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How Personal is the UCAS Personal Statement?
ITS Tutorial School can help students write a personal statement and complete the rest of the university application process for both the UK and the US. Visit our website to see how we can help you!
In this anxious and crucial period of university admissions, a thorny question arises that sometimes flummoxes earnest applicants: How personal is the Personal Statement, particularly in relation to British universities? The answer to this question can have a significant impact on how to write a personal statement.
In my experience, the American system seems to prize personal relationships and issues more highly than the English system. When applying for further study in 2005, I turned to my undergraduate tutor, a kindly American professor, who subsequently produced a two-page epic that was a highly flattering, and effective personal reference. When confronted with my speechless thanks and questions about his ability to effectively recall individual exchanges from lessons that took place years ago, he explained that American teachers are well practiced at writing references for their students at all the transition stages of their education, including the move from middle to high school.
The English system, it seems, is slightly colder and more subject-focused. Despite repeatedly assuring students that weary professors and subject tutors, who must wade through large volumes of resumes and statements, will not be interested in often quite private and sensitive personal information, I am still greeted with shock and incredulity that the unique core of a student’s being or the key events in their personal history might remain unacknowledged or unappreciated.
It is essential to focus on the fundamental question of why you are choosing the subject and explore the development of your individual interest through relevant work experience and wider reading. For example, if you are choosing to study law, are there any particularly controversial cases or precedent-shattering rulings that particularly excited or interested you? The truth is that the most effective strategy is to concentrate on your personal relationship to the subject you are focusing on for further study. Everything else, including noble causes like charity and voluntary work, must necessarily play a secondary role as effective complements.