5 Postgraduate Personal Statement Tips

With Masters application season in full swing, many prospective postgraduate student will be required to write a personal statement.

This is your opportunity to prove to an admissions tutor that you’d thrive at their university – so it’s important to make it count!

With that in mind, we’ve put together five tips to help you make your personal statement the best it can be.

#1 Write more than one version

Whereas at undergraduate level you’ll likely have applied through a centralised system, Masters applications are submitted directly to each institution. This means you’ll have the opportunity to tailor your personal statement to fit each course you apply for – and we strongly suggest you take it.

Tempting (and time-efficient) as it may be to create an all-purpose personal statement that can be handily copied and pasted into five different application forms, this approach is likely to be glaringly obvious to admissions departments.

A good personal statement should explain in very precise terms why you want to study that course in particular – which brings us to our next point…

#2 Do your research

It’s likely that the admissions tutor reading your application will teach on your chosen programme, so they’ll be keen to hear what drew you to the course. To demonstrate that you’ve done your research, mention aspects of the course that spark your interest – an individual module, for example, or perhaps even a specific set text.

Staff profiles on a university department’s website may also provide some useful material for your personal statement. Is there an academic whose work you particularly admire, and how to their research interests align with your own?

#3 Be concise

Imagine you’re an admissions tutor tasked with sorting through a mound of postgraduate applications. You decide to squeeze in one final personal statement before taking a well-earned tea break, only to be confronted with an impenetrable wall of text. One meandering, vague sentence blurs into the next, and you start to feel the beginnings of a headache.

Don’t be that person. Break your personal statement into short, readable paragraphs, with sentences of around 25-30 words. Make your reader’s job that little bit easier – and they’ll be inclined to reward you for it!

#4 Be selective

Your personal statement should not amount to a comprehensive list of every academic, professional, or extra-curricular accolade you’ve ever received. That’s what the CV is for. Instead, highlight a select few achievements and explain how they demonstrate your suitability for the course.

Your time spent volunteering at a museum archive is certainly evidence that you’d thrive on a History Masters course, but your silver Duke of Edinburgh award probably isn’t.

That said, don’t immediately write off achievements, interests or experiences that are not directly related to your chosen discipline. For example, If you’re an avid runner with multiple marathons under your belt, this could demonstrate that you have the stamina and dedication required for postgraduate study.

#5 Back up your claims

The cardinal writing rule ‘show and don’t tell’ certainly applies to writing a personal statement. Statements that you have a ‘passion for creative writing’ or that you ‘demonstrated mathematical ability from an early age’ need to be backed up with specific, compelling examples.

It’s also important to avoid grandiose claims. You don’t need to prove that you’re already the world’s foremost expert in your chosen discipline – only that you have what it takes to pursue it at a higher level of study. It’s important to sell yourself, but you should also avoid making claims that can’t be convincingly reinforced with evidence.

For more detailed information on writing a personal statement, check out our full guide. Still stuck for inspiration? Browse our list of personal statement examples.

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