Elevating your Personal Statement
Personal Statements require you to think in a self-reflective way about your own academic interests and motivations, meaning that the style and approach is quite different from anything you would usually write at school.
As such, it is natural to feel daunted at the prospect of having to write your first draft! However, we have some tips and helpful examples to give you some inspiration on how to talk in a personal, authentic and cohesive way about your chosen subject.
Personal statements are a key part of university applications, as they offer you a chance to express your interest in the subject and profile your relevant knowledge and skills. Your statement should aim to give your chosen universities a sense of who you are as an individual beyond your numerical grades, and why you have chosen this particular course.
This means that your Personal Statement has a persuasive function: you are making the case that you would be an ideal student for this course. However, it should not simply be a list of bold claims about yourself! Universities are much more interested in evidence that you have shown initiative in seeking to understand more about your subject. The aim is ultimately to come across as a motivated and well-prepared student who would genuinely enjoy the course.
Bearing this purpose in mind can help you in the writing stage, giving you a sense of what each paragraph is meant to achieve.
Create a good first impression
Introductions are a great place to say something genuine and eye-catching; they are, after all, the first impression that an admissions tutor will have of you personally. Starting in an original and memorable way about why you love your subject, and avoiding too many clichés, will help you to stand out.
For example, rather than claiming that they have always loved Physics and attributing their passion to a eureka moment in their childhood, this candidate is refreshingly honest:
“It is difficult to say why I like Physics as opposed to Biology or Chemistry. They are natural sciences, informing us through the use of rigorous mathematical and empirical methods. I think I like the kookiness of Physics: the universe seems to be made up of odd bits and bobs, its elements like bric-a-brac found scattered across a messy attic. There is something to it that feels satisfying the way spring cleaning does, as if we are all coming together to tidy up the garden shed, but for reality.”
Curate your academic content
Expressing interest in your subject is a good place to start – but what about the main body? These paragraphs should be academically focused, and demonstrate your interest and further reading or experiences in a way that is thematically connected. These will then provide the evidence that you enjoy learning more about your subject.
A good example of this is below:
In learning more about feminist theory, I became interested in the question of whether intersectionality is a helpful buzzword for modern feminist goals, or if it plays into unhelpful forms of identity politics. From a utilitarian perspective, a more universalist approach may seem a fair way of identifying goals that are in the interests of as many women as possible, and emphasizing women’s common issues instead of their differences to create a united focus. However, after reading the work of bell hooks, I became convinced that a lack of intersectional awareness contributed in practice to hypocrisy that undermined previous feminist waves; universalism may not only lead to a ‘tyranny of the majority’, then, but further entrench the under-representation of disadvantaged groups such as women of colour. Further, Iris Young’s ‘politics of difference’ suggests that conflating distinct issues facing different individuals would be counterproductive: as demonstrated by the American Red Power movement, groups can work cohesively towards common goals while emphasizing rather than erasing difference among their members.
This applicant comes across as someone with both passion for and understanding of political theory: they focus effectively on evaluating a particular question that interests them, and build the case for their own view.
Firstly, they package their super-curricular reading in an analytical way which shows themselves being inspired by a topic and then researching further arguments to help them in developing their opinions; this creates a natural flow within the paragraph.
The applicant also references academic knowledge in a subtle way. Rather than explaining what they know to the tutor, which would be unnecessary, they jump straight into their own reflections in a way that still indicates that they have immersed themselves in the key ideas and terminology of their field.
How do you round a statement in a way that is not anti-climactic, or simply repeats what you have already said?
The answer here is to come across in a confident way, confirming your understanding of the value of your subject and that you would be well-suited to exploring some of its most interesting questions.
For example:
‘Being able to study Theology, however, is not simply a matter however of having an early grasp of scripture, or being familiar with the premises of Aquinas’s five ways. It requires being open to the possibility that our natural scientific outlook is narrower in scope than a higher outlook, and that it is from the balcony of Theology that we can think about the wider significance of science, art and culture religiously cast. I am spurred on to open my mind this way, because of a deep-seated feeling that physical reality is only half the story, and my goal as a Theology student would be to seek out all that we might have lost sight of.’
At Oxford and Cambridge Tutors, we understand that the Personal Statement is a long-term project. If you would like further support with refining your draft, we can also offer specialist tuition packages which enable students to work with experts to enhance the style, structure and academic content of their work.
