UCAS Personal Statement

Yosiah

Yosiah

Yosiah

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17 Sep 2010
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Edit: Don't read. I had to remove the Personal Statement in case it causes problems with the plagiarism checking software that UCAS uses :) Just leaving the post here to protect myself.

So it's time for me to make a change, and plan to do something useful next year. I am hoping to work full time for the next 50 weeks, and use the money I save whilst living at home to move out at the same time as starting a degree in Diagnostic Radiography. I'm 24 -25 in February - so it's something I need to do now more than ever.

I have got all my references and choices done on UCAS, with just the personal statement and previous education sections to fill out. I'm still waiting for my Science Foundation Year (Access to Higher Education) transcript to come through, so I can't fill the P.Ed section in just yet; however, I have come up with a very basic personal statement - probably a few lines too short right now - and was wondering if people could tell me whether you get a good impression from it.

I know you guys aren't Admissions Tutors, but most of admissions is checking off the student has the right qualifications - I do - and that the personal statement comes across as "oh he seems nice". Ok, there's a bit more to it than that, but still.

Here it is.

Sadly copyright might harm me :(

--

It's definitely too short; it needs about 25% more words, I think. I was just wondering what more I could add. I hate talking about myself, such as telling people I enjoy playing computer games or reading books, or going out with friends, because it just seems weird and useless to mention it.

What would you change guys? If you are willing to help me ;)
 
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I would take it off as now it's open to all the search engines in the world and people will inevitably copy it which will cause a storm with the UCAS plagiarism detection software.
 
chaosdestro0 said:
I would take it off as now it's open to all the search engines in the world and people will inevitably copy it which will cause a storm with the UCAS plagiarism detection software.
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Ah damn, that's a good point. Well hopefully if it has already been indexed, I have proof in this thread that it was me who wrote it lol!

Well this was a useless thread ;)

Thank you for the warning, though. It's appreciated. Hopefully it hasn't been logged into any search engines, as I definitely wrote it haha! Do Universities really use plagiarism software for the personal statements?
 
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I managed to read a bit of it, I would take out anything that is irrelevant. They probably don't want to know what you did previously unless it's relevant to your degree.
Yeah you are right about not putting down the " I play drums " malarkey, unless it shows that you have skills required for the degree then it will probably work against you.
What you might want to do is talk about areas in the subject that interest you, especially if you will have interviews.

Thank you for the warning, though. It's appreciated. Hopefully it hasn't been logged into any search engines, as I definitely wrote it haha! Do Universities really use plagiarism software for the personal statements?
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UCAS does, it has a traffic light system and when UCAS sends off your application to your University it will say what level of plagiarism there is.
 
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Yeah, that's true. I thought I should put in about my previous study, even if it is listed in the education section of UCAS, because it needs explaining why I didn't go back for the second semester, and why I am choosing a different degree. I could find a way to word it shorter, however.
 
chaosdestro0 said:
UCAS does, it has a traffic light system and when UCAS sends off your application to your University it will say what level of plagiarism there is.
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Damn. I bet there are a few people that have asked for Personal Statement critiques on the web, though, without realising this?
 
Radio 4 did a hour long feature on the personal statement a couple of weeks ago from rubbish ones to good ones to the ones you can buy off the web.

You may be able to catch it on iPlayer, it was worth the listen.
 
I just wrote it like I had a giant penis and was gods gift to business. It worked for me ;).

**Only one of those facts is true**

Another suggestion... suck some penis and make sure your teacher loves you for when they do their reference ;).

*may have overused the term penis
 
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The R4 programme said it wasn't even the lecturers that read personal statements it was teaching assistants who had to read thousands and pull out the ones that stood out or 'moved' them
 
I don't know for certain but I'd guess that personal statements don't matter hugely in terms of applications for most people unless they're either brilliant or terrible and that will make them noteworthy to the person reading them. Essentially as long as you don't say anything completely daft I suspect you'll be fine, just explain something about what you've done and why you've chosen the course with maybe a little about you as a person e.g. hobbies etc and you should be ok. However maybe standards have improved greatly since I went to university in this regard as my personal statement was a load of tosh.
 
maccapacca said:
That's perfectly valid except for over subscribed places when they have to weed before interviews
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Apart from all university places are oversubscribed :P.
I don't think there are many universities that struggle to get students in, even my little Electronic engineering course has 6 applicants per place. Makes me feel depressed that for that reason my B in physics will get stoned to death even if the requirements allow for a B.
 
maccapacca said:
That's perfectly valid except for over subscribed places when they have to weed before interviews
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Maybe it has got a whole lot more competitive than when I went through the process then. I did say that it might have changed in the intervening period although I'll admit to being a little bit surprised if it has changed all that much.
 
semi-pro waster said:
Maybe it has got a whole lot more competitive than when I went through the process then. I did say that it might have changed in the intervening period although I'll admit to being a little bit surprised if it has changed all that much.
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The amount of to be students trying to get in this year before the fees go up is massive, no ones taking gap years and mature / older students are all deciding this year is the year they want to start.

Next year it'll cost a fortune
 
UCAS only allow you to have so many words, well they capped it when i filled mine out :).

Just refer to yourself only, not "we", which is what i did. (as we had a lot of team work, and production which i achieved the highest grade in my class)

Also if you're currently studying, or have access to college, see if you can make an appointment with a Higher Education Adviser, or someone similar.

They will run you through your UCAS application and your statement with you.

This is what i did, got offered 3 places from 5 i applied for, as well as a scholarship :).

Be yourself, and don't make any mistakes.

Write it out by hand at first, and use correct punctuation, they always look for that. Oh and spelling too, no stupid mistakes.

Also list interests and hobbies and how you have progressed, showing links between previous courses and experience to what you are currently applying for.

Hopefully this has helped a little bit, but if it hasn't i wish you the best of luck :)
 
Personal Statements annoyed me. From the sample ones school gave us every kid was captain of the hockey team, captain of the rugby team, etc. No-one played on the rugby team, they were all captain of the rugby team :rolleyes:.


I hated writing it, but mine can't have been that bad though in the end as my offer was a good bit lower than others on my course.
 
OP I take it you are going to go to open days etc? Whilst Personal statements are important being known by your future lecturers is easily as, if not more, important.

Make a good impression on the day and they may offer to get you in the side door as it were. I had something like this when I went to an open day and made a good impression apparently, the lecturer told me that if I didn't get the grades to give him a call...
 
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