How to write a personal statement
Source: https://www.york.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/applying/personal-statement/ Parent: https://www.york.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/applying/
Your personal statement should demonstrate your interest in the subject, and your skills and abilities.
If done well, it'll set you apart from applicants who have similar qualifications. Some courses invite applicants to an interview, so a clear personal statement can lead to a productive discussion.
Learn about university interviews
For 2026/7 applications, UCAS has introduced three structured questions designed to help you focus your answers and give universities the information we need to consider your application.
We've prepared some tips to help you understand what we're looking for.
So, what do we look for?
An understanding of and passion for the course/subject
This, coupled with a genuine passion for the subject, should shine through in your personal statement. It’s important to tell us what you’ve done as well as what you have learnt along the way.
Your reasons and motivations for taking the course
Here we're interested in what has inspired you and how this course links to your future career plans. Your reasons and motivations should be personal to you. If you feel as though you’re not sure why you want to study the course then it might not be the right course for you.
Strong academic potential
We want to see your strong academic potential - this is usually demonstrated by your results or predicted grades but if you’re especially proud of something then talk about this in your statement.
Video
Nailing your personal statement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Li0XSffwGE
Video
Personal statement tips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zleSdLJKS48
Some top tips to help you
- Make a plan - treat this like a school project or an essay and make a plan. This will help you to keep focussed. This could be as simple as listing examples that you want to include and mapping them to each of the three sections.
- Make multiple drafts and get these checked by family, friends, peers and teachers. They may spot errors which you can easily overlook.
- Check grammar and spelling as UCAS won’t do this for you
- Remember to write your personal statement to appeal to all of your choices, as you will submit one personal statement for your five university choices.
- Take the time to plan, make multiple drafts, and set aside some time to proofread.
- Make yours as personal as possible, and, please, completely avoid plagiarising. UCAS and universities do employ similarity detection software and this is run across submitted statements so phrases and sentences are compared to previous submissions. (If it’s found that yours is similar to another statement, this can have serious implications for your application.)
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