Personal Statement

[KB]

You have to do a PS for UCAS and some departments will use it as a determining factor at some point in the admissions process so I'd advise making it as strong as possible even if you don't expect it to be important. You might end up at a Uni where they didn't read it but if it might be the deciding factor in getting a place or not then the extra time invested could pay off.

[layla22]

A friend gave me contact details of a student who has just gone through the process and is offering UCAS advice, interview technique etc. They specialise in medical school applications. PM me for details.

Layla 22

[Guest55]

Schools are more than capable of giving this advice layla22. I would not recommend using someone with a narrow experience of a few unis.

There's an excellent section on TSR too.

[layla22]

Just a suggestion G55- to add to the mix. Speaking to other parents and relatives of DCs, advice on UCAS applications at varying schools, even at some of the top GS ,can be patchy to say the least.

Layla22

[Snowdrops]

I would still expect schools, who are involved in hundreds of PS's each year, to be better placed to give up-to-date, comprehensive and relevant advice over and above what a few/20 or so parents or students are able to give, especially as their experience will be so narrow. It's good to hear others' experiences, but the professionals would know better.

I know who we'll be taking advice from regarding dd's PS.

[layla22]

I would still expect schools, who are involved in hundreds of PS's each year, to be better placed to give up-to-date, comprehensive and relevant advice over and above what a few/20 or so parents or students are able to give, especially as their experience will be so narrow. It's good to hear others' experiences, but the professionals would know better.

I know who we'll be taking advice from regarding dd's PS.

Indeed you would have thought so!
However, think about this- the average year 13 has 100+ students, some 200!
Admission tutors always advise to write and rewrite your Ps several times before arriving at the final piece. Schools often find it difficult to review every draft written as requested by nearly every student, due to the sheer volume involved.
Sometimes an outside opinion can be beneficial.

[Guest55]

Yes we do have a lot of students applying to university but checking Personal statements is not done by one person!

Schools organise the process in different ways to ensure depth of support. You should NEVER share your PS outside the school not even to TSR support area. Any e-mail can get hacked and once you've sent your PS somewhere it is at risk; all go through plaigarism software so extreme care is needed to ensure yours is not copied..

[quasimodo]

This was recent research done by the Sutton trust and the different opinions between Admissions tutors and teachers on the contents of the same Personal Statement.

http://www.suttontrust.com/newsarchive/ ... rld-apart/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I recall when my eldest dd did her personal statement the general advice we read was not to use quotations.She began hers with a quotation from Nelson Mandela:
“Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”She then linked it in as to why she was suitable for the courses for which she was applying and what she would gain from them and why the courses were right for her.

[Guest55]

That's interesting quasimodo - I agree with the Admissions people - I wonder how experienced the teachers were?

[ToadMum]

At least seeing the written word makes a bit more sense than the interview with the author that I caught on the radio, so thank you for the link, quasimodo.

So the other quarter or so of the control group didn't get an offer from a Russell Group university. Sorry if I've missed where it says, but what impact did that actually have? Had they only applied to RG universities, so we're forced to try again for inferior universities through UCAS Extra? Had they applied to a mix of RG and non-RG universities and got offers from their non-RG choices which they were / weren't happy with? Presumably all 71 had AAA or similar predictions and it was definitely their appalling PS that let them down. (Yes, I know, do my own legwork ).

I would definitely agree that if admissions tutors want only to see specific things in a PS, or they want to see things expressed only in a certain way, then they should make this clear in the uni / course information. In terms of actual academic information, they have GCSE subjects and grades, for the time being at least they have AS grades and they have predictions for A2.