personal statement character limits

UCAS Personal Statement Length Checker

Please note: The line count may differ than the number of lines in the textbox above but when copy and pasted will match the line count on the UCAS application.

UCAS Personal Statement Requirements

• No longer than 4000 characters.
• No longer than 47 lines.
• Each line can be no longer than 94 characters. (Our character counter above already has a max line length of 94 characters unless otherwise noted.)
• Characters include spaces, carriage returns, and punctuation.

To see additional features including word count, paragraph count, space count and more use the character counter on our home page.

How to write your UCAS personal statement

The UCAS personal statement scares most high school students. Writing a perfect personal statement is a strenuous and unavoidable process. With roughly about 6 million university applications each year, officials need a method for filtering stronger applicants from everyone else.

As challenging as this task may appear, it is also your only chance to share your personality and eligibility for the degree program you have chosen. Follow our practices given, and you can absolutely make your personal statement up to the mark.

Start with a plan

Each year thousands of applications are received for the best degrees in the world and are best focused on the goal of making their application stand out from the rest.

Thus, planning out what you want to say prior to writing your UCAS statement makes it easy to write a convincing personal statement. Start off by making a rough draft, answering some questions like

• What subjects do you want to study?
• Why have you particularly chosen this path for yourself?
• What makes you think that you are best suited to study this degree program at the college?

Some of these points will form the backbone of your personal statement, so write them in a manner that makes sense to you.

Sometimes you want to create simple bullet points or use mind maps. No matter what you decide; your goal is the same. You want to clarify why the university should provide you with a spot.

Bigger Picture of the Degree

Talk about the course that you have applied to. How did you learn about it in the first place? What means did you use to deepen your interest and knowledge in this area?

It would be a huge plus to list the books you read and the meetings you have attended regarding the subject.

Please elaborate on your academic attitude towards the degree. What are your goals after graduating? What role will it play in helping you achieve your greatest ambitions? What sort of vocation plans do you have after graduation?

Write about your work experience and achievements

Your previous achievements are an essential part of your personal statement. Think about all the accolades you have received and the contests you have participated in. These can be in-school, national or international. Both academic and sports awards can greatly help emphasize your commitment.

Write about the important skills and experiences acquired elsewhere (such as hobbies) that can be chained to the degree of your choice.

Remember, you are searching for experience that shows why you need to study the subject that you have chosen. You are not just writing an essay about what you are doing in your high school syllabus.

Extracurricular Activities

Your extracurriculars ought to likewise be included in the personal statement. Whether it be a MUN or a cross country race, they pass on the message that you love participating in different events.

Likewise, it is really smart to discuss any expertise you have acquired through extracurriculars.

Discuss any leadership roles you could have held, as they improve your capacity to appreciate people on a profound level and put you across as a pioneer.

Community service is a plus in the UCAS statement as it shows a promise to a reason bigger than oneself.

You can link all these activities to your selected course in the best case. Be careful not to elaborate too much on extracurricular activities.

UCAS Character Count

There are some specific instructions for your personal statement that you can never ignore.

First, it must not exceed 4,000 characters or 47 lines of text (including blank lines), whichever comes first. If you do exceed this, the university will not get your entire statement.

So make sure your personal statement has a solid and decisive ending. It will look bad if you cut it off in the middle of a sentence after realizing that you have exceeded the text limit.

Instead, give each section proper attention, time, and character to plan your essay thoroughly.

However, while you are getting everything rolling, you ought to overlook these restrictions.

Tips for reducing the character count

From the get-go, you simply need to jot down all that you feel is significant. You will probably wind up with something very lengthy, but that is okay.

This is where you get to do some polishing and trimming. Maintain the focal point of your piece on the course you are applying for, why you want to do it and for what reason you are impeccably fit for it.

Glance through what you have composed until now - do you have the right balance? Cut off whatever continues a little to far, as you want to keep each point crisp and concise.

It is a difficult process to try to keep as much content as possible while keeping the character count low, so here are some simple ways to make it easier for you.

Avoid quotes

Read your personal statement and eliminate platitudes if there are any - for instance, 'I've wanted to study psychology since I was young'…The same goes for the quotations: except if they increase the value of your statement (which they don't most of the time!), it is really the best practice to remove them.

Make sure everything is concise

For each sentence in your piece, use the "so what?" rule. Does this sentence appear to be more reasonable for the course? If not, cutting it is best. This frequently happens when individuals write too much about their extracurriculars in a frantic endeavour to fit everything in. For extra analysis, feel free to use our sentence counter to calculate the average length of your sentences.

Colleges, notwithstanding, need to see a reflection and what you have extracted from your encounters; this implies it is normally better to simply discuss a few extracurriculars than to list many things that the reader is likely to skim.

Also, note that you don't have to use hospital or volunteer location names. This further allows you to remove the last few characters from the count.

Use colour coding

An easy way to see where you are losing most of your characters is to highlight the sections of your statement with different colours.

Check your language

We frequently invest a great deal of energy looking up big words with the expectation that it will make our work impressive. However, this isn't generally the best practice. It is, in many cases, best to cut these words for fundamental and engaging sentences.

I hope the process will now be transparent, and it will be more exciting for you as you embark on your writing.

How to use our UCAS personal statement checker

To use our tool simply copy and paste your personal statement into the text-box above.

At the top, you will see two metrics displayed. The first metric on the left is the total characters you've typed out of the limit of 4,000 characters.

The second metric on the right is the number of lines your text contains out of the max of 47 lines. The UCAS allows a maximum of 94 characters per line, which our line count feature already takes into consideration.

To make it easier you can click the green "copy text" button to copy the text in the text box. You can also click the red "clear text" button to delete all the text in the text-box.

Why use an online UCAS personal statement checker?

Reason number one: The character count feature in Microsoft Word will not give you an accurate reading. The reason is that Word does not count the carriage return (also known as the enter key) as a character while UCAS does count it as a character.

The problem is that this will cause Word to underestimate the character count. This could cause your essay not to be able to submit when you try to upload it. If anything it would be better to overestimate the word count on Word that way it will fit.

Our personal statement checker however will give you the same character count as UCAS unlike the Microsoft Word character count.

It can be helpful to see the character count in real-time as you are typing your personal statement. This way you are constantly reminded of how long your essay is.

If you are not paying attention it can be easy to lose track of how long your essay is and go over the limit.

Our tool makes it easier to be aware of the length and easy to cut back if necessary.

How many characters in a personal statement?

UCAS requires 4,000 characters in their personal statement. Use our personal statement checker above to see if your essay meets the requirements.

How many words in a UCAS personal statement

UCAS has a character limit of 4,000 characters. This equates to about 615 to 800 words.

How many words is 4000 characters?

4,000 characters is about 615 to 800 words. For more Characters to Words conversions, check out our Characters To Words Converter .

Does the personal statement character limit include spaces?

Yes, it does include spaces as well as carriage returns. Check your statement with our personal statement checker above.

Thanks for using our UCAS personal statement checker!

We appreciate you taking the time to check your personal statement using our webpage. As you know, this is a very important college application essay to get into British universities. UCAS stands for Universities and Colleges Admissions Service and is what the UK uses for the college application process. Good luck on your personal statement!

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How to write a UCAS personal statement

Writing a great personal statement

Read our guide on what it is, what to include, how to start, length and what makes a good personal statement 

Once you've decided which universities and courses to apply for, completing your application is pretty simple – until it comes to how to write your UCAS personal statement.

This guide covers everything you need to know about how to write a personal statement for university. We look at what it is and how you can start your personal statement. We've also got questions to guide you and a suggested personal statement structure you can use so you know what to put in it.

If you'd like even more resources, support and UCAS personal statement examples, you can sign up to access our personal statement hub .

What is the UCAS personal statement?

How universities use your ucas personal statement, how to start a ucas personal statement.

• Get feedback on your UCAS personal statement

The personal statement is part of your UCAS application. It's how you show your chosen universities why you'll make a great student and why they should make you an offer.

Your personal statement also helps you think about your choice of course and your reasons for applying, so you know you’ve made the right decision.

Get feedback on your personal statement

Sign up to our personal statement hub to get feedback on your draft. You'll also get access to videos, help sheets and more tips.

Sign up now

UCAS personal statement word limit

Your personal statement length can be up to 4,000 characters long. 

This may sound a lot, but it's a word limit of around 550–1000 words with spaces and only about 1 side of typed A4 paper.

You need to keep it concise and make sure it's clear and easy to read.

Applying for multiple courses

Although you can apply for up to 5 courses on your UCAS application, you can only submit 1 personal statement. So it needs to cover all your course choices.

If you really want to show your commitment to applying for different courses, we will accept a second personal statement from you to reflect your application e.g. if you are applying for Law elsewhere, but Criminology and Criminal Justice with us.

Lots of students who apply to university have achieved the basic entry requirements and many more students apply than there are places available. Admissions teams can use your UCAS personal statement to get to know you and decide why you're more suitable than other applicants.

Some universities read every personal statement and score them. Then they use them alongside your qualifications and grades to decide whether to offer you a place or interview. Other universities put less emphasis on the personal statement and use it with students who have borderline entry requirements.

Universities might refer to your personal statement again on results day if you don't get the grades you need. So a good personal statement could clinch you a uni place even if your grades aren't what you hoped for.

Starting your personal statement can seem scary when you're staring at a blank screen. But, things will seem less daunting once you start.

• Set aside some time in a place where you're comfortable and won't be disturbed. Grab a notepad or computer.
• Write down anything and everything that's influenced your decision to go to university and study your chosen subject. Jot down your skills and experience too.
• Use the questions below to guide you. Don't worry about the personal statement length at this point – you can cut things out later.

When to start your UCAS personal statement

Ideally, you want to leave yourself plenty of time – a few weeks or even months – to plan and write your personal statement.

Try not to leave it to the last minute, as tempting as this may seem when you've got so many other things to think about.

Questions to guide you

Your motivation.

• Why do you want to study at university?
• Why do you want to study this subject?
• How did you become interested in this subject?
• What career do you have in mind after university?

Academic ability and potential

• How have your current studies affected your choice?
• What do you enjoy about your current studies?
• What skills have you gained from your current studies?
• How can you demonstrate you have the skills and qualities needed for the course?
• What qualities and attributes would you bring to the course and university?

Your experience

• What work experience (including part-time, charity and volunteer work) do you have and what have you learnt from it?
• What positions of responsibility have you held? (For example, prefect, captain of a team or member of a committee)
• What relevant hobbies or interests do you have and what skills have they helped you develop?
• What transferable skills do you have, such as self motivation, team working, public speaking, problem solving and analytical thinking?

Research and reading

• How do you keep up with current affairs or news in your chosen subject?
• What journals or publications relevant to your chosen subject do you read?
• Which people have influenced you, such as artists, authors, philosophers or scientists?

Now it's time to write your personal statement using your notes. It's best to draft it on a computer, and remember to save it regularly.

You can copy and paste it into your UCAS application when you're happy with it.

Personal statement structure

While there's no set template for a personal statement, you may find it useful to follow this personal statement structure when you decide what to put in your statement.

What to include in a personal statement

• Reasons for choosing this subject(s)
• Current studies and how these relate to your chosen subject(s)
• Experiences and how these relate to your chosen subject(s)
• Interests and responsibilities and how these relate to your chosen subject(s)
• Your future after university
• Summary including why you'll make a great student

Further tips for a good UCAS personal statement

• Use information on university websites and the UCAS website. This often includes the skills and qualities universities are looking for in applicants
• Ask friends, family and teachers to remind you of activities you've participated in. They might remember your successes better than you do
• Don’t include lists in your application, like a list of all your hobbies. Focus on 1 or 2 points and talk about them in depth to show their relevance to your application
• Explain and evidence everything. It’s easy to say you have a skill, but it's better to demonstrate it with an example of when and how you’ve used it
• Avoid clichéd lines such as ‘I've always wanted to be a teacher’ as it says nothing about your motivations or experiences
• If you’re applying for a joint degree or different subjects, give equal time to each area and try to find common aspects that show their similarities
• Never lie or plagiarise another statement – you'll be caught and it could result in your application being automatically rejected
• Proofread your personal statement by reading it out loud and ask friends, family or a teacher to check it for you

Sign up to our personal statement hub

Watch videos, get top tips and download our help sheets – that's what our personal statement hub is for. It's for you to write your story, so you can show your strengths, ideas and passion to your chosen universities.

You'll also be able send us your draft, so you can get feedback and feel confident about what you've written.

We are aware that this form may not be fully accessible. If you are experiencing technical issues which mean you cannot read the form, please contact  [email protected]  and we’ll provide a copy within 10 working days. Please also read our Website Accessibility Statement .

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How to Write a UCAS Personal Statement [With Examples]

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What are the big challenges students should be aware of before writing their UCAS Personal Statement?

• The essential ingredients for writing a great Personal Statement
• How to write the UCAS Personal Statement [with examples]

Final hints & tips to help your students

Join 10,000 other counsellors & educators & get exclusive resources delivered straight to your inbox.

The UCAS Personal Statement can sometimes be a student’s only chance to impress a UK university. Read our in-depth guide to helping your students plan & write a winning application.

There are hundreds of articles out there on how to write a UCAS Personal Statement that will grab the attention of a UK university admissions officer.  

But if you’re working with students to help them perfect their Personal Statement in time for the  relevant UCAS deadlines , we can sum up the secret to success in three words.

Planning, structure and story. 

The UCAS Personal Statement is a student’s chance to talk about why they want to study for a particular degree, course or subject discipline at a UK university. 

As they set about writing a personal statement, students need to demonstrate the drive, ambition, relevant skills and notable achievements that make them a  suitable candidate for the universities they have chosen to apply to . 

But the UCAS Personal Statement requires students to write a lot about themselves in a relatively short space of time. That’s why lots of planning, a tight structure and a compelling story are essential if a student’s Personal Statement is to truly excel. 

As important deadlines for UK university applications grow closer, we at BridgeU have put together a guide, outlining some of the strategies and techniques to help your students to write a personal statement which is both engaging and truly individual.

Handpicked Related Content

Discover the simple steps that will boost the confidence of your native English speaking & ESL students alike in  University Application Essays: The 5 Secrets of Successful Writing .

As they begin to plan their Personal Statement, students may feel intimidated. It’s not easy to summarise your academic interests and personal ambitions, especially when you’re competing for a place on a course which is popular or has demanding entry requirements. In particular, students will likely come up against the following challenges.

Time pressure

Unfortunately, the Personal Statement (and other aspects of university preparation) comes during the busiest year of the student’s academic life so far.

Students, and indeed teachers and counsellors, must undertake the planning and writing of the personal statement whilst juggling other commitments, classes and deadlines, not to mention revision and open day visits!

Because there is already a lot of academic pressure on students in their final year of secondary school, finding the time and headspace for the personal statement can be hard, and can mean it gets pushed to the last minute. The risks of leaving it to the last minute are fairly obvious – the application will seem rushed and the necessary thought and planning won’t go into  making the personal statement the best it can be . 

Sticking closely to the Personal Statement format

The character limit which UCAS sets for the personal statement is very strict – up to 4,000 characters of text. This means that students have to express themselves in a clear and concise way; it’s also important that they don’t feel the need to fill the available space needlessly.  Planning and redrafting of a personal statement is essential .

Making it stand out

This is arguably the greatest challenge facing students – making sure that their statement sets them apart from everyone else who is competing for a place on any given course; in 2024 alone, UCAS received applications from 594,940 applicants. In addition, UCAS uses its own dedicated team and purpose built software to check every application for plagiarism, so it’s crucial that students craft a truly  original personal statement which is entirely their own work .

The essential ingredients for writing a great UCAS Personal Statement 

We’ve already mentioned our three watch words for writing a high quality Personal Statement.

Planning. Structure. Story. 

Let’s dig deeper into these three essential components in more detail.

Watch: How to Write a UCAS Personal Statement with University of Essex

Planning a ucas personal statement.

It might sound like a no-brainer, but it’s vital that students plan their Personal Statement before they start writing it. Specifically, the planning phase could include: 

• Students thoroughly researching the UK university courses they plan on applying to. 
• Deciding on what relevant material to include in their Personal Statement (we’ll cover this in more detail later on). 
• Writing an unedited first draft where they just get their thoughts and ideas down on paper. 

Structuring a UCAS Personal Statement

As we’ve discussed, the UCAS Personal Statement requires students to be extremely disciplined – they will be required to condense a lot of information into a relatively short written statement. This means that, after they’ve written a rough first draft, they need to think carefully about how they structure the final statement. 

A stand out Personal Statement will need a tight structure, with an introduction and a conclusion that make an impact and really help to tell a story about who your student is, and why they are drawn to studying this particular degree. 

This brings us nicely to our third and final ingredient…

Telling a story with a Personal Statement

The UCAS Personal Statement is a student’s opportunity to show a university who they are and how their life experiences have shaped their academic interests and goals. 

So a good Personal Statement needs to offer a compelling narrative, and that means making sure that a student’s writing is well-structured, and that every sentence and paragraph is serving the statement’s ultimate purpose –  to convince a university that your student deserves a place on their subject of choice. 

How to help your students start their UCAS Personal Statement

In order to ensure that a personal statement is delivered on time and to an appropriate standard, it’s essential to plan thoroughly before writing it. Here are some questions you can ask your students before they start writing:

How can you demonstrate a formative interest in your subject?

It may sound obvious but, in order for any UCAS personal statement to have the necessary structure and clarity, students need to think hard about why they want to study their chosen subject. Ask them to think about their responses to the following questions:

What inspired you to study your chosen subject?

Example answer:  My desire to understand the nature of reality has inspired me to apply for Physics and Philosophy

Was there a formative moment when your perspective on this subject changed, or when you decided you wanted to study this subject in more detail?

Example answer:  My interest in philosophy was awakened when I questioned my childhood religious beliefs; reading Blackburn’s “Think”, convinced me to scrutinise my assumptions about the world, and to ensure I could justify my beliefs.

Can you point to any role models, leading thinkers, or notable literature which has in turn affected your thinking and/or inspired you?

Example answer :  The search for a theory of everything currently being conducted by physicists is of particular interest to me and in “The Grand Design” Hawking proposes a collection of string theories, dubbed M-theory, as the explanation of why the universe is the way it is.

Asking your students to think about the “why” behind their chosen subject discipline is a useful first step in helping them to organise their overall statement. Next, they need to be able to demonstrate evidence of their suitability for a course or degree. 

How have you demonstrated the skills and aptitudes necessary for your chosen course?

Encourage students to think about times where they have demonstrated the necessary skills to really stand out. It’s helpful to think about times when they have utilised these skills both inside and outside the classroom. Ask students to consider their responses to the following questions. 

Can you demonstrate critical and independent thinking around your chosen subject discipline?

Example answer :  Currently I am studying Maths and Economics in addition to Geography. Economics has been a valuable tool, providing the nuts and bolts to economic processes, and my geography has provided a spatial and temporal element.

Are you able to demonstrate skills and competencies which will be necessary for university study?

These include qualities such as teamwork, time management and the ability to organise workload responsibly.

Example answer:  This year I was selected to be captain of the 1st XV rugby team and Captain of Swimming which will allow me to further develop my leadership, teamwork and organisational skills.

How have your extracurricular activities helped prepare you for university?

Students may believe that their interests outside the classroom aren’t relevant to their university application. So encourage them to think about how their other interests can demonstrate the subject-related skills that universities are looking for in an application. Ask students to think about any of the following activities, and how they might be related back to the subject they are applying for.

• Clubs/societies, or volunteering work which they can use to illustrate attributes such as teamwork, an interest in community service and the ability to manage their time proactively.
• Have they been elected/nominated as a team captain, or the head of a particular club or society, which highlights leadership skills and an ability to project manage?
• Can they point to any awards or prizes they may have won, whether it’s taking up a musical instrument, playing a sport, or participating in theatre/performing arts?
• Have they achieved grades or qualifications as part of their extracurricular activities? These can only help to demonstrate aptitude and hard work. 

How to write the UCAS Personal Statement [with examples] 

If sufficient planning has gone into the personal statement, then your students should be ready to go!

In this next section, we’ll break down the individual components of the UCAS Personal Statement and share some useful examples.

These examples come from a Personal Statement in support of an application to study Environmental Science at a UK university. 

Watch: King’s College London explain what they’re looking for in a UCAS Personal Statement

Introduction.

This is the chance for an applying student to really grab an admission tutor’s attention. Students need to demonstrate both a personal passion for their subject, and explain why they have an aptitude for it .  This section is where students should begin to discuss any major influences or inspirations that have led them to this subject choice. 

Example :  My passion for the environment has perhaps come from the fact that I have lived in five different countries: France, England, Spain, Sweden and Costa Rica. Moving at the age of 15 from Sweden, a calm and organized country, to Costa Rica, a more diverse and slightly chaotic country, was a shock for me at first and took me out of my comfort zone […] Also, living in Costa Rica, one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, definitely helped me realize how vulnerable the world is and how we need to take care of it in a sustainable manner. 

This opening paragraph immediately grabs the reader’s attention by giving the reader an insight into this student’s background and links their academic interests with something specific from the student’s personal backstory. 

Discussing Academic Achievements 

The next paragraph in this Personal Statement discusses the student’s academic achievements. Because this student has had an international education, they frame their academic achievements in the context of their personal background. They also cite useful examples of other curricula they have studied and the grades they have achieved. 

Example : 

Throughout my academic life I have shown myself to be a responsible student as well as a hard working one, despite the fact that I have had to move around a lot. I have achieved several other accomplishments such as a high A (286/300) in AS Spanish at age 15, and also completed a Spanish course of secondary studies for ‘MEP’(Ministerio de Educacion Publica), which is a system from Costa Rica.   

You’ll notice that this student doesn’t just list their achievements – their strong academic performance is always linked back to a wider discussion of their personal experiences. 

Showcasing Extracurricular Activities

As well as discussing academic achievements, a good Personal Statement should also discuss the student’s extracurricular activities, and how they relate back to the student’s overall university aspirations. 

By the third/fourth paragraph of the Personal Statement, students should think about incorporating their extracurricular experiences, 

Another valuable experience was when my class spent a week at a beach called ‘Pacuare’ in order to help prevent the eggs of the endangered leatherback turtle from being stolen by poachers who go on to sell them like chicken eggs. We all gained teamwork experience, which was needed in order to hide the eggs silently without scaring the mother turtles, as well as making it more difficult for the poachers to find them. 

When the poachers set fire to one of the sustainable huts where we were staying, not only did I gain self-awareness about the critical situation of the world and its ecosystems, I also matured and became even more motivated to study environmental sciences at university.

This is a particularly striking example of using extracurricular activities to showcase a student’s wider passion for the degree subject they want to study. 

Not only does this Personal Statement have a story about volunteering to save an endangered species, it also illustrates this applicants’ wider worldview, and helps to explain their motivation for wanting to study Environmental Science. 

Concluding the UCAS Personal Statement

The conclusion to a UCAS Personal Statement will have to be concise, and will need to tie all of a student’s academic and extracurricular achievements. After all, a compelling story will need a great ending. 

Remember that students need to be mindful of the character limit of a Personal Statement, so a conclusion need only be the length of a small paragraph, or even a couple of sentences. 

“ After having many varied experiences, I truly think I can contribute to university in a positive way, and would love to study in England where I believe I would gain more skills and education doing a first degree than in any other country.  “

A good Personal Statement conclusion will end with an affirmation of how the student thinks they can contribute to university life, and why they believe the institution in question should accept them. Because the student in this example has a such a rich and varied international background, they also discuss the appeal of studying at university in England. 

It’s worth taking a quick look at a few other examples of how other students have chosen to conclude their Personal Statement. 

Medicine (Imperial College, London) 

Interest in Medicine aside, other enthusiasms of mine include languages, philosophy, and mythology. It is curiously fitting that in ancient Greek lore, healing was but one of the many arts Apollo presided over, alongside archery and music.   I firmly believe that a doctor should explore the world outside the field of  Medicine, and it is with such experiences that I hope to better empathise and connect with the patients I will care for in my medical career. 

You’ll notice that this example very specifically ties the students’ academic and extracurricular activities together, and ties the Personal Statement back to their values and beliefs. 

Economic History with Economics (London School of Economics)

The highlight of my extra-curricular activities has been my visit to Shanghai with the Lord Mayor’s trade delegation in September 2012. I was selected to give a speech at this world trade conference due to my interest in economic and social history. […] I particularly enjoyed the seminar format, and look forward to experiencing more of this at university. My keen interest and desire to further my knowledge of history and economics, I believe, would make the course ideal for me.

By contrast, this conclusion ties a memorable experience back to the specifics of how the student will be taught at the London School of Economics – specifically, the appeal of learning in seminar format! 

There’s no magic formula for concluding a Personal Statement. But you’ll see that what all of these examples have in common is that they tie a student’s personal and academic experiences together – and tell a university something about their aspirations for the future.

Watch: Bournemouth University explain how to structure a UCAS Personal Statement

Know the audience

It can be easy for students to forget that the person reading a personal statement is invariably an expert in their field. This is why an ability to convey passion and think critically about their chosen subject is essential for a personal statement to stand out. Admissions tutors will also look for students who can structure their writing (more on this below). 

Students should be themselves

Remember that many students are competing for places on a university degree against fierce competition. And don’t forget that UCAS has the means to spot plagiarism. So students need to create a truly honest and individual account of who they are, what they have achieved and, perhaps most importantly, why they are driven to study this particular subject.

Proof-read (then proof-read again!)

Time pressures mean that students can easily make mistakes with their Personal Statements. As the deadline grows closer, it’s vital that they are constantly checking and rechecking their writing and to ensure that shows them in the best possible light. 

Meanwhile, when it comes to giving feedback to students writing their Personal Statements, make sure you’re as honest and positive as possible in the days and weeks leading up to submission day. 

And make sure they remember the three key ingredients of writing a successful Personal Statement. 

Planning, structure and story! 

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How to write your personal statement

It can be hard to know where to begin when writing your UCAS personal statement. We've put together some top tips and advice to help you make the most of your personal statement.

As part of the UCAS application process, you'll need to complete a personal statement. Your personal statement might be the only chance you have to ‘speak’ directly to an Admissions Tutor so it’s important to get it right. Many people find it difficult to write about themselves, so don’t worry if you’re struggling for ideas. You can use this guide to help you write a great personal statement. 

Personal statements are changing. This will affect students applying to start university in September 2026. Read our guide on personal statement changes .

Guide to writing your personal statement

Discover how to write a great personal statement with our handy guide. It covers everything you need to know from structuring to tips on what to include.

Your personal statement questions answered

What is a personal statement.

A personal statement is a short written account used to support your university application. It is your opportunity to ‘sell’ yourself to universities. And to show how and why you are a good candidate for your chosen course. A well-written application may convince a university to make you an offer or invite you to an interview. 

How to start a personal statement?

It’s never too early to start work on your personal statement. In fact, we’d recommend you give yourself as much time as possible.

Before you begin it’s important you have an idea of the course or subject area you want to study. Your personal statement needs to be specific so knowing what course you’re interested in will make it easier to start writing. It’s a good idea to check out the course descriptions in university prospectuses or on their website. This way you can find out the skills and experience that you’ll need. You can then reflect on how these relate to your own interests and qualities. 

Where to begin?

• Start with an engaging and positive introductory sentence which makes the admissions Tutor want to read on.
• Make it different. The most overused opening phrases are: “From a young age I have always been interested in…” and “For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated with…”
• State your reasons for applying to your chosen course and what it is that motivates you.

What makes a good personal statement?

The great thing about a personal statement is that it’s exactly that - personal. This is your chance to stand out from the crowd and explain why you’re the right choice for your chosen course.

It’s important that the statement reflects you, so you need to write in your own individual style. However, there are certain facts Admissions Tutors will be expecting to see. So it's important that you include these to ensure you give the best account of yourself, your skills and your experience.

Everything that you write should be relevant and linked to the course(s) you are applying for. Whilst you will only submit one personal statement it will be seen multiple times by all the universities and courses you have applied for.

Here are some questions to think about to ensure your statement stands out:

• Why do you want to study the course? You need to show that you have a genuine interest in the subject area and the motivation to immerse yourself in it.
• What makes you suitable? This is your chance to show how your experiences have prepared you to meet the demands of the course.
• What makes you stand out? Think about what you can offer outside of the lecture theatre and how you will contribute to the university community as a whole.

Download our guide to writing your personal statement for more top tips.

How long should a personal statement be?

Your personal statement needs to stay within the 4000 character limit set by UCAS. This includes spaces and blank lines. This might seem like a lot, but it's only around 1 side of typed A4 paper. So you need to keep it clear and concise. Use the UCAS personal statement tool to help you keep within the limit as well as tips on how to structure your statement.

How to structure a personal statement?

There is no set layout for your personal statement. But here are some style and structure tips to help you along the way:

• Make sure you sound interested in the course. Admissions Tutors will recognise applicants who aren’t totally committed.
• Don’t use bullet points. A personal statement is a chance to show how you can make a reasoned argument in continuous writing.
• Avoid repetition.
• You need to show rather than tell the Admissions Tutor that you are a good candidate. So don’t just list all your skills and achievements. Pick the most relevant, explain them carefully and provide examples.
• Check your statement for spelling and grammar. And then check again.
• Ask your parents, friends and/or teachers to read through your finished statement. They can help to make sure it flows and that you’ve not forgotten anything.

What are the personal statement changes?

Personal statements are changing. This will affect students applying to start university in September 2026.

New personal statements will include 3 questions:

• Why do you want to study this course or topic?
• How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course?
• What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences helpful?

Find out more about personal statement changes , including our tips for answering these questions.

When will personal statements change?

The personal statement changes will affect students applying to start university in September 2026. Students applying for September 2025 entry will not be affected.

Personal statement dos and don'ts

Read it out loud., check it’s all there., do some practice., be well prepared., don't be negative., don't complicate it., don't copy or paraphrase., don't include irrelevant facts..

Secure your place now for September

Apply through Clearing and secure your place. Already got your results? Apply online and we may be able to make you an offer in minutes.

Hear from our students

Writing about yourself in a personal statement can be difficult, I’ve put together some tips that I found useful when writing my own personal statement.

Hi, my names Parsa, I am a 4th year pharmacy student. Writing a personal statement can be stressful and time consuming, but it doesn't need to be. Read my tips to help you to write the very best statement.

University application dates

Completing and submitting your UCAS application

Start your UCAS application

You will need to start your UCAS application around September in the year before you want to apply to university. For example, if you want to start in September 2025, start your application in September 2024.

You can start you application as early as May, but you won't be able to submit until September.

You'll need to submit your form to college so they can add your reference.

Apply by the deadline

Make sure you submit your UCAS application online by the deadline. Deadlines vary each year and are different depending on the course you want to study.

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After you apply

Once you submit your application through UCAS, they will send you an acknowledgement. They will then forward your application to your chosen institutions.

Getting a decision on your application

Once you've submitted your application, you may have several stages before you find out if you have an offer.

Institutions will look at a number of things to make their decision. This includes your personal statement, reference and predicted grades.

Interviews and auditions

You might be invited to interview or audition to see if you're right for the course. This is also your chance to see if it's the right place for you.

Receiving an offer

If you submitted your application by the January deadline, you should receive all of your offers by March. Some courses and late applications may not receive responses until later in the cycle.

You can receive a conditional or unconditional offer, depending on whether you already have your grades or not.

Offer holder days

Some universities might invite you to an offer holder or applicant day . This is a great opportunity to get a taste for your course and meet your tutors. 

Accepting your offer

Usually, you'll need to reply to any offers you have received by May. This depends on when you submit your UCAS application.

If you have conditional offers, you'll be able to choose one university as your firm choice, and one as insurance .

If you've used all five choices on your application, and you're not holding any offers, then you can add extra choices to your application - free of charge.

Wait for your results and prepare to enrol

If you're waiting for your results, you should receive these in either July or August. This depends on what qualification you have taken. 

Your offer will either be confirmed or rejected based on your results.

If you don't receive the results you expected, or you apply after July, you will be entered into UCAS Clearing . This helps match you to university places that haven't yet been filled.

Once you've confirmed your offer at your chosen university, you will receive information about how to enrol .

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Personal statement

2020 Undergraduate Application

Make sure your personal statement is your own work

We'll carry out checks to verify your personal statement is your own work.

Provided it is your own work, you can use your personal statement from your application last year. If it appears to have been copied from another source, we'll inform the universities and colleges to which you have applied. They will then take the action they consider appropriate. We'll also contact you by email to tell you this has happened.

My Application example pages

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Issues of Length and Form

Normally, the length of a personal statement will be dictated by the application—500 words or 800 words are typical limits, as are one-page or two-page limits. If you’re given, say, a count of 1,500 words, you need not write to the maximum length, but to compose only one-half of the word count might be an opportunity missed. In any case, what matters most is that the material you present conforms as closely as possible to these word or space restrictions—parts of your application might literally not be read if you violate the rules—and that your presentation is aesthetically pleasing and easy to read. To achieve these goals, I promote the following tips:

• If your personal statement is a stand-alone document within your application, open it with a simple heading such as “Personal Statement for Janet Lerner.” Thus, if your documents would get separated somehow, they could more easily be reassembled.
• If there are any pages to your essay beyond one, number them, and perhaps include your name on those pages as well.
• Choose a publishing font that is highly readable, such as Times or Bookman. Some fonts allow for more tightness to the text, which is fine as long as the essay remains readable. Ideally, use no more than a 12-point size and no less than a 10-point size, favoring the larger, and use the same font size throughout the document.
• Allow for ample enough margins that the reader isn’t distracted by cramped-looking text. Margins of at least one inch are standard.
• Single space your text, skipping a line between paragraphs. You can indent paragraph beginnings or not, as long as you’re consistent.

At times, especially when you fill out an application electronically or have to cut and paste, word limits will be defined by physical space. In such a case, keep enough white space between your text and the application text that the material isn’t crowded, and choose a font different from that used in the application if possible. Also, if your application is electronic and requires you to cut and paste text or conform to a word or character count, check the material that you input carefully to be certain that it’s complete and reads just as you wish it to. In some cases, you may lose special characters or paragraph breaks, and words over the maximum allowable count may be cut off. The safest practice is to proofread anything you send electronically within the very form in which it is sent.

Other online sites that give space to the subject of length and form in personal statements are these:

“Applying to Graduate School: Writing a Compelling Personal Statement,” from the International Honor Society in Psychology

“FAQs for Writing Your Graduate Admissions Essay,” from about.com

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Shona Barrie – Director of Admissions, University of Stirling

UCAS asked admissions tutors – the people who read and score your personal statement – for their advice on what you should and shouldn’t do when writing your personal statement. 

The most common piece of advice was not to worry about it – and don’t be tempted to copy anyone else’s.

Read our step-by-step guide to writing your personal statement

Then follow our simple tips below.

• Do talk about why you’re a good candidate – talk about you, your motivations and what brings you to this course.
• Do be enthusiastic – if you show you’re interested in the course, it may help you get a place.
• Do make it relevant . Connect what you’re saying with the course and with your experiences.
• Do outline your ideas clearly .
• Do avoid the negatives – highlight the positives about you, and show you know your strengths.
• Do expect to produce several drafts of your personal statement before being totally happy with it.
• Do ask people you trust for their feedback.
• Don’t be modest or shy . You want your passions to come across. 
• Don’t exaggerate – if you do, you may get caught out in an interview when asked to elaborate on an interesting achievement.
• Don’t use quotes from someone else, or cliches.
• Don’t leave it to the last minute – your statement will seem rushed and important information could be left out.
• Don’t let spelling and grammatical errors spoil your statement , but don't just rely on a spellchecker. Proofread as many times as possible.
• Don’t copy and paste – make yours original.
• Don’t post your personal statement on the internet or on social media or share your personal statement with anyone including your friends and family, unless asking for feedback from people you trust.
• Don’t worry about it – we have all the advice you need to help you stand out in your personal statement. 

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Don’t be tempted to copy or share your statement.

UCAS scans all personal statements through a similarity detection system to compare them with previous statements.

Any similarity greater than 30% will be flagged and we'll inform the universities and colleges to which you have applied. 

Find out more

Ana ghaffari moghaddam – third year law student and careers coach, university of liverpool.

You’ve got this. Follow those simple steps and use your personal statement as your chance to shine .Use the below as a checklist to make sure you've avoided all common pitfalls.

Want more tips on what to include in your personal statement? Use the links below.

• Get started with our personal statement builder . 
• Five things all students should include in their personal statement. 
• See how you can turn your personal statement into a CV, apprenticeship application or covering letter. 
• Read How to start a personal statement: The attention grabber .

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How To Write A Personal Statement

• How To Start A Personal Statement
• Submit Your Personal Statement
• Personal Statement Questions 2025

How to write a personal statement? It's little wonder this question is on every student's lips when it comes to applying to university. Unfortunately, writing a personal statement is probably one of the most difficult parts of the UCAS application form , although this is set to change in 2025 .

Many students will not have done much creative writing since GCSE, and even if you have, it's still very hard to write about yourself.

We've produced this short guide to help you with the process, and make sure you don't end up with a poor UCAS personal statement that won't sell you to university admissions tutors.

What is a personal statement?

Some students are unsure what a personal statement is exactly (and rightly so!).

Unfortunately, some students forge ahead with their personal statement without stopping to check what it's supposed to encompass.

So, what is a personal statement, and what should it include?

The UCAS personal statement is a 47 line (or 4,000 character ) piece of writing that allows you to tell the universities and colleges you are applying to why they should offer you a place on their course.

In order to do this successfully, you need to convey your passion and enthusiasm for the subject to the admissions tutors, as well as demonstrate your suitability to the course.

Please be aware that application personal statements and essays vary between countries, and that the guidance below is only applicable to those applying to a UK higher education institution through UCAS .

Our guide will help you put together a personal statement, although you may find that using your own ideas gives a better reflection of yourself than using advice from anywhere else.

Our personal statement template may also help you structure a decent first draft.

Here is an outline of what you can expect to find in our personal statement writing guide:

• UCAS advice - read what UCAS have to say first to get a general overview 
• Aims of the personal statement - so what actually is the point of a personal statement? what should it do for my application?
• Notes about yourself - Make notes about what you might put in your personal statement before you start
• You and your subject - Why do you want to take this subject?
• Applying for a joint degree - how to handle talking about two subjects
• Applying for different subjects - be careful about trying to apply for completely unrelated subjects
• Read example personal statements - Read statements written by previous applicants to give you some ideas
• Goals of your personal statement - What do you think should be included to make your statement sound good?
• Language of your personal statement - How to make your statement read well
• Structure of your personal statement - How are you going to layout and write your statement?
• Writing your personal statement - A few last minute tips before you begin
• I've written my first draft - now what? - What to do after completing your first draft
• Formatting your personal statement - How to format your statement once you have your final draft.

Choose your university course first

We suggest you have a pretty good idea of what course you want to study before continuing much further with your UCAS personal statement .

Generally, personal statements are quite specific so if you decide to change the course you are applying for you would need to rewrite your personal statement.

If you’re still uncertain as to which course you want to apply for, take a look at our advice on choosing a degree .

This tells you about all the things to consider when selecting your degree course , in order to ensure you make the right choice for you, as well as links to other resources to help you make a decision.

Once you're certain you've settled on a course, you can think about starting to write your personal statement.

Tips for writing your personal statement

Follow our top tips below to create a successful personal statement that stands out from the crowd:

1. Read the UCAS advice

In the 'Your personal statement' section at the UCAS website , you are given a brief introduction to personal statements, and then a set of advice on how you should go about writing it.

It's important to read and pay attention to this, as UCAS will be processing your application, which means their own tips on writing your personal statement will be extremely valuable. Once you have taken on board their advice, feel free to go on to the next section below for more help.

2. Write down the aims of your personal statement

Many universities don't interview applicants, so the only information they have about you is on your UCAS form . A majority of the application form contains your details - the bits the universities are interested in are your grades, your references and your personal statement. The personal statement is the only part you really have full control over, so this is your chance to present a good image to the admissions tutor, even if your grades don't really seem to reflect this. If you are applying to an oversubscribed university course, e.g. Physiotherapy , Medicine , etc. and everyone applying is likely to have good grades, the personal statement is the only thing that will set you apart from other applicants, so you want to try and make yours as good as possible. When the admissions and subject tutors look at your personal statement, they are likely to be asking two main questions:

1. Do we want this student on this course?

2. Do we want this student at this university?

These questions can then be broken up further to make it easier to answer them thoroughly:

• Is the student suited to the course that they are applying for?
• Does the student have the necessary qualifications and qualities for the course?
• Is the student conscientious, hardworking and unlikely to drop out?
• Will the student do their best and cope with the demands of the course?
• Can the student work under pressure?
• Will the student be able to adjust to their new environment at university?
• What are their communication skills like?
• Are they dedicated to this course and have they researched it well?
• Do they have a genuine interest in the subject and a desire to learn more about it?

These are the sorts of questions you need to answer in your personal statement.

Unfortunately you cannot answer them directly with a simple 'yes' or 'no' -  you need to provide evidence and make it sound believable. Ultimately, admissions tutors are human too, and may well have hundreds of personal statements to sift through, so even if you think you've answered all these questions really well you may still be unlucky. There are other techniques you can use to make your statement stand out and appeal to admissions tutors, but remember people are all different and therefore may have different ideas about what they look for in a prospective student.

3. Make notes about yourself

Now you have some idea of why you're writing a personal statement, you need to think about what you're going to put in it. You don't need to start thinking about the wording or structure yet - the first thing to do is get down some ideas on what you could include. The best way to do this is to use a set of headings and write bullet points about how you relate to these headings. Here are some example headings you may wish to think about:

What you want to study at university and why

• Specific aspects of the courses that interest you
• Examples of coursework you have completed
• Practical work you have enjoyed
• Books, articles, etc. you have read related to the subject area
• Work experience or voluntary work in this area
• Conferences you have attended
• Personal experiences that lead to the decision to take this subject
• Where you hope a degree in this subject will take you in the future
• Experiences that show you are a reliable and responsible person, e.g. part-time job, business enterprise, community and charity work, sixth form committee, helping out at school events and open days,  Young Enterprise , World Challenge, Duke of Edinburgh award , Asdan Award, debating societies, and what you have gained from these experiences.

Your interests and skills

• What you like to do in your free time
• Sport and leisure activities
• Subjects you study that are not examined
• Musical instrument(s) you play
• Languages you speak
• Prizes you have won or positions achieved in your interests

Gap year (if applicable)

• Why you want to take a gap year
• What you plan to do
• How this may relate to your course

International Student (if applicable)

• Why you want to come and study for a course in the UK  
• How your experiences in your home country have influenced you.

Please note, you don't have to mention your gap year plans in your personal statement, but if you choose to leave it out, you may be asked why you're taking one at an interview . You should now have lots of bullet points about yourself, all of which will be useful in preparing your personal statement. Don't worry too much if you don't seem to have done many of the things outlined above - just think about things you've done that show all your qualities, or could be written in a way that displays The important thing is that you have a good reason for why you want to study the course. It doesn't matter if the reason sounds silly at the moment - you can work on the language later. All admissions tutors will be looking for people who are enthusiastic and passionate about the subject(s) they want to study, so make sure you really are. If you're choosing this course just because you can't think of anything better to do, that's not a good enough reason, and maybe you should consider looking for a course you would enjoy more.

4. Talk about why you enjoy this subject

Saying why you want to take your course is possibly the most important part of your personal statement. You can have perfect grades, great extra curricular activities and be a really wonderful person, but if admissions tutors feel you aren't committed to your course, you won't get a place. Hopefully the notes you have written for the section above have already given you a good idea of what to write about why you want to take your course. If not then you should at least be sure you want to take that subject - writing a personal statement is a lot of work, and you don't really want to get to the end of it and decide you want to study a different subject. So before you go much further, it's important to be abolutely sure you have chosen the right subject for you. As mentioned earlier, if you’re still not certain about your choice of course, check out our section on choosing a degree to help you make a final decision.

Remember you don't actually have to choose the course you want to take yet, just have a rough idea of the subject area (or areas) you might be interested in. Now you need to think about exactly why you want to take this subject. Even if you are 100% sure that this is the course for you, you still need to get this across to the admissions tutors. If they accept you, you are going to be studying this course for at least the next three years, and you need to convince them that you are committed to it.

Have a think about exactly why the subject appeals to you, and write down as much as you can about it.

It doesn't matter if you only scribble a few notes - you can modify them before you write the statement. You just need to be sure of the key reasons why you want to take the subject.

Write down as many as you can, and if you end up with quite a few, you can always just pick the best.

Remember - if you can't think of any good reasons - should you really be taking that subject?

5. Applying for a joint degree

There are two options you can use to tailor your personal statement to joint degrees (a degree where you take two subjects e.g. Economics and Politics ). You can talk about the subject you feel is most important, and not mention the other. This has the advantage that you can apply for two different joint degrees and only talk about the common element e.g. for Economics and Politics and Law and Politics, you would only talk about politics. If you decide to do this, make sure you talk about the qualities you have which show you are suitable for the other half of your joint degree. Alternatively you can just talk about why you want to do both subjects, although the approach you choose will probably depend on how closely related your subjects are.

6. Applying for different subjects

There is no easy way to write a personal statement for two unrelated subjects. If the subjects are similar, such as Maths and Statistics, or Accounting and Business Studies , you may find you can write a general personal statement that applies equally to both courses.

If this is the case you many not want to mention either of the subjects by name, and instead talk about the related work that you've already done and why you have enjoyed it. If your subjects are totally unrelated there is no way you wan write a personal statement that will cover all of them. Instead you need to come up with a statement that gives you the best chance of being accepted. For example, if you are applying for one subject at four of your university choices and another subject at the other two, you may just want to write a statement related to the subject you chose to study at four universities and either forget about, or change the course, at your other two choices. You also want to consider your predicted grades in relation to the universities you are applying to. Universities that normally make lower offers are less likely to be concerned about a badly targeted personal statement, whereas for universities that make high offers, the personal statement will be much more important. Try and alter your personal statement so it is more specific to the universities asking for higher grades, as this will give you the best chance of being offered places at all your choices. There will probably be some cases where there is nothing you can do, for example, if you are applying for three totally unrelated subjects, each at two different universities. There is no advice that will help in a situation like this, except just to consider whether this is really what you want to do, and that you may be seriously reducing your chances of being offered a place on your chosen courses.

Even if you do apply for three different courses, you will only be able to study one of them, so it helps if you try to limit your choices to similar subjects.

7. Read example UCAS personal statements

Some people may know exactly how they are going to lay out and write their personal statement, but for the rest of us it's a bit more difficult. Even though you now know what you're going to put in your statement, do you know how to make it read well? The best way to get an idea of how to go about producing your personal statement is to look at example personal statements . This gives you a chance to see the sort of structure and language other people use, how they explained why they wanted to study their chosen course, as well as their own interests and abilities. When you read through sample personal statements, have your own notes from the section above ready. If you find anything you've done but haven't already thought about, make a note of it. Reading through lots of personal statements will allow you to judge which ones you think are good or bad, and find parts of statements you really like or dislike. This exercise will come in useful in the next section. Hopefully your school or college will give you some example personal statements, but if they don't, we have a collection of over 2000 personal statements , making us home to the largest catalogue of personal statements on the web.

These can be browsed by the following categories:

• International student
• Mature student .

8. Work out your personal statement goals

Now you’ve looked at some example personal statements , you may have some idea of how you might put your own together. However, even if you’re still stuck, you should have seen lots of statements you like, as well as a few that you don't. Use this knowledge to decide how you are going to write your personal statement. From the personal statements you have just read through, you may have gathered the following guidelines:

• Don’t sound arrogant and pretentious
• Try to have an interesting phrase or paragraph to start and finish on
• Try not to quote books, magazines or publications in a way that makes it sound like you’ve only read them to put them on your statement.
• Do not lie outright and stay as close to the truth as possible
• Don't try to be funny or make jokes in your statement
• Don't start every sentence with I
• Don't include your hobbies and interests unless they are relevant
• Don't use vocabulary you don't normally use and just looked up in a dictionary
• Don't use famous quotes in your statement unless you back them up with information on how and why this person’s quote influenced you. Dropping them in just for the sake of it makes you look silly and that you haven’t given serious thought to your personal statement.
• Don't repeat things already on your UCAS form, e.g. predicted exam grades.
• With the exception of a gap year, don't make claims you are going to do something before you come to university
• Don't include clichés
• Don't take any political or religious viewpoints.

Guidelines like these should give you an idea of what to focus on and think about when writing your own personal statement.

They also stop your statement from looking too much like one of the examples that you might have copied bits from. Remember - you don't have to use any of these goals as your own. If you think you are really witty and some light humour will go down well in your statement, then take the plunge and put it down. These goals are really just ideas you might want to use to help you come up with your first draft - remember a personal statement is supposed to be personal , and you should stick with writing whatever you think will work best for you.

9. Use positive language

From looking at example personal statements you have probably found some language that you like or think works well. The first thing to remember is: do not directly copy any of it! Not even a single sentence! The reason is, copying statements is plagiarism , and if an admissions tutor sees a statement they recognise they will probably reject you instantly. You should also not copy single sentences for the same reason - sentences that stick out in your mind may stick out in the examiners also. It is ok to find a sentence or paragraph that says what you want to say, but make sure you adapt it yourself and don't just copy it.

Remember that UCAS also uses its Copycatch software to check for statements that are too similar to each other, and if they find you have copied a previous statement too closely, your application will be penalised. In terms of language, you need to use words and phrases that makes you sound enthusiastic about your courses and portrays you as an interesting person. If you're still wondering what sort of language to use look at existing personal statements , prospectuses and on the web to find sentences you feel fit your views. University prospectuses are another good place to look - find your course, see how it is described and see if you can work anything similar into your personal statement.

Write down a list of words or sentences you would like to use like this:

• to gain greater understanding of the world around you
• sends a signal to prospective employers and graduate schools
• students of economics become problem-solvers
• the fact is economics affects our daily lives
• a challenging and diverse discipline
• develops analytical skills, quantitative skills, research skills
• it is interesting and relevant

Don't copy the sentences you find outright - change them or write your own sentence in a similar style. If you can't find any sentences you like, try and write your own - it is a personal statement after all.

10. Add structure to your statement

Now it's time to think about the structure of your personal statement - you should have read lots of example statements by now and may have a fair idea about how yours is going to look, but this section should clarify things a bit if you don't.

Most statements are written in an essay format, but you don't have to do yours like this. We don't recommend you write it as one large block of text. Even though you can fit more words in, this just makes it hard to read. This means you need to break it up into paragraphs, or use headings.

Not many personal statements are written using the latter format, but if you think yours would work better like this, then go ahead. A starting guideline is to simply spend half the statement talking about the course and why you want to take it, and spend the other half writing about yourself and your own abilities, though once you get into it this can be easily changed.   Another approach is to split up your notes into a few categories and write a paragraph on each one. For example:

• Paragraph 1: Introduction to the subject, the aspects you’re interested in and why
• Paragraph 2: What you have done related to the subject that isn’t already on your UCAS form
• Paragraphs 3 and 4: Work experience placements and relevant activities at school
• Paragraph 5: Your interests outside of school, particularly those that show you are a responsible and reliable person
• Paragraph 6: Your goal of attending university and a memorable closing comment

Again, this is only a guideline - depending on yourself and your course you may want to change things. The last option is to use our personal statement template , which will guide you through the process. Our tool allows you to save your statement and come back to it later. We recommend you spend most of your time on the start and finish of the personal statement .   A good opening will grab the readers’ attention and cause them to read the statement properly, rather than just scanning it. A good conclusion will mean the reader remembers what you wrote, and hopefully will recommend you. In our opinion it's best to start with why you want to take your subject, and finish with why you want to go to university or what you want to do afterwards.

Our Personal Statement FAQs has more information on each area of your personal statement and how to write them.

11. Write the first draft of your personal statement

Hopefully you now have all your notes ready - you've thought about the language you want to use, as well as the structure and the goals of your statement. You are almost ready to start writing your personal statement, but here are a few things to bear in mind first. Remember the aims of a personal statement . You need to show the admissions tutor why you should be accepted on your chosen course at your chosen university. In addition to what you say in your pesonal statement, the language you use and the way it is laid out will be judged as well. Also remember you only have a limited amount of space (47 lines, or 4,000 characters) , but don't let this put you off too much. A long personal statement can be easily trimmed down. It's harder to increase the length of a short personal statement, but if yours it too short to begin with, don't worry. There is no requirement that you fill the entire space, but it's better to have a short and well written personal statement than a long and irrelevant one. You can see how long your personal statement is with our handy length checker . Be positive and interesting - if there is something you are unhappy about, try to portray it in an attractive light, or failing that, remove reference to it altogether.

Before you begin, take a look at the websites and prospectuses of the universities you are applying to, and see if they say anything about writing personal statements. This information would probably be written by the admissions tutors, and would give you a much better idea of the sort of things you should put down!

12. Back everything up with examples

Remember - you need to write in a way that is informative, interesting and useful. Along with writing about what you've done, try and explain why you did it, or what you think you learned from it. For example: I currently have a part time job and this has taught me about teamwork, responsibility and time management in the workplace. From this point, you're more or less on your own, so move on to the next section when you've got a complete first draft of your personal statement .

To help you with this first draft, we have a handy UCAS personal statement template tool you can use for free.

13. Ask for multiple rounds of feedback

Congratulations on putting together the first draft of your personal statement! Don't worry if it sounds disjointed, you have missed bits out or it's too long or too short - you can correct these things later on. First of all, read through what you've written slowly and try to read it from someone else's point of view. Make sure it's easy to read and not confusing. Have you said everything you want to say without under or over-selling yourself? If you are confused by reading your own personal statement, it is likely anyone else reading it will be too (including the admissions tutors!). Next - get other people to read it. Ask your family, friends, teachers and anyone else who you think will be able to give you a good opinion. As well as checking for spelling and grammar mistakes, they will be able to tell you if they think there are some things you may have missed out. Also show it to your head of year at school or career adviser, as people like this will have seen a lot of personal statements and therefore know what a good personal statement looks like. You could also get people on the Internet to look at your statement, and see what they think. There are many web based communities where you can post your personal statement or email it to people, and they will happily give you advice for free.

There is one downside though: if you post your statement on a message board or forum, anyone can look at it, so you may get people who steal parts of your statement (or the whole thing!). Hopefully by looking at your personal statement again and showing it to other people you should have a whole bunch of changes to make to your original draft. Before making these changes, save a copy of your original statement so you can go back to it if you need too. Keep making changes, showing people your statement, and making more changes - it's not unusual for people to have done 10-20 drafts (though many do much less) before they are completely happy with their statement. Once you've got a personal statement that reads well, and you are happy with it, it's time to look at the size of it.

14. Format your personal statement

Personal statements can no longer be submitted on paper, so not much formatting is required. The software used to upload your personal statement to UCAS can be quite temperamental, so carefully check through your statement line by line once you've submitted it. We've also put together a personal statement length checker so you can see whether your statement is going to fit into the space provided in your online UCAS application form.

15. Check the length

You have 47 lines in which to write your personal statement.

However, you should take care using them, as they will only clear you through the automatic preview – you can’t tell how it will appear to the admissions tutors.

16. Word, character and line limits

Firstly remember, there is no word limit – instead you're concentrating on a character limit (4,000 characters including spaces) and a line limit (47).

Both of these must be satisfied to allow you to save your personal statement. Checking you’re within the character limit is easy - just use our Personal Statement Length Checker . The line limit is more difficult, as the length of the lines is predetermined - any lines longer than 93 characters (including spaces) are wrapped onto the next line.

You can check you don’t go over the line limit using a word processor that shows the cursor position (the upright bar showing where you’re typing) and creating a new line after you’ve typed 93 characters – if you’re doing this make sure your word processor doesn’t wrap lines automatically before this.

17. Other things to remember

No formatting of any type is allowed in your personal statement , except using capital letters - so any bold , italic , or underlined words will disappear in the preview. Tabs and multiple spaces will be condensed to a single space, so it is no longer possible to indent lines. Single spaces at the beginning of lines will also be removed. You have a very limited set of 'special characters' to use along with all the upper and lowercase letter and numbers. You can use the following symbols: !"£$%^&*()_+' |/ ,.;:'@#~[]?*-= Common symbols not allowed are €, long dashes (–) and the special quote characters “ ‘ ’ ” which will simply be removed from your statement.

So remember to replace long dashes with - and quotes with " and '.

Some of these problems stem from Microsoft Word's autoformat feature, so you might want to turn if off before starting your personal statement. Backslashes (\) are also not allowed but will be replaced with forward slashes (/) and curly brackets will be replaced with normal ones.

Further information

For more tips and advice on writing your personal statement, please see the following articles at Studential:

• UCAS Personal Statement Examples
• Top Rated UCAS Personal Statements
• Personal Statement Editing Services
• Personal Statement Tips From A Teacher
• Analysis Of A UCAS Personal Statement
• The 15th January UCAS Deadline: 4 Ways To Avoid Missing It
• UCAS Personal Statement FAQs
• UCAS UCAS Personal Statement Template
• UCAS Personal Statement Timeline
• 10 Top Personal Statement Writing Tips
• What To Do If You Miss The 15th January UCAS Deadline
• 6 Personal Statement Writing Tips
• How to write a personal statement - UCAS.com
• Tips for writing a personal statement - Complete University Guide
• How to write an excellent personal statement in 10 steps
• 10 Personal Statement Writing Tips

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Personal statement FAQs

We've gone through some of the most commonly asked personal statement questions and put all the answers in one place

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Your personal statement is a big part of your uni application. It's where you can show universities why they should give you a place on your chosen course. Read on for quick tips on writing your personal statement. We'll cover what sort of things to include, along with answers to some of the most commonly asked questions that crop up over on our sister site The Student Room .  If you can't find an answer to your question here, try posting it to the personal statements forum on The Student Room .

When should I start writing my personal statement?

It’s never too early to start thinking about it! However, you'll need a good idea of what course you’re going to apply for before you launch into writing it. On the other hand, don’t leave it too late as it's quite a long process and you're likely to have a few drafts before reaching your finished product.

Remember:  your referee will need to see your personal statement before they can write your reference. If you get yourself organised over the summer, you can start by jotting down a few ideas over those few weeks - ready to start writing it when you arrive back to school or college in September.

The Ucas application deadline for most undergraduate uni courses starting in September 2024 is 31 January 2024. If you're applying to Oxbridge or for medicine, dentistry or veterinary science courses to start in 2024 there's an earlier deadline – 16 October 2023. You can find all the key Ucas deadlines and application dates for 2024 entry in this article . 

• Read more: universities reveal all about personal statements

How long can the personal statement be?

Statements are limited to whichever is shorter of either:

• 4,000 characters (including spaces)  OR

Be aware that software such as Microsoft Word may not give a character or line count that completely matches what the Ucas form says. The character count should be reasonably accurate, but the line limit is more difficult because lines may wrap at different points depending on the software you're using.

The only way to be 100% sure what the character and line counts are is to copy your draft statement into your online Ucas form (but be careful not to submit it unless you're sure it's the final version). You can edit and save your personal statement without submitting it as many times as you like, and you'll only be able to mark the section as complete when you're on the preview screen. 

If testing out your personal statement draft on your Ucas form still feels too risky, you can get a good indication of where you're at by using the Courier New font, size 10, with the default margins, to get a reasonable estimate how many lines your personal statement will be. If you've left a line between paragraphs, then you will probably reach the line limit before the character limit.

• Read more: how to write an excellent personal statement in ten steps

Where do I start?

Most people won’t be able to just start writing the statement off the top of their head – so it’s a good idea to jot down a few notes first. The main things to think about are:

• What do I want to study? (if you can't answer this, you should probably concentrate on working it out before writing your personal statement).
• Why do I want to study it?
• What personal qualities, interests and experience do I have which show I am suited to this subject, and to study at university?

Many people have trouble writing about themselves and their personal qualities. If you’re struggling with this step, it can be helpful to look up some information on writing a CV - there are a lot of parallels in how to put yourself forward effectively.

• Read more: five practical tips to help with your personal statement

What sort of structure should I use?

Most people write their personal statement in an essay style, starting off with the course, and why they want to do it, then talking about their relevant work experience and skills and finishing off with extracurricular activities.

As a guide, spend around two thirds of the space talking about your course and how you’re suited to it, and one third on your work experience and other activities. Exactly how you write your statement depends on your subject – generally people write more about work experience for vocational subjects like medicine and law than they would for subjects like maths or English where work experience is less important.

• Read more: avoid these ten biggest personal statement mistakes

No formatting of any type is allowed in your personal statement (except using capital letters), so any bold, italic, or underlined words will disappear in the preview.

Tabs and multiple spaces will be condensed to a single space, so it is not possible to indent lines. Single spaces at the beginning of lines will also be removed.

You have a very limited set of special characters. Common symbols that aren't allowed are € and the special quote characters “ ‘ ’ ” which will simply be removed from your statement, so remember to replace quotes with " and '.

Backslashes (\) are also not allowed, but will be replaced with forward slashes (/) and curly brackets will be replaced with normal ones.

What’s the most important part of the personal statement?

Write about your aspirations in a meaningful way. The crucial bit about a personal statement is where you talk about the subject you are applying for and why you want to do this at uni. Admissions tutors will always focus on this bit – so make this interesting and not just a list of books. Your personality should emerge here – they should be able to understand what is driving you to apply for this course, as well as getting a sense of your energy and enthusiasm.

• Read more: how to write your university application

Should I talk about what I want to do after university?

You could, but only if you have a good idea of what you want to do. If you sound sure about what you want to do after uni it gives the impression that you’ve thought carefully about your course and what you want to do with it. It's also a nice way to round off your statement, rather than finishing on less important stuff like extra curricular activities. If you don’t have any future plans, then leave this bit out – you don’t want to be asked about them at interviews.

Should I talk about my qualifications?

No. There’s already a section on the Ucas form for this, so don’t waste the space on your personal statement. If you have something important which doesn’t go in the qualifications section, ask your referee to put it down in your reference – it will sound better if it comes from them than from you. This goes for module marks as well. Some people are told they should try to link each A-level to the course they are applying for. It can be far more effective to focus your time and space on talking about the subject you are applying for – that is what matters.

How do I write it for two different courses?

There’s no easy way to write a personal statement for two totally unrelated courses. If the courses are similar you may find you can write a statement relevant to both, without mentioning either subject by name. If the courses are completely unrelated, it may be impossible to write for both subjects without your personal statement sounding vague and unfocused. Instead you will need to concentrate on just one subject and just ignore the other – it sometimes works!

What are admissions tutors looking for?

Different admissions tutors are looking for different things, but in general they will be thinking things like:  “Do we want this student on this course?” , and  “Do we want this student at this university?”  And most will be looking for an interest in the subject you are applying for that goes beyond simply your A-level syllabus/reading list. 

Remember, most universities and departments now publish information on applications and writing personal statements, so reading the subject section of their website might list more specific information on exactly what they’re looking for. If in doubt, google the name of the university along with the subject/course and admissions statement.

• Read more: 6 steps you need to take to apply to university

Is it worth doing loads of extracurricular stuff to make it sound good?

There’s no point doing extra things just to try and make yourself look good to universities – you won’t enjoy it and it probably won’t help much either. An interest and aptitude for the course is likely to be more important to admissions tutors than lots of extracurricular activities. If you do want to do something to boost your application, read relevant books or do work experience related to the subject instead. 

What happens if I lie on the personal statement?

If you aren't confident that the universities will accept you based on your predicted grades or something else, you might reconsider applying. 

It's best not to write anything which you can't back up in interview if necessary. Interviewers can and do bring up nearly anything in a personal statement as a basis for questions. 

Any last tips?

What have you done that's relevant to your subject, that is unique, and that it's likely no one else is going to write about in their personal statement? Many people have similar interests and work experience, so you need something to separate you from the crowd. For example, everyone who applies for economics seems to read The Economist, The Financial Times, and The Guardian. So if you put down those, don't expect them to be amazed by your reading around the subject. Have a deeper think – what makes you special? 

• Read more: how to write your personal statement in an evening

And the most important thing?

Finally, remember that it’s your personal statement, and you can write  whatever you want  on it. If everything in this guide conflicts with what you’ve got already, but you think you still have a killer personal statement, then use that. A personal statement is about  you , and you shouldn’t let anyone tell you what to put – sticking blindly to a formula will just stop your true personality showing through.

Tricks to squeeze more in

• Remember it's a personal statement, and leave out anything unnecessary.
• Don't repeat yourself.
• Cut out the waffle – be concise!
• Get rid of pointless words, such as very specific details or unecessary adjectives
• Ask your referee to mention some stuff that you cannot
• Get some structure to your statement
• If you can't get it under the line/character limit, you may just have to chop whole sentences

What should I do once I’ve written it?

Get people's opinions on it! Show it to your friends, parents, teachers, career advisors and so on and note down their comments. The most useful comments are likely to come from your teachers in the subject and the people at your school or college who handle Ucas applications. If you have enough time, leave your personal statement for a couple of weeks to a month and come back to it – if you’re not still happy with what you wrote, it’s time to start redrafting.

Definitely do not post it on an internet forum or discussion board. If your personal statement is published online before your application is complete, it may get picked up by Ucas' plagiarism detection .

You may want to look at these...

The ucas personal statement is changing in 2025.

A question-based personal statement will be required as part of university applications from autumn 2025 onwards

Teacher secrets for writing a great personal statement

Writing a personal statement is one of the most important things you will do when applying to university. Here is some useful advice and insider knowledge from Mrs Kinetta, who has more than 25 years of experience as a sixth form tutor.

How to write an excellent personal statement in 10 steps

Help and advice on putting your application together

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Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Writing the Personal Statement

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The personal statement, your opportunity to sell yourself in the application process, generally falls into one of two categories:

1. The general, comprehensive personal statement:

This allows you maximum freedom in terms of what you write and is the type of statement often prepared for standard medical or law school application forms.

2. The response to very specific questions:

Often, business and graduate school applications ask specific questions, and your statement should respond specifically to the question being asked. Some business school applications favor multiple essays, typically asking for responses to three or more questions.

Questions to ask yourself before you write:

• What's special, unique, distinctive, and/or impressive about you or your life story?
• What details of your life (personal or family problems, history, people or events that have shaped you or influenced your goals) might help the committee better understand you or help set you apart from other applicants?
• When did you become interested in this field and what have you learned about it (and about yourself) that has further stimulated your interest and reinforced your conviction that you are well suited to this field? What insights have you gained?
• How have you learned about this field—through classes, readings, seminars, work or other experiences, or conversations with people already in the field?
• If you have worked a lot during your college years, what have you learned (leadership or managerial skills, for example), and how has that work contributed to your growth?
• What are your career goals?
• Are there any gaps or discrepancies in your academic record that you should explain (great grades but mediocre LSAT or GRE scores, for example, or a distinct upward pattern to your GPA if it was only average in the beginning)?
• Have you had to overcome any unusual obstacles or hardships (for example, economic, familial, or physical) in your life?
• What personal characteristics (for example, integrity, compassion, and/or persistence) do you possess that would improve your prospects for success in the field or profession? Is there a way to demonstrate or document that you have these characteristics?
• What skills (for example, leadership, communicative, analytical) do you possess?
• Why might you be a stronger candidate for graduate school—and more successful and effective in the profession or field than other applicants?
• What are the most compelling reasons you can give for the admissions committee to be interested in you?

General advice

Answer the questions that are asked

• If you are applying to several schools, you may find questions in each application that are somewhat similar.
• Don't be tempted to use the same statement for all applications. It is important to answer each question being asked, and if slightly different answers are needed, you should write separate statements. In every case, be sure your answer fits the question being asked.

Tell a story

• Think in terms of showing or demonstrating through concrete experience. One of the worst things you can do is to bore the admissions committee. If your statement is fresh, lively, and different, you'll be putting yourself ahead of the pack. If you distinguish yourself through your story, you will make yourself memorable.

Be specific

• Don't, for example, state that you would make an excellent doctor unless you can back it up with specific reasons. Your desire to become a lawyer, engineer, or whatever should be logical, the result of specific experience that is described in your statement. Your application should emerge as the logical conclusion to your story.

Find an angle

• If you're like most people, your life story lacks drama, so figuring out a way to make it interesting becomes the big challenge. Finding an angle or a "hook" is vital.

Concentrate on your opening paragraph

• The lead or opening paragraph is generally the most important. It is here that you grab the reader's attention or lose it. This paragraph becomes the framework for the rest of the statement.

Tell what you know

• The middle section of your essay might detail your interest and experience in your particular field, as well as some of your knowledge of the field. Too many people graduate with little or no knowledge of the nuts and bolts of the profession or field they hope to enter. Be as specific as you can in relating what you know about the field and use the language professionals use in conveying this information. Refer to experiences (work, research, etc.), classes, conversations with people in the field, books you've read, seminars you've attended, or any other source of specific information about the career you want and why you're suited to it. Since you will have to select what you include in your statement, the choices you make are often an indication of your judgment.

Don't include some subjects

• There are certain things best left out of personal statements. For example, references to experiences or accomplishments in high school or earlier are generally not a good idea. Don't mention potentially controversial subjects (for example, controversial religious or political issues).

Do some research, if needed

• If a school wants to know why you're applying to it rather than another school, do some research to find out what sets your choice apart from other universities or programs. If the school setting would provide an important geographical or cultural change for you, this might be a factor to mention.

Write well and correctly

• Be meticulous. Type and proofread your essay very carefully. Many admissions officers say that good written skills and command of correct use of language are important to them as they read these statements. Express yourself clearly and concisely. Adhere to stated word limits.

Avoid clichés

• A medical school applicant who writes that he is good at science and wants to help other people is not exactly expressing an original thought. Stay away from often-repeated or tired statements.

For more information on writing a personal statement, see the personal statement vidcast .

Writing your personal statement

A personal statement is your chance to tell us what motivates you and why you’re suitable for your chosen programme.

Please note

you cannot amend your personal statement once you have submitted your application

Where to put a personal statement

You can type your personal statement in the online application form (3,000-character limit, including spaces) or upload it as a separate document. If you upload your personal statement, you can go over 3,000 characters but it cannot be longer than two sides of A4 paper (size 12 font and single spaced).

You should consider the following questions when writing your personal statement

• Why do you want to undertake the programme or research?
• What are your academic interests?
• Why do you wish to study at UCL?
• What educational experience do you have?
• Do you have any relevant work experience?
• Have you completed any extracurricular or voluntary activities relevant to the programme?
• What are your career aspirations?

Some programmes ask for programme-specific information in your personal statement. Check your programme in the Graduate Prospectus for details.

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A Clear Personal Statement Character Limit Guide

Table of Contents

All forms of writing follow a particular set of rules. This is especially the case when writing to an institution. This simple guide will help you understand a  personal statement character limit , format, and tone to help you write with confidence.

Let’s start with a few basics. 

What is a Personal Statement?

A personal statement is a special essay that accompanies a student’s application to their chosen long-term educational institution. A personal statement is an opportunity for students to show admissions board members that they are worthwhile candidates.

You can think of a personal statement as a mini-resume that outlines your accomplishments, values, and future goals. 

The Importance of a Personal Statement

A personal statement is crucial because it gives readers a glimpse into your values and qualities . This information helps them gauge your suitability for a job role, program, or course.

While your aptitude remains the primary basis for your readiness for a particular program, your character will define how you respond to challenges.

Recruiters and admissions board representatives recognize this, which can make all the difference in gaining admission. Additionally, a personal statement is an opportunity to showcase your communication skills.

Personal statements are a common requirement for postgraduate applications. If you’re unsure how to write a personal statement, read on.

Things to Consider When Writing a Personal Statement

Personal statements are relatively easy to write. You need only understand their essence to know what to write. Knowing these key aspects will help you determine your angle of approach.

A personal statement should have a polite yet confident tone. Remember that you’re outlining your values and the things that matter most. For a compelling statement, you need to inject a bit of confidence and conviction into your statements. Strong language and an active voice are ideal.

Personal Statement Character Limit

The  personal statement character limit  varies between use cases. For instance, the UCAS provides that your statement should only be up to 4,000 characters. Take note that this includes spaces, punctuation marks, and so on. This is about two pages of A4 paper.

Be careful not to mistake this for a word count. Again, a character limit takes spaces and punctuations into account.

Relevance to Purpose

Relevance is another thing to consider. Make sure to tailor your statement to provide relevant information to your application. Prioritize the experience, values, and skills most relevant to your application. It’s similar to tailoring your resume for a specific job.

Formatting is necessary because it shows your ability to follow instructions. Make sure to follow the recommended format. You can find this information in the application instructions. If there are none, follow the standard format for your use case. For instance, college applications follow these rules:

• Double-spaced
• 12-pt, Times New Roman
• A 1-inch margin for all sides

Substance and Clarity

Finally, make sure your personal statement is clear and substantive. Remember that you must stick to the  personal statement character limit.  Your thoughts must be concise and direct to the point. 

Personal statements allow admissions board representatives and job recruiters to learn more about your personality . The key to writing personal statements [and any other content] is structure. Understanding what you’re writing can help you write with purpose.

Again, know your objective, follow the rules, and keep things simple. Personal statements don’t have to be daunting.

Abir Ghenaiet

Abir is a data analyst and researcher. Among her interests are artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing. As a humanitarian and educator, she actively supports women in tech and promotes diversity.

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Personal Statement

Personal statements may be used to customize the application to a specific program or to different specialties. 

In This Section:

Creating the personal statement, formatting the personal statement, previewing the personal statement, reviewing/editing the personal statement, assigning the personal statement.

You create your own personal statements in the MyERAS portal from the Personal Statements section listed under Documents. 

• Each personal statement must contain a Personal Statement Title and the Personal Statement Content. The title will be visible only to you to help you correctly assign it to programs, and the content will be visible to both you and the programs it is assigned to. 
• The personal statement is limited to 28,000 characters, which include letters, numbers, spaces, and punctuation marks. 
• There is not a limit to how many personal statements applicants can create. 
• Personal statements created outside the MyERAS application should be done in a plain text word processing application such as Notepad (for Windows users) or SimpleText (for Mac users). The statement should reflect your personal perspective and experiences accurately and must be your own work and not the work of another author. 
• The use of AI tools is acceptable for brainstorming, proofreading, or editing the personal statement, but the final submission should represent your own work. 
• Personal statements created in word processing applications not using plain text may contain hidden and invalid formatting. 

Note: A number of websites provide examples of personal statements. Do not copy any information from these sites and use it in your personal statements without giving credit to the author. This is considered plagiarism. 

• The ERAS program will investigate any suspected acts of plagiarism. 
• Any substantiated findings of plagiarism may result in the reporting of such findings to the programs to which you apply now and in subsequent ERAS seasons. 

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When creating a personal statement in the MyERAS application, the following formatting options will be available: 

• Bold. 
• Italic. 
• Underline. 
• Strikethrough. 
• Bullets. 
• Numbering. 
• Align left. 
• Center. 
• Align right. 
• Increase indent. 
• Decrease indent. 
• Insert hyperlink. 

Note: Personal statements created outside of the MyERAS system should be done in a plain text word processing application such as Notepad (for Windows users) or SimpleText (for Mac Users). Personal statements created in word processing applications not using plain text may contain hidden and potentially invalid formatting. 

After entering the personal statement title and content, you will have the opportunity to preview your personal statement before saving it. This preview allows you to view your personal statement just as the programs will view it, including the number of pages.  

You are responsible for reviewing your personal statements before assigning them to programs. 

The Preview/Print option under the Actions column will allow you to view and/or print your personal statement. 

Personal statements can be edited at any point during the application season — even when assigned to programs that have been applied to. 

Personal statements that have been edited will be reflected on the programs’ side by an updated status containing the date of the updated version, but programs are not guaranteed to view or review updated versions of personal statements. 

You may designate the assignment of one personal statement for each program. 

• Personal statements can be assigned to any saved or applied to programs from the Personal Statements page by selecting “Assign” under the Actions column of the intended personal statement. 
• When assigning by personal statement, programs listed with a disabled checkbox already have the selected personal statement currently assigned. 
• When assigning by personal statement, you should review any personal statements that are listed under the Assigned Personal Statement column before making selections or changes. 
• Personal statements can be assigned by program using the Assign option under the Actions column on both the Saved Programs and Programs Applied To pages. 
• Changes to personal statement assignments can be made throughout the application season, but programs are not guaranteed to view or review newly assigned personal statements. 
• A personal statement cannot be assigned to programs that are closed. 
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Personal statement

You will need to complete a personal statement as part of your application.

This statement supports your application by demonstrating:

• the course is right for you; and
• you have the skills, knowledge and aptitude to achieve the course requirements.

It is normally one to two pages long.

You'll find a description of the course and the key course requirements, including skills, experiences and technical abilities on our course pages.

Use this description as a guide to the points you address in your statement.

You can also talk about how the course fits in with your desired academic progression or career aspirations.

What to include

You could structure your statement like this:

• Current studies and how they're useful or relevant
• Why you chose this course in particular
• Relevant work experience and skills
• Extracurricular activities and interests
• Why you chose this university
• Concluding paragraph

Business School personal statements

Personal statements for courses in the Business School are slightly different than for other courses. Your personal statement provides an opportunity for you tell us a bit more about yourself and your motivation for undertaking this programme.

In the personal statement section of the application, we ask you to answer the following questions:

• Please share your motivation for undertaking this programme?
• What is your proudest non-academic achievement?
• What would you contribute to the cohort and to the Imperial community?
• How would you use your degree to make a positive impact?

Each section of the personal statement has a 1500 character limit (including spaces).

Applying for two courses

If you are initially applying to two courses, you can submit two personal statements.

You will have two options when submitting your personal statements:

• You can submit one document with both your first and second choice personal statements (marked clearly with headers); or
• You can submit your first-choice personal statement when applying. If your application to your first-choice course is unsuccessful, you can then send your second choice personal statement to the appropriate  Admissions team . 

Length of Personal Statement: Medical School Application Essay Limits Explained

• By Med School Insiders
• January 11, 2023
• Personal Statement

The medical school personal statement is one of the most important pieces of your application. It’s your opportunity to tell your personal story beyond your grades and accomplishments. Who are you? Why do you want to become a doctor? These questions aren’t necessarily difficult ones to answer. You know why you want to be a doctor. But the medical school personal statement can only be about a page and a half long. How do you engagingly cram your life’s story into that limited space?

In this post, we’ll break down the differing lengths and requirements of the AMCAS, AACOMAS, and TMDSAS personal statements. We’ll also cover other medical school application essay lengths and share tips on how to write clearly and concisely.

Length of Medical School Personal Statement

Amcas personal statement length.

An AMCAS personal statement has a 5300 character maximum, which is only about 1.5 pages of single-spaced 12-point Times New Roman font.

This is not a lot of space to tell admissions committees why you want to devote your life to the study and practice of medicine. That said, it’s all the space you have, so it’s essential that you make brevity your friend.

Choose a few key moments and personality traits that exemplify your strength of character, maturity, and dedication to the pursuit of medicine. Why do you want to become a doctor? What events and people in your life have informed this desire? What sets you apart from the other candidates? The key to success is explaining this in an engaging, informative, yet succinct way.

Learn How to Write a Medical School Personal Statement in 11 Steps , and save our 25 Personal Statement Prompts to Spark Ideas that can get you started.

AACOMAS Personal Statement Length

Osteopathic (DO) medical schools also have a 5300 character limit , but the personal statement must be about why you want to become an osteopath specifically. You must choose key moments from your life that have informed your desire to study osteopathic medicine, earn your DO, and become an osteopathic doctor.

Why have you chosen the osteopathic approach to medicine over the allopathic approach? Do you have an osteopathic mentor who inspired you? How do your past actions illustrate your alignment with osteopathic principles?

Learn how to write an effective osteopathic personal statement with our comprehensive AACOMAS Personal Statement Guide , which includes tips for success and mistakes to avoid.

TMDSAS Personal Statement Length

If you’re planning to apply to Texas medical schools, you’ll have even less space to write your personal statement. The TMDSAS personal statement has a 5000 character maximum. If you’re planning to apply to both AMCAS and TMDSAS schools, know that you will either have to write two personal statements or keep your AMCAS statement to 5000 characters instead of 5300.

Texas schools are looking for the same criteria from your personal statement. What fuels your desire to become a doctor, and which events or people from your life crystalized your ambition? What sets you apart and makes you a unique candidate?

Learn how to write an effective Texas medical school personal statement with our TMDSAS Personal Statement Guide .

Length of Other Medical School Application Essays

Amcas mini-essays.

On the AMCAS application, you may need to complete additional essays. Each of these essays is 1325 characters in length.

Complete these essays if you answer “Yes” to the following questions:

• Have you ever matriculated at, or attended, any medical school as a candidate for a medical degree?
• Were you ever the recipient of any institutional action by any college or medical school for unacceptable academic performance or conduct violation, even though such action may not have interrupted your enrollment or required you to withdraw?
• Were you dishonorably discharged from the military? Please explain the circumstances of your discharge, including the circumstances leading to your discharge, your period of service and your rank at the time of discharge.
• Have you ever been convicted of, or pleaded guilty or no contest to, a Felony crime, excluding 1) any offense for which you were adjudicated as a juvenile, or 2) convictions which have been expunged or sealed by a court (in states where applicable)?
• Have you ever been convicted of, or pleaded guilty or no contest to, a Misdemeanor crime, excluding 1) any offense for which you were adjudicated as a juvenile, 2) any convictions which have been expunged or sealed by a court, or 3) any misdemeanor convictions for which any probation has been completed and the case dismissed by the court (in states where applicable)?
• Do you wish to be considered a disadvantaged applicant by any of your designated medical schools that may consider such factors (social, economic or educational)?

AACOMAS Mini-Essays

AACOMAS applications offer a 500 character limit for mini-essays relating to each of the following questions:

• Dishonorary discharge from the military.
• Have you ever been convicted of a Misdemeanor?
• Have you ever been convicted of a Felony?
• Have you ever been disciplined for academic performance by any college or school?
• Have you ever been disciplined for student conduct violations by any college or school?
• Were you ever denied readmission to any academic program due to academic conduct or performance?
• Have you ever had any certification, registration, license or clinical privileges revoked, suspended or in any way restricted by an institution, state or locality?

TMDSAS Mini-Essays

On the TMDSAS application, the character length for additional mini-essays varies from 600-1000 characters.

• Describe how your military experience prepared you for a career as a healthcare provider. (1000 characters)
• Have you ever been arrested or charged with any violation of the law regardless of outcome? (600 characters to provide details.)
• If you indicate that you consider yourself a non-traditional applicant, the following essay prompt will appear: “Describe the factors that have defined you as a non-traditional candidate and how they impact your application.” (1000 characters)

TMDSAS offers students two additional essays, one of which is optional. Both essays have a maximum character limit of 2500 characters.

The first is called the Personal Characteristics essay, where you have the opportunity to describe how your background, talents, skills, experiences, etc., would add to the educational experience of others.

The second essay is optional and provides the admissions committee more information on anything you do not feel you were able to cover in the rest of your application. You are strongly encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity to share more about yourself.

Tips for Clear and Concise Essay Writing

5300 characters is not a lot of space, so it is vital that your personal statement be concise, engaging, and to the point.

• Choose clear words that get your point across concisely.
• Avoid flowery language that confuses rather than adds clarity. The thesaurus can help you find a clearer word, but using it to find a more complicated one will only make it sound like you used a thesaurus.
• Your personal statement is not your complete life story. It’s your answer to the question, “Why do you want to be a doctor?” Select a couple of specific moments from your life that exemplify the personal qualities you want an admissions committee to know you have.
• Don’t try to rehash your entire CV. In fact, your personal statement shouldn’t mimic your resume or list of experiences. Use the personal statement as an opportunity to add new information and insights to your application.
• Review and edit for clarity. As you refine your personal statement, ask others to review it for clarity. Are there any aspects that were confusing? Are there any parts that could be clearer?

Take Your Medical School Personal Statement to the Next Level

You don’t have to face your personal statement alone—and you shouldn’t! Med School Insiders offers a range of personal statement editing services and packages . We provide everything from general editing to in-depth, unlimited editing with a one-on-one physician advisor who will be there to guide you every step of the way.

Our doctors, MDs and DOs included, have years of experience serving on admissions committees. You’ll receive key insights from people who have intimate knowledge of both sides of the selection process.

Utilize our Comprehensive Medical School Admissions Packages to succeed in every step of the application process, regardless of which application service you apply through. Choose from AMCAS Application Editing , AACOMAS Application Editing , or TMDSAS Application Editing tailored to the schools you’re applying to.

For more on personal statements and all other aspects of the medical school application process, follow the Med School Insiders blog . It’s a vast library of resources for premeds, applicants, and medical students, with the latest how-to advice, study strategies, and industry trends.

Med School Insiders

2024-2025 Medical School Application Timeline and Monthly Schedule

This is the medical school application timeline you should follow, including key dates and an ideal month-by-month preparation schedule.

2024 TMDSAS Personal Statement Guide

The TMDSAS personal statement—learn how the TMDSAS personal statement differs from AMCAS and how to write a personal statement for Texas medical schools.

2024 AACOMAS Personal Statement Guide

The AACOMAS personal statement—learn how it fits within the application process and how to write a personal statement for DO schools.

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Personal Statement Examples That Show Your Colors

A personal statement is a window into your character, offering a glimpse of your personality, your values, and your vision. By writing one, you can tell your unique story in your own voice, and make a lasting impression that will linger in the minds of those who read it.

In this article, we're providing examples of personal statements that will inspire you and give you a sense of what makes a strong application. With these templates as a guide, you'll feel more confident in your ability to get into top graduate schools. And if you ever need paper help , our service has got your back.

What is a Personal Statement

A personal statement is a narrative that provides insight into who you are as an individual, what drives you, and how your experiences have shaped your goals. Whether you're applying to a university, seeking a scholarship, or vying for a residency spot, your personal statement serves as a key element of your application that can set you apart from other candidates.

At its core, it is your opportunity to communicate your story in a way that resonates with the reader. It lets you go beyond grades and test scores to reveal the motivations, challenges, and passions that define you.

Personal statements often follow prompts or guidelines provided by the institution or organization to which you're applying. However, the most impactful statements are those that creatively respond to these prompts while still maintaining a strong, coherent narrative that ties your past experiences to your future goals.

Stuck in a Personal Statement Rut?

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The List of Personal Statement Examples

Below is a collection of unique personal statements, each designed to stand out with memorable themes and specific narratives that break away from the ordinary. These examples prepared by our personal statement writing services highlight how to turn your experiences, challenges, and passions into compelling stories that capture the essence of your journey and the vision for your future.

Personal Mission Statement Examples

Title: Building Bridges with Words

My mission is to build bridges—not of steel or stone, but of words, ideas, and connections that bring people together in meaningful ways. I believe that every conversation, every piece of writing, and every interaction is an opportunity to create understanding where there was once division, to spark curiosity where there was once indifference.

From a young age, I've been captivated by the power of language. I saw how a well-crafted sentence could change a mind, how a simple word of encouragement could lift someone's spirit. But I also witnessed how words could be used to hurt, to divide, and to isolate. This duality fueled my desire to harness language for good, to use it as a tool for connection rather than a weapon for division.

In my work, I strive to be a connector—a person who can bring diverse perspectives together, who can translate complex ideas into accessible concepts, and who can find common ground even in the most polarized conversations. I see every challenge as an opportunity to build another bridge, to link people across cultural, ideological, or experiential divides.

My mission extends beyond my professional life. In my personal interactions, I aim to listen deeply, to speak thoughtfully, and to approach every conversation with empathy and openness. I believe that by understanding others, we can better understand ourselves and the world around us.

I am committed to lifelong learning, recognizing that each day brings new opportunities to grow, to learn, and to build more bridges. My mission is not just to achieve personal success but to create a legacy of connection, where the words I choose and the actions I take bring people closer together, fostering a world where understanding, compassion, and unity are the foundation of every bridge we build.

Law School Personal Statement Examples

Title: A Passion for Justice: My Journey to Law School

Growing up in a small town where the law was often seen as distant and impersonal, I witnessed firsthand the devastating consequences of legal injustices. My grandmother, a hardworking immigrant, faced years of discrimination and exploitation in her workplace. Despite her tireless efforts, she was unable to find justice through the legal system. It was this experience that ignited my passion for law and my determination to become a force for positive change.

During my undergraduate studies, I delved deep into legal theory and history, exploring the ways in which the law has been used to uphold and challenge social hierarchies. I was particularly drawn to the intersection of law and social justice, recognizing the power of the legal system to address systemic inequalities.

One summer, I had the opportunity to intern at a public interest law firm specializing in immigration law. There, I worked closely with clients who faced deportation and separation from their families. I learned the immense stress and uncertainty that these individuals endured, and I witnessed the transformative impact that legal representation could have on their lives.

Through my experiences, I have developed a strong commitment to using the law as a tool for social justice. I believe that lawyers have a unique responsibility to advocate for the marginalized and to challenge unjust systems. I am eager to pursue a legal career that will allow me to make a meaningful difference in the lives of others.

I am confident that my academic background, combined with my personal experiences, has prepared me to excel in law school. I am eager to contribute to a diverse and intellectually stimulating learning environment, and I am committed to using my legal education to create a more just and equitable society.

Medical School Personal Statement Examples

If you're seeking exceptional med school personal statement examples, the following template can serve as a valuable starting point.

Title: A Needle's Purpose

The sting of the hypodermic needle, a sensation I've come to know intimately. Not as a patient, but as a volunteer at the local clinic. It's a sensation that simultaneously elicits a pang of fear and a surge of purpose. I recall a particular afternoon when a young boy, no older than ten, was brought in with a severe asthma attack. His wheezing was labored, his eyes wide with terror. As the attending physician administered a nebulizer treatment, I watched, my heart pounding in my chest. When the boy's breathing finally steadied, a sense of relief washed over me. In that moment, I knew that medicine was my calling.

Beyond the clinical setting, I've also had the opportunity to explore the intersection of healthcare and public policy. As a research assistant on a project studying the impact of healthcare reform in my region, I gained a deeper understanding of the systemic challenges facing our healthcare system. This experience has fueled my desire to become a physician who is not only skilled in patient care but also committed to advocating for equitable access to healthcare for all.

My experiences have taught me that medicine is more than just treating diseases; it's about caring for individuals and communities. I am drawn to the challenge of applying my scientific knowledge and clinical skills to improve the lives of others. I am eager to contribute to the medical field and to make a lasting impact on the health and well-being of my patients.

If this template hits the right note, our medical school personal statement editing services are ready to fine-tune it for you!

Personal Statement for Graduate School Examples

Title: From Failure to Fuel

"Failure is not the opposite of success; it's the catalyst that has driven my most significant achievements."

As a psychology undergraduate, I faced a daunting challenge: a research project that yielded unexpected, disappointing results. Initially, I viewed this outcome as a failure, a blemish on my academic record. However, through reflection and guidance from my mentor, I realized that the very unpredictability of research is its greatest strength. This experience sparked an intense curiosity in me, leading to a deeper understanding of the complexities of human behavior and the importance of resilience in the face of adversity.

Rather than shying away from this challenge, I embraced it, using the opportunity to develop a more nuanced approach to research. I delved into advanced statistical methods and honed my ability to think critically about data that didn't conform to expectations. This experience taught me that research is not about finding easy answers but about asking better questions, even when the answers are elusive.

This perspective has shaped my academic journey and fuels my desire to pursue graduate studies. I see my perceived weakness—initially feeling overwhelmed by unexpected results—as a critical strength. It has made me more adaptable, resourceful, and committed to pushing the boundaries of knowledge.

I am eager to bring this mindset to your graduate program, where I can contribute to and learn from a community of scholars who share my passion for psychology. My journey has been defined not by easy successes but by the challenges I've embraced and the growth they've spurred. I am ready to take the next step, confident that my ability to turn setbacks into opportunities will serve me well in the rigorous, rewarding environment of graduate study.

If one of these templates catches your eye, feel free to buy a personal statement that's made-to-measure just for you!

Personal Vision Statement Examples

Title: In the Space Between Notes

My life's symphony is composed in the spaces between the notes. In music, the rests are as crucial as the melody, defining the rhythm, the pace, and the emotional impact of the piece. I see my life's journey much the same way—not just in the actions I take, but in the pauses, the reflections, and the moments of stillness that allow me to hear the music more clearly.

In the past, I used to focus solely on the crescendo—the big achievements, the high points. I believed that life was a series of grand performances where only the loudest, most spectacular notes mattered. But as I grew, I began to understand that the true beauty of a symphony lies in its balance, in the harmony between sound and silence.

I envision my future as one where I create not just a career, but a life that resonates with this balance. My goal is to become a leader in my field, not by rushing from one achievement to the next, but by being thoughtful in my actions, intentional in my decisions, and open to the unexpected melodies that life offers. I want to lead with empathy, understanding that the quiet moments often speak the loudest, that listening is as powerful as speaking.

In my personal life, I aspire to cultivate deep, meaningful relationships, to be present in the moments that matter most, and to find joy in the simple, unplanned interludes. I seek to live with purpose, but also with grace, allowing myself the freedom to pause, to reflect, and to adapt as the music of my life changes.

Ultimately, my vision is to compose a life that is rich with meaning, where every note and every rest contributes to a harmonious whole. I aim to create a legacy that isn't just remembered for its achievements, but for the way it moved others, for the way it lingered in the spaces between.

Personal Statement Examples for College

The below narrative is one of our unique college personal statement examples you can use as inspiration.

Title: The Art of Folding Paper

I learned more about life from a sheet of paper than from any textbook. My fascination with origami started as a simple hobby, a way to pass the time on rainy afternoons. But as I folded my first crane, I realized I was doing more than just creating art; I was practicing patience, precision, and perseverance.

Origami is deceptively complex. A single wrong fold can distort the entire figure, but with each mistake, I discovered something new. I learned that a wrong fold doesn't mean the end—it's an opportunity to start again, to reshape the paper, and, often, to create something entirely unexpected and beautiful.

In high school, I brought my love for origami into the classroom, using it to explain complex concepts in physics and geometry to my classmates. A paper crane became a lesson in symmetry, a folded frog, an exploration of potential and kinetic energy. I even started an origami club, where we explored the intersection of art and science, creativity and logic. What began as a solitary pursuit transformed into a way to connect with others, to share ideas, and to look at problems from different angles.

Outside of school, origami helped me navigate the challenges of adolescence. When my parents divorced, folding paper became my refuge, a way to process emotions that words couldn't capture. Each fold was a step toward understanding, each completed figure a small triumph of order over chaos. It taught me that even in the most complicated situations, there's a way to create something meaningful if you're willing to keep folding, keep trying.

Now, as I look ahead to college, I see it as a blank sheet of paper—full of possibilities, ready to be shaped by the choices I make and the experiences I seek. I'm eager to bring my passion for both the arts and sciences to your campus, to fold my love for learning into every aspect of my education. Just as I've done with origami, I plan to explore the unexpected intersections, to create something unique and intricate from every opportunity.

In the end, a piece of paper, like life, can be anything you want it to be. It's all in how you fold it.

Residency Personal Statement Examples

Title: The Night I Decided to Stay

Residency wasn't always in the plan. In fact, the night I decided to stay in medicine, I had my resignation letter drafted. I was a third-year medical student, standing alone in a dimly lit hospital hallway, utterly drained from another 30-hour shift. The endless rotations had blurred into a monotonous routine of rounds, notes, and more rounds, and I began to question whether this was truly the life I wanted.

That night, I was assigned to the emergency department, where I met Mrs. Greene, a 67-year-old woman with a history of heart disease. She had collapsed at home and was brought in by ambulance, unconscious and unresponsive. Her family was frantic, desperate for answers I didn't have. As I followed my attending into the room, I felt a wave of anxiety. This wasn't a textbook case; it was a real person whose life hung in the balance.

The resuscitation was intense. I was there, chest compressions, adrenaline injections, the relentless rhythm of the defibrillator. As the team worked, I could see the fear in her daughter's eyes, and it struck me that this was about more than just a medical emergency. This was about a family in crisis, a life teetering on the edge.

After what felt like an eternity, Mrs. Greene's pulse returned. The attending physician calmly directed the team, and we stabilized her enough to move her to the ICU. As we wheeled her away, her daughter grabbed my hand and whispered, "Thank you." It was a simple phrase, but it cut through my exhaustion, through the doubts and the fatigue.

I didn't leave the hospital that night. Instead, I sat down with my resignation letter, re-read it, and then ripped it up. I realized that medicine wasn't just about the science or the protocols—it was about moments like this, moments when you're not just treating a condition, but caring for a person, when your presence and perseverance can mean the difference between despair and hope.

Residency will be grueling, I know that. But I also know that it's where I'm meant to be. The night I decided to stay was the night I realized that medicine isn't just a career; it's a calling. And I'm ready to answer it.

Common App Personal Statement Examples

Title: The Day I Became an Engineer

I became an engineer on a blistering summer afternoon, though I didn't know it at the time. I was eight years old, crouched over the engine of my father's old Ford truck, hands smeared with grease, staring intently at a mess of wires and bolts. The truck had died in the middle of nowhere, miles from home, and with no mechanic in sight, my father turned to me and said, "Let's figure this out."

There was no manual, no diagram, just a young girl and her father armed with determination and a rusty toolbox. The heat was relentless, but I was captivated. Together, we deciphered the puzzle of the engine, tracing wires, testing connections, and slowly piecing together how the machine worked. After hours of trial and error, a spark of understanding ignited within me. When the engine finally roared to life, I felt a surge of pride that was as much about solving the problem as it was about discovering my own potential.

That moment in the desert wasn't just about fixing a truck; it was the first time I understood the power of curiosity and persistence. The feeling of triumph in the face of uncertainty stayed with me, and it became a defining aspect of who I am. It's what led me to join the robotics team in high school, where I spent countless nights debugging code and reassembling circuits, chasing that same spark of understanding.

But engineering, I've come to realize, isn't just about building machines. It's about constructing solutions, piece by piece, for problems that seem unsolvable. Whether I'm designing a new prototype or figuring out how to balance equations in physics, I approach each challenge with the same mindset I had as that eight-year-old in the desert: Let's figure this out.

I'm applying to college not just to learn, but to continue building—ideas, innovations, and a future where no problem is too complex to tackle. I've been an engineer at heart since that sweltering afternoon, and I'm ready to take the next step, not with all the answers, but with the confidence that I can figure them out.

Personal Statement for University Examples

Title: Designing the In-Between

"I've always been fascinated by the spaces between—those fleeting moments when science meets art, where precision meets creativity."

Growing up, I was equally enthralled by the elegance of mathematical equations and the expressive power of a blank canvas. While most saw these as distinct, even opposing interests, I found a profound connection between them. Mathematics, with its rigid structure and logic, offered me a way to understand the world's complexities. Art, on the other hand, gave me the freedom to express the nuances that numbers alone couldn't capture.

In high school, this dual passion led me to an unlikely pairing: architecture. It was in drafting rooms and design studios that I discovered my true calling. Here, the geometric precision of calculus met the boundless creativity of artistic vision, and I found a space where I could truly thrive. Designing structures that were not only functional but also aesthetically compelling was more than a challenge; it was a thrilling pursuit that combined everything I loved.

My projects, often inspired by natural forms and abstract patterns, have taught me to see beyond the obvious, to push boundaries and explore unconventional solutions. In one project, I designed a library that mimicked the flow of water, using mathematical principles to create a space that was both serene and dynamic. This project was a turning point for me, solidifying my belief that the most innovative designs emerge when you allow different disciplines to inform each other.

I believe that the future of design lies in the spaces between—where art and science, creativity and precision, meet. I am ready to contribute my unique perspective and learn from a community that values innovation as much as I do. This program is not just a step in my academic journey; it's the place where I can turn my vision into reality.

Personal Statement for Scholarship Examples

Title: Language as a Bridge

As a child, I watched my parents meticulously fill in forms in a language they barely understood. They had immigrated to this country with dreams of a better life but lacked the resources to fully grasp the complexities of their new world. This experience ignited in me a passion for language—not just as a means of communication, but as a bridge to opportunity.

I began tutoring English as a second language in high school, working with students from diverse backgrounds who, like my parents, struggled with the nuances of a new language. Each session was more than just a lesson; it was an opportunity to empower someone else with the tools they needed to navigate and thrive in society. Through this work, I realized that language is power, and education is the key to unlocking it.

This passion for language led me to pursue a degree in linguistics, where I explored the intricacies of phonetics, syntax, and semantics. I became fascinated by the ways in which language shapes our perceptions and interactions. But I didn't stop at theory—I sought to apply my knowledge practically, volunteering in legal clinics to assist non-English-speaking immigrants with their cases. I translated, I advocated, and most importantly, I listened.

The scholarship I am applying for will enable me to continue this work, allowing me to pursue a graduate degree focused on language acquisition and policy. With this education, I plan to develop programs that not only teach language but also empower individuals to use their voices for change.

My journey has taught me that a blank page is not to be feared—it is a chance to create something meaningful. I am determined to turn every challenge into an opportunity for growth, not just for myself, but for those I am committed to helping. This scholarship would be the next step in my mission to ensure that language is a gateway, not a barrier, to a better life.

The Bottom Line

Remember, your personal statement should be unique to you. Don't try to imitate someone else's style or story. Be honest, be yourself, and let your passion shine through. With careful planning and thoughtful writing, you can create a statement that will help you stand out from the crowd. Meanwhile, check out our separate guide on how to write education on resume —you’ll need it to back up that stellar statement!

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Annie Lambert

specializes in creating authoritative content on marketing, business, and finance, with a versatile ability to handle any essay type and dissertations. With a Master’s degree in Business Administration and a passion for social issues, her writing not only educates but also inspires action. On EssayPro blog, Annie delivers detailed guides and thought-provoking discussions on pressing economic and social topics. When not writing, she’s a guest speaker at various business seminars.

is an expert in nursing and healthcare, with a strong background in history, law, and literature. Holding advanced degrees in nursing and public health, his analytical approach and comprehensive knowledge help students navigate complex topics. On EssayPro blog, Adam provides insightful articles on everything from historical analysis to the intricacies of healthcare policies. In his downtime, he enjoys historical documentaries and volunteering at local clinics.

Personal statements - Career Services . (2024b, August 8). Career Services. - https://www.uwb.edu/career-services/resources/cover-letters/personal-statements