Hi guys. How do you write an amazing personal statement to university?
I’ve seen thousands of personal statements, some of them are amazing, some of them are really
really bad. I’m going to give you some tips on how you can write the personal statement.
This is one format of the personal statement: it should basically be made of three parts. The first
part is to introduce yourself and your strengths to show that you're a really good student.
The second part is to introduce your future plans to show that you have a plan and that you're
going to be successful. And the third part is to explain why you want to apply to this university
to show that you've done serious research, and that you're a good fit. So, when that person
who's reviewing your personal statement, they are basically looking to answer these four questions:
are you a good student? Are you going to be successful in the future? Are you going to be
a great fit for the university? Are you going to be great to have on the program? And are
you committed and serious? How long should it be - about one page, it shouldn't be too long. Maybe it
could be two pages but it's better to be concise because they're looking at lots of applications.
So, how do you go about doing it? Actually, you can download a template in the description, and
we also have a service to help you prepare the personal statement and I’m going to introduce that
bit later. So, how do you go about it? Basically, I would make a document which is made of those
three parts, which you can also download this in the description. Each of those - I would make
three of the main points that you want to show. So in total you'd have nine points, better to be
concise. So, starting with the first one - what is your background? Why are you a strong candidate?
So here, where I would start with the basic introduction about you and explain like impressive
things that you've done that's relevant to show that you're like a serious person, and like
setting the stage a bit. For the next step, which is - what do you want to do in the future? Yeah,
so one question for the first part is like what is the most impressive thing you've ever done?
Try and put that in there, and put similar things in there. So, for your future plan - what do
you want to do in the future? Like, many people have no idea what they want to do in the future
and that's okay. However, I really suggest it's better to have a plan, even if it changes later.
So, just think about like what do you want to do even if you have no idea, just think of something
like maybe you have like five things that you wanted in the future. Maybe just say like if you
had to choose something now - what would it be? And then just say like this is what I want to do,
I want to do this. If it changes in the future, it's okay, but it's good to have a plan. I really
suggest to have like a proper session about how do you work out what you want to do in the future
in the long term, and spend some serious time on that. It’s really important to have that, because
when you know where you want to go in the future, then where you want to go like today or tomorrow
is easy to work out because you have this future plan. And if you're not sure, I really suggest
like trying to spend as much time to work it out. It’s better to have a plan when you're talking
to them because then they can see like okay, this person has a definite plan. So, the next
step is make sure you have really researched the course, because you want them to know that you are
serious. So, you can look on the website and also like contact the admissions staff, and try and
speak to students on the program to get a really good idea about the program. And then when you're
writing the personal statement, you can basically say this is why I chose this university - like I
did a lot of research and I realised that your university is the best because it has this, like
it's top ranked, or it's got this like amazing faculty, or it's got this amazing centre which
is something that I want, or that has this amazing culture or like something like that, like alumni,
like the teachers say like on the website. And that it has to be true what you actually think,
so then it shows that you've done research, shows that you understand it like has so many benefits
to say that. It’s always good to contact the admissions staff and the students, because it can
give you like lots of tips and a good idea about the program. If you're talking to the admissions
staff, they will also recognise you. So when they see the application, they'll know who you are,
they'll know that you've reached out. So, this is like a huge benefit. Basically, how do you go
about it - you go through these steps, make sure that you keep it really simple, because you don't
want it to be like a really long complicated letter, and make sure it's really simple. If
you're applying for a scholarship, this should be the same process, just slightly different because
you're applying for a scholarship. So, make sure you understand the scholarship - what are the aims
of the scholarship? What do they want and what are they looking for? So that you tie that into it.
And then you probably want to make a few different drafts of this, and also ask other people to help.
Maybe your parents, maybe friends, maybe you can ask a consultant to help you, but I wouldn't ask
someone else to write it for you because is it morally right to just ask someone to write you
a letter, like that's one question. And then the other question is, is it really going to be true
to you? It’s probably better that you spend more of your time on it to create it yourself,
because when you have the interview, they're going to also ask questions so it has to be aligned
and matched. We have a service and we actually don't write anything in the personal statement.
What we do is we work with you to go through this process, and give you feedback and give you ideas
and try and help you to write it, which takes a bit longer. And maybe it's a bit harder for you,
but actually it's better because it's an important process for you to go through to make sure that
you're right fit for the program. And you need to make sure obviously that there's no mistakes,
the English should be very good and written very well, but I think this should come after.
You should create the content first and then consider the English a bit later. And if you're
applying to China, it's always good to like show that you're learning Chinese as well. So,
say something about how you're learning Chinese, even if you've just taken like a course online
or if you're just self-studying. You can just say that I’m studying like one hour a day
or something, or like I’ve taken this 12-week program and I have a certificate from Beijing
Language and Culture University, because that shows that you're serious, also shows that you
want to learn Chinese. So, if you're applying to a Chinese university, it's really good to
say I want to learn Chinese. Also, it's good to say like good things about the Chinese culture,
or show some reason why you want to study abroad in China, it's good to kind of tie that in there
as well. Okay, so that's everything. So, check out the description below, we have a link where
you can download a document which gives you some tips and it's like a template for you to work
with. And then we also have a service where we can help you through the writing process. It’s kind of
like application service, so we have the details of it in the description, so if you want some help
with that you can order it and then our team will help you to prepare and go through the process.
Sometimes it's just good to have someone to share ideas with who's been through the process before,
so it can just save you time and help you to get a really good letter. But anyway, I hope this has
been helpful for you and wish you best of luck in your journey to write a personal statement.