Your UCAS Personal Statement

Writing Your UCAS Personal Statement

So, you’re applying to university - exciting times! But then you hear about the personal statement and suddenly you may be thinking, “Wait… I have to write an essay about myself?” Don’t panic. It’s not as scary as it sounds. Our easy guide will help you out and give you the best chance of getting an offer for your dream degree.

What is the UCAS personal statement?

Think of the personal statement as your chance to tell your story. It’s the part of your university application where you get to say, “Hey, here’s who I am, what I love, and why I’m excited to study this course.” It’s not just about grades - it’s about you.

Why is your UCAS personal statement? important?

The UCAS personal statement is where you show your passion, your personality, and your potential. It’s your chance to stand out from the crowd.

What do you have to answer?

The personal statement is split in to 3 sections:

1. Why do you want to study this course or subject?

This is your chance to share what inspires you about your chosen subject and what drives your ambition to study it at university. Talk about where your interest began, how it’s grown, and how studying this course will help you achieve your future goals.

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

Reflect on what you’ve learned so far and how your studies have helped you build the knowledge and skills you’ll bring to this course. Think about subjects, projects, or topics that link directly to your chosen area, and show how they’ve prepared you to take the next step.

3. What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?

Share experiences beyond the classroom that have shaped who you are and prepared you for university life. This could include part-time work, volunteering, hobbies, or personal challenges you’ve dealt with. Focus on what you learned from these experiences and how they’ve strengthened your readiness to study your chosen subject.

Top tips to help make your personal statement pop:

• Take it a chunk at a time. You don’t have to write the whole thing at once. Break it down into manageable pieces. Take the first section and brainstorm some ideas to get bullet points you’d like to include, and go from there.
• Get feedback. Show your personal statement to friends or teachers. They’ll be really good at letting you know if what you’ve written sounds like you, and they may have suggestions for other things you could include.
• Keep a journal of ideas. If something occurs to you that you may want to add to your personal statement, jot it down. You can always add meat to it later on.
• Write your first draft. At this point, don’t worry too much about spelling and grammar. Just get something down on paper!
• Refine what you’ve written. Now you can start adding in details and examples.
• Make sure it’s about you! Universities don’t want to read lots of generic statements about why someone wants to study a course. Relate what you write directly to your experiences.
• Be careful about using AI. While AI can be great for starting off and providing a structure to your response, or checking spelling and grammar, Universities want to know about you - not an AI generated version of you. UCAS runs checks to detect patterns of similarity in personal statements and may notify universities if they have suspicions so make sure you have personal examples in your statement.
• Show off your studies AND your extra-curricular activities. Universities are interested in life outside your school, and how it has prepared you for your chosen subject area.
• Edit your personal statement. If you’re over the character limit, decide what are the most important or impressive things you want to include and focus on those.
• Proofread. Make sure your personal statement is free from spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. This shows attention to detail which is highly valued by universities.

There are lots of examples of personal statements on the UCAS website,  including some tips for subject-specific personal statements. Your school will also be able to help with resources but ultimately, the personal statement is exactly that - personal to you.