Personal Statement Guidance
It is advisable that you follow the guidelines stated below while writing your personal statement. By
following the guidelines can enhance the possibility of acceptance on your desired course.
Understanding personal statement
A personal statement is something that you may not be familiar with. It is widely relied upon by
higher education institutions in the West for assessing a student who applies to get enrolled onto a
course at university level. A personal statement is not a CV or Bio-Data. It is a statement written by
the applicant-student about his/her self describing mainly his/her suitability for the course. Thus it is
important to address few specific issues and relate all of them to the objective. So, in your personal
statement you will have to explain why you have chosen a course and try to show that you have
acquired necessary qualifications and other qualities to excel in that course as a student.
Writing about the course
In your personal statement you must state the reason for choosing the course that you have
applied to get enrolled onto. The reason you state should not be a casual one. The reason should
be related to your future career plan or vision. It is advisable that you relate your choice of subject
either with your previous studies or future career plan.
It is often a good idea to mention how you can contribute to the society or serve your country by
studying your chosen subject.
Discuss how your previous qualifications are related to your chosen subject. If you are choosing
a different career path then you should state the reason for changing your career path.
If your chosen subject is different from your previous qualifications then describe an event or
situation that inspired you to choose the subject.
You should also relate any qualifications, skills or experiences to your chosen course if you
believe that they are relevant.
Writing about your skills and achievements
You should write about all your relevant skills and achievements in details. For the purpose of
personal statement, only mention about those skills and achievements which are related to and are
necessary for your higher/further studies.
It is advisable that you provide some sort of evidence or demonstration in favour of your skills
and achievements. Evidences or demonstrations do not always have to be certificates or
transcripts. Participating in a day-long seminar may constitute to be acceptable evidence in favour
of your skills and achievements. For example, mentioning about participating in a seminar on
protection of environment can be a relevant achievement if you are looking forward to study
environmental science.
Do not forget to mention about any position of responsibility that you have ever held. For
example, if you were elected as a student representative then mention about it and discuss what
skills you have acquired while performing your role.
Writing about your chosen institution/university
It is a good idea to write a little bit about the institution/university that you are applying to. You
should demonstrate that you have done a bit of research on the institution/university.
Discuss how you believe that your chosen course will be taught in a satisfactory manner by the
institution/university.
You can even mention about the city in which the institution/university is located at and discuss
how you find it to be good to live in.
Writing about your work experiences
You must write about your previous work experiences. Work experiences do not have to be
directly relevant but you should mention about some skills that you developed while working and
discuss how those skills are going to help you to do well in your chosen course.
If you are a mature student (students with long study gap) then you must discuss what you
have done during the time you have been out of studies. You should relate your skills and
experiences to your chosen course. For example, by working in the police you may have acquired
skills that are relevant for studying a psychology course as you can mention that while working as
a police you came to know about different types of personalities.
Writing about your Hobbies and interests
It is nice to tell about what you do in your free time as a hobby or things that you are interested
in. It will give your assessor an opportunity to know about you more. Make sure that you mention
about hobbies and interests in a constructive and positive manner.
Be frank and honest about your hobbies and interests. If you enjoy watching football it is
absolutely fine to mention that in your free time you watch football as you do not always get the
opportunity to play football yourself.
Word limit and structure
Often a word limit is mentioned for personal statements. If there is no mention of word limit then
you should write around 600 to 800 words. It should not be too short and it is not wise to go
beyond the word limit either.
It is advisable that you make several paragraphs. Paragraphs should be separated based on
the contents. For example, in one paragraph you can write about your chosen subject and in the
next paragraph you can write about your work experience.
It is better not to use any heading i.e. ‘introduction’, ‘reason for choosing the subjects’ etc. If a
structure is provided then try to follow it.
P(5.m)
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