Writing an Effective Personal Statement


In your personal statement you need to demonstrate:
  • Why you want to study the subject you have applied for
  • What you have done in the past that makes you particularly suitable to study the subject
  • What else you have done that would contribute to the course and institution and makes you an interesting and unique individual

Your personal statement can be up to 4,000 characters (this includes spaces) or 47 lines of text (this includes blank lines).

About two thirds of your personal statement should be about why you want to study the subject and what makes you suitable to study the subject

About one third should be about what else you can contribute to the course and institution – what makes you an interesting and unique individual

Elsewhere on this site you will find:

Writing your Personal Statement

1. Size and presentation - write your statement in Word using Times New Roman 12 and then and copy and paste it into Apply

2. Plagiarism - This must be your personal statement, plagiarism will be detected and you risk your place at university if you copy anyone else’s personal statement. UCAS use software to check plagiarism in every personal statement. If they detect plagiarism, universities are immediately informed. Plagiarism can be as little as one common line. Please read the appendix at the end of this booklet which is taken from the UCAS website.

Remember: Your supervisor, your teachers and the Curriculum Team will all give you advice and support. Use them!

Good luck!

Last modified: Tuesday, 30 April 2013, 9:43 AM