Hi there, I'm Luna.
I'm a bit like an AI, except instead of making pictures of people with 16 fingers, I can help you find the perfect course and uni.
Would you like some help in your search?
A couple of weeks after we’d begun the year as second-year college students, our form tutor set us the following piece of homework:
“Write up a complete first draft of your personal statement. Due a week today.”
Naturally, the 15 of us sitting opposite her each reacted with the same look of dread, fear and panic that any college student has when hearing the words ‘personal statement’.
Why? Because it’s a task that we've never had any experience with, and many aspects of it – be it selling yourself to people you don’t know, keeping to the strict 4,000 character count or simply coming up with synonyms for ‘passionate’ – are things that most of us seem to struggle with.
A few months down the line and I’ve received offers from the five universities I decided to apply to due (in part) to the success of my personal statement.
Here are some tips that’ll help you write the best personal statement that’s unique to you.
1. Work out why you want to study the subject you’ve picked
It may sound obvious to some, but it’s something that many people find incredibly difficult - working out why you want to study a particular course.
I’m a big fan of lists, so I encourage people to write out a list of all the things they love about the course they want to do; is there a particular area you find interesting? Do you like the career options? Does it play to your strengths?
Your personal statement should convince people that this course is important to you and also why it should be important to everyone else too. The more specific you are with your reasons, the better.
This will all go in your introduction and is a great way to present yourself as well as your subject. Perhaps you had a particularly encouraging teacher in college or a memorable childhood experience that inspired you to take your subject further? Don’t forget to mention this.
Take your time to make that list of reasons to form the perfect introduction (remember – you’re introducing yourself as well as your personal statement).
2. Add your transferable skills to your personal statement
Everyone writing a personal statement will have no doubt heard of the term ‘transferable skills'. For those of you who haven’t, these are the skills that you’ll learn through school/college/part-time work/volunteering which you will need for the wider world of higher education and employment. These include time-management, essay-writing, independence and teamwork skills.
After speaking to our college careers advisors, I learnt that as well as this being a key part of your personal statement, it’s also the part that many admissions tutors see a lot of repetition in as the transferable skills students have at this stage can be limited.
Unfortunately, this is unavoidable as the subjects we’re taught before university and the part-time work available to us means that most of us will have incredibly similar transferable skills. However, it’s still possible to express your personality through this section. The next tip will help with that.
3. Include some anecdotes
Be sure to keep them short, as you don’t want to fall into the autobiographical trap. Do your friends or teachers describe your writing ability as your ‘craft’, or that you’re in your ‘element’ when composing or editing music? Make sure universities know that.
4. Don’t leave out your difficulties
Use your personal statement to explain how challenges have helped you as well as the successes – I, for example, am rubbish at keeping to the required word count (I’ve been known to go over by 1500 words before) but I've learnt how to be more concise and how to be harsh when editing my work. As annoying as qualities such as perfectionism can be, they can also be a huge asset.
5. Vary your language
Mix up your adjectives, verbs and sentence types – again, this will sound like you’re going back to the basics but it can make all the difference when you realise that the admissions officers at universities will go through hundreds of personal statements that are all saying the same things as you are.
Try to use alternative words for ‘passionate’ at every available opportunity – it’s incredibly over-written.
6. Make a list of all your achievements
My final point involves writing another list; this list, however, consists of every possible achievement, extra-curricular activity or work experience that you’ve ever had/done.
At this beginning stage, it doesn’t matter if they’re not all completely relevant and it certainly doesn’t matter if it doesn’t equal winning a medal in the Olympics or travelling the world – you’ll be surprised at how many transferable skills you can find in them. You, with the help of your tutor or a careers advisor, will be able to refine them later.
So try not to stress too much – it really isn’t as hard as it seems once you get into it. Think of it like this: every single person who has attended or is attending university has had to write a personal statement. If they can do it, so can you.
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