What is a personal statement?

Your personal statement is an important part of your application. This is your chance to tell universities why you're the right student for them. Tell us about your skills, experiences and extracurricular activities, what excites you about your chosen field of study and what your ambitions are for the future. 

Tips for writing your personal statement

Show us that you're...

Committed. Throughout your personal statement you should show that you’re committed to the course you’re applying for and that you have the maturity, skills and experience to thrive at university.

Inquisitive. Tell us about your interests and activities beyond the realms of your chosen study area. 

Attentive. Make sure your application is clearly structured and easy to read. Don't worry about using elaborate language, keep sentences short and make sure you double and triple check for spelling and grammar mistakes. 

What should it include?

Personal statements with a clearly defined structure are not only more understandable and compelling but also easier to write. Use the following three section approach to build your personal statement:

Part 1

Explain why you are making the application (30-50%)

Part 2

Highlight your academic experience, knowledge and abilities (25-35%)

Part 3

Summarise your extracurricular interests and skills (20-30%)

How long should it be?

Personal statements for universities are a maximum length of 4,000 characters or 47 lines of text. That’s approximately two pages and about four to five paragraphs.

How should it look?

UCAS will strip out all fancy formatting like bold, indents and tabs so don’t worry about doing those things. All you need is blank lines in between paragraphs to make it easy to read.

Remember what you've written

Anything you say in your personal statement is likely to be brought up at your interview, so keep a copy of your statement to re-read beforehand.

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Any questions?

If you need to speak to someone about your application then you can get in touch on the details below:

E: futurestudies@falmouth.ac.uk  

T: +44 (0)1326 254350 

WhatsApp: +44 (0)1212 852937 

SMS: +44 (0)1277 420398