We are absolutely delighted to release our 8th Guest Blog here at www.pharmascholar.co.uk
This Blog entry provides invaluable advice for those individuals applying for university study within the coming months / year; with reference to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) system in the United Kingdom.
The piece has been prepared by Amber Shakeel (Instagram: @pa.ambi) who will be starting her Physician Associate programme of study in 2022, having recently graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Biomedical Science.
We are sure that you will find the content beneficial to support your future application.
‘Everyone is different and has different experiences or taken varying pathways to get to where they are now or where they want to be. Your personal statement gives you a way to showcase that. A personal statement is a way for you to put your best self forward to universities and is a determining factor of whether you move on to the next step of your application journey. By using your personal experiences, skills and even hobbies you can prove to the admissions team that you are the exact candidate they want for that selected course. So how do you do this?
Interesting open- it needs to make the reader want to continue reading. (It can be cheesy but keep it light). It’s a way to introduce yourself and why you want to do the course. Don’t start with all the heavy topics such as experience and skill. You need to first make the admissions team understand your reasoning to pick this course/this university to study.
Structure- make a rough plan on what you’re going to include and in what paragraph and order. Your statement should flow from one paragraph to another, to make it easier to understand and follow. Everything should link back to you as the best candidate for the course.
Note: On UCAS, personal statements are meant to be up to 4000 characters long and 47 lines. Make sure if you are applying to different universities there is no mention of other universities or locations in your statement.
Best candidate- you need to show why you are the best person for this course! This personal statement is something that will determine whether you get shortlisted for an interview.
Studies- your grades will be sent to the university anyways, but you can always mention some things that you found interesting in previous studies and modules which link to the chosen course or anything you read independently which you found interesting. This shows that you like to learn and have that knowledge already and are actively improving your learning.
Work experience- For me this was the most important section as it can really show how proactive you have been to gain skills and experience in that field. You should include relevant work experiences where it’s skills can be implemented in the course of your choosing. I.e. One of the important skills could be communication and you can get that from very different experiences such as part time jobs, school projects and even extracurriculars. Make a note of all the interesting and relevant things you have done to that point and then select a couple that you can mention.
Hobbies- show that you have a life outside of studying. Can any of that help you in the course you want to study? They may not relate to the course but can still be helpful skill wise. Write down your hobbies and what skills are needed. Implement this into your statement.
Don’t plagiarise! Universities have softwares in place to catch any plagiarism and if your statement is marked as a copy this could result in your application being declined. Use your own words and try to avoid looking at others statements as you may unconsciously use that. Your life and experiences are different and so your personal statement should be unique also.
When I was writing up my statement I knew I didn’t have any clinical experience that many universities had preferred for the course I wanted to do and at one point didn’t think I should apply. But after support from family I realised I could look into other ways to show myself as a good candidate. Instead of thinking about what I don’t have I used the experiences I gained through the past few years and how those can be used in such a course/role. There are so many things that make you a unique person and a unique candidate. Use your best qualities and show these universities just how amazing you are!
Good luck!!
Amber.’
