The opening paragraph to your personal statement is really important
you want to draw the reader in. Recently we had a student write well
without chemical engineers we wouldn't have everyday products such as shampoos
and detergents and I want to be the person that creates these products of
the future so this really shows they understand the scope of chemical
engineering and how it relates to the real world and that's really nice to see
in a personal statement because it shows you've done your research as well.
What we don't want to see is lots of people saying 'I first wanted to be a dentist
when I was five years old' because lots and lots of people say that we don't
think is particularly genuine. What's much more valuable to us is telling
us what kind of things you think appeal to you about the career what makes you
think that you'd be a good fit for it and do you have an awareness
as to the good points and the bad points of the career so that you're fully
prepared to go into it.
What makes a good personal statement is when a student
really goes into detail about why they want to study that particular subject
what I'm really looking for as an admissions tutor is something unique to
that individual and something that shows that the student has taken a bit
more time and thinking about the things that they've studied
within their class. It might be that they've thought about what they want to
do with the law degree in the future whether that's to become a solicitor a
barrister or do something completely different with their law degree
What I'm looking for is for them to talk about their extracurricular activities
the wider reading that they've done and how that's going to make them
effectively a better law student in the long run. One of the things that I might
look for if I'm reading a personal statement may be for instance is there
something that the student has read recently that demonstrates an interest
and a passion for the subject. Students can also evidence their interest in a
topic by talking about a particular academic lecture that they may have been
to see or if they've been online to see a TEDx talk for instance and they should
really reflect on how this has sparked their interest in a topic. Applicants often ask
the sort of work experience they should include in a personal statement, for me
this doesn't have to be a prestigious internship in many respects it can be a
summer job or it could be a Saturday job. For instance if you've applied to
sociology or social policy degree you might reflect on how that Saturday job
has offered a series of insights into the flexible labour market, zero hours
contracts that have sparked your interest in these disciplines. I suppose
the point is that no experience is wasted if you relate that experience to
the course you're applying to.We really want students to show us what skills
they've got beyond academic achievement we are interested in finding out about
your part-time jobs but not necessarily the specifics of what you are up to
every day we're looking for what transferable skills you've managed to
get from your job be it leadership, team working etc and how this can enhance
your CV. We have a lot of applicants that say I like maths I like chemistry
so I want to do chemical engineering but Chemical Engineering is more than just
masters in chemistry, it includes business, it includes
physics and it includes biology so we really want you to bring that all into
your personal statement. A really easy way of doing this is talking about your
experiences so maybe you've read an article or you've read a book or you've seen
a TV program and it's really inspired you to study Chemical Engineering bring
this into your personal statement and really show your interest of all the
subjects. In Biosciences it's a numeric degree so we like to know that students
can do basic numerical functions look at statistics, we also like students to
emphasise if they've had any lab experience, this can be obtained at
school - what have they enjoyed about practical
sessions, what have they gained out of it. For a student applying for a joint
honours degree I would recommend that they include both of the subjects
they're applying for in their personal statement this is because it's likely
that admissions tutors for both of those subjects will have a look at the
application and at the personal statement. So for example if a student
was applying for history and English I'd be looking for them to find a way that
those subjects actually link together and complement each other and go into a
bit of detail about why they want to do that particular combination of subjects.,
So the things that we look for in the personal statement are basically the
things that you can't get across on your UCAS form or anywhere else so things
that we think are really important are you telling us about some work
experience that you've done, ideally we want our candidates to have three days
work experience in an NHS or an NHS and private mixed practice and also tell us
a bit about the things that you reflected on from that and the things
you learned from it, was it the kind of job that you expected it to be, where
any things different rather than just listing the procedures that you saw and
also voluntary work so we ask all of our candidates to undertake a
voluntary placement and that's to show a few things really; to show that you're
willing to give back to the community and that you enjoy working with people
from a wide variety of backgrounds and again we'll give credit to candidates a
little bit more if they push themselves a bit outside their comfort zone with
that voluntary work so maybe if they work with people that they wouldn't
normally come into contact with during their day to day life possibly a care
home or helping in a homeless shelter something like that rather than maybe
just tutoring children within their own school or working in youth clubs
that they might have attended themselves when they were younger. We're looking for
applicants to convey a passion for the subject, is there something in particular
you've had an interest in on your A-levels or B Tech that you want to
learn more about across three years? How will your degree help to contribute to
the sort of career that you might want to go into or is it that you have a set
of skills that you wish to develop through your degree or more broadly
what's the sort of person that you want to be when you leave University. You'll
be studying with academics who live and breathe their subjects they do not only
teach them they also have researched them for a number of years and so we're
looking for students to demonstrate the same desire and interest that our
academics have