UCAS Personal statement

Here is some general advice on your UCAS Personal Statement:

Why are you applying?

• For example why you want to study at higher education level.
• Why that subject interests you.
• What your ambitions are when you finish your course.

What makes you suitable?

• Skills, knowledge, achievements and experience you have that will help you do well.
• These could be from education, employment or work experience, or from hobbies, interests and social activities.

Which of your skills and experiences are most relevant?

• Check course listings to see what level of understanding you need to have and what qualifications or skills they’re looking for.
• This way you can link your experiences to the skills and qualities they mention, and you can put them into a structure that’s most relevant to the course providers.
• The strongest applicants are those who can link their extra-curricular activities to their proposed course of study.” – Assistant Registrar for Undergraduate Admissions, University of Warwick.

For a helpful prompt sheet click here: Personal Qualities Checklist

There‘s no right answer for how to write it, or any definite formula you should follow – just take your time and don’t worry if it doesn’t sound right on your first attempt. Even the best writers in the world redraft their work!

Follow these links for the official UCAS advice:

Undergraduate course – https://www.ucas.com/undergraduate/applying-university/how-write-ucas-undergraduate-personal-statement

Postgraduate courses – https://www.ucas.com/postgraduate/how-apply-through-ucas/how-apply-postgraduate-courses/filling-your-ucas-postgraduate-application

Teacher training courses – https://www.ucas.com/postgraduate/teacher-training/applying-teacher-training/how-write-teacher-training-personal-statement