, talk about your academic ability and then your work experience in the field to illustrate your resolve. Finally, surmise your aspirations and why you feel you’d be a good choice for the course.
You don’t have to use this structure, it’s just a recommendation that we’ve come up with.
Statement Deadline
The deadline for personal application submissions and personal statements will vary according to each university you want to apply to. Certain courses may also have different deadlines. Make sure to check with UCAS to get specific dates.
If you miss the deadline by mistake, contact your university of choice. If they have any vacant slots, then you can use them to continue applying. However, this is not guaranteed, so ensure you take note of specific deadlines.
The Characteristics of a Winning Personal Statement
A good UCAS personal statement will do a few things. It will help the reader understand your ambitions, skills, personality, and why you want to apply. Don’t be afraid to get specific to explain why you want to apply.
Any UCAS personal statement you create should be authentic. It is important to ensure that you make something unique for yourself and focus on showing your real self in your prose.
University Statement Writing Tips
Any great personal statement that you create should talk about your skills and knowledge. It should also outline your desire to be part of the course. Tailor each statement you write to the course you want to do.
Try to pick out any skills or social work that you feel will help you excel and use those in the personal statement.
Did you take a gap year, for example? What about extracurricular activities? You should also talk about how your skills can help you when it comes to studying.
Your primary focus should be on the body of your work. You might try for a sharp or witty introduction - this is not necessary.
Try to focus on the main point of your writing - why you want to study your course at the university.
Your writing should be proofread once you’ve written it and be free of grammatical errors, repetition and spelling.
This document is the first impression that you’ll make with your university, so it needs to be positive enough to see you through to an interview.
You should always write your personal statement in advance to protect yourself from running out of time and also to have enough time to make changes when you’re finished - the first draft you create is never the final one.
If you write a personal statement, it should be simple to understand.
A good personal statement should never aim to be clever or witty. That means you should keep jokes and other statements out of it. Admissions tutors don’t care for them.
Don’t go looking for a personal statement pdf or try to use a personal statement generator. All you’re going to do is sound generic and uninspired.
Ending Your Statement
Ending your personal statement is important and makes a big difference for your chosen subject. If you try to write an amazing personal statement and the ending is weak, it ruins the entire piece of writing.
You should end by concluding what you’ve already said and summarising the key points in the personal statement. This means that an admission team can pick out the information they need at a glance.
Your conclusion should be all about how your skills and knowledge will help you to contribute meaningfully to the university and that you’re a good fit for the course.
It can also be a good idea to talk about what you want to do while you’re at the university - whether this is joining a club or starting a new activity for other students. Showing a willingness to get involved in university life can help a lot. If you took a trip to an open day, talk about what caught your eye.
If you need a little help when it comes to writing a personal statement, then we can help. Our team of writers has considerable experience with creating personal statements which are going to look good and showcase your skills through a university submission.