UCAS Personal Statement Formatting-- Beware

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SteveDH
Posts: 464
Joined: Wed Feb 28, 2007 12:30 pm
Location: Harrow

UCAS Personal Statement Formatting-- Beware

Post by SteveDH »

Hi
My DD Submitted her application yesterday.
She was a little surprised that when she previewed her PS it turned from a nicely laid out PS with a number of separate paragraphs into 1 large chunk of text.

So I'd suggest checking out a preview of a PS early in the UCAS application assuming you haven't already had to submit.

You can separate paragraphs by adding an extra line between them, but in DD's case this took it well over the 47 line limit.

She could have cut out some text but would have lost vital information, it was hard enough getting it below 4000 characters.

If you try to indent, all leading spaces and tabs are stripped in the preview.

Not sure why they do this, how hard would it have been to keep paragraph formatting in.

Steve
aliportico
Posts: 888
Joined: Wed Aug 01, 2007 12:19 pm

Re: UCAS Personal Statement Formatting-- Beware

Post by aliportico »

I can only assume that admissions tutors get used to reading long blocks of text. It is a pain though. But I thought the whole UCAS site was pretty grim tbh.

One tip I read was to write it in Word or whatever you use, then copy into notepad, then copy into the UCAS box.
Guest55
Posts: 16254
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: UCAS Personal Statement Formatting-- Beware

Post by Guest55 »

You can start a new line to break up the test.

School recommended writing it in WORD with the page width set correctly so you could see how it would look. You can also count up in WORD so you know exactly where you are.
SteveDH
Posts: 464
Joined: Wed Feb 28, 2007 12:30 pm
Location: Harrow

Re: UCAS Personal Statement Formatting-- Beware

Post by SteveDH »

Guest55 wrote:You can start a new line to break up the text.
that's fine unless the line before takes up almost the full width in which case you don't notice the new line.
On My DD's PS that worked fine until the final edit when an odd word here and there was removed and most of her paragraphs ended on long lines.
Guest55 wrote: School recommended writing it in WORD with the page width set correctly so you could see how it would look. You can also count up in WORD so you know exactly where you are.
The only problem is that word usually adds a bit of extra space at the end of each paragraph and so makes it look a lot nicer then it will.
And we did the pasting into notepad thing, although that didn't help much.

anyway everyone is in the same boat, and whats done is done, now got to wait for the school to add their bit and send it off again. I think my DD gets to see the schools reference next week..
aliportico
Posts: 888
Joined: Wed Aug 01, 2007 12:19 pm

Re: UCAS Personal Statement Formatting-- Beware

Post by aliportico »

Yeah, I think the notepad bit just makes sure you haven't got any funny speech marks or any other symbols that might disappear.

But as you say, everyone's in the same boat. Good luck to your dd :-)
Guest55
Posts: 16254
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: UCAS Personal Statement Formatting-- Beware

Post by Guest55 »

I cannot remember any problems at all in 2011 so unless something has changed radically then setting up the page width to the right number of characters was all it took.
stevew61
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Location: caversham

Re: UCAS Personal Statement Formatting-- Beware

Post by stevew61 »

DS1's school said at an open evening don't worry they've set the ucas system so when a student says send it goes to the school first, who often send it straight back with suggested improvements.

Once the school is happy they send it to ucas.

A first draft, outline, skeleton personal statement would be an improvement in this household. :roll:
Guest55
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Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: UCAS Personal Statement Formatting-- Beware

Post by Guest55 »

:lol:

Our DS hand to hand something in on paper first ... it's still September so you have got a while to wait yet!

School had deadlines for a first draft etc which did seem to focus the mind.
SteveDH
Posts: 464
Joined: Wed Feb 28, 2007 12:30 pm
Location: Harrow

Re: UCAS Personal Statement Formatting-- Beware

Post by SteveDH »

Guest55 wrote::lol:

Our DS hand to hand something in on paper first ... it's still September so you have got a while to wait yet!

School had deadlines for a first draft etc which did seem to focus the mind.
Unless your applying for Oxbridge, our DD's schools 1st draft was before the summer holidays.
Guest55
Posts: 16254
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: UCAS Personal Statement Formatting-- Beware

Post by Guest55 »

Before the holiday!

That's really early for 'normal' applications - there really is no need to rush to apply.
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