Tragedy Tale for personal statement?

[SmurfHaribos]

My DD is in Year 12. I was talking to a friend whose children have gone to university. She was saying it’s very important to include a Tragedy Tale in your personal statement eg a diagnosis of something, an experience of prejudice, coming from a difficult/different background etc etc. You then have to say how you overcame it/live with it and how it has made you more resilient and determined etc etc.
As it happens my DD has 2 tragedy tales she could include but she really doesn’t want to as she feels it’s private and she is still coming to terms with a significant medical diagnosis.
How important is a Tragedy Tale in a personal statement? Does everyone include one? Is she shooting herself in the foot if she doesn’t include them?
Thanks in advance.

How do the non-Oxbridge universities spot liers on the PS?

Anyway last year and this year, my kids got offers from RG/Oxbridge without a whiff of a tragedy in the PS. Though my son could have written something relevant in that category.

You'd hope the reference and the PS would triangulate but otherwise admission tutors have no way of verifying whether someone built an orphanage in their gap year etc

They don’t care if someone built an orphanage in their gap year, unless the applicant explains how the skills they learned are somehow relevant to the course they are applying for.

No. It's an application for a place at university, not a for a spot on reality TV

My dd is studying medicine. She has a chronic medical condition and wrote about the way that medicine has significantly improved her quality of life and that being a significant factor in choosing the course. Had she been applying for a different course, she wouldn't have mentioned it.

I feel this would matter for a US university like Harvard. But then. How do the US universities verify the extracurriculars?

Postgrad admissions may be different, but the only thing Harvard cared about when my brother got in were his grades and dissertation and the recommendation of his Cambridge professor. No one cared about his very ordinary MC background. He never had to build an orphanage or cure cancer 🤷‍♀️But it could be different for an undergraduate application.

Ha, my brother was forever breaking limbs as an impulsive child and was genuinely fascinated by the whole diagnosis and repair process. He went on to be a radiographer.

Maybe for subjects that don't require an interview?

DD studied biomed at university, and the admissions tutor told everyone that they only read personal statements if the student is borderline.

I've read the whole US college application process is good grades and extracurriculars. I know for PhDs in economics for example they'd only care about academics. Congrats to your brother for Cambridge AND Harvard. What did he study?

Your friend sound like a boob.

I think this approach is more common in the US but not advisable in the UK. Talk about why they're interested in the course and what they've done to demonstrate their passion / better understand the subject.

For my dc, it was the question we asked at open days: “what do you look for on the personal statement?” They gave us their criteria and dc wrote his ps to evidence these. Basically they were - show an understanding of what the course/job was about, show an interest in the subject, and as it was a vocational course they wanted some evidence of the skill set necessary for the job. This last point was the most helpful bit from open days as we wouldn’t have necessarily thought to evidence those skills.

It's only relevant in very limited circumstances eg didn't sit GCSEs due to family bereavement would be fair enough (perhaps noting how you caught up) it's certainly not the done thing! To be honest, admissions tutors don't always even read them

Most universities aren’t too 20 and most subjects aren’t economics or the competitive bits of STEM. I work at a RG and no more than 10 of our courses are actually more competitive than needing the (high) grades. I’ve no doubt there are conscientious admissions people in some departments reading PSs before sending the offers, but staff are overworked. If they’re sending out offers to basically every student with the right grades then no, they’re not really reading the PS.

The advice from people in competitive subjects who interview simply isn’t relevant to most departments. But of course many students don’t know precisely how competitive the course they’re applying to is, so it would be risky to ignore the PS if you have incomplete information.

@SmurfHaribos Was just about to write something very similar to this. DD2 has a chronic medical condition and explained in her PS that it was behind her interest in studying biomed.

If she'd been applying to study history, she wouldn't have mentioned it at all as it wouldn't have been relevant to her application.

Advanced Computer Science.

He's a super overachiever but you'd never be able to tell if you met him 😂

Never heard of this, and neither of my dc put anything in (not that they had any tragedies as such!)

If there was something that the school felt might affect a young person's achievement, they would probably mention in their reference. The only time I would recommend a child to include it in their own personal statement would be if it was something worthy* which affected their decision to choose the subject they have - e.g. someone in the family suffering a serious or chronic illness might have influenced their decision to study medicine.

*Though I don't think you should say "I grew up poor so I want to study economics to help me get into investment banking and make loads of money"!

Writing a PS explaining that your father’s wrongful conviction for murder sparked your interest in law is compelling, PP!

I am a former Russell Gp admissions tutor in a highly selective School and otherwise I would steer clear. Contextual flags are otherwise picked up. Mitigating circumstances are much more impactful when explained in the reference, and the applicant/parent is well within their rights to flag such MCs for the writer.

We want to hear about your strengths!

My ds didn't have a tragedy tale. It all linked to his long history in subject he wanted to study and what self study/experience he had in subject. So only if tragedy links in would it be relevant.

Louise Woodward’s personal statement for her law degree must have been quite something.

No of course not everyone has a tragedy tale! Very few do. But if there are "mitigating circumstances" then she should make sure the school lets the Universities know, either in the reference or otherwise.

😱 I've recently seen a documentary about her and still think she's guilty