What you need to know

 

The format of the Personal Statement has changed - you now have to answer three questions which will help you to structure your statement.

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However, advice from UCAS and the universities is that the content of the Personal Statement needs to remain the same, it is just the format that has changed.

 

The character limit is also the same - you have a total of 4000 characters including spaces and you must use a minimum of 350 characters including spaces in each section.

 

Please note: you can choose the section in which you would prefer to include your evidence, skills and outside interests; for example, work experience could go in section 1, 2 or 3:

• if it is an entry requirement, it might make up a large part of section 1

• if it is there to demonstrate you have some useful skills, it could go in section 2

• if you wanted to mention it as something you enjoy in your spare time, it could go in section 3

So, the focus still needs to be on the evidence you have collected of your interest in your chosen course. 
In light of this, the emphasis is on Question 1: Why have you chosen this course or subject (and what have you done to prove it?)? 
You can use up to 3300 characters including spaces for this section. It's not just about saying that you are applying because it is interesting. Full stop. This is why we add 'and what have you done to prove it?', so you can see that evidence is key! 

Please see the links to useful resources page to help you collect evidence for your Personal Statement.

Question 2: How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?

This is a short section about your useful transferable skills (minimum 350 characters including spaces)

Question 3: What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?
This is also a short section about your outside interests, possibly with a concluding sentence if you have space (minimum 350 characters including spaces)

 

Collecting evidence

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Visit the 'Useful links' page to get you started

Create an Evidence Table and make a note of everything you do, watch or read which relates to your chosen course.

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Add in links if you can for easy revision later on. It doesn’t have to be in chronological order but if you put in an approximate date, it may help to get your thoughts organised when you begin to put things together.

 

If you have a particular point you want to include, or if your original activity led to something else, jot it down in the ‘Notes’ section – for example, if you decide that the reason you would like to study engineering stems from reading an article about a supersonic plane and led to your EPQ, your table might look like this:

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Jan 
Article on ‘Boom’ supersonic plane made me consider aeronautical engineering as my degree, led to my EPQ on supersonic and hypersonic flight 
Feb 
YouTube lecture on thermodynamics learned a few of the basic principles of engineering
March 
Science Daily article on aerospace - turbulence and aircraft design, led me to read book (below)
May
YouTube video on Bernoulli. Bought a book 2nd hand on Amazon ‘Understanding Flight’ by David W. Anderson and Scott Eberhart. Learned…….
July/ August 
University summer school – tried experiments outside the syllabus, interesting lectures from engineering professors, presented a project with my team on what we covered during the week.
Developed confidence, communication, research and presentation skills……​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

August

Visited Kennedy Space Centre - blew my mind! Decided to look at aerospace courses as well

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​​​​Linking your evidence together

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It may be quite obvious how things fit together. For example,

• you may have carried out a work experience in a hospital (always name the hospital) which gave you the motivation to apply for medicine

• it may have been on a renal ward which led you to investigate kidney failure for your EPQ

• further work experience at an elderly care home allowed you to interact with patients which gave you an understanding of……..

• as a result, you took on an additional volunteering opportunity……

• this gave you an interest in the causes of dementia and you carried out an independent research project into Alzheimer’s…and so on.

 

If things aren’t coming together quite so smoothly, try to see links between different activities. Reflect briefly on what you learned and only include one or two points as a maximum for each piece of evidence. If you can’t fit things together very easily, start a new paragraph. At this stage, it’s much better to have too many examples and go over the UCAS limit rather than not enough, so include as much as you can before things get edited back.

AVOID: lists and going into too much detail (about a book/ experiment/ work experience)

Eventually, you may realise that you can’t fit everything in. Therefore, you may need to leave out one or two pieces of evidence or ask your teachers nicely if they will include the extra examples in your reference.

 

MEET ALL SCHOOL DEADLINES!

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The overall content and structure​
Aim for about 80% evidence of your interest in the course, with a simple sentence or two to start off with explaining why you are applying for the course and then lots of lovely evidence you have collected and reflected on. The final 20% encompasses your skills, good qualities and outside interests plus a final sentence summing up why you have applied for the course.

Please note: you can choose what you write in answer to each question but the 80/20 balance needs to be there!

Finding a good starter (Tip: wait until after you have collected some evidence and the starter may write itself!)

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Don’t waste space by waffling or saying you want to study something just because it is interesting. Full stop. You need to explain what you find interesting about it, perhaps it’s a particular topic you know you’ll be able to carry on studying at university or something related to it. 

You may like to start with something you’ve been inspired by – perhaps an innovation, an article, a poem, your work experience or someone’s designs – then explain how you were inspired and what you did as a result. Or, you could include a statement or some questions to show that you know what the course entails and that you are enthusiastic about studying it in more depth. 

UCAS limits

For extra advice, the UCAS website has guidelines for filling in the whole form – you’ll be applying online and the statement format is standardized: 4000 characters including spaces, with a minimum of 350 characters in answer to each question.
You should aim for 80% evidence of your interest in the course (outside reading and research) and no more than 20% on skills, good qualities and outside interests.
Please be aware that it may need to be slightly less than 4000, depending on your word processing software.