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A personal statement is not the only criteria to get you into your dream university, you still need the required grades in your academic performance. But if you don’t provide a good personal statement, you will lose out to other more competitive students. Therefore, a personal statement can make or break your application. Do spend time in your personal statement. In this series of blog posts, I am going to give some advice on how to write a good personal statement.
Types of Personal Statements
A Personal Statement (PS) can be called something different in different countries or universities. You may come across the following terms:
a. Personal Statement (PS)
b. Statement of Purpose (SoP)
c. Application Essay
They are very similar. In essence, the essay aims to convince the admissions committee that a student is a good fit for the programme and can contribute to the department. In very general terms, the differences are summarised below; however, every university’s requirements may vary. Do check the specific requirements from your applied university.
a. Personal Statement (PS)
A personal statement is about yourself, your personal story. But it’s also a statement of “why”. It answers 3 basic questions: Why you. Why the subject. Why the University. The personal story, no matter how dramatic or mundane, has to link to the subject and/or the University that you are applying to. The personal statement aims to show to the Admissions Officer and tutors of the department more information about the student that the CV and grades can’t tell.
b. Statement of Purpose (SoP)
A Statement of Purpose is very similar to a PS. Different countries or Universities may call it something different, but they ask the same thing as in the PS. Some Universities designate that an SoP is more about career goals, so it’s about a student’s future, whereas a PS is about the student’s past. Again, this is a general description. Make sure you check the University and find out the exact requirements.
c. Application Essay
An Application Essay, especially in North America, is very often themes-guided. Students are given different themes to write about, for example, students applying to America undergraduate courses are given 7 prompts to choose from. The main purpose is to evaluate a student’s self-reflection in their life. American and Canadian Universities tend to take on a more holistic view of a student. They want to see if there’s more to the person than just academic performance. General differences between countries. Generally speaking, the universities in US, Canada, and Australia employ a more holistic approach to pick the students. That means aspects other than academic performance count. US universities, for example, really value an entrepreneurial mindset, and an ability to work well in groups is favoured. This is very different to the UK, where academic competency is the main consideration for acceptance to the university. Personal stories, interests, volunteering work, or working experience will all need to link back to academic interest and pursuit.
Difference between undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG), Oxbridge and others
In general, they are not too different. It’s also about “why you, why the subject, why the university”. However, PG personal statements have to focus on future career goals or research direction. For an undergraduate (UG) application in the UK, a personal statement may not need to link to the University specifically as students will be applying to 4-5 Universities with one personal statement. But, even in the UK PS, students must show why they want to study the subject. When applying to a postgraduate (PG) programme, if students are making multiple applications, they need to tailor the PS for each University. The main difference in Oxbridge lies in subject-specific knowledge. It requires a tutor who has the specific knowledge to coach a student to form a valid academic argument.