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advice re personal statement

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 5:02 pm
by CarpeDiem
Any advice for personal statements for a mixture of applications of single honours and dual honours courses. DD applying for Philosophy in various combinations at various universities. She was worried about what she should /should not include on the PS as her first choice uni course was for single honours Philosophy/Theology and her second choice uni was for dual honours Philosophy/Music and her third choice was for Philosophy/Archaeology. She was worried if she included to many music/history references on the PS it may make her less favourable to her first choice.

Re: advice re personal statement

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 5:40 pm
by Guest55
Have they had no guidance from school? There are examples online on: https://www.studential.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and guidance on The Student Room [avoid parts of it!].

Read the UCAS website too.

Re: advice re personal statement

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 6:08 pm
by CarpeDiem
Thanks for the reply. DD is an unusual case as at a music college which is wholly music focussed at the moment and is concurrently home studying 2 A levels so her college are not used to helping someone who does not want to continue solely with music.

Re: advice re personal statement

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 6:14 pm
by Guest55
What she is considering is somewhat unusual and may prove difficult. She has a few months to really think more about it. Maybe a General Honours degree might work for her?
This website is quite useful too:
https://university.which.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Re: advice re personal statement

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 7:14 pm
by JaneEyre
HOW TO WRITE A PERSONAL STATEMENT THAT WORKS FOR MULTIPLE COURSES

https://university.which.co.uk/advice/p ... le-courses" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Re: advice re personal statement

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 9:27 pm
by Daogroupie
My dd applied for a combination of joint and single honours and for each joint course the university handled it slightly differently so you need to find out how it is done at each joint course she is applying for.

For her first choice they had one of the joints as the master reading the statement and making the offer. Knowing that helped her in the focus of her statement. DG

Re: advice re personal statement

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 4:23 pm
by CarpeDiem
Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Re: advice re personal statement

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 4:30 pm
by Amber
Presumably this is now for entry in 2019, in which case your daughter has ages yet before she needs to think about a PS. Both my older children applied for different courses (joint/single etc) and while Durham allows a separate PS which helps if that is one of her choices, they basically wrote to the 'main' subject and added bits for the others. DD managed to get offers for very diverse courses indeed the first time she applied (she later changed her mind and did something totally different in the end) but she was applying with her grades already which perhaps makes it rather easier.

Re: advice re personal statement

Posted: Mon May 07, 2018 12:34 pm
by CarpeDiem
Yes 2019 entry. That's pretty much what she has decided will be best as Philosophy is common to all her applications with just the dual honours courses having different topics.

Re: advice re personal statement

Posted: Mon May 07, 2018 1:49 pm
by Y
A word or two of warning about joint honours courses:

Students taking single honours benefit from cross-fertilisation between modules. Unless a joint honours student chooses their subjects and modules very carefully, they may find themselves at a distinct disadvantage in comparison with their peers.

Do not take it at face value if a module says 'no prerequisites'. There is every chance that, actually, the skills and knowledge built up in other modules on the same course *are* in fact required, but the module leader doesn't appreciate the implications for a joint honours student.

It can be quite isolating being one of very few students - or possibly even the only student - taking a particular combination of courses.

That said, where is is possible to get synergy across sufficient modules, a joint course can be very rewarding.