UCAS personal statement

[IKEA888]

Tips and ideas online seem a minefield.
Does anyone have any idea of good websites.for hints etc

The student room has lots of examples for you to browse through (good and bad).

Oh thank you

For most subjects/universities the UCAS statement does not make the slightest difference. I would be careful with plagiarism as this may be flagged but as long as it is honest, grammatically correct and without (too many) spelling mistakes then you should be okay. It may be of interest in some subjects/for some universities but even then there must be exceptional circumstances or achievements to make a difference or it has to be really, really bad.

UCAS uses tools to find copied ones. My 5th child's was the best and without prompting his head also said it was. He just really liked the subject and wrote some very original stuff about it.

In each case with my 5 I have asked to read it when they finish just to check for any typos the school may not spot.

Make sure most of it is about the subject they hope to study at university. Eg my daughter won a trip down the Nile for 2 aged 10 in a random competition and loved ancient history from that point - true story, she picked up about 100 scratch cards off the floor at an air port so sure she was she would win the top prize and amazingly she did! So I think she started hers with that. Do not just repeat your grade 8 piano exams which will be on the form already and school orchestra and netball - just brief mention of hobbies - although if you are applying for sports science at Loughborough your sports stuff will be very relevant.

My top tip - do not use the word "passion" or "passionate" unless writing about sexual intercourse.

My top tip - do not use the word "passion" or "passionate" unless writing about sexual intercourse.

Another top tip - except in very particular circumstances (a passion for things zoological, perhaps), possibly avoid writing about sexual intercourse altogether.

Might just be construed as taking the Personal bit of PS a bit too far.

I get impression PSs are so cultivated & manufactured that no admission process relies on them heavily. That said, anything in the PS is fair game to discuss in interview. So best if PS is written with full sincerity by the student themselves.

Whereas it is obvious from the application-to-response time for some subjects / universities that the PS can't possibly have received much, if any scrutiny, if many posts on TSR are to be believed, one university, , LSE, uses the 'personal' in 'Personal Statement' to mean, tell us in minute detail why you want us to accept you for our specific version of the course you are applying for.

I can only assume that other universities offering almost the same course as LSE one just get used to reading slightly 'odd' PSs?

I seriously can't remember writing a PS at all (it was UCCA in my day), but I assume we did something similar. Anyway, mine (along with my already achieved A levels) got me my place to read Philosophy at LSE, whilst I had also applied for Philosophy and Linguistics at UCL and I remember not what at my other choices, but equally didn't stop me changing to a completely different degree (for which my A levels were also suitable) once I got there. I suspect that wouldn't happen today.

The personal statement was about 10 lines of written text, so substantially less than they have to write now - and more about extra-curricular stuff and the rounded person.

I can't believe the guff they have to write these days. Do admissions tutors REALLY read them all and take any notice?

@lljkk

I get impression PSs are so cultivated & manufactured that no admission process relies on them heavily. That said, anything in the PS is fair game to discuss in interview. So best if PS is written with full sincerity by the student themselves.

HCP degree admission tutors primarily shortlist for interview on the PS alone, assuming other entry criteria are met.

..Marchf made me laugh although more seriously the main interest of most teenage boys is sex so in a sense every PS is a lie.

@cologne4711

The personal statement was about 10 lines of written text, so substantially less than they have to write now - and more about extra-curricular stuff and the rounded person.

I can't believe the guff they have to write these days. Do admissions tutors REALLY read them all and take any notice?

No, general consensus is that they really don't matter anymore for most universities.

Would you pay to have a personal statement written? I was offered a service ... your opinion please

Surely a personal statement is one way distinguish applicants? Say you had 50 candidates all predicted AAA you'd be looking at it?

I shortlist on personal statements - why would unis ask for them if they were irrelevant?

@Silvia1009, UCAS has this to say on the subject:

b. Your personal statement

Your personal statement must be completed by you and we do undertake checks to verify that it is your own work.

If your personal statement includes material that appears to have been copied from another source, we may notify your current school, college or other UCAS registered centre (where you have given permission for UCAS to share such information) and the universities and colleges to which you have applied, whose decision it will be to take what action they consider appropriate.
www.ucas.com/about-us/policies/privacy-policies-and-declarations/ucas-undergraduate-declaration

and

Don’tbe tempted to buy or copy a personal statement, or share yours. All personal statements are checked for similarity – if your personal statement is flagged as similar to other applicants, it could affect your chances of being offered a place.
www.ucas.com/undergraduate/applying-university/writing-personal-statement/personal-statement-dos-and-donts

I guess that if I were the kind of person who assumed that rules are only for other people (or just couldn't be arsed to string 4000 characters together for myself), I might be tempted to take the risk.

But I'm not, so I wouldn't.

I would think someone who couldn’t write a PS themselves shouldn’t be applying to university! It’s hardly difficult, surely, to say why you want a course and what you have done that makes you worthy of consideration? Plus a few words about a relevant hobby and positions of leadership etc. So I would never advise anyone to pay for such a statement. Lots of universities tell you what they want to see anyway. It’s only a case of reading it!

The PS may well be used as a tie breaker or even as part of the selection process from the start. Courses desperate for bums on seats might not be concerned about the PS of course.

I am not sure it's worth taking the risk of paying someone to write a PS for you, but 4000 words of nonsense isn't that easy to write.

Anyway, in most cases the statements will be heavily edited by parents/teachers/tutors and careers advisers. I am not sure many are 100% the applicant's own work.

4000 characters not words!

My DDs were not edited at all. It’s easy to write why you want to study something surely? Why even suggest to a DC that’s it’s nonsense? They really do need to engage in a simple task and you don’t have to use all the characters. If a DC cannot think about this and write something they must be pretty dull!

@Pipandmum

Surely a personal statement is one way distinguish applicants? Say you had 50 candidates all predicted AAA you'd be looking at it?

You'd make them all offers as you know that 40 of them will accept offers from other places

PSs go through plagiarism software. It's pretty obvious when someone else has written it.

Most course at most unis don't look at it. Some do so it's worth the effort. And let's be honest it's not that onerous.

We've been through the writing of personal statements twice and there's nothing like a blank sheet of paper to make the brain seize up!

Here's what worked for us and our DSs - interview them!
Ask them the questions the unis say they want to know about and make notes or record what they say. What comes out is much more heartfelt and true and we discovered some really lovely nuggets which none of us had thought about!

Excellent advise , thank you .

Three DC, three PSs written and submitted. By them. If actually edited by anyone other than the applicant him/herself, that person was neither DH nor myself. Never even saw DS1's; DD whipped hers out over lunch one Sunday and insisted on reading it to us. DS2 wittered on quite a lot about his, discussed it quite a bit with the appointed members of staff at school then submitted the final, 2700ish character, version without us having seen or heard it. So far, he has 3 offers and no response yet from the other two universities that I am aware of, about par for the course less than 3 weeks after submitting one's UCAS form.