The Personal Statement can be one of the most difficult and daunting aspects of the UCAS application.
So we thought we’d try and help, by asking our own students at UCFB the best ways to structure the statement, and what to include in it.
Anna Blow, who studies BA (Hons) Multimedia Sports Journalism, has put together some top tips for how best to tackle writing your personal statement.
For more support and advice, a webinar session will be held on Tuesday 1st December by UCFB, which is specifically designed to help students with the task.
A personal statement is one of the most important things in a UCAS form and one that can cause a lot of stress.
It was particularly hard trying to find a way to start it. I didn't have anyone to guide me when it came to writing it as I had been out of education for a few years.
One thing that I did help was attending a UCFB open day. There was a team there that held meetings to help with writing the personal statement, and afterwards, they gave everyone an email address of someone who could look at their statement and send feedback.
Firstly, you need to know what sort of things to look at. I started by looking at the description of the courses I wanted to do. It will help you get a feel of what they are looking for when you are applying and will help you with what to write in the personal statement.
Unless you are only applying to one institution, you can't tailor your personal statement to the particular course an institution provides. However, you should have an idea of what course you want to study so you should be able to tailor it around the area of the course.
Before applying, I had a look at the courses and I knew that the Multimedia Sports Journalism programme at UCFB was the best fit for me with what I wanted to do upon graduation. So I was able to tailor the personal statement for the specific course and institution.
You should also think about why you want to do the course as this will help you when writing your statement. I included what I wanted to do after graduation and why I thought that my chosen course would help me with this.
If you are applying to multiple institutions have a look at the course modules and see if there's any they have in common; if there is you can talk about these and why they look exciting. If you are only applying to UCFB, have a look at the course modules and see which ones look the most interesting; talk about them and why they interest you.
I then talked about what experience I have that is specific to the course I was applying for. As mentioned above, I applied for a journalism course, so I said that I’d started my own motorsport blog and discussed what I posted and how often.
I then talked about what I did in college. I explained how my college course helped me as a person without it having much relevance to what I wanted to study at UCFB; I then went on to talk about my achievements throughout school and college.
When I had finished writing the statement, I got my family to check it for mistakes and to see if there was anything they thought I could do to improve it. Then I sent it to someone related to UCFB to check. You could also send it to a college/sixth form teacher as they’ll be willing to check it through for you.
The most important thing to remember is: If you get stuck, don't be afraid to ask for help. There will always be someone around to help should you need it.
For more tips and tricks, see what UCFB students Luc and Sian have to say.
Good luck!
