Personal statements -what a load of shite!

[brimfull]

dd has been working on hers re-writing endlessly.

She tells me most peoples are bullshit ...so as I have asked on here before and apparently they do get read by university admission people.
Surely they must realise most of them are a crock of shite.

Surely a reference from the school and any relevant experience is enough.

My DS's personal statement was genuine. The universities can see through the bogus ones.

well dd's is as well

but how do you know that they can see through them?

I know kids at uni whose statements were magnificent works of fiction

The ones that are works of fiction tend to be very standardised as most teens don't have great imaginations. And they also tend to have a limited understanding of what universities are actually looking for.

Personally, I doubt the University admissions staff take that much notice of the Personal Statement, but I very much believe it's excellent practice for the kids to learn to assess themselves in a non academic way.

DD's doing hers now too.

I've seen lots of personal statements over recent years. Obviously the applicant has to sell him/herself so it is fine to state your "passion" or whatever for the subject and your active sporting/musical/whatever life (which of course must not be shown to have any negative impact on your studies). An applicant is not going to write that their major interest is in lying in bed until lunch time (which for many is their major interest).
Bad things I've seen in personal statements are statements like "I am really interested in X" when in an interview it would become clear that the applicant has no knowledge of X whatsoever but had put it in the statement because it sounded good.
From a more adult perspective most personal statements are (and should be) a little ragged and naive. If they are too slick it is obvious that the parents/school have had more input than the applicant. And plagiarism is definitely to be avoided.

If you read anough of them you can work out which website they all visited...my friend at uni tells me this!

Please tell me the PS does not have to be hand written. DS's writing is awful, his 3 year old sister's writing is better

Two friends who do admissions at different universties were discussing this the other day and saying how they take an instant dislike to those candidates who have climbed mount everest, singlehandedly built an African school etc, and long for the odd bit of originality occasionally...

o/seas: no handwriting - the application is through t'interweb these days.

senua thank you and thank god
You can tell I'm a UCAS virgin. Hopefully by the time DC4 (now 10 months) gets to that stage I'll have sussed it all

mumonthenet, its the only thing they've got to go on, so I think the admissions tutors do take alot of interest in the PS. And I think that the PS is supposed to be written in an academic way in order to show you are up to that degree level of study with an intellectual interest in the subject you are going for. Just saying I am interested in X and fascinated by Y needs backing up with what you have read etc to make you interested.
BTW an admissions tutor told us that all the stuff on where you have travelled just makes him jealous that he's never going to get there!

They have actual GCSE grades and the teacher reference to go on as well

As for the personal statement, they have to say why they want to do the course and back it up with something that shows their interest, eg a book they have read, a visit they have been on, any work experience/shadowing. It doesn't have to be big.

If they mention extra-curricular stuff, then it should be to demonstrate transferrable skills, such as leadership, teamwork, team building, communications, time management, planning, perseverance. They shouldn't just list what they have done.

My son put Young Enterprise, playing for our town's youth football team, and helping out on a holiday club in the summer. For each thing, he mentioned a desirable quality that it helped him develop.

I work at a University and they definitely get read here.

lazymum, yep I see what you're saying and agree. I just feel it's not the whole thing...only a part of it but I think it's great that it's required of them.

My dd is really having to think about it, how to present herself, how to express her interest in the course, how to avoid being the same as everyone else....it's all really great practice. I still I suspect that her results will be the deciding factor in whether she's offered a place or not.

As a mature student who is currently doing my own PS , can I just add never under estimate the power of the Personal Statement!

Or maybe it's just a whole lot harder because I'm old !

When I read my son's PS, i thought Who the hell is this wonderful kid, surely not my son!!

Who knows whether it was read or not, but he had six offers and is now in the final year of a Maths degree. I suspect the fact he wanted to do Maths helped more than the PS!!