Writing Your UCAS Personal Statement

Writing Your UCAS Personal Statement

Writing a Personal Statement for Physics? Here's How to Stand Out!

Crafting a personal statement for your UCAS application can feel daunting, but it's your chance to show universities what you're passionate about! Here are a few tips to help you shine:

Show Your Passion: Talk about what excites you and why. Don't talk about your regular subjects - the admissions registrar knows what is included in A level Physics (and all your other subjects). You need to include stuff about 𝘆𝗼𝘂 that they otherwise wouldn't know.

The sorts of things to include are:

1. What event or book or person got you interested in your degree subject

2. Any things you have done/ places you've been/ projects you've been involved in that might be relevant. You need to explain what YOU did.

3. Any sport you do, how far you've progressed, any awards won. What your sport has taught you.

4. Any hobbies or skills you may have eg. soldering, gaming or knitting (like Tom Daley below)

Connect Your Experiences: Highlight relevant experiences, like a physics project or a science competition. How did they shape your interest in the subject?

Demonstrate Critical Thinking: Universities love students who think deeply. Mention a problem you’ve pondered or a book that changed your perspective.

Be Yourself: Authenticity is key. Let your personality come through—this makes your statement unique.

Remember, your 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 statement is your story. Make it compelling, and don't forget to proofread before you hit submit

Here are a few questions you can answer to help you get started:

1. Why have you chosen this course?

2. What excites you about the subject? 

3. Is my previous or current study relevant to the course?

4. Have you got any work experience that might help you?

5. What life experiences have you had that you could talk about?

6. What achievements are you proud of?

7. What skills do you have that make you perfect for the course?

8. What plans and ambitions do you have for your future career?

From the UCAS website: https://www.ucas.com/undergraduate/applying-university/writing-personal-statement/how-write-personal-statement#how-to-open-your-personal-statement

"How to open your personal statement

Admissions Tutors will be reading a lot of personal statements so it’s important to grab their attention right from the start. 

Remember, it can only be 4,000 characters, which is about two sides of A4. So, you’ll need to use your words wisely to fit everything in.

You can find a full guide on How to start a personal statement: the attention grabber, but here are the main things to think about. 

• Don’t overthink the opening. Just start by showing your enthusiasm for the subject, showcasing your knowledge and understanding, and sharing your ambitions of what you want to achieve.

• Avoid cliches! Remember, this opening part is simply about introducing yourself, so let the admissions tutor reading your personal statement get to know you. 

Keep it relevant and simple. You’re limited on how much you can include so avoid long-winded explanations. Why use 20 words when 10 can make your point?  " from https://www.ucas.com/undergraduate/applying-university/writing-personal-statement/how-write-personal-statement#how-to-open-your-personal-statement

Don’t forget to include evidence to back up everything, including why you’re so excited about the course(s) you’ve chosen.

• Be bold and talk about the achievements you’re proud of.

• Include positions of responsibility you hold, or have held, both in and out of school.

• What are the things that make you interesting, special, or unique? 

Your work experience and future plans are important to include. You should share details of jobs, placements, work experience, or voluntary work, particularly if it's relevant to your course. 

Try to link any experience to skills or qualities that’ll make you successful.

If you know what you’d like to do after as a career, explain how you plan to use the knowledge and experience that you’ll gain to launch your career.

WARNING!!! Before using AI to write your statement, you should read this:

"Generating (and then copying, pasting and submitting) all or a large part of your personal statement from an AI tool such as ChatGPT, and presenting it as your own words, could be considered cheating by universities and colleges and could affect your chances of an offer.

When you complete your application, you now have to declare that your personal statement hasn't been copied or provided from another source, including artificial intelligence software.

As part of our responsibility to applicants and universities and colleges, the UCAS Verification Team run checks to detect fraudulent applications and patterns of similarity in personal statements. Read our guide to fraud and verification and similarity."

AI tools like ChatGPT can be used to help you write your personal statement - but you need to take care that your personal statement is exactly that - PERSONAL to you and you alone. It needs to reflect your personality, skills, ambitions and passions.