Uni applications for Sept 2022

[NCTDN]

Apologies if there's already a thread like this. DD writing her personal statement atm but thought a thread to share ideas would be good?

Some of us are starting to chat about online open days etc here:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/4275545-Corona-Cohort-Y12-into-Y13-braving-the-storm-of-the-third-wave

Ds(17) will hopefully be applying for 2022 entry. He is just starting 6th year in Scotland and for the last year has been pretty sure he would be applying for civil engineering and has been reading up on it and attending webinars, all of which he had enjoyed, but is now having a change of heart and looking at another engineering discipline. So he needs to sort that out in his head before thinking about his personal statement.

He spoke to his teacher about how much help the school give with writing personal statements and they were a bit wooly and I've heard from other parents of older children they got very little support, so think he'll need to sort it out himself. I had hoped he would do something on it over the summer holidays which started this week in Scotland, but don't see much happening until he makes his mind up.

@NCTDN

Apologies if there's already a thread like this. DD writing her personal statement atm but thought a thread to share ideas would be good?

But it's meant to be a personal statement, not an "ideas picked up on Mumsnet" statement.

I doubt my DC will let me anywhere near his until it's nearly finished, and only then if I approach the idea of me reading it with tact. But his school have done a session on it, and they asked some year 13's with offers in the bag to share some of theirs to give them the basic idea. I doubt he's started his yet though.

You are lucky your dc school does sessions, others don't and and left to sink or swim. There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking on a Higher Education topic for some advice or ideas to support dc.

OP, there is a forum called The Student Room which has a personal statement topic and articles where your dd might get some ideas of the kind of things they are looking for, they also offer a free ps review service (once only per student so probably just use for the near final draft).

Also watch out for ucas days and university virtual open days where they might have sessions giving advice on personal statements where your dd can ask questions.

I've seen a couple with ds and some do recommend getting as many close friends and family you can to review a personal statement and give feedback on whether it is a true reflection of the young person, so nothing wrong with that either! If it's great she feels open and confident enough to discuss her ideas with you.

Thanks. I wasn't meaning to pinch other ideas, more that I am after others going through the same process of ucas applications. It's such a minefield!

The main thing to remember about personal statements is that they are looking for what the applicant has done in relation to their subject. Only 25% of the statement should be on their sporting/volunteering/music/daram if it does not directly relate to their degree subject and potentially even less if Oxbridge. Medic may want to see more of this and there are medic threads which discuss that in.

Also it should not be a list of what you have done and what you have read but why what you have done or read inspired further thinking or research or what it lead you to do.

Some schools are not very good at explaining this to their students so if OP needs to ask what constitutes a good PS then here is as good a place as any to ask.

As a previous poster has said on TSR there are even sample statements and some of these even show which unis they applied to/got offers from. Do remember though it does need to be tjeir own work and also they are checked for plagiarism. Also if it is a subject that is likely to be interviewed then don't make things up! You may get caught in a lie.