Tips to craft a winning UCAS Personal Statement and Mistakes to avoid

What is UCAS?

The UCAS in UCAS personal statement stands for Universities and Colleges Admission Service, which helps full-time students get admitted to higher education institutions in the UK.

However, unlike any conventional admission portal, UCAS offers a range of services for students belonging to different age groups and even to teachers who are seeking career advancement.

In order to apply to a university through UCAS, a student must fill out an online application. Perhaps the most important part of this online application is the USAS personal statement, which UCAS will forward to the universities you are planning to apply.

The better your personal statement is, the higher your chances of getting admitted to your desired degree programme or course.

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What falls into the category of a Good Personal Statement?

While there is no one fixed way to write a good UCAS personal statement, there are some components that differentiate a good personal statement from an average or below-average one.

If you want to create an impressive UCAS personal statement that will help your application stand out, you must first understand what a personal statement entails and what the requirements are.

Thousands of students each year apply to Ivy League institutions; however, only a handful of them get accepted. Here are some basic guidelines and tips for writing a UCAS personal statement, which answer the question of how to write a UCAS personal statement. You can understand it and stick to it in order to get into the university of your dreams because getting good grades is just not enough.

Be Enthusiastic:

Show your enthusiasm for studying and your personal skills and abilities that make it worth being accepted into that course.

Highlight the Main Points of the Program:

Write analytically why you chose that particular course and what made you so interested in it. Make sure that you highlight your own competencies but also the university’s advantages that made you go for it.

Meet Your Future Plans:

Describe why this course is ideal for you, and how you will grow through it by realizing your future career plans.

Be creative:

Don’t copy and write another personal statement like all the rest. It is better to stand out by presenting your own key points that make you different and win that University place.

Jot down everything:

Make a note of what to include in the personal statement and create multiple drafts to know exactly how you want to present your case.

Explain the University Why:

Understand that in the UCAS personal statement structure must explain why the university should give you admission to their program.

You must sell them why you are an ideal student for them. Add any skills you possess which might be relevant to the course you are applying for.

Showcase prior work experience:

Include any prior work experience, study, or extracurricular activity that might be relevant to the course you are applying for.

Write according to the character limit:

A UCAS personal statement word count needs to be within the 4000-character limit, which can roughly mean 500 words or so. Do not exceed the character limit or your personal statement cannot be submitted.

Receive an opinion from a Mentor/Friend:

Get a friend or mentor to read your personal statement before submitting it to check for any errors, noncompliance with requirements, or any other issues

A UCAS personal statement word count needs to be within the 4000-character limit, which can roughly mean 500 words or so. Do not exceed the character limit or your personal statement cannot be submitted.

Receive an opinion from a Mentor/Friend:

Get a friend or mentor to read your personal statement before submitting it to check for any errors, noncompliance with requirements, or any other issues.

Proofread:

Give your personal statement a read before submission to check if you have indeed added all vital details and to see if the statement is interesting.

Be the Early bird:

Do not wait until the last minute to write and submit your UCAS personal statement. Start weeks before the deadline for admissions so you have time to create a quality personal statement.

Go Through Guidelines:

Visit the UCAS website to double-check if you have fulfilled all the requirements of the personal statement and read through their guide once or twice before you start to know exactly how to write your UCAS personal statement. 

Mistakes to Avoid in UCAS Personal Statement

Writing a UCAS personal statement can be quite daunting, as you’ll need to relay a great deal of information about yourself in a short piece of writing. In order to make your personal statement a success, we’ve listed a few common mistakes to avoid.

Clichés and exuberant language:

“I’ve been passionate about Biology since I first watched David Attenborough’s ‘Life’ documentary and became overwhelmed by the beauty of our planet.”

While the above statement is a positive and grammatically correct reason why a student might want to study Biology, it is quite vague, cliché, and slightly melodramatic. While positive language works well when you’re explaining why you want to study a certain subject, it’s important to back it up with specific, clear examples and meticulous analysis. The aim of a personal statement is to show, not to tell.

Overusing quotations out of context:

Quotations can be an extremely useful tool to strengthen any argument, in an essay or a UCAS personal statement, but only if they are used sparingly.

Quotations that are added clumsily to a piece of writing can have the opposite effect than the one you’re trying to achieve and can make your statement seem pretentious and disingenuous.

For example, if you choose to quote Freud in your Psychology application, university admissions tutors have likely read the same quotation a hundred times from other students, so if your quotation isn’t essential in the context of your statement, it’s best not to include it at all.

Appearing to be over-confident:

Do not appear overconfident, also state why you want to get into a particular university or program to show your love and dedication for that particular field of study which would demonstrate that you are willing to put in hard work.

Telling the reader something they already know:

Demonstrating background reading and subject knowledge is an essential element of a UCAS personal statement, but it needs to be relevant to your argument about why you are choosing to study a particular subject.

Explaining scientific or academic theories at length or repeating well-known arguments by other writers is not recommended. The admissions tutor reading your statement wants to read about your own thoughts, not the ideas of someone else, and it’s a good idea to assume that the person reading your statement is an expert in your subject area. All these tips will definitely help to write a UCAS personal statement.

For UK student recruitment services that you can depend on, get in touch with our team at AHZ Associates today.

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