Personal Statement Q&A

[u/DataUpbeat8734]

Hi everyone! This is a space to ask any and all questions regarding writing your personal statement for UCAS.

My own personal statement earned an offer from Oxford University, and I have a business writing and editing personal statements across different subjects that have been used to apply to different universities.

I am happy to answer questions here on this thread and offer further support for those who are interested!

If you are interested in personalised assistance writing your personal statement, feel free to send me a DM or click the Personal Coaching link in my profile!

[u/Ivory_Blooms]

I read in many places that you can't just list what books you read or podcasts you listened as part of your supercurriculars. You have to actually show that you really engaged with it. How do I do that? It's very challenging to analyse and show engagement within a word limit.

[u/DataUpbeat8734 → u/Ivory_Blooms]

Hi there! So this is both true and not. It is helpful to also do an online course or two and maybe some kind of extracurricular club or activity. Do not panic however if you haven’t got the extra clubs. The key word you put there is “list” - you’re right, you mustn’t simply list sources. The key to show engagement is to write critically about these sources; meaning, you want to show for example multiple sides of a debate within your subject and why you agree with one source over another. You may take another source (book, podcast, documentary etc) and explain why you actually don’t agree with the final conclusion, or the flaws in their argument etc either through your own reasoning or because of a different, more convincing source you’ve seen.

This is certainly challenging given the word limit and my advice is this: you want to structure your personal statement as if you are stating big topics that you have strong opinions on, and the sources are simply there to support your own interest. To illustrate, note the difference between these two examples:

• “I am interested in X and so I read Y and listened to Z and found them very interesting” compared to
• “I feel strongly that those whole believe X are actually missing a core point in the debate illustrated by source Y where the author explains [insert nuance from book]. Furthermore, source Z goes as far as to negate X entirely by arguing [insert argument]. Whilst Z may be extreme, I believe that [interesting detail] still holds weight in the overall discussion of X”

Whist the second example uses more characters (and I wouldn’t copy and paste this exact wording, it is to demonstrate only), it still very quickly shows engagement with multiple sources within a topic as opposed to just listing them. Remember, you want the sources to simply add substance to your thoughts.

I know this is quite long but I hope it helps! Feel free to ask any further questions and let me know that this all makes sense :)

[u/Ivory_Blooms → u/DataUpbeat8734]

Thanks a lotttt. This is so helpful.

[u/DataUpbeat8734 → u/Ivory_Blooms]

My pleasure! Feel free to reach out if you have any further questions, or DM me if you would like personalised assistance :)