When writing your UCAS personal statement, you need to cover:
1. Why you want to do this course.
2. What knowledge you have of the subject
3. What experiences you have which inform your decision
4. What achievements you have that are relevant to your application.
5.What your personal qualities are.
You need an opening which interests the reader but avoids the rather predictable formula of “I have been fascinated by nuclear physics from my childhood” which probably isn’t true anyway. If you have had a long-standing interest in a subject, than say so, but explain it. For example, if you have long planned to be a doctor it may well be that someone in your family has been in the medical profession and that you have been impressed by your relative’s professionalism or by what he or she has told you about the doctor’s job. Perhaps your ambition has developed out of aspects of your A-level courses, in which case, say so. In your UCAS personal statement say that you love the science in medicine, but also try to give a human dimension as well. For example, “My ambition to study medicine has developed partly out of the way the physiology aspects of my human biology course have caught my imagination, but also out of a real desire to pursue a career which could make a difference to people’s lives.”
The second item on the list of essentials for your UCAS personal statement, the evidence of your knowledge of the subject you are applying for, is usually the least well done part of the personal statement in most candidates’ forms. If you’re applying to read chemistry, for example, the admissions tutor is not very interested if you’ve been in the first fifteen, but wants to know if you know anything abut chemistry. Showing that you have a real passion for your chosen subject in the UCAS personal statement is a positive move and will be well received, and preferably an aspect which is not just a basic part of the A-level syllabus. You must show curiosity about your subject. Of course you must actually have curiosity about it, or your university career is unlikely to be very fulfilling. If you can show in your UCAS personal statement that you are really interested in some aspect of your subject, and that you have followed up that interest with some research of your own, the admissions tutor will take your application seriously. So, to continue with the example of the aspiring chemistry undergraduate’s UCAS personal statement, it would be good to mention that you know something about Boyle, Faraday and Dorothy Hodgkin, and the development of the science of the three-dimensional structures of biological molecules. The UCAS personal statement should show that the candidate knows something about the role of chemistry in the modern world, the discovery of antibiotics, the new materials used in high-tech electronics, and the fertilizers and pesticides that enable the world’s population to be fed. With this sort of content, your personal statement will certainly stand out.
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