h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Writing the perfect UCAS Personal Statement - A87719656
Author: HonestIago - U215204

More UCAS advice - it's a bit sparse in terms of links so I'd appreciate any recommendations for those.

Brings back painful memories! I was one of the first students to use the online UCAS form.

As for links - I have a shameless plug:

http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/A717527

That might go better in the general UCAS one Z - I'll add it there if that's alright.

I can beat that, Z. I was the first! Or at least among the first half-dozen.

Trial college and an Oxford applicant, so I beat you by at least a year and a bit.

B

Excellent - i should have done one myself, but doing the actual thing was annoying enough.
I did enjoy listening to the teacher's part of it - ten minutes of listening to myself being complimented

How much if any did you have to cut out - I was 4500 characters and didnt want to be exactly 4000 so i went to 3700

I have a looksy for typos, but you should have practice in getting them

As someone working in a University and has read many UCAS statements, this is an excellent article. (My views on the same subject for the Post can be seen here: A67389051 for comparison)

I agree wholeheartedly with everything written - one thing I would say though is that if you are applying for a course in Comedy, then including humour can be an advantage. But you are right in that for every other course it often works against the applicant.

<BB<

Ok, but my article on 'How to get into a Uk medical school' clearly needs a link to this article..

It's uncanny how much we agree on Bluebottle (the university typos in particular stands out) - great minds think alike I guess. I've got some great examples I could add to your list.

I think I did my UCAS electronically, but we were one of the years to be offered a choice. My first few drafts were about twice as long as was permissible: pith is not my friend.

Yay! HonestIago, this is the way to do it! Look how many positive comments there have been since this was submitted.

I can see this being read by countless students and parents. Thanks so much for taking the time to write this. Great stuff.



Lanzababy

That sounds pretty good to me.

I still had to use the paper version, so it's interesting to see how things have changed - having an actual character limit rather than a font size limit is one!

Only one thing glared out at me, and only because it's a personal pet hate: Do’s and Don’ts: surely it's either Dos and Don'ts or Do's and Don't's? I think its the former as it's just a plural. But as I say, that's just a personal pet peeve.

The advice itself I think is all pretty good. It's a lot like completing a job application form, really, although with some different criteria. It's about really thinking about what those criteria are. I think I got my place at uni based on the fact I expressed a (genuine!) interest in the early clarinet when I went for interview at a university with a specialist Early Music department.

In fact I might suggest this to a few teachers for a decent demonstration on what to do for next years lot - i would do it officially but i doubt our Dos would ever take it

Sorry, but what is UCAS?

There is a link on the page Tav, to the official website.
http://www.ucas.com/about_us/whoweare/

And when this becomes edited it will have a link back from the Update that HI is also doing for us. ie A87719179

Maybe if someone came across this through a search engine, then a footnote to explain what UCAS is is a good idea.

Could you also add a link to the Update HI? (to A87719179 )

thanks

Lanzababy

thanks Lanza

We don't have anything like that here. If there are any special application processes every uni does that individually. Or you just go there with your papers from school that proof that you have finished school and are allowed to study and then they just take you. That's how it was for me. In most cases they rather try to kick out half of the people during the first years than not take them at all.

Lanza will that be the A number for the Edited Entry? Once these two are through PR, they should link to each other but I thought I'd have to wait for that.

I'll add a link and explanation for UCAS

Excellent entry!



sprout

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

!!

FAO the sub-editor:

<>
Like writing when you mean