Make a statement with your personal statement

Starting to think about writing your personal statement? We've got some great tips and advice that will help you write a personal statement with impact.

Feel weird writing about yourself? You’re not alone. Personal statements – which are quite literally all about you – might seem like a challenge but fear not. We’ve put a guide together to help steer you through yours, ensuring you land a spot on that dream course.

Before you dive into this week’s post, a quick reminder that the personal statement has changed this year - it used to be that you got one big text box to write your statement in, but for 2026 entries you'll have three separate questions. If you're interested in the why, you can read all about that on the UCAS website, here.

Otherwise, read on! And master the art of self-promotion.

It’s no secret - your personal statement is an important part of your UCAS application. It’s your opportunity to ‘sell’ yourself. It gives you the chance to show how passionate you are about your chosen subject and why you’re suitable for the course. It’s also a way for university admissions teams to find out more about you as a person. And on competitive courses it could very well be the deciding factor on an offer being made.

There is a lot of really useful information and advice online about writing personal statements, but your time is precious, so we’ve rounded up some of the best resources to help you get started and ultimately write a strong personal statement.

Let's get going

Just a few key things to consider before you start:

Allow yourself plenty of time - don't leave it to the last minute.
Get planning. Before you start, make a list of things you want to include in each section of your personal statement.
Do your research. What are your preferred universities looking for in applicants for a specific course?
Think about why you're applying for the course you've chosen, and why you're suitable for the course.
Try to be original. Times Higher Education has a list of the 11 most common opening lines used in personal statements.
Your personal statement is the same for all universities you apply to - don't mention universities by name.
The maximum length of a personal statement is 4,000 characters, including spaces (around 500-600 words) and 47 lines. UCAS hub has a personal statement builder for starting your first draft that also counts how many characters you've used.
Be honest - don't be tempted to bend the truth in your personal statement; focus on your true strengths and successes.
Don’t be tempted to use AI like ChatGPT to write your personal statement for you. Some colleges and universities consider this cheating, and besides, you want your application to be authentic and unique to you!
You'll probably do a few drafts and a lot of edits before submitting your final version.
Use a spell check and also ask someone to proof-read it for you (but don't let them rewrite it - it should be your work).

Where to look

The best place to start online is the UCAS website. Here, you'll find tons of advice on writing your personal statement, including subject-specific guides and advice – and their personal statement worksheet is very useful in putting together your first draft.

Other websites, such as The Student Room, Studential and Complete University Guide also have lots of great tips for writing your personal statement.

And don't forget to speak to your tutor or HE/careers adviser. Plus, if you know anyone who's recently applied to uni, ask them for some pointers.

Sample statements

Reading sample statements is a great way to get inspiration - but DO NOT COPY THEM! Aside from everything that goes with plagiarism, UCAS checks all personal statements against a library of the last five years and against all major websites, so if you've copied any, your application could be automatically rejected.

Instead, use the examples to see what kind of language or structure other people who've applied for similar degrees have used. Compare them to your list of what you want to include - have you missed anything?

Your school or college may be able to provide you with some example personal statements, but here's where you can find some online:

Ready to go?

Loving that energy. If you feel like you're all prepped and ready to get started on your personal statement, you could skip ahead to the second part of our personal statement guide - but make sure to come back! Don't want you to miss out on all the other useful bits in-between...