example personal statement cambridge university

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The Best Cambridge Personal Statement Examples

A deep perusal of Cambridge personal statement examples can help you understand how to go about crafting your own finely honed statement. You can also look at college letter of intent samples, diversity essay examples – also called diversity secondary essays – or the Common App essay for inspiration.

Writing college essays is tough. Whether you need help with how to start a college essay or how to structure your college essay, reading essay samples written for Cambridge will help you navigate this intimidating process and submit a personal statement that impresses the admissions committee. Now let’s dive in!

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Article Contents 8 min read

Cambridge personal statement examples, example no.1.

Working as a private tutor has changed my life dramatically. I started out because some of my peers wanted assistance with their studies, but I quickly became frustrated. Tutoring seemed like an easy way to make money. All I had to do was explain some concepts – or so I thought. When I started tutoring, I would read out a lesson or concept, then go over problems with my student until I knew they could handle that particular problem, and I would be back for the next session. However, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something deeper to teaching a subject.

I was working with my friend Eli on math every week. What frustrated me with Eli was that, although he could grasp concepts, he was always in need of help. I realised that I wasn’t helping Eli; I was only teaching him one concept at a time. What I needed to do was teach Eli how to learn. It wasn’t enough to show him answers and equations; I had to teach him how to spark his curiosity. I had to teach him how to think, not what to think. This was the missing element in my instruction. It wasn’t enough that I should help a student grasp a difficult concept, but rather to acquire the tools he would need to grow in his curiosity and approach to studying.

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When next I taught Eli, I changed my methods. Instead of just telling Eli when to use a specific calculus formula, I started bringing in oddly shaped containers and showing him how calculus would be useful in determining their volume. Giving him physical mysteries to solve and showing him the applicability of calculus fired Eli’s imagination and engaged him far more. I was on my way to teaching Eli how to think.

Eli needed fewer sessions after that, which became my measurement of success. Strangely enough, doing my work optimally would put myself out of a job. While there will always be new students to help, the goal of a teacher or tutor should not be to keep working with one student, but to help that student move beyond the teacher and then to seek out the next growing mind to aid.

I felt like I was ready to throw my computer monitor out the window or give up entirely on coding. I was trying to learn how to programme a video game, but I was becoming frustrated with my project. Our deadline was looming, and I felt like I had taken on a bigger project than I could handle.

Fortunately, I learnt the most valuable lesson that day. My friend, Kaylee, noticed my frustration and asked, “Can I help?”. I showed her what was wrong, and she helped me move past my hurdles and smooth out my code. I shared some of my ideas, and we both went away with a better understanding of computer coding. Along with improving my own project and getting over my own frustrating hurdle, I was also able to help Kaylee. Our conversations throughout the day had me suggesting several shortcuts to tighten up her coding language, making it more efficient and precise. While I hadn’t intended to help Kaylee, our collaboration benefited her as well.

The lesson was to stay connected. We live increasingly in a virtual world, from social media to online work-from-home jobs, and it is harder than ever to maintain connections with actual human beings. This led Kaylee and me to found the “Human Programming Club,” which emphasised human interaction, along with collaboration and a team effort. The club grew to include several schools in our area, which improved the programming experience of a lot of computer science students in our city.

Your Computer Science programme emphasises these human and collaborative elements. In second year, students work on a group project “…which reflects current industrial practice.” This emphasis on working together attracted me to your programme and is the reason I am applying. The Cambridge Ring, which emphasises social, career and community, is something I would love to be a part of. This is also because I have long-term goals that I believe will be best served with this type of education.

My plan is to bring the liveliness of the Human Programming Club to our current computing technologies, both in programming environments and through the interactions we have with machines and with apps in our day-to-day lives. I want our interactions with computers to serve relationships and human society, not replace them. Most importantly, I want to bring an inclusiveness and sense of belonging to the world of programming. When we emphasised these aspects of our Human Programming Club, we saw an increase in underrepresented persons among the membership. Making marginalised persons feel more accepted in the world of coding and computer science would be amazing. You also offer positive action programmes for women and LGBTQ+ computer science students, and I find this encouraging and something I would like to support.

I believe your programme is optimal for me to work towards those goals, and I hope to hear from you – and connect – soon.

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Example No.3

The sky seemed smaller when I saw the eagle pass across the sun. I immediately pulled out the nature journal I had with me. These journals have kept track of every scientific discovery I have experienced. I did a quick sketch of the bird – some extras of the wings – and wrote down my observations. I also recorded questions about the bird – mostly diet and habitat – that occurred to me while sketching. My journals, based on Kipling’s “six honest serving men” (What, Why, When, How, Where and Who), guided and augmented my insatiable curiosity. I returned from my US vacation with two full journals of sketches and questions about everything. Fascinated with how a bird’s wing works, it became an obsession at the library for weeks.

These questions gave me purpose in another favourite place of mine: the lab. I couldn’t wait to get home and get into the science labs of my school, which would provide me the opportunity to ask my questions and get answers. My teacher, Mr. Shepherd, books the lab for me after school to allow me to go deeper into research. He has helped me set up experiments in aerodynamics, lift and velocity, which would help me to understand a bird’s wing better.

I also used my shop class time to build different gliders to test. I tried one that really flapped, but it never got off the ground. Still, I learnt why it couldn’t work – the wood was too heavy for the small engines I used. That failure became as informative as a success would have been.

I love all aspects of scientific inquiry, and it is for this reason that I have applied to your Biological Sciences programme, which is both comprehensive and focused. I am particularly interested in your research projects on organisms, evolution and ecology. How do new species arise? How did we get to the species we have now? Birds’ wings didn’t come from nowhere, and I’d love to explore the past, present and future of the evolution of species. I believe your programme will allow me this opportunity.

Cambridge recommends that you follow the UCAS advice on personal statements when writing your own. While acceptance to Cambridge is based solely on academic criteria (ability and potential), your personal statement may be discussed during the interview, so it is an important aspect of your college interview prep .

When writing your personal statement, consider the following 4 points highlighted by Cambridge:

It will also be helpful to keep Cambridge’s core values and mission statement in mind and reflect those ideals in your essay.

Also remember that every essay is, to some extent, a “ why this college” essay . You should always use that as a baseline for how to write a college essay .

Mission Statement

“The mission of the University of Cambridge is to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence."

Core Values

Freedom of thought and expression

Freedom from discrimination

Integrating Values

You don’t need to specifically use the exact wording Cambridge chooses, but your essays should reflect these goals. Here’s what every essay can include:

• Something to show that you think about your community and the global community, to correspond with the stated goal of contributing to society
• A focus on education and research – mentioning your curiosity or pursuit of knowledge
• Expressing yourself and telling your story to fulfil one half of the core values
• Are there any ways you represent diversity? This could be in your personal profile or experiences, but more important will be ways you might have contributed to assisting diversity, progress, or the advancement of underrepresented persons.

All Cambridge personal statements have a 4,000-character cap, which includes spaces, and must be no longer than 47 lines. Some universities might have college essay topics , but Cambridge’s personal statements are not prompt-based.

These three examples should give you a good sense of the structure, tone and content you can consider in your Cambridge personal statement.

If you still need more examples, you can get good insights from different institutions’ requirements, such as the Oxford personal statement . Columbia Medical School secondary essay examples or Brown Medical School secondary essay examples might not seem germane to your Cambridge essays, but they will still provide you with the structure and focus you need. Looking at other essay systems, such as the one that applies to the AMCAS personal statement , might also give you ideas.

Cambridge University personal statements should be no more than 4,000 characters, and this number includes spaces.

No. If you express yourself well, it doesn’t really matter if you have a shorter personal statement. Brevity is a good thing, provided you have fully communicated why you are the perfect candidate for the programme to which you are applying.

Give examples of your connection to the programme you are interested in, and remember the rule of “Show, don’t tell” when communicating this. Traits you want to show include curiosity, passion, and personal growth. You might choose to highlight some of your extracurriculars for college , too.

Anything irrelevant, which has no bearing on your goals or accomplishments, as well as anything negative. You don’t want to cast yourself in a negative light or just be perceived as a negative person. 

Stay very focused on one or two main points. You must show your greatest strengths and connect yourself to the programme. You don’t need to include everything, so just focus on one, driving point.

Start with a good “hook” sentence and use your opening paragraph to set up the rest of the essay. Keep to one theme per paragraph and link everything together with your conclusion for the perfect essay.

They will want to see creativity, curiosity, persistence, a good work ethic, a connection to the material and some sense of goals and aspirations. College admissions consulting , such as a college essay review service , can give you excellent advice on your personal statement. 

Two or three weeks, working daily on your statement, to give you the chance to not only write, but re-write, refine, edit, proofread and find someone to read and critique your paper.

Brainstorming for a few minutes will help. Take two or three minutes and a blank page and write down everything you love about your chosen subject. Free-associate, and you’ll almost definitely have something when your time is up.

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Before applying, applicants need to check that they have, or are likely to achieve, the right grades at the right level and in the right subjects for the course they have chosen. See Entry requirements for general requirements of entry.

It's important that students also check the requirements of their course, as these can vary slightly between Colleges. For example, some Colleges might ask for an A* in a particular subject. Please encourage students to check the course page for their chosen subject carefully - all variations are listed there.

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Helping students with their personal statement

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Admissions decisions at Cambridge are based solely on academic criteria (ability and potential). Personal statements may be  used as a basis for discussion at interview.  In a personal statement we are looking for applicants to:

• explain their reasons for wanting to study the subject
• demonstrate their enthusiasm for and commitment to their chosen course
• express any particular interests within the field
• outline how they have pursued their interest in the subject in their own time

How important are extra-curricular activities?

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If, however, particular extra-curricular activities have enable a student to develop transferable skills, such as organisation or time management, then these can be included in their personal statement. Such activities might include significant caring responsibilities or paid employment, which can help us fully contextualise an application, as well as sport, physical activity, music, drama and volunteering.

Cambridge-specific comments

Applicants can make additional comments relevant to their Cambridge application in their additional questionnaire ( My Cambridge Application ), for instance to highlight particular features of the Cambridge course that attracted them.

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Medicine Personal Statement Examples – Cambridge (Lucy)

Home » Application Guide » Medicine Personal Statement Examples – Cambridge (Lucy)

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Welcome to our collection of Medicine Personal Statement Examples! We’ve searched far and wide to find personal statements from successful applicants all around the UK and asked them to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of their work for your own inspiration. Today’s subject is from Lucy, who studies Medicine at the University of Cambridge.

Lucy applied to study medicine in 2020 at some of the top Universities in the UK, including Imperial and Birmingham , and subsequently received offers from three of her four choices, of which she chose Cambridge.  

Let’s read the personal statement that got her a place at the University of Cambridge , or skip straight to her feedback to learn what made her personal statement a success!

Please be aware that these examples are meant purely for the sake of inspiration, and should absolutely NOT be used as a model around which to base your own personal statement. UCAS have a rather strict system that detects plagiarism .

Cambridge Medicine Personal Statement Example

Whole personal statement.

My interest in medicine stems originally from my fascination with science and its relation to the human body, and the opportunity to apply medical research to improve people’s lives. However, it was volunteering in a nursing home for a year and realising how much joy just offering care and empathy can give that motivated me to pursue a medical career.

Watching one of the residents with whom I had built a bond gradually showing the unrelenting impacts of ageing highlighted the difficulty in maintaining emotional resilience in medicine. This inspired me to read ‘Being Mortal’ which shed light on the roles of a doctor in end of life care whilst making me increasingly aware of the ethical dilemmas in supporting an ageing population. To enhance my interpersonal skills, I also volunteered at a charity shop where facing difficult customers has made me more confident and versatile in my interactions with the public.

Shadowing a GP emphasised to me the incredible demand put on primary care services but also the efficacy of triage and good organisation. Nurses ran minor illness clinics, freeing up GPs to see more urgent or complex patients which enabled the practice to run smoothly and efficiently. Despite having a backlog of patients to see, the GP’s calm and sensitive manner towards each individual was inspiring. A high level of care I aspire to achieve as a doctor. My hospital work experience reiterated the value of cohesive team-work during an anterior cruciate ligament replacement and I was impressed by how team members’ roles and responsibilities complemented each other. Team-work and leadership are integral to my role as a Prefect and as co-secretary in BAYouth, the Welsh NHS’ youth advisory panel, ensuring that minutes are written and projects completed. Sitting on interview panels has given me an insight into the diversity of roles within healthcare and the importance of each member in a multidisciplinary team.

I thoroughly enjoyed doing my Extended Project on nanomedicine as it showed how the scientific disciplines of physics, biology and chemistry overlap each other in medicine. Synthesising complex scientific literature taught me valuable critical thinking and extended writing skills. Through time-consuming amendments, challenging me to deal with uncertainty and situations not going to plan, I found that effective organisation made the research process much more manageable, allowing me to complete my EPQ to a high standard in one year. The scientific principles that underpin medicine continue to fascinate me, and therefore, I arranged work experience in the Centre for Nanohealth. It was exciting to successfully make and test my own glucose microneedle biosensor and assist in cutting-edge medical research.

As a naturally curious person, I enjoy investigating medical advancements in the New Scientist magazine. Since coming across a patient with fibromyalgia in my work experience, I have also been interested in topics surrounding neuroscience. The prospect of utilising scientific innovation in clinical contexts excites me and I look forward to furthering my understanding of science throughout my career.

As a Grade 8 pianist, I relish in performing in concerts and competitions under pressure. However, music, alongside badminton, mainly helps me to relax. I enjoyed completing my Bronze Duke of Edinburgh award and the UKMT Mathematics challenges which made use of my problem-solving skills, and doing Grade 8 LAMDA examinations enhanced my communication skills. I believe effective time-management enables me to integrate academia with relaxation so that I can maintain a good work-life balance.

My resolve to study medicine is the result of long contemplation. I know that it will often be gruelling and will involve sacrifices, but I believe it will offer a sense of satisfaction like no other job. My intrinsic scientific curiosity along with my desire for social interaction drive a commitment to medicine as a life-long endeavour.

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Cambridge Medicine Personal Statement Example Analysis

Now, let’s go section by section and see what Lucy has to say about what she wrote:  

INTRODUCTION

Introduction

The introduction is simple & clear, with no filler or frills. My intention was simply to state why I wanted to go into healthcare rather than a purely scientific career . It’s always good to hone in on what is about medicine in particular that interests you, as it is very easy to discuss topics that could apply to other subjects like Biology, Chemistry, etc. It was also backed by evidence from my time in the care home. It is not too long which is important for maintaining attention, but gets across a lot of points and provides topics for further discussion in the main body of the statement.

It does feel a bit cliched to speak about medicine in such a noble and positive way, but it is how I genuinely felt when writing this statement. This can be seen in some of my choices of words, such as ‘joy’, which could have been a bit more sincere and less idealistic. The admissions team want to see people with an actual desire to enter medicine, but it can perhaps seem naive to describe experience like this in such a way. It also reads as if the nursing home was the only reason for me to pursue medicine rather than an accumulation of experiences, which wasn’t the case.  

Paragraph 1

This paragraph follows on from the introduction very directly as it goes into my experience in a nursing home which linked to my reading of ‘Being Mortal’, indicating that I have followed up on my interests and reflections. You should always be looking to demonstrate you understanding of the subject by discussing the connections between different experiences, as well as discussing how they link with medicine as a whole. Not only does it show an understanding of the things you do, but it also tells a story, which makes the statement more interesting to read. I also stated what steps I had done to improve on the skills I saw/read, another key element of writing a personal statement; reflection of one’s experiences.

I was a bit too vague with my discussion of ‘ ethical issues ‘ but it does give some room for exploration in the interview. However, the biggest flaw with this paragraph is the last sentence. While the connection between difficult customers and difficult patients may seem fairly obvious, this is still the type of thing that I should have actually explored in writing. Even with this in mind though, trying to connect retail experience with medical work was a very big stretch, one that makes me seem even more naive as the two fields are on completely different levels. This was a case of me having experience I wanted to mention without thinking about how it would work in the statement as a whole.  

Paragraph 2

Here, I delve into my most relevant work experience , which is essential for any medical personal statement. Through my description of the things I saw and did, I was able to express the various lessons and values I learnt from my time there. Showing how meaningful the experience was to my development is important for showing my commitment and engagement with the subject. As a more general example, I emphasised the importance of teamwork and showed appreciation for all healthcare workers I had encountered rather than just the doctor, further displaying my appreciation of the work it takes to enter the medical field.  

My first major issue isn’t really with the paragraph itself but with the format of the statement as a whole. This should have been my first main body paragraph, as it is a much stronger introduction to my abilities and understanding compared to my experience in care or retail. Those two things are important to mention, but I didn’t start with my best foot forward, which is a definite mistake. In terms of the actual writing here, I didn’t go into detail of specific experiences/things I saw that showed teamwork and was quite vague in ‘complemented each other’- in what way? Instead of describing that I saw a lot of teamwork, I could have cut down the experiences and went into one specific one in more detail.  

Paragraph 3

This paragraph emphasises my scientific interest which is an important skill to demonstrate,   especially for Oxbridge applications. Since I sought out work experience in an area related to my EPQ, it shows I am truly interested and dedicated in the topic. While you need to be prepared to branch out into other area throughout your studies, demonstrating that you have already formed an interest in a specialist subject is great for showing that you are proactive and independent.  

Instead of just saying I arranged work experience, I should have reflected more on what I gained from it or learnt from it. I could have also described a more specific area of nanomedicine or an interesting case I saw to guide/predict interview questions more easily. The amount of detail I went into was decent, but you can always go deeper into topics, provided you’ve got the word count for it. Either way, it creates a good discussion point at you interview.  

Paragraph 4/5

These two paragraphs delve deeper into my research and extra-curricular activities , which is always an important thing to discuss in the latter half of your personal statement. The research especially further demonstrates my interest in the subject, while my extra curricular activities help to portray me as a hard-working, well-rounded and multi-skilled individual, something that’s always important for admissions teams.

While my research shows further dedication and understanding for the medicine, I have not linked any of my extra-curricular activities to the subject in anyway. I do mention so very general skills that have been developed from these activities, but the best personal statements would link these activities back to medicine in some way, even just with a brief sentence or passing mention. How do my piano or badminton skills make me a better medical student? This is the type of question you should aim to answer.  

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This conclusion is short and sums up my reasons to study medicine nicely, which is exactly what a good conclusion should do. However, it also describes how I appreciate the challenges that come with it, which show a level of self-awareness and realism that I perhaps missed in my introduction. It follows from the paragraph about my work/life balance which demonstrates appreciation of the sacrifices made in medicine, while demonstrating that these are sacrifices I would happily make for a chance to study, and eventually work, in medicine.

I think that ‘ social interaction’ could have been replaced by something more specific to medicine such as saving lives or advancing medicinal technology, as social interaction could encompass quite a lot of professions. Overall though, I feel this is a very solid conclusion!

Final Thoughts

I have covered practically everything that is expected of a good personal statement in some form here. Despite a couple of structural issues, I believe I have prioritised the the most important and most effective parts of my experience in order to create a statement that paints me in a very good light. From almost all of my work experiences, I have tried to improve certain skills and I showed that I took action to do so. The introduction is as clear as I could make it which is important to convey my key reasons to study medicine while the conclusion sums everything up nicely without repeating too much from the rest of the statement.

There are various smaller issues scattered around this personal statement, but nothing that makes it become a weak piece of work. For one, some of the statements I made were unnecessary and vague. Rather than aiming for quantity of experiences/skills, I think that delving into the most important ones with good reflection and understanding of their relevance would have been better. I could have also removed the section about LAMDA exams and piano exams as they would have been described in my UCAS application anyway, and don’t link to medicine in any meaningful way in my writing.  

As I said before, I didn’t start the discussion of my experiences with the most impressive and important part, my work experience, which undervalues all the work I did during the time somewhat. My final paragraph about my extra-curricular activities was also a bit weak looking back at it, as the admissions team will only be so impressed by these achievements if I haven’t explained how they have improved my abilities in medicine.  

So there you have it! This personal statement helped Lucy get 3/4 offers in her application, which is an incredibly desirable position for any applicant to be in!

Everyone has different experiences and abilities, so you may not be able to relate to everything that was said in this personal statement. However, the information and advice provided by Lucy is universal and will help any applicant write a better personal statement!  

Be sure to check out more Medicine Personal Statement Analyses to see advice from all different kinds of applicants, including Ali Abdaal himself, who also attended Cambridge! Or if you want to get started on your own statement, check out 6med’s Medicine Mastery Bundle for all the support and resources you’ll need for your whole application! 

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GUIDE TO PERSONAL STATEMENTS & WIDER READING

Shadab Ahmed, Access & Funding Officer 2018-19

The application process is a confusing one when there is little guidance. Austerity has meant that teachers are not properly paid, they are overworked and do not have the time to learn about the intricacies of different admissions systems across the UK and the globe. This puts some students at a significant disadvantage, or at least a perceived one, which is just as harmful.

Cambridge itself has additional steps to take in order to get through the admissions process, including interviews and assessments, when added to an earlier deadline, this puts off many talented individuals from applying to university.

This guide aims to help demystify what Cambridge expects from a personal statement, but is also useful for anyone trying to get to grips with writing one for any university, and will allow students to hopefully engage with wider reading so they can truly see what they want to study.

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March 22, 2021

The Personal Statement That Got Me a Large Scholarship to Cambridge

When I submitted my application for the Masters program in Latin American Studies at Cambridge University, I was a bit lost in life. I was what they call a “super-senior” at UCLA, taking my last three General Education requirements during Fall quarter of a fifth year. I had already walked for graduation the June before and the future was oddly wide open, and incredibly empty to me. Like many students who are “good at school,” I thought that a graduate program seemed like a reasonable idea, especially because I graduated during an economic crisis and the job search was difficult. I opened a number of applications for PhD programs in the United States and, on the advice of a professor, I applied to Cambridge because of the opportunity to focus exclusively on Latin American Cinema and a chance to be considered for the Gates Cambridge Scholarship.

My Gates Cambridge personal statement

While the application to Cambridge’s Latin American Studies program did not differ greatly from that of most global graduate schools, in order to be considered for funding opportunities like the Gates Cambridge award I was required to submit an additional personal statement. 

The prompt was daunting:

In not more than 500 words, please describe below how your interests and achievements, both academic and extra-curricular, demonstrate a capacity for leadership, commitment to using your knowledge to serve your community and to applying your talents to improve the lives of others.

I was 22, and I had never really tried to articulate how my curiosity about foreign languages, Latin American literature, culture, and film could demonstrate “ a capacity for leadership ,” or the ability to “serve my community.” But I gave it a go.

The statement of purpose I wrote and submitted to Cambridge:

I grew up in Oakland, California, one of the most violent and disparate urban communities in America. While I knew this as a child, I only knew it in a distant sense. I caught glimpses of newspaper headlines with phrases like “gang violence” and “high homicide rate.” I heard rap songs on the radio that referred to the infamous “O-town of the West,” or the area code “510.” Those were always funny references to my hometown, but they were words and sayings; they never felt like realities to me as I grew up. To my great surprise, these newspaper articles, statistics, and song lyrics only became real to me when I left Oakland and America to spend my junior year abroad in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and then return home. Before I arrived there, Brazil only existed on paper, in books like Peter Winn’s Americas, and on screen in films like City of God. The mesmerizing topography and diverse population of Rio de Janeiro were realities that I approached with trepidation. But after a year, I abandoned my preconceptions about the city and was even comfortable using unofficial vans, or kombis, to navigate my way through the chaotic and sprawling city. I overcame my fears and learned how to assert myself appropriately in difficult situations. Just as I had become comfortably aware of the realities of Oakland, I became inured to the violence and class conflicts that had frightened me before arriving in Rio. With regards to this experience, the most educational and enlightening moments of shock came to me as I drove through Oakland on my way home from the airport. I had not been home for a year, my eyes were glued to the car window, and I saw everything differently. Though the terrain between the Oakland airport and my home is relatively flat, that day the socio-economic inequality was as clear to me as the diverse topography of Rio de Janeiro. To put it simply, there were houses with fences and window guards, and houses with large driveways and beautifully landscaped gardens. Through subtle markers and contexts, the issues and conflicts that had surprised and scared me in Rio were suddenly applicable to the scenery and media of my hometown. Both of these experiences, of arriving in Brazil and returning to Oakland, are powerful instances of where academic or literary knowledge solidifies through the experience of real events. I want to know more about issues of urban Latin America because they are directly related to urban American issues. Emotional and analytical access to these socio-economic issues through literature and film is a bridge that I passionately want to extend towards students. Every person who enters a college classroom is profoundly privileged with the opportunity to see herself and her surroundings differently. It is my dream to inspire others to see education as an opportunity to travel, to experience difference, and to return home with critical points of view, and the desire to create positive change.

Here’s what happened after I submitted:

• On December 10, I received an email from the Center of Latin American Studies informing me that I had been accepted to the program and would be hearing from the Board of Graduate Studies shortly.
• On December 14, I was informed that I had made it to the finalist round for Gates Cambridge, and that interviews were to be held in February.
• After finishing my coursework at UCLA , I moved home in December, picked up a job as a waitress at a local diner, and started applying for office jobs in the Bay Area.
• And on January 1, 22-year-old Oscar Grant was fatally shot by a BART cop at Fruitvale Station in Oakland, California.

How I was shocked during my Gates Cambridge interview:

During my 25-minute interview with the Gates committee in February, I was completely stunned by a question that one of the British members posed as a research question. It was something like: “Given that you propose to study Latin American film as part of your research, what do you think of the footage of Oscar Grant’s death?” I was pretty much speechless when this question was asked, and I had a hard time composing myself. Footage of Oscar Grant’s killing was impossible to avoid in Oakland. The cell phone recordings of Oscar Grant’s death were also the first reel of raw film images that I had ever seen to depict the end of an actual person’s life. I had seen American History X, a movie in which a white man brutally commits racist and fatal hate crimes, but those were fictional images. Most of the films that I studied regarding Latin America were also made of fictional images. The footage of Oscar Grant dying was a visceral reality for me, and it came with weeks of rioting in my hometown, a series of incredibly tense conversations with neighbors and family, feelings of guilt about my whiteness, and a deep sense of helplessness about the world around me. None of those words came out in my interview. Overwhelmed with emotions, I just wasn’t able to express myself in that moment, and I tried to move on as quickly as possible. But since then, I’ve thought a lot about that question.

What I learned from writing my personal statement for the Cambridge College Scholarship Application:

In hindsight, the question that the committee asked me was a genuine response to my personal statement, which means that the statement had been effective even before it became timely. Remember, I was selected for the shortlist before Oscar Grant was shot, but the setting that I created by observing my own surroundings in the personal statement is what allowed for the committee to connect with a reality that was (and still is) unfolding around me. When I first wrote this statement, I was afraid it didn’t say enough about my achievements, past leadership experiences, or meaningful accomplishments . I wasn’t ready to discuss obstacles overcome, I acknowledged my privilege, and I didn’t know anything about what the essay was supposed to be like. In fact, I didn’t share any of my applications materials with advisors or friends before submitting (a horrible idea!).  

However, after my many years of working with students from a variety of backgrounds on diversity statements and scholarship applications , I understand why this was a successful statement. All I did was observe myself in the world, genuinely and honestly at that stage of my life. I described my relationship to Oakland from an insider’s eyes, and an outsider’s eyes, and that allowed the committee to learn about me within the context of where I grew up. Because I described Oakland from the eyes of someone just off of a plane from Rio de Janeiro, I gave the committee concrete insights that they couldn’t have surmised from the first sentence: “I grew up in Oakland, California.” This is an issue that comes up a lot when I work with people on personal statements. Oftentimes the things that you know about yourself and your surroundings are so obvious to you that you forget to describe these insights to your audience. In a personal statement it is your job to explain who you are, what drives you to accomplish your goals, why your current course of study matters to you and how it can impact others.

How to write a compelling personal statement

If you’re working on a statement like this and you start to wonder what it’s supposed to be, or what you’re supposed to talk about, tell yourself to stop asking that question. Instead ask yourself, what do you know intuitively about how you move in the world? How can you observe yourself so that someone else gets a glimpse of how you think, what you care about, and why you want to do the things that you want to do? I didn’t end up getting the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, which felt like a blow at the time. 

As a result of the same application materials and essays, however, I was awarded a Cambridge Overseas Trust Scholarship for £10,000 ($17,000) which covered most of my tuition. Because of this funding, I ended up going to Cambridge and studying Latin American film. I also took away some incredible lessons from Gates Cambridge interview, and those personal insights made the whole process worth it.

Applying for multiple sources of graduate funding through the Cambridge Trust

My experience interviewing for the Gates Cambridge scholarship also marked a moment when I began my journey into the world of research, grant writing, and teaching college level composition. What I’ve learned since then is that, when it comes to competitive opportunities like the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, it is important to approach the process with level-headed expectations about the chances of getting through to the final rounds and being selected. However, that doesn’t mean that the time you spend building strong application materials and scholarship essays isn’t worth it, as your effort can likely pay off in other ways. 

At universities like Cambridge, there are usually numerous opportunities for funding through entities such as the Cambridge Trust and Funded Research Projects , and they all have different application procedures. Within the Cambridge Trust, for example, there are awards like the Hughes Hall PhD Scholarship, which requires students to select Hughes Hall as a first-choice college and fill out the general College Scholarship application, and the Kanders Churchill Scholarship, which has an entirely separate application process and personal statement. 

So, if you find yourself working on personal statement for a specific university scholarship, that’s a sign that there are other available opportunities at the same institution. The frustrating truth is that it is more than likely that these opportunities are not centralized into one application process. In order for you to make the most of all the work you’ve put into composing a personal statement, it is worth it to conduct additional research about how to be considered for additional scholarships and put together multiple applications based on your profile. 

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• What I Learned about Grant Writing from Putting Together 3 Fulbright Applications Before Finally Being Selected • What Is a Scholarship? And Why Didn’t I Get One? • Awards! Grants! Scholarships! Oh My! a podcast episode

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By Nik Taylor (Editor, The Uni Guide) | 18 August 2023 | 22 min read

How to write an excellent personal statement in 10 steps

Stand out from the crowd: here's how to write a good personal statement that will get you noticed

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Your personal statement forms a core part of your university application, and the sooner you get going, the better you can make it. You may think that your personal statement won’t matter as much to unis as your grades and experience but a great personal statement could make all the difference between you and a candidate with the same grades. Sure, your application might not reach that deal breaker stage. But is it something you want to leave to chance?  Here we’ll take you through the process of planning, writing and checking a good personal statement, so you end up with something you can submit with confidence. And to make sure the advice we're giving you is sound, we’ve spoken to admissions staff at loads of UK universities to get their view. Look out for video interviews and advice on applying for specific subjects throughout this piece or watch our personal statement playlist on YouTube .

• Are you looking for personal statement examples? Check our library of hundreds of real personal statements, on The Student Room

Personal statement deadlines

You'll need to make sure you've got your personal statement written well in advance of your application deadline. Below are the main university application deadline dates for 2024 entry.

2024 entry deadlines

16 October 2023: Deadline for applications to Oxford and Cambridge universities, along with most medicine, dentistry, and veterinary courses.   31 January 2024: Deadline for applications to the majority of undergraduate courses. After this date, universities will start allocating places on these courses –   but you can still apply after the 31 January deadline , as this article explains . 30 June 2024:  Students who apply after this date will be entered into Clearing .

• Read more: Ucas deadlines and key application dates

What is a personal statement?

A personal statement is a central part of your Ucas application, where you explain why you’ve chosen a particular course and why you’ll be good at it. It's your chance to stand out against other candidates and hopefully get that all-important offer. You only write one personal statement which is then read by each university you apply to, so if you are applying for more than one subject (or it's a combined course) it's crucial that you include common themes or reference the overall skills needed for all subjects. Personal statements are especially important if you’re trying to get on a very competitive course, where you need to do anything you can to stand out to admissions tutors. Courteney Sheppard, senior customer experience manager at Ucas, advises that your personal statement is "the only part of the application that you have direct control over. Do lots of research to demonstrate your passion, curiosity and drive to pursue your chosen subject." There’s a limit on how much you can write: your personal statement can be up to 4,000 characters (including spaces) or 47 lines of 95 characters (including spaces); whichever is shorter. This may appear generous (read: long) but once you've got going you may find yourself having to edit heavily.

• Read more: teacher secrets for writing a great personal statement

1. Plan what you want to cover

The first thing you need to do is make a plan. Writing a personal statement off the top of your head is difficult. Start by making some notes, answering the following questions:

• What do you want to study?
• Why do you want to study it?
• What is there about you that shows you’re suited to studying this subject at university? Think about your personality, as well as your experiences.
• What are your other interests and skills?

These few points are going to form the spine of your personal statement, so write them in a way that makes sense to you. You might want to make a simple bulleted list or you might want to get all arty and use a mindmap. Whatever you choose, your aim is the same. You want to get it clear in your own head why a university should offer you a place on its course. Getting those details down isn't always easy, and some people find it helpful to make notes over time. You might try carrying a notebook with you or set up a memo on your phone. Whenever you think of something useful for your personal statement, jot it down. Inspiration sometimes comes more easily when you’re thinking about something else entirely. It might help to take a look at The Student Room for some sample personal statements by university and sample personal statements by subjects , to give you an idea of the kind of thing you want to include. 

• Read more: personal statement FAQs

2. Show off your experience

Some things are worth adding to your personal statement, some things are not. Firmly in the second camp are your qualifications. You don’t need to mention these as there’s a whole other section of your personal statement where you get to detail them very precisely. Don’t waste a single character going on about how great your GCSE grades are – it’s not what the admissions tutor wants to read. What they do want to see is: what have you done? OK, so you’ve got some good grades, but so do a lot of other applicants. What have you done that’s different, that shows you off as someone who really loves the subject you’re applying for? Spend some time thinking about all the experience you have in that subject. If you’re lucky, this might be direct work experience. That’s going to be particularly appropriate if you’re applying for one of the more vocational subjects such as medicine or journalism . But uni staff realise getting plum work experience placements is easier for some people than others, so cast your net wider when you’re thinking about what you’ve done. How about after-school clubs? Debating societies? Are you running a blog or vlog? What key skills and experience have you picked up elsewhere (eg from hobbies) that could be tied in with your course choice? Remember, you’re looking for experience that shows why you want to study your chosen subject. You’re not just writing an essay about what you're doing in your A-level syllabus. Use this checklist as a guide for what to include:

• Your interest in the course. Why do you want to spend three years studying this subject at university?
• What have you done outside school or college that demonstrates this interest? Think about things like fairs/exhibitions, public lectures or voluntary work that is relevant to your subject.
• Relevant work experience (essential for the likes of medicine, not required for non-vocational courses such as English )
• Skills and qualities required for that career if appropriate (medicine, nursing and law as obvious examples)
• Interest in your current studies – what particular topics have made an impression on you?
• Any other interests/hobbies/experiences you wish to mention that are relevant either to the subject or 'going to uni'. Don't just list your hobbies, you need to be very selective and state clearly what difference doing these things has made to you.
• Plans for a gap year if you’re deferring entry.

Read more: 6 steps you need to take to apply to university

3. Be bold about your achievements

Don't be bashful about your achievements; that’s not going to help you get into uni. It's time to unleash your inner Muhammed Ali and get all “I am the greatest” with your writing. Do keep it focused and accurate. Do keep your language professional. But don’t hide your qualities beneath a layer of false modesty. Your personal statement is a sell – you are selling yourself as a brilliant student and you need to show the reader why that is true. This doesn’t come naturally to everyone, and if you’re finding it difficult to write about how great you are it’s time to enlist some help. Round up a friend or two, a family member, a teacher, whoever and get them to write down your qualities. Getting someone else’s view here can help you get some perspective. Don’t be shy. You are selling your skills, your experience and your enthusiasm – make sure they all leap off the screen with the way you have described them.

• Read more: the ten biggest mistakes when writing your personal statement  

4. How to start your personal statement

Type your personal statement in a cloud-based word processing program, such as Google Docs or Microsoft Word and don’t copy and paste it into Ucas Hub until it’s finished.  One of the benefits of doing it this way is that you can run spell check easily. (Please note, though, that Word adds "curly" quotation marks and other characters (like é or ü) that won't show up on your Ucas form, so do proofread it on Ucas Hub before submitting it to ensure it is how you typed it.)  Another big benefit is that you'll always have a backup of what you've written. If you're being super careful, you could always save your statement in another place as well. Bear in mind that extra spaces (eg adding spaces to the beginnings of paragraphs as indentation) are removed on Ucas. In your first sentence, cut to the chase. Why do you want to do the course? Don’t waste any time rambling on about the daydreams you had when you were five. Just be clear and concise – describe in one line why this course is so important to you. Then, in the rest of your intro, go into more detail in demonstrating your enthusiasm for the course and explaining how you decided this is what you want to do for the next three or more years. However you choose to start your statement, just avoid the following hoary old chestnuts. These have been some of the most used lines in personal statements over the years – they are beyond cliche, so don’t even think about it.

• From a young age I have (always) been [interested in/fascinated by]…
• For as long as I can remember, I have…
• I am applying for this course because… 
• I have always been interested in… 
• Throughout my life I have always enjoyed… 
• Reflecting on my educational experiences… 
• [Subject] is a very challenging and demanding [career/profession/course]… 
• Academically, I have always been… 
• I have always wanted to pursue a career in… 
• I have always been passionate about…   

5. Focus your writing on why you've chosen that subject

So you’ve got your intro done – time to nail the rest of it. Bear in mind that you’ve got to be a little bit careful when following a personal statement template. It’s easy to fall into the trap of copying someone else’s style, and in the process lose all of your own voice and personality from your writing. But there is a rough order that you can follow, which should help keep you in your flow. After your opening paragraph or two, get into any work experience (if you’ve got it). Talk about extracurriculars: anything you've done which is relevant to the subject can go here – hobbies, interests, volunteering. Touch on your career aspirations – where do you want this course to take you? Next, show your enthusiasm for your current studies. Cite some specific examples of current work that you enjoyed. Show off your relevant skills and qualities by explaining how you’ve used these in the past. Make sure you’re giving real-world examples here, not just vague assertions like “I’m really organised and motivated”. Try to use examples that are relevant.   Follow this up with something about you as a person. Talk about non-academic stuff that you like to do, but link it in some way with the course, or with how it shows your maturity for dealing with uni life. Round it all off by bringing your main points together, including a final emphasis of your commitment to studying this particular course.

• Read more: how to write your personal statement in an evening  

6. How long should a personal statement be?

You've got to work to a very specific limit when writing your personal statement. In theory you could use up to 4,000 characters – but you’re probably more likely to be limited by the line count. That's because it's a good idea to put line breaks in between your paragraphs (to make it more readable) and you only get a maximum of 47 lines. With this in mind, 3,500 characters is a more realistic limit. But when you’re getting started you should ignore these limits completely. At first, you just want to get down everything that you feel is important. You'll probably end up with something that is far too long, but that's fine. This is where you get to do some polishing and pruning. Keep the focus of your piece on the course you’re applying for, why you want to do it and why you’re perfectly suited to it. Look through what you’ve written so far – have you got the balance right? Chop out anything that goes on a bit, as you want each point to be snappy and succinct.

• Read more: universities reveal all about personal statements  

7. Keep it simple

8. Smart ways to end your personal statement

Writing a closing line that you’re happy with can feel as tricky as coming up with your opener. What you’re looking for here is a sign-off that is bold and memorable. The final couple of sentences in your statement give you the opportunity to emphasise all the good stuff you’ve already covered. Use this space to leave the reader in no doubt as to what an excellent addition you would be to their university. Pull together all your key points and – most importantly – address the central question that your personal statement should answer: why should you get a place on the course?

• Read more: universities explain how to end your personal statement with a bang  

9. Make sure your personal statement has no mistakes

Now you’ve got a personal statement you’re happy with, you need to make sure there are no mistakes. Check it, check it a second time, then check it again. Once you’ve done that, get someone else to check it, too. You will be doing yourself a massive disservice if you send through a personal statement with spelling and/or grammatical errors. You’ve got months to put this together so there really is no excuse for sending through something that looks like a rush job. Ask your teachers to look at it, and be prepared to accept their feedback without getting defensive. They will have seen many personal statements before; use what they tell you to make yours even better. You’ve also got another chance here to look through the content of your personal statement, so you can make sure the balance is right. Make sure your focus is very clearly on the subject you are applying for and why you want to study it. Don’t post your personal statement on the internet or social media where anyone can see it. You will get picked up by the Ucas plagiarism checker. Similarly, don't copy any that you find online. Instead, now is a good time to make your parents feel useful. Read your personal statement out to them and get them to give you feedback. Or try printing it out and mixing it up with a few others (you can find sample personal statements on The Student Room). Get them to read them all and then try to pick yours out. If they can't, perhaps there's not enough of your personality in there.  

10. Don't think about your personal statement for a whole week

If you followed the advice at the very start of this guide, you’ve started your personal statement early. Good job! There are months before you need to submit it. Use one of these weeks to forget about your personal statement completely. Get on with other things – anything you like. Just don’t go near your statement. Give it a whole week and then open up the document again and read through it with fresh eyes. You’ll gain a whole new perspective on what you’ve written and will be well placed to make more changes, if needed.

• Read more: how to write your personal statement when you have nothing interesting to say  

10 steps to your ideal personal statement

In summary, here are the ten steps you should follow to create the perfect personal statement.  

Personal statement dos and don'ts

• Remember that your personal statement is your personal statement, not an article written about your intended field of study. It should tell the reader about you, not about the subject.
• Only put in things that you’re prepared to talk about at the interviews.
• Give convincing reasons for why you want to study the course – more than just "enjoying the subject" (this should be a given).
• For very competitive courses, find out as much as you can about the nature of the course and try to make your personal statement relevant to this.
• Be reflective. If you make a point like 'I like reading', 'I travelled abroad', say what you got from it.
• Go through the whole thing checking your grammar and your spelling. Do this at least twice. It doesn’t matter if you’re not applying to an essay-based course – a personal statement riddled with spelling mistakes is just going to irritate the reader, which is the last thing you want to do. If this is something you find difficult then have someone look over it for you.
• Leave blank lines between your paragraphs. It’s easier for the reader to get through your personal statement when it’s broken into easily digestible chunks. Remember that they’re going to be reading a lot of these! Make yours easy to get through.
• Get someone else's opinion on your statement. Read it out to family or friends. Share it with your teacher. Look for feedback wherever you can find it, then act upon it.
• Don’t write it like a letter. Kicking off with a greeting such as "Dear Sir/Madam" not only looks weird, it also wastes precious space.
• Don’t make jokes. This is simply not the time – save them for your first night in the union.
• Don’t criticise your current school or college or try to blame teachers for any disappointing grades you might have got.
• Be afraid of details – if you want your PS to be personal to you that means explaining exactly which bits of work or topics or activities you've taken part in/enjoyed. It's much more compelling to read about one or two detailed examples than a paragraph that brushes over five or six.
• Just list what you're doing now. You should pull out the experiences that are relevant to the courses which you're applying to.
• Mention skills and activities without giving examples of when they have been demonstrated by you or what you learnt from them. Anyone can write "I have great leadership skills" in a PS, actually using a sentence to explain when you demonstrated good leadership skills is much rarer and more valuable.
• Refer to experiences that took place before your GCSEs (or equivalent).
• Give explanations about medical or mental health problems. These should be explained in your reference, not your PS.
• Apply for too many different courses, making it difficult to write a convincing personal statement which supports the application.
• Write a statement specific to just one institution, unless you're only applying to that one choice.
• Copy and paste the statement from somewhere else! This means do not plagiarise. All statements are automatically checked for plagiarism by Ucas. Those that are highlighted by the computer system are checked manually by Ucas staff. If you’re found to have plagiarised parts of your statement, the universities you apply to will be informed and it could jeopardise your applications.
• Use ChatGPT or another AI program to write your personal statement for you. Or, if you do, make sure you thoroughly edit and personalise the text so it's truly yours. Otherwise you're very much at risk of the plagiarism point above.

You may want to look at these...

How to write your university application.

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• Personal Statement

As part of your UCAS application you will be asked to provide a personal statement.

Practical information

You have 47 lines of text, or 4,000 characters (as a guide, that's roughly 500 words).

It's a good idea to write write your personal statment into a document so that you can edit it before copying and pasting it into your online UCAS application.

You should spell-check and proof-read your personal statement. A good tactic for proof reading is to start at the end and read every sentence individually until you get to the beginning. That way, you are less likely to get distracted by the content. It is also helpful to let another person read your statement to look for spelling mistakes and typing errors.  

How the personal statement is used

Your personal statment will be read by both subject specialists in the course you have applied for and our Director of Admissions. If you are invited for interview, you may be asked questions relating to things you wrote in your personal statement or it may not be mentioned at all.

Later in the process when decisions are made, if you are not selected for a place at Christ's College but your application is thought to be strong, then you may be selected for the Winter Pool. This means that your application would be considered by other Cambridge Colleges, who may have had weaker direct applicants. If you are selected for the Winter Pool then your personal statement will also be read by staff from other Colleges, who may be considering you for a place.  

What information should be included?

At Cambridge, we are interested in academic criteria, that is, your ability and your potential to acheive in the future. As part of this, we want to read about your academic interests at this stage. The information in the rest of your application (e.g. what school you attend, dates, previous grades etc.) does not give us this. In your personal statement we would like you to:

• explain your reasons for wanting to study the subject at university
• demonstrate enthusiasm for and commitment to your chosen course
• express any particular interests within the field
• outline how you’ve pursued your subject interest in your own time.

You can be very specific if you want to and mention particular projects / books / authors / articles / experiences that have made an impression on you and why. You can mention things you have done at / for school as well as things you have done on your own initiative. We are not looking for a list, however - we want to know what you got out of your work or research, rather than just the fact that you did it.   

Positive approach: make the process work for you

You are likely to need to put a lot of time and thought into your personal statement, as writing one that you're happy with is not an easy task. Try not to think of this work as a chore! Instead, think how the process of drafting and finalising writing your statement can help you to make a strong application. Perhaps it will give you a better understanding of your academic interests, motivation to do extra exploration and thinking about your subject, or that bit more confidence that your course choices really do fit your interests. Applying to spend three or more years studying a subject intensively is a big deal, so having to take time to think about your interests, how they've emerged, how they've developed and what has been important is certainly worth doing.  

Concerns about limited resources?

We know that many of you will be concerned that you have not 'done' enough for a strong personal statement , however we can reassure you that this is not a tick-box exercise - what is going to matter is what you've gained from doing things rather than exactly what you've done, as there are many different ways to explore a subject. We have applicants from such a wide range of areas and backgrounds, some of you will live in big cities whilst others of you live on rural coastlines. We advise you to use resources that are available to you to explore your subject in your own time, but we do not expect all Medicine applicants to have access to the same work experience opportunities and all prospective architects to be able to find the same books from the reading suggestions (for example). We have put a 'helpful resources' section on every subject page to help you with ideas but you may have other ideas / books, which is fine.  

Further infomation

• UCAS personal statements page
• How to write a great Personal Statement (Cambridge article)
• Cambridge Admissions UCAS application page
• Cambridge SU Guide to Personal Statements (written by Shadab !)

A note for October 2024 applicants: UCAS previously mentioned that they were making changes to the personal statement. We can confirm that these have been postponed and will not affect you.

UK application support / Next: UCAS reference and predicted grades

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Cambridge - Mathematics

Mathematics – 2013 ( cambridge, imperial college, ucl ).

Maths can leave me feeling stupid, frustrated and pleased with myself at the same time. Frustrated from extended periods of getting nowhere, pleased when the crux move reveals itself, and ...

Mathematics – 2013 ( Cambridge, Imperial College, Warwick, Durham, Bristol )

Nothing is more satisfying than working through a conceptually-challenging problem and solving it successfully. My favourite problems in Mathematics are those which have no apparent method in the first instance, ...

Please note UCAS will detect any form of plagiarism. PSE and its contributors do not take any responsibility for the way in which personal statements are used.

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History personal statement example (cambridge offer holder).

Human civilisation fascinates me. Watching Andrew Marr's "History of the World" opened my eyes to the path that society has charted over the millennia, developing from a disparate collection of hunter-gatherers to the collection of sophisticated polities we have today. This journey is one which I find worthy of further study.

Stemming from my interest in the development of society, I find the Medieval Era an enthralling period. My Extended Project on the Anglo-Saxons' consolidation of England gave me an insight into the process by which Europe emerged following the fall of Rome. Researching my essay engendered in me a deep appreciation for historical scholarship and I came to love expressing my findings in writing. I have found the Medieval Era was far from a "Dark Age" characterised by religious dogmatism taking precedence over reason. The cultural work of King Alfred of Wessex and the intellectual resurgence that took place during the Carolingian Renaissance both confirm the Middle Ages should not be regarded as a time of conservative regression, but of valuable social development which laid the groundwork for Europe's later achievements. Starkey's "Magna Carta" has shown me how medieval government was not a monolithic organ dominated by the Crown but rather a dynamic organisation with competing interests vying for influence; particularly surprising was the tenacity of the Committee of Twenty-Five Barons in presenting a quasi-republican challenge to King John's royal authority. I have attended two external lectures by David Starkey related to my Tudor studies at A Level; seeing a historian impart his views in public caused me to reflect on how the scope of our historical knowledge is dictated by those who were able to record events and limited by their respective biases.

Researching the multicausal nature of the Byzantine Empire's disintegration for an essay competition revealed a new dimension of the medieval world to me. I found the most convincing causal factor in the decline of this bulwark of Christendom to be the Great Schism of 1054. The consequent strain on relations between East and West, exemplified by the devastating Sack of Constantinople of 1204, would precipitate the empire's fall at the hands of the Ottomans. I have also found the manner in which the Roman and British empires subjugated local rulers to reveal an interesting aspect of mankind's attitude to his own culture and heritage; many groups are willing to abrogate their sovereignty lest they suffer the far greater loss of having their cultural heritage overridden. Rousseau's "The Body Politic" demonstrated to me how the ostensibly sovereign "general will" of the people can so often be overrun by self-interested governments. However, I find his formulaic approach to analysis rather ahistoric as it fails to address the multitude of parameters that affect human behaviour.

Seeking to share my enthusiasm for the subject, I have assisted in GCSE History lessons. I hold the demanding positions of Head Boy of my school and Chair of [county omitted for privacy] Youth Council, through which I have gained significant experience in public speaking and leadership. I acted as the Senior Barrister in my school's winning team for the [omitted for privacy] Inter-School Mock Trial Competition, leading a successful defence in a war crimes case at the "International Criminal Court". This refined my skills in research, teamwork and performing under pressure. I am also the co-chair of my school's Philosophical Society, facilitating rational discussion on a wide range of issues; I further argue my views with vigour in the school Debating Society.

In studying History, my ultimate desire is to gain a greater understanding of the characters, movements and events which have catalysed the development of human civilisation.

Profile info

There is no profile associated with this personal statement, as the writer has requested to remain anonymous.

Author's Comments

Have received offers to study History (V100) at:

University of Cambridge (A*AA) Durham University (A*AA) University College London (AAA) University of Leeds (AAA/AAB with an A in History) University of Sheffield (ABB)

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What's on this page?

What’s a personal statement, preparing to write your personal statement, how to open your personal statement, your personal skills and achievements, work experience and future plans.

An undergraduate personal statement is a chance to get noticed for the unique talents and experiences you have. It’s an important part of the application process as it’s an opportunity to talk about yourself and your passions, outside of your grades.  

In this article, we’re going to talk you through how to write an undergraduate personal statement that stands out, without leaving you feeling overwhelmed.

Chloe Ng, HE Career Coach, Manchester Metropolitan University

You’ll have heard the saying preparation is key, and that’s no different when you’re tackling your personal statement. There are two things to think about when you’re planning. The practical and factual information you need to get across, and the more emotional, human parts of you that make you different to everyone else.  

Before you start writing, take some time to think about the key things you’d want an admissions tutor to know about you, and get them down on paper. Don’t worry too much about making your notes perfect – this is more about making sure you know why you should be offered a place.

You can also look at the course description as this’ll help you with what to include and give you a good idea of what each uni is looking for. 

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Here are a few questions you can answer to help you get started:.

• Why have you chosen this course?
• What excites you about the subject? 
• Is my previous or current study relevant to the course?
• Have you got any work experience that might help you?
• What life experiences have you had that you could talk about?
• What achievements are you proud of?
• What skills do you have that make you perfect for the course?
• What plans and ambitions do you have for your future career?

Admissions Tutors will be reading a lot of personal statements so it’s important to grab their attention right from the start. 

Remember, it can only be 4,000 characters, which is about two sides of A4. So, you’ll need to use your words wisely to fit everything in.

You can find a full guide on How to start a personal statement: the attention grabber , but here are the main things to think about . 

• Don’t overthink the opening. Just start by showing your enthusiasm for the subject, showcasing your knowledge and understanding, and sharing your ambitions of what you want to achieve.
• Avoid cliches! Remember, this opening part is simply about introducing yourself, so let the admissions tutor reading your personal statement get to know you. 
• Keep it relevant and simple. You’re limited on how much you can include so avoid long-winded explanations. Why use 20 words when 10 can make your point? 

Annabell Price, L’Oréal degree apprentice (Professional Products Division)

Next, you’ll need to write about your personal skills and achievements. Universities like to know the abilities you have that’ll help you on the course, or generally with life at university.

Don’t forget to include evidence to back up why you’re so excited about the course(s) you’ve chosen.

• Be bold and talk about the achievements you’re proud of.
• Include positions of responsibility you hold, or have held, both in and out of school.
• What are the things that make you interesting, special, or unique? 

Your work experience and future plans are important to include. You should share details of jobs, placements, work experience, or voluntary work, particularly if it's relevant to your course. 

• Try to link any experience to skills or qualities that’ll make you successful.
• If you know what you’d like to do after as a career, explain how you plan to use the knowledge and experience that you’ll gain to launch your career.

It’s always good to connect the beginning of your statement to the end and a great way to reinforce what you said at the start.

You want to see the ending as your chance to finish in a way that’ll make the admissions tutor remember you. 

This final part of your personal statement should emphasise the great points you’ve already made and answer the question of why you should be offered a place on the course. 

Read our full guide on How to finish your statement the right way.  

The personal statement tool image

Don’t be tempted to copy or share your statement.

UCAS scans all personal statements through a similarity detection system to compare them with previous statements.

Any similarity greater than 30% will be flagged and we'll inform the universities and colleges to which you have applied. 

Find out more

Want to read more.

Check out our full list of Personal Statement Dos and Don’ts

See how you can use a personal statement beyond a university application

Now you’ve written your undergraduate personal statement, you’ll need to do a couple of final things before you submit it. 

• Have you proofread it?

Don’t just rely on spellcheckers. We’d recommend reading it out loud as that’s a great way to spot any errors as well as checking it sounds like you. 

• Have you asked for feedback?

Ask friends, family or a careers advisor to have a read through your personal statement and take their feedback on board.

Want more advice on your personal statement? Use the links below.

More advice

Use the UCAS’ personal statement tool alongside this guide to help you structure your ideas. Are you interested in how you can turn you Personal Statement into your CV?  Read our advice here

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Personal statement examples by subject: complete list

Take a look at how other students have written their personal statements

When you're writing your university personal statement, a little inspiration can be handy.

On The Student Room, we have hundreds of real personal statements written by students when they applied for university in previous years.

You'll find all of these listed below, in order of subject. 

For more help with writing your personal statement, our personal statement section  is a good place to go. You can also find tips and discussion in the personal statement advice forum .

And don't forget our sister site The Uni Guide , which has expert advice on getting your personal statement sorted.

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• Statement of Purpose, Personal Statement, and Writing Sample

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Statement of Purpose 

The statement of purpose is very important to programs when deciding whether to admit a candidate. Your statement should be focused, informative, and convey your research interests and qualifications. You should describe your reasons and motivations for pursuing a graduate degree in your chosen degree program, noting the experiences that shaped your research ambitions, indicating briefly your career objectives, and concisely stating your past work in your intended field of study and in related fields. Your degree program of interest may have specific guidance or requirements for the statement of purpose, so be sure to review the degree program page for more information. Unless otherwise noted, your statement should not exceed 1,000 words. 

Personal Statement

Please describe the personal experiences that led you to pursue graduate education and how these experiences will contribute to the academic environment and/or community in your program or Harvard Griffin GSAS. These may include social and cultural experiences, leadership positions, community engagement, equity and inclusion efforts, other opportunities, or challenges. Your statement should be no longer than 500 words.

Please note that there is no expectation to share detailed sensitive information and you should refrain from including anything that you would not feel at ease sharing. Please also note that the Personal Statement should complement rather than duplicate the content provided in the Statement of Purpose. 

Visit Degree Programs and navigate to your degree program of interest to determine if a Personal Statement is required. The degree program pages will be updated by early September indicating if the Personal Statement is required for your program.

Writing Sample 

Please visit Degree Programs and navigate to your degree program of interest to determine if a writing sample is required. When preparing your writing sample, be sure to follow program requirements, which may include format, topic, or length. 

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Successful Personal Statement For Philosophy At Cambridge

Last Updated: 6th April 2022

Author: Rob Needleman

Table of Contents

Welcome to our popular Personal Statement series where we present a successful Personal Statement, and our Oxbridge Tutors provide their feedback on it. 

Today, we are looking through a Philosophy applicant’s Personal Statement that helped secure a place at Cambridge University. The Philosophy Course at Cambridge explores human thought, the basis of knowledge, the nature of reason, consciousness and cognition, as well as the foundations of value and political theory.

Read on to see how this candidate managed to navigate philosophical thinking to successfully receive a Cambridge offer.   

Here’s a breakdown of the Personal Statement:

SUCCESSFUL?

The universities this candidate applied to were the following:

Enrolling on our Cambridge Philosophy comprehensive Programme will give you access to Personal Statement redrafts. 

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Philosophy Personal Statement

“And if you find her poor, Ithaka has not fooled you. / Wise as you will have become, so full of experience, / You will have understood by then, what these Ithakas mean.”

Cavafy was right, indeed. Like any other reflective person, I am essentially a philosophical entity. While most people, perhaps those outside academic philosophy, would consider it a prime example, maybe along with Mathematics, of an established body of a priori truths, of some kind of Ithaka (thus excluding themselves from the possibility of realizing their philosophical essence), I beg to differ. For years, though, unwise as I was according to Cavafy, I was looking for Ithakas like most men, misled by this major misconception. For years, I have been reading Plato and Aristotle, Descartes and Nietzsche always, hastily and impatiently, heading towards truth; towards my rich Ithaka, and always falling on reefs and mythical objections raised by one philosopher against the truths of the other. Always, en route.

When, “wise as I had become” on the road, like old Ulysses, I realized that philosophy is much more than just a truth per se. Instead, philosophy is the pursuit of truth, irrespective of whether that truth is ever achieved; in fact, if and when something ever counts as truth, it does not belong to the realm of philosophy any more. Not until I read Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, had I realized that the aim of philosophy is to designate what can be said and what not, what is non-sense or what might be senseless. This very sub specie aeternitatis realization of philosophy as an activity, a method of approaching truth and reflecting on reality rather than as an established body of justified true belief, was crucial in my selection of philosophy as the subject of my academic study. Since this realization, my chief preoccupation has been to learn as much as possible from the journey to Ithaka, to hone this ability to philosophize effectively, to exercise and engage philosophy as much as possible, whenever and wherever possible.

A culmination of this constant struggle to sharpen my philosophical essence happened this summer in the Epic Questions Summer Institute of U of Va, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. In this intensive, three-week seminar for high-school teachers, I was the official note-taker and the only high-school student to be accepted among the scholars as an intern of Dr. Mitchell S. Green. Courses in Epistemology, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Mind, Formal Logic, Philosophy of Language, Ethics, Political Philosophy and Bioethics unprecedentedly furthered this philosophical activity and I made the acquaintance of contemporary philosophical thought, reading, such as T. Nagel, R. Chisholm, D. Papineau, B. Williams, along with classical readings.

Hence, to my readings of Plato’s Five Dialogues, Descartes’s Meditations on First Philosophy and Nietzsche’s Übermensch, were added those of the British Empiricists, esp. some of Hume’s Enquiries, Kant, B. Rusell’s The Problems of Philosophy and Mill’s Utilitarianism.

I must admit that I have been uncritically assuming a certain account of human nature (as inherently philosophical), which many may find controversial. And this, itself, thus, turns into a philosophical question. And so on and so forth.

This is exactly the philosophical beauty I live for.

For more inspiration, take a look through our other successful Personal Statement a nalysis articles:

Successful Personal Statement For Natural Science (Physical) At Cambridge

Successful personal statement for economics at cambridge, successful personal statement for land economy at cambridge, successful personal statement for chemistry at oxford, successful personal statement for geography at oxford, successful personal statement for classics at oxford, successful personal statement for law at oxford, successful personal statement for classics at cambridge, successful personal statement for engineering at cambridge, successful personal statement for veterinary medicine at cambridge, successful personal statement for psychological and behavioural sciences at cambridge, successful personal statement for psychology at oxford, successful personal statement for history at oxford, successful personal statement for physics at oxford, successful personal statement for cambridge mathematics and physics, successful personal statement example for computer science at oxford, successful personal statement for english at cambridge, successful personal statement for oxford english language and literature, successful personal statement for medicine at oxford university, successful personal statement for modern languages at oxford, successful personal statement for engineering at oxford, successful personal statement for natural sciences (biological) at cambridge, successful personal statement for economics & management at oxford, successful personal statement for ppe at oxford, successful personal statement for law at cambridge, successful personal statement for dentistry at king’s college london, successful personal statement for medicine at cambridge.

Download our Free Personal Statement Starter Guide 

Good Points Of The Personal Statement

The statement is well written, and the student clearly demonstrates their passion for philosophy, as well as their motivation for pursuing further study of it, and something of a personal journey through which their philosophical thinking has developed. The discussion of the nature of philosophical thought ties nicely into their own motivation to study philosophy. The statement shows their broad philosophical education, as well as indicating a strong self-motivating passion for learning (in a much more subtle manner than simply stating that they are self-motivated), as much of this education is in the form of private study. Acceptance to the prestigious seminar is an impressive achievement, and the student is right to stress this, and the ‘unprecedented’ effect it had on their philosophical activity.

Bad Points Of The Personal Statement

The statement is vague in what it terms ‘philosophy’; though the student clearly has an interest in some vague notion of ‘human nature’, they don’t narrow down exactly what they wish to study at university (philosophy being such a broad subject that quite a bit of specialisation is necessary). The time spent listing impressive works that they had read would have been better invested in mentioning just one (or even just one subject that they had read around) that had particularly affected them and expanding on it. Similarly, they could have expanded further on the experience of the seminar (how it affected their philosophical thinking, new ideas encountered while there, etc.), rather than listing the respected philosophers they had met. The grammar is, at points, questionable, indicating the statement required closer proofreading prior to being submitted.

UniAdmissions Overall Score:

This statement is very strong; it conveys a rare passion for the subject and, more importantly, a passion that has been actively pursued in the student’s own time. It could, however, benefit from a little more specificity regarding their thoughts on specific readings, and from reading less like a list of books and philosophers. Overall, the statement reads like an intriguing personal philosophical work.

This Personal Statement for Philosophy is a great example of demonstrating passion which is vital to Admissions Tutors.

Remember, at Cambridge, these Admissions Tutors are often the people who will be teaching you for the next few years, so you need to appeal directly to them.

There are plenty more successful personal statements and expert guides on our Free Personal Statement Resources page.

Our expert tutors are on hand to help you craft the perfect Personal Statement for your Cambridge Philosophy application.

With our  Cambridge Philosophy Premium Programme, we help you craft the perfect Personal   Statement , score highly on the PAA and teach you how to  Interview effectively .

Discover our Cambridge Philosophy Premium Programme  by clicking the button below to  enrol and triple your chances of success.

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