How to write a great personal statement
Here at BSU, we know that the idea of writing your personal statement can be daunting. That’s why we've gathered up some top tips on how to write a personal statement that’ll help you stand out amongst the crowd.
Within your personal statement, you want to cover three main points.
1. Why do you want to study the course?
This is the most important part of your personal statement and should take up the majority of the word-count.
Think here about the real reasons that you’re going to university, like your enthusiasm for your subject, and your desire to try new things and have new experiences.
This is the prime time to demonstrate who you are as an individual, so make sure to speak clearly and truthfully about what really excites you about university.
2. What will you bring to the course?
This is also a good spot to talk about your academic achievements. Make sure that you don’t simply list them, however; we want to see how you got them! Explain what you’ve learned, and the hard work you did to get there.
For example, if you’ve got really high grades in a particular subject, this is a good time to talk about all the revision, after-school sessions, and dedication that it took to get those marks.
Show how you’ll be a successful and committed student, with the skills and experience you need to thrive at university.
3. What do you hope to achieve?
Graduation may feel a very long time away, but it’s good to enter university with at least a vague idea of what you want to get out of it.
You can speak here about the potential careers you want to go into, or if you’re considering further postgraduate study after your undergrad.
If you’re not sure about what your future holds, you can instead talk about the skills and confidence that you hope to leave university with.
Some extra top tips...
- Make sure you structure your personal statement so that it’s well organised and easy to read. Avoid just writing a long block of text where possible; paragraphs are your friend here! Remember, a personal statement is a piece of academic writing, so structure it like you would an essay, and avoid any slang.
- Avoid clichés! The Admissions team who will read your statement will have gone though hundreds – if not thousands – of applications already. Avoiding the use of clichés; like the words ‘passionate’, or common phrases like ‘from a young age’, amongst others, will help your statement stand out. Try to be as original as possible, so that the team has a good reason to keep thinking about your application long after they've read it.
- Make sure that you avoid naming individual universities in your statement, as your personal statement will go out to all of your choices.
- Remember that you’ve only got 4,000 characters! Try to be concise and keep a clear message throughout. UCAS have lots of useful tips on their website.
Personal statements and AI
We realise that AI tools are already reshaping the way we work and will become integral to many careers. However, a key aspect of the personal statement is that it’s personal to and written by you.
A personal statement written using generative AI is likely to be less personal and therefore less effective at conveying who you are and why you want to study the course. Some universities, BSU included, also consider personal statements that have been written using generative AI as plagiarism, meaning that your application may be rejected.
UCAS has a helpful guide on AI and personal statements that could be useful to you at all stages of your studies.