[64Kb]
Find further study: personal statements for postgraduate study applications
- Before you start
- What is a personal statement?
- Who will read the personal statements?
- Suggestions for writing an effective personal statement
- Information on writing personal statements that you may find useful
- Personal statements for teacher training applications
Before you start
Personal statements are your opportunity to provide evidence that you:
- Have the ability to undertake a specific postgraduate course.
- That you are clear about how it will help you meet your career goals.
- That you have looked in detail at the course and have ensured that it gives you the opportunity to develop the relevant knowledge and skills to help you progress.
As with any career move it is essential that you think carefully about what you want to achieve. Postgraduate courses can be costly with regards to both the money and time involved. Properly selected they can be an enjoyable and effective way of increasing your career prospects. Therefore time spent in researching the options available carefully is well spent.
What is a personal statement?
Firstly, it is one of the main mechanisms for providing evidence
to postgraduate course providers that a course is right for you and
that you have the potential to achieve the learning outcomes required.
Usually you are given prompts to give you an indication of what issues
you need to address. For example, the University of Bath postgraduate
application form requests that:
"If you are applying to do research please use this space to
tell us about your research interests in as much detail as possible."
or
"If you are applying for a taught course, please tell us about any
relevant professional experience that you have, and about your reasons
for wishing to study on this course. Attach another sheet/CV if necessary."
In most cases you are given 1 page of A4 to make your case which
equates to between 300 and 500 words. Not all postgraduate course
providers will give you prompts so it is worth looking for those
that do so for similar courses to help you identify the key issues
that need to be addressed.
Who will read the personal statements?
This will usually be either an admissions tutor for a taught postgraduate course or the project supervisor for a postgraduate research programme (e.g. MRes or PhD supervisor). For taught and research masters courses there will probably be a large number of applications. Admissions tutors will often have several decisions to make. Firstly, they will decide who is eligible to be accepted on the course. Secondly, if there are too many eligible applicants they will decide who has priority. Thirdly, where there are studentships available that pay for fees, living expenses etc. an admissions tutor (or a panel of academics) will decide which applicants will be given such awards. The personal statement is also a key part of the selection process for applicants wanting to do medicine. It is worthwhile looking at the British Medical Association’s website for advice on the evidence that needs to be included.
The applicants that are most likely to be successful are those that make a good case giving convincing information on:
- Why they want to do the course/project.
- Why at that particular institution.
- What subject specific skills they have to offer.
- What personal experience they possess that will enable them to get the most out of a course.
- How undertaking the course will contribute to attaining their career goals.
In order for this to be most effective the personal statement will have to be:
- Written in excellent English.
- Be well structured and concise to facilitate the assessment of the case being made.
- Have no distracting errors.
Suggestions for writing an effective personal statement
Those reading your personal statement will in essence be looking for:
- A clear understanding of why you are making the application.
- An insight into your overall abilities in the context of how well they will fit with the demands of the course.
- How your academic background and work experience will contribute to your ability to make the most out of the course that you have applied for.
- Continuity of the progression from what you have done in the past, will be doing on the course and how it will contribute to your career goals in the future.
- Evidence of your communication skills, an indicator of how well you are likely to perform on course assessments and course requirements in general (e.g. presentations, group work, written reports).
- Commitment and enthusiasm – This is usually revealed by the way in which you write about the reasons that you have selected the course. It is not good enough just to say that you are committed and motivated it needs to be very clear why this is the case.
Dos and don’ts when writing your personal statement
- Do allocate a reasonable amount of time to writing your personal statement – It usually takes a lot of time to get it right, that’s why it can be a good selection tool. Don’t leave it to the last minute.
- Do make sure that you carefully read any instructions relating to the personal statement. Those reading them will be comparing your response to those of the other applicants. If you haven’t given the relevant information you probably will be quickly eliminated from the selection process.
- Do write a response within the limits set. Don’t be tempted to get around limits by using a very small font.
- Do type your final draft unless it is requested that you submit a hand-written application.
- Do write a separate personal statement for each application. Even if the courses you are applying for are very similar and at similar institutions it is unlikely that they will need exactly the same response.
- Do research both the course you are applying for and the institution that runs it carefully. This is both important for making sure it is the right course for you and for making a strong case for undertaking that programme of study at that institution.
- Do make sure that you think carefully about your positive qualities and achievements, think about how you are going to describe them and where to mention them in your personal statement.
- Do remember that work experience, hobbies, volunteering activities etc. are potentially important sources of evidence.
- Do be as definite as possible in the way you word your statement. Don’t say "I hope to do this", "I might like to do that". Instead it would be better if you could say "I want to/intend to do this".
- Don’t try to flatter the organisation that you are applying to, unless they really are the very best in the world.
- Don’t put any embellishments or untrue information into your application.
- Don’t over state your achievements and keep your comments in perspective. Write them in a way that makes your achievements clear but does not seem overly boastful.
- Don’t repeat information that is already dealt with in sufficient detail elsewhere in the application.
In all cases, if you are unsure about what to say and how to say it we would be delighted to discuss it with you at the Careers Advisory Service. To get the best results write in a style that is:
- Not too elaborate or too complicated.
- Clear and logical.
- Explain factors with as much clarity as is needed to get the point you are trying to make.
Writing the personal statement
- It is worthwhile using a structured approach to writing a personal statement. Think about what evidence the reader is looking for and think carefully about what you have done and achieved that shows that you have the abilities and interests they are looking for.
- The next step is to make a decision on the structure of the personal statement, making sure that it addresses any guidelines that are provided and/or deals with the key issues that relate to your suitability for a particular course.
- Do a first draft of the personal statement selecting the strongest evidence that you have for each key attribute required and making sure that if you have several examples for each that you indicate this in what you write.
- Review, review and review again. This usually essential to produce a good personal statement. Is what you have written in enough detail to clearly understand your level of ability and knowledge? Could it be that some of what you have written could be deleted, being superfluous?
Information on writing personal statements that you may find useful
- Application process (Fulbright Commission)
- Writing the personal statement (Purdue University)
- Personal statement (University of California Berkeley)
Personal statements for teacher training applications
Before starting your application you need to think carefully about whether you want to be a primary school teacher or a secondary school teacher and which subjects you want to teach. It is well worth looking at the Training and Development Agency for Schools website and at the relevant part of the Prospects website (search for either primary or secondary school teacher). You will see that some experience of being in schools and/or working with children forms an important part of the application and reference to it is a key part of any personal statement and can provide strong evidence that you have been interested enough to seek experience and identify the rewards and challenges of a teaching career. Be careful to write informatively about the reasons why you want to be a teacher and why you believe that you are capable of doing so. For example, "I have been a helper in two primary schools and the experience really stimulated my interest in becoming a teacher" could be more precise. The questions in a readers mind are likely to include:
- What specific aspect of the experience was important? Was it helping a child to understand/learn/cope?
- Did the experience help you identify key skills that you have and are required to be an effective teacher?
- Did you have any dialogue with the class teacher that provided a useful insight into whether you would make a good teacher?
It may also sometimes be the case that you have to indicate how your undergraduate or postgraduate study could make you particularly suitable to teach a chosen subject.