A well structured and professional personal statement plays a vital role in your UCAS application; it’s an opportunity to present your skills, ambitions, and relevant experience. It’s essentially an essay all about you, and how you’d make a great student!

You have a limit of 4,000 characters to convince the admissions tutor you’re suited to the course, which means you’ll more than likely need to carry out a number of re-drafts before you’re completely happy with it. There are numerous tools and advice sites that can assist you in the writing of your personal statement, including a custom essay writing service, and various templates. 

So what do you need to write about?

Whilst there’s no definite structure or formula to writing an effective personal statement, there are certainly a range of guidelines that can help you. But before you even begin writing, take time to plan it – identify your skills and personal qualities that you’d like to include, and think about what it is the university/course you’re applying to will value most. As the saying goes, ‘If you fail to prepare, you should prepare to fail’.

  • When it comes to the tone and style, try to maintain an enthusiastic approach throughout your personal statement. Don’t make it too complex, and try to be conscious.
  • It’s important to stand out, but be careful with jokes, quotes, and humour in your statement; unfortunately, the admissions tutor might not have much of a sense of humour.
  • Proof reading is essential, when you have to redraft an essay several times, you’ll be surprised at the number of errors and mistakes you’ll make. For effective proof reading, always read aloud, and get your tutor and teachers to check it for you. They can also suggest any improvements you can make.
  • The same personal statement will be used for all courses and unis you apply to, so you should avoid using names of colleges and universities. If you’ve chosen to apply for varied subjects, try to write about common themes such as your problem solving skills.
  • Once you have written your personal statement, and checked the UCAS application tips from the BBC, or have used a a custom essay writing service, and are satisfied with it, paste it into your online application and double check the character limit. Be sure to save it regularly; it will time out after 35 minutes of inactivity.

Your personal statement can be time consuming, so give yourself the time required to think about it thoroughly. After all, simply getting your required grades and/or experience won’t get you onto your chosen course  alone, personality is key!