The Personal statement  

WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR PERSONAL STATEMENT

This is your chance to tell the universities and colleges you have chosen why you are applying, and why they should want you as a student. Admissions officers will want to know why you are interested in the courses that you have applied for and what you hope to do after your studies. A good personal statement is important – it could help to persuade an admissions officer to offer you a place. In many cases, applicants are not interviewed, so this may be your only chance to make the case for your admission.

You do not have to use all the space provided. Consider carefully the information you give to support your application and the best way to present it effectively. Remember, you must be truthful and accurate in what you write. It is up to you how you write your statement, but we suggest you include some or all of the following points.

 

• Why you have chosen the courses you have listed. Remember that, although each university or college that you have applied to cannot see your other choices, they will all see the personal statement.
• What interests you about your chosen subject. Include details of what you have read about the subject.
• What career plans you have for when you complete your course.
• Any job, work experience, placement or voluntary work you have done, particularly if it is relevant to your subject. You may want to give the skills and experience you have gained from these activities.
• Any involvement in widening participation schemes such as summer schools or mentoring activities.
• Involvement in master classes or other Gifted and Talented programmers, including those offered by the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth.
• Details of non-accredited skills and achievement that you have gained through activities such as:
• ASDAN (Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network awards), for example, Universities Award;
• Diploma of Achievement;
• Duke of Edinburgh Award;
• Liverpool Enrichment Programme;
• Millennium Volunteers Scheme; and
• Young Enterprise.
• Your future plans.
• Any subjects you are studying that do not have a formal assessment.
• Any sponsorship or placements you have or have applied for.
• If you are planning to take a year out, your reasons why.
• Your social, sports or leisure interests.

You may want to include information from your Progress File. While you should not include details of performance in individual units of qualifications, such as GCE AS and A level, in the education section, you may put this information in the personal statement.

If you want to send more information, perhaps a CV, send it direct to your chosen universities or colleges after UCAS have sent you your welcome letter and Personal ID/application number. Do not send a CV to UCAS.

 

HOW TO P ROVIDE YOUR PERSONAL STATEMENT   This is done on the ‘online’ application form. You can enter 4,000 characters, including spaces, for your personal statement. You can use up to 50 lines of text and each line has space for 80 characters. When you save text, the ucas apply system will automatically tell you how many more characters are still available or if you have used too many characters. You can view the layout and format of any text you have entered before or after you have saved it. You should prepare your personal statement offline as a word-processed document, select all (Ctrl +A), then copy (Ctrl +C) and paste in the text by clicking in the reference box and holding down Ctrl +V. You can also enter your personal statement online directly into the space provided. W e recommend that you prepare your personal statement offline using a word-processing package because the ucas apply system will time-out after 60 minutes of inactivity. If you enter your personal statement directly into ucas apply, you must save it regularly to prevent your work being lost.  You will not be able to change the presentation of your personal statement by using features such as bold, italic or underlined text. When you paste text into your personal statement, you may need to reformat it after you have saved it for the first time. It is recommended that your parents and your tutor check the personal statement before you paste it into the ucas apply section.

Very Important Application Dates   1 st SEPTEMBER 2006 Opening date for UCAS receiving applications. Early applications are appreciated by UCAS and your tutor who needs time to write the reference. LATE SEPT/EARLY OCT 2006 By now the first applications should have been checked by your tutor and you should have requested a reference – especially if you have the 15/10/05 deadline! 15 th OCTOBER 2006 Closing date for applications to Oxford, Cambridge, medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine or veterinary science. END OF OCTOBER 2006 All remaining reference requests should be with your tutor. The half term is a deadline used by most schools and colleges and UCAS receive most applications at this time! 1 st JANUARY 2007 First date that UCAS must receive Art and Design Route B applications. 15 th JANUARY 2007 Closing date for applications (including Art and Design Route A). 13 th FEBRUARY 2007 First date UCAS send applications for Art and Design Route B round 1 choices to universities and colleges. 7 th MARCH 2007 Advisory closing date for Art and Design Route B applications. 16 th MARCH 2007 Start of UCAS Extra. 24 th MARCH 2007 Final closing date for Art and Design Route B applications. 12 th JUNE 2007 Last date that UCAS must receive Art and Design Route B applications before Clearing 30 JUNE 2007 Last date that we must receive all other (i.e. late) applications before Clearing. 20 SEPTEMBER 2007 Last date for Clearing applications.

A Power point presentation on your personal statement

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