MA Personal Statement service

[SugarSkyHigh]

Can anyone please give me their opinion on whether paying for a service to help with a personal statement is worth it? The uni being applied to definitely wants a personal statement (I know some places don't want them these days).
DD can write her own statement but it would be reassuring to have someone practised in this to look it over.

As a teacher with 15 years experience helping students with personal statements I would advise strongly against it. I could always tell when an adult (often parents!) had a hand in the writing.The format is changing this year to a number of questions intended to guide students and give them a framework. The best statements are genuinely personal ones. Your DC's school/college may offer help, advice and possibly read through a draft.

Complete waste of money.

By all means, get someone to proofread it, but not worth paying for this.

I'm really glad to hear it would be a waste of money!!!
Changing this year to a series of questions... is that for Oct 2024 intake? For PostGrad?

PS there are no teachers to help her because as I said, this is for an MA

I think that poster is thinking about UCAS, so not applicable for postgrad.

There's loads of advice online for stuff like this @SugarSkyHigh so she won't have a problem finding guidance. Good luck to her.

How can someone proposing to study for an MA need paid help with their personal statement?

Will they be paying someone to undertake the course too?

Yes sorry wasn't concentrating. Still a waste of money.

Some clearly do pay for it as there's a buzzing market of services like that for postgrad students.

Hi, OP -

Writing as a former admissions tutor, Personal Statements written by third parties are bland, formulaic and wholly generic. How could they be otherwise? Unless they fail a plagiarism search, which does happen and utterly screws the candidate’s chances, they cannot be actively penalised. But admissions tutors are free to evaluate Personal Statements according to their own personal reactions, and do. Particularly at PG level. (At UG my School simply ignores them because we know there is too much external input and there is a large class based element.)

However a reasonable amount of help with editing and proofreading is something else entirely. If DD is still at uni, asking her Personal Tutor to look over her PS and suggest improvements is a reasonable request. In my STEM school we do this all the time. Also, the Careers Service and/or the Writing Centre at most universities will happily offer this sort of help. There may even be workshops on writing the PS. And all of these options are free.

Best wishes to DD.

Even if DD is not still at uni, most universities give alumni access to the Careers Service for a period of time, if not indefinitely. And as PP said , there is a lot of good advice online

@poetryandwine @DrSpartacular @Biscofffan thank you all for your posts - very helpful. Definitely not paying for this service! I'm sure she can write it herself (she graduated 3 years ago so probably won't access any services from her first Uni).

This!

I shall disagree with other posters. It isn't reasonable to expect anyone other than a parent or similarly close relative (older sibling) to proofread and make suggestions on a Personal Statement for free and most universities will not, contrary to belief, allow their academic or other staff to do this. Many students do not have a parent or sibling who can help and need guidance and that is why there is a flourishing market for this type of service. It is not very easy to find someone good without a personal recommendation so your child should ask around friends.

@Ceramiq my university is highly respected and I assure you that the decision on whether to do this is part of an academic’s autonomy.

Furthermore when one’s students complete the PhD their best chances for an academic postdoctoral position are with one’s close colleagues. I don’t know anyone who would insist on proofreading their student’s PS at this stage, but if anything the offer is a bit more emphatic.

They're applying for an MA!

@Ceramiq there may well be a flourishing market, but it's still a waste of money! The services are often of very poor quality and there is far better advice online from reputable websites and academic blogs, for example.

There is also a high risk of plagiarism which will kill the application stone cold dead.

What's your source?

That sounds very ChatGPTish.