lse anthropology personal statement

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Personal statements

Read the phrasing carefully.

Different institutions will phrase what they want to see in their personal statement differently, some examples (as of September 2013) and how you could break the wording down to ensure you address everything are below:

Example of application guidance from LSE:

You must submit a personal statement with your application form. This should be between 1,000 and 1,500 words. It should describe your academic interests and your purpose and objectives in undertaking graduate study. 

Suggestions of what to include for this phrasing:

• Outline what are your academic interests specifically
• How they are related to the course.
• How do you see the course furthering these interests?
• Do you have previous experience of studying these areas?
• Was your undergraduate dissertation, major project or a group presentation relevant to the course or your academic interests?
•  Have you attended conferences, seminars or networking events outside your studies to increase your knowledge?
• What have you learnt recently,
• and how does this link to the course you are applying for?
• Perhaps you can link your academic interests to work experience you have gained?
• Purpose in undertaking graduate study  – Why are you applying for postgraduate study? This could be linked to discussing your academic interests, or perhaps you have a career orientated goal.
• Objectives in undertaking graduate study  – What do you hope to achieve by the end of your postgraduate study, whether educationally or professionally? If you have professional objectives, how will this course help you move towards your career goal?
• What else?  – you could also include some of the suggestions in the guidelines below, but make sure you address everything in their description.

Example of application guidance from SOAS:

Your personal statement should be no more than 1,000 words. It should include the reasons why you are interested in the programme, highlight your relevant experience and suitability for the programme as well as future plans. 

• Why you are interested in the programme  – Look at the course content carefully to decide what it is that most interests you in the programme content-wise. Discuss any relevant research or coursework you might have done in the past, and include technical language or language that shows you have a grasp of the topic.
• Relevant experience  – think back to your work experience, extracurricular activities and voluntary experiences and reflect upon relevant projects you might have worked on, tasks you were set or research you conducted that demonstrates relevance to the course. You might not feel you have this experience yet, but perhaps you have worked in a relevant sector and you could show your technical and commercial understanding.
• Suitability for the programme  – Think about the skills you might need to succeed in this programme. What is your experience that makes you suitable for the programme? Perhaps you will reflect on study or research skills that you have gained, or maybe you’ll need strong negotiation, communication or presentation skills which you gained through mooting or as a student representative? If you can show you were engaged with your undergraduate university’s community then this might be a good place to mention what you did.
• Future plans  – What are your career aspirations and how do you see the course furthering these?

Writing a personal statement

If they do not specify what to include in your personal statement, areas you might want to include are below. There is no set order of when to mention what but starting your personal statement with your most relevant point is advised.

Motivations

• Why are you applying for the programme?
• What do you hope to gain from the programme?
• What is it that interests you about the subject? Can this be related to your previous education or work experience (see below)?
• What are your career aspirations and how will this course help you achieve them?

Educational experience and commercial knowledge

• Do you have past education that gives you the knowledge base you need for the course?
• Is your undergraduate dissertation relevant? Tell the tutor about it and the research methods you used (especially if applying for a research masters).
• Perhaps you like to keep up with current news in the sector you hope to go into. You could mention a topical issue and discuss how you see the course furthering your understanding.

Work experience

• Have you gained work experience in a field relevant to the course or relevant to your career ambitions? Can you link this experience to your motivation to wanting to continue studying in this field?
• Tell the tutor about this experience and reflect on how this could help with the course or use it as an example of your motivation for continued study in a related area.
• If you are a mature student returning to study, why are you returning? Are you looking to make a career change? Why, and how, do you expect the course will support your new ambition?

Other experience

• Include your extracurricular and voluntary experience too. Tutors want rounded people on their course; show that you engaged in university life during your undergraduate course or that you gained some relevant skills or experiences through volunteering.

Anything else

• You can outline your main achievements, awards or successes in competitions. Think about the course you are applying for and if there is anything they might be particularly impressed by.
• Mention relevant summer schools, overseas study or conferences/ short courses you might have attended that are related to the course.

Other circumstances

• Deferred entry – if you would like to start the course the following year explain to the course tutor what you will be doing with the next year.

Final checks

• Spelling and grammar – this will give the course tutor an idea as to your writing skills, so ensure there are no mistakes.
• Abbreviations and acronyms – explain any you have used.
• Content structure – ensure the paragraphs make sense and that the document flows well. Don’t repeat yourself by revisiting an experience or educational point.
• Don’t write a narrative of your life, from leaving school to current day.
• Be positive; don’t use negative language i.e. Although I have little experience of…
• Adhere to the word count (where applicable) or if there isn’t one, keep your statement to two to three pages of A4.

If you are already a student at LSE and would like LSE Careers to check your personal statement before you submit it please  make an appointment for a careers discussion  on CareerHub. It is also advised that if your application is fairly technically subject specific that you get an academic to check the content for accuracy.

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BA Social Anthropology

Introduction

Preliminary readings.

If you’re an imaginative, critical thinker who wants to understand why the world is as it is, our BA Social Anthropology is the perfect choice.

You’ll examine the variable and universal aspects of human culture and society and the political, economic, family, and religious systems that influence people’s beliefs, values and practices. At every stage, we’ll encourage you to look at the world in new ways and challenge your own perceptions.

Rated the top anthropology department in the UK for research, LSE has pioneered anthropology fieldwork methodologies used worldwide. The programme provides full training in anthropological research methods and you’ll complete an in-depth ethnographic study .

You can take part in our Summer fieldwork projects scheme and apply to spend a year abroad with one of our global partners. All students have the option to add a language specialism to their degree – see the "Programme content" section for details.

If you wish to gain further insight into social anthropology, we suggest that you look at one or more of the following books. The general introductory texts will allow you to get a sense of the discipline's coverage, while the ethnographies will allow you to dig deeper into specific isues and give you a flavour of the primary materials you will be engaging with during your degree. We have offered a wide selection to allow you to choose texts that mesh closely with your personal interests.

General introductions to anthropology

• R Astuti, J Parry and C Stafford (eds)  Questions of Anthropology  (Berg, 2007)
• M Engelke Think Like an Anthropologist (Pelican 2017)
• C Geertz  The Interpretation of Cultures: selected essays  (Basic Books, 1973)

Ethnographies

Gender, poetry and emotions:

• L Abu-Lughod  Veiled sentiments: honor and poetry in a Bedouin society  (University of California Press, 1986)

Cyber-ethnography, the virtual:

• T Boellstorff  Coming of Age in Second Life: an anthropologist explores the virtually human  (Princeton University Press, 2008).

Gender, sexuality:

• S G Davies  Challenging Gender Norms: five genders among the Bugis in Indonesia  (Thomson Wadsworth, 2007)

Hunter-gatherers, shamanism, cosmology:

• P Descola  The Spears of Twilight: life and death in the amazon jungle  (The New Press, 1998)

Race, education and achievement:

• S Fordham  Blacked Out: dilemmas of race, identity and success at capital high  (University of Chicago Press. 1996)

Economics, globalisation:

• R J Foster  Coca-Globalization: following soft drinks from New York to New Guinea  (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)

Medical ethics, law, feminism:

• F Ginsburg  Contested Lives: the abortion debate in an American community  (University of California Press, 1998)

War, anti-colonialism/nationalism, religion:

• D Lan  Guns and Rain: guerillas and spirit mediums in Zimbabwe  (University of California Press, 1985)

Postcolonialism, exchange, modernity:

• C Piot  Remotely Global: village modernity in West Africa  (University of Chicago Press, 1999)

Christianity, morality, conversion:

• J Robbins  Becoming Sinners: christianity and moral torment in a Papua New Guinea society  (University of California Press, 2004)

Entry requirements

Here, you can check our entry requirements for GCSEs, A-levels (please read them alongside our information about subject combinations) and the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma. We also consider applications from students with a range of other UK qualifications and from overseas. Please select the overseas button below and choose your country from the dropdown list to find the equivalency to A-levels of your qualification.

For GCSEs, you’ll need a strong pre-16 academic profile such as several GCSE grades of A (or 7) and A* (or 8-9).

We also ask for a good set of GCSE grades or equivalent across a broad range of subjects, with a minimum of grade B (or 6) in GCSE English and Mathematics.

We also consider your AS grades, if available.

Contextual admissions A-level grades

Read our undergraduate admissions information to learn more about contextual admissions.

A-level subject combinations

• We consider your combination of subjects as well as your grades.
• A broad mix of traditional academic subjects provides the best preparation for studying at LSE. We expect applicants to have at least two full A-levels (or equivalent) in these subjects.
• We’re looking for students who’ve studied a broad and eclectic mix of subjects – there’s no set subject combination.
• Social anthropology draws on the arts and sciences. Applicants have typically studied, or are studying, subjects such as English, History, Economics, languages, Sociology, Music, Biology, Chemistry, Geography, Mathematics, Physics, RE, Psychology and Art.
• We’ll consider applicants offering Mathematics and Further Mathematics combined with an essay-writing subject.

Find out more about A-level subject combinations .

37 points overall, with 666 in higher level subjects

Contextual admissions IB grades

35 points overall, with 655 in higher level subjects

We welcome students from all walks of life at LSE. We want to recruit students with the very best academic merit, potential and motivation. So, whatever your background, please do apply. Get all the details on our general  entry requirements .

Competition for places at LSE is high. We cannot guarantee you an offer of a place even if you’re predicted or achieve our standard entry requirements.

Our standard offer requirements are intended only as a guide and, in some cases, you’ll be asked for different grades.

Programme content

Why study with us.

Discover more about our students and department.

Student stories

Meet the department.

The Department of Anthropology is world-leading and internationally renowned – rated the top anthropology department in the UK (Good University Guide 2024).

Our work is rooted in ethnographic research: we explore how different societies and communities work. We ask big questions about what people have in common and what makes us different – challenging traditional assumptions and ideas.

Anthropology has been taught at LSE since 1904. The department rose to prominence under Malinowski – the founder of British social anthropology. Many of the leading figures in the field have taught and/or studied at LSE. Today, we strive to work in the best radical traditions of the discipline while constantly pushing our thinking in new directions.

The department offers a mix of undergraduate and postgraduate study opportunities, including a single honours degree in Social Anthropology and a joint undergraduate Anthropology and Law programme.

We have a dynamic and active research community. Long-term anthropological fieldwork is a key strength of our department. Most staff are involved in ongoing field research, in both well-established and emerging fields. Our academics also work at the intersections with other disciplines, including history, cognitive psychology and religious studies.

The department has strong international links. Leading scholars from around the world come to LSE as visiting academics. Postdoctoral fellows and PhD students also make important contributions to the department’s research.

We’re proud to welcome students from all over the world and diverse academic backgrounds to our vibrant, welcoming and inclusive department.

Learn more about our programmes and research .

Department of Anthropology

2nd In Europe

5th In the world

1st We're ranked top university in London for the 12th year running

Carbon neutral in 2021 lse became the first carbon neutral verified university in the uk, your application, who attends.

We consider each application carefully, taking into account all the details you’ve included on your UCAS form, such as:

• academic achievement , including predicted and achieved grades (also see specific information about this programme in the "entry requirements" above)
• subjects and subject combinations  (also see specific information about this programme in the "entry requirements" above)
• your personal statement
• your teacher’s reference
• educational circumstances

You may also have to provide evidence of your English proficiency, although this is not needed at the application stage.  See our English language requirements page .

We’re looking for students who demonstrate:

• an interest in diverse cultures and societies
• an inquisitive nature and the ability to ask incisive questions
• a creative and flexible mindset for academic study
• intellectual curiosity
• self-motivation and a willingness to work hard.

Fees and funding

The table of fees shows the latest tuition fees for all programmes.

You're charged a fee for each year of your programme. Your tuition fee covers registration and examination fees payable to the School, lectures, classes and individual supervision, lectures given at other colleges under intercollegiate arrangements and, under current arrangements, membership of the Students' Union. It doesn't cover living costs or travel or fieldwork.

Your tuition fees, and eligibility for any financial support, depend on whether you’re classified as a home or an overseas student – known as your fee status. We assess your fee status based on guidelines from the UK Government’s Department for Education.

Learn more about fee status classification .

Scholarships, bursaries and loans

We recognise that the cost of living in London may be higher than in your home town or country. LSE provides generous financial support, in the form of bursaries and scholarships, to UK, EU and overseas students.

Additionally, the UK Government provides loans to UK and some EU students. Some overseas governments also offer funding.

Further information on tuition fees, living costs, loans and scholarships .

Learning and assessment

How you learn, how you're assessed.

Format and contact hours: most courses involve weekly one-hour lectures and classes where you’ll discuss reading assignments in small groups with a teacher. In the first two terms, you’ll typically have eight or more hours of formal tuition a week. Hours vary depending on the course. Additionally, we show films about anthropology and global cultures during the first two terms. You’ll also have tutorial meetings, linked to essay assignments. Get a broad idea of the study time involved in the Calendar within the Teaching section of each course guide .

Independent study: you’ll be expected to complete independent study outside your classes. This varies depending on the programme and you’ll need to manage your study time effectively. Independent study typically involves reading, note-taking and research.

LSE teaching: our School is internationally recognised for teaching and research and so you’ll learn from academics with wide-ranging expertise. Courses may be taught by individual members of our faculty, guest lecturers, visiting members of staff, teaching fellows and graduate teaching assistants, who are usually doctoral research students. Learn about the teacher responsible for each course in the relevant  course guide .

Academic support

Academic mentor: you’ll meet with your academic mentor regularly to discuss your work. Your mentor can provide advice and guidance on academic issues and, where appropriate, personal concerns.

Other academic support: at LSE, we offer lots of opportunities to extend your learning outside the classroom.

LSE LIFE is a great place to get advice and practise the skills you’ll need during your studies and beyond.

Through LSE LIFE, you can:

• attend workshops on developing leadership skills, finding the right study/work/life balance and preparing for the world of work
• develop your reading, academic writing and critical-thinking skills
• gain experience of working in study groups and develop your cross-cultural communication and teamwork skills.

Disability and Mental Health Service: we want all LSE students to achieve their full potential. Students can access free, confidential advice through our Disability and Mental Health Service . This is the first point of contact for students.

Your timetable

• The standard teaching day runs from 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. Undergraduate teaching is not normally scheduled for Wednesdays after 12 noon to allow for sports, volunteering and other extra-curricular activities.
• The lecture and seminar timetable is published in mid-August and the full academic timetable (with information on classes) is published by mid-September via the LSE timetables web pages .
• All personal undergraduate timetables are published in LSE for You (LFY) . For personal timetables to appear, you must be registered at LSE, be signed up for courses in LFY and ensured that there are no unauthorised clashes in your course selections. We try our best to minimise changes once personal timetables have been published. However, you’ll be notified about any changes by email.

Formative coursework

All taught courses include formative coursework, which is not assessed. This helps prepare you for summative assessment. We use a wide range of formative assessment methods, such as essays, case studies, reports, quizzes and mock exams. Feedback on coursework is an essential part of the learning experience. Class teachers mark formative coursework and feedback is normally given within three weeks – provided the work is submitted on time.

Summative assessment

This assessment counts towards your final course mark and degree award.

Summative assessment is generally through continuous assessment, take-home examination or a traditional unseen examination in May or June each year.

In the second year, you’ll conduct an ethnographic study and write a report (up to 5,000 words) and, in the final year, you’ll write an extended essay (up to 8,000 words).

You’ll receive feedback on any summative coursework as part of the assessment for individual courses. Feedback is normally given within four weeks – provided the work is submitted on time.

Find out more about LSE’s teaching and assessment methods .

Graduate destinations

Career support.

Social anthropology is not a vocational degree, but the capacities for critical analysis and lateral thinking you gain will provide an excellent foundation in many careers. What really makes our anthropology graduates stand out is their ability to simultaneously see the big picture and appreciate how a policy or idea will play out on the ground. Recent graduates have gone on to work in journalism, development, medicine and counselling, law, human rights, nursing, teaching, business, theatre and film.

Further information on graduate destinations for this programme

Median salary of our undergraduate students 15 months after graduating:

Top 5 sectors our students work in:.

From CV workshops through to careers fairs, LSE offers lots of information and support to help you make that all-important step from education into work.

Many of the UK’s top employers give careers presentations at the School during the year and there are numerous workshops covering topics such as job hunting, managing interviews, writing a cover letter and using LinkedIn.

See LSE Careers for further details.

Discover Uni

Every undergraduate programme of more than one year duration will have Discover Uni data. The data allows you to compare information about individual programmes at different higher education institutions.

Programmes offered by different institutions with similar names can vary quite significantly. We recommend researching the programmes you're interested in and taking into account the programme structure, teaching and assessment methods, and support services available.

Find out more

Explore lse, student life.

Student support

Accommodation

Meet, visit and discover LSE

CollegeLAH is a website by the students for the students, featuring the honest story of applications and university life as told by Malaysians. It’s a non-profit social project to help Malaysian students to achieve their higher-education dreams and inspire them to reach their full potential. 

Anthropology and Law Personal Statement (Patricia Deborah Cheng)

Patricia Deborah Cheng will be studying Anthropology and Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2023, and will graduate in 2026. This personal statement was part of her successful application to  King’s College London for Politics, Philosophy and Law, LSE and SOAS University of London for BA Anthropology and Law, University of Manchester for Law, and Queen Mary University of London for Politics and Law.

My father once told me, “In the face of injustice if lawyers don’t speak up, who will?” That same father lived as an immigrant in Malaysia for seventeen years and it was only upon his death that I realised the effect of cultural hegemony, sanctioned by law, that led to him receiving inferior treatment.

Following his death, I began to consider the question of what constitutes belonging and to what extent we confer it to non-native legal citizens. His experience stands in marked contrast to Malaysia’s “Truly Asia” image, founded in inclusivity and egalitarianism. Nowhere is this juxtaposition more evident than in Art. 153 of the Malaysian Federal Constitution, where the Bumiputera policy grants the indigneous Malay majority greater rights that, elsewhere, would be afforded universally. Through Gramsci’s concept of cultural hegemony and my reading of Haque’s ‘The Role of the State in Managing Ethnic Tensions in Malaysia’, I recognised the manipulation of ‘citizenship’ and ‘culture’ through Art. 153 and policies such as the New Economic Policy, which led to the unequal administration of my father’s healthcare. While one may be granted legal citizenship on paper, other implicit, non-legalistic forms of racial and cultural citizenship are shaped by policy to establish the Malays as cultural hegemons. This subjects minorities like my father to second-class status, denying them belonging to the dominant culture of Malaysia.

Galvanised by this discovery, I explored how fundamental liberties are overtly violated to protect archaic religio-cultural norms through the Constitution. My internship with the Malaysian Parliament exposed me to how cultural norms, codified in the Constitution, violate the right to freedom of religion, enshrined in that same Constitution under Art. 11. I did further independent research and wrote an article titled ‘Apostates in Malaysia’ published by advocacy organisation SUARAM where I analysed the non-uniformity of these “liberties”. The criminalisation of apostasy, which recommends the death penalty for divergent religious beliefs, and Art. 11, which provides for the freedom to practise different faiths, creates a clear legal paradox. This stands in contrast to Dicey’s Law of the Constitution which states that uniformity is key to enhance the public perception of fairness and justice. The prioritisation of ‘plural monoculturalism’ over multiculturalism for certain privileged groups is intriguing to me as a juridical-anthropological phenomenon. I believe that studying anthropology will complement my understanding of the in situ practice of law and give me relevant knowledge to devise policy solutions in a complex cultural environment.

To consolidate my interest in law, I interned with MahWengKwai & Associates, a family law firm where I witnessed the ramifications a lack of jurisdiction had on non-citizens, such as limitations to basic healthcare and education. Emboldened by this experience, I established my school’s first law society, where I advocated for the need to re-evaluate legislation in light of human rights issues, alongside educating young people on the utility of intersectional perspectives. To hone my creativity and leadership skills, I also organised debates and events based on legal issues balancing and synthesising information from various academic areas.

My deep-seated belief in social justice motivated me to co-found MISI:SOLIDARITI, a regionally renowned research NGO that strives to defend fundamental freedoms by supporting victims of human rights violations in court, and bringing awareness of injustices to the national attention. More recently, MISI co-organised the internationally-covered Black Flag movement to protest the continued rolling back of citizens’ rights and democracy in Malaysia. In this vein, I seek to further develop my skills as an advocate to fight against the further abrogation of human rights and work towards a Malaysia where the experience of my father is the exception.

DISCLAIMER:  The personal statements on this site are strictly meant as a starting point to give an idea of how successful personal statements look like. There is no surefire formula to writing good personal statements.  COLLEGELAH IS STRICTLY AGAINST PLAGIARISM OF ANY KIND .  UCAS employs a plagiarism check system  that checks applicants’ work against other published writing so please  DO NOT PLAGIARISE.

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Anthropology personal statement example 1.

Completing my sixth form education at a multicultural boarding school has allowed me to experience a wide social and cultural diversity that I never would have expected in a school environment, in great contrast to the subtle ethnocentrism of my previous schooling. This further inspired me to learn more about people and the ways in which we live. It became an eye-opening experience that has stimulated me to pursue formal study of people, their cultures and how we all became so different. My underlying interest in Anthropology has grown greatly since. My appetite was whetted by my A-level Biology and Physical Education courses.

In Biology, I have considered aspects of the Nature vs Nurture argument for human behaviour. Do we behave the way we do due to our genes or our socialisation? I read articles within class which exhibit evidence to suggest that genetic involvement has a much greater effect on our behaviour than I would have once believed. By considering the genetic make up of different animals in comparison to humans and comparing our behaviour, important links can be seen between each species and us. This has made me question whether being "human" is defined by our environment developing our behaviour through living, or whether it is predetermined by our biological evolution. It has made me question whether I am more inclined to believe what I have learned through GCSE Sociology or A-level Biology. In the study of PE, within the Social-Cultural unit, I learnt about the effect of the evolution of our society on the way we interact with each other. I found the comparison of British society before and after the industrial revolution of particular interest. I have seen how changing aspects of society, for example, the production of exports, can have a large effect on the way the entire society can continue to exist. We also studied the effect of British Society on American and Australian society. My interest led me to investigate further by reading "Return To Laughter- An Anthropological Novel" by Elenore Smith Bowen, in which the author undertook participant observation within the African Tiv tribe. This gave me an insight into African cultures and how they differ from our own, but also how we can draw some conclusions.

Amongst other reading, I have enjoyed works ranging from Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" to Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go", both of which made me question what it means to be human. Is it in our personality, our pride and our name or in our theologies? They have allowed me to think deeply about how we interact with people from different origins and classes. "The Crucible" gave me insight into European religion that had spread to America. I found it interesting to see how power is divided in different societies, for example, the largest proportions of power within the community in Salem were given to members of the church, whereas, in modern Britain, power is given to members of government through election.

To further my understanding of the different aspects of societies and culture, I have been reading "Small Places, Large Issues" by Thomas Eriksen, as well as "Why Humans Have Cultures" by Michael Carrithers. I have also benefited widely from extra-curricular activities. As part of the World Cinema Club, I viewed many films from different countries, primarily western societies. my ballet classes have allowed me to develop a strong work ethic (I took grade 8 in November) as well as an understanding of european cultures through dance and fashion. During my last year at Highsted, I was sports captain to my house and a member of the school council. I have decided to take a gap year, during which I intend to volunteer with the Kent Refugee Action Network, teaching English and undertaking campaigning. I hope to gain experience working with a charity, an area that is a potential career path. I also hope that this will develop my knowledge of other cultures and further my interests in Anthropology.

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October 6th, 2023

Top tips for writing a ucas personal statement.

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Starting to write your UCAS personal statement can be very daunting. I remember feeling completely overwhelmed by the idea and just not knowing where to begin. For me, the main challenge was trying to write something that fit the bill for all of the different programmes I was applying for at different universities. My choices ranged from maths and data science to international relations, so meeting the expectations of all of these seemed like an impossible task. But I received some very helpful tips and advice from my teachers which I hope you will find useful as well.

Tip number 1: Write about YOU

This one seems obvious, really. But it’s so easy to fall down the rabbit hole of just describing a university or programme in your personal statement, especially since you’ve likely been doing a lot of research and want to show the university that you’ve done that. However, you should try and write about what makes you different from all the other applicants; the advice I was given and eventually followed was to write about my journey to applying to university. Think about the key events that led you to apply – if you tell the truth, it’s very unlikely that your personal statement will be like anyone else’s.

Tip number 2: Your personal statement should be an academic essay

This one really took me a while to get my head around. The fact is that universities want to see that you have already pursued the interests that you claim to be so passionate about. If you just say something like, “I have always been interested in politics”, without giving evidence as to why the admissions team can believe this, they won’t. The most common way to show that you really are proactively passionate is to talk about reading that you’ve done around the subject area. You should also mention any relevant experience you’ve undertaken; include examples of times when you went out of your way to find out more. Most importantly though, for each book, podcast, article or experience you mention, tell the reader what you learned from it. For books, you could give an overall opinion or mention a specific idea from within the book and argue for/against it, for example. It’s also a good idea to describe how one thing led you to another – try to tell a story and keep it engaging.

Tip number 3: Don’t be afraid to focus your personal statement on something which isn’t directly relevant

For some, who have applied for the same subject everywhere, it might be appropriate to write about the programme you’re applying for and really delve into the specifics of why you chose that subject. However, for those like me, who applied for a wide range of programmes, it makes more sense to write about something else, rather than try to mention all of your choices or picking only one to write about. For example, as a student interested in politics, I chose to write about gender inequality. Try to think about the thing that you have really strong opinions about, the topic on which you can never resist a conversation/debate, and write about that. Remember to link it to the programme still; for me, I mentioned how my university studies would help me to make contributions to the goal of overcoming inequality. This is how I overcame my biggest challenge of tailoring my personal statement to my wide range of applications.

I hope that you find some of these tips useful and wish you good luck with your UCAS application!

About the author

Hi, I’m Amara, an undergraduate student studying Politics and Data Science at LSE! I’m from a small village in the countryside but I love the hustle and bustle of London! As well as writing I enjoy dancing and performing.

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