The Honest Postgraduate Personal Statement

The attention-grabbing introduction

To make myself sound knowledgeable I’m going to sum up an important area of my subject in one sentence and explain why I find it inspiring. I would like to tell you that I’ve been independently researching this subject since I was born, but this simply is not true. I watched one documentary a few years ago and I wrote one essay on it during my undergraduate course. I have also applied to four other Masters programmes, so while I would like to go to this university, I’m not putting all my eggs in one basket.

Academic skills

I achieved an upper 2.1 in my Bachelors degree and I’m only going to mention the modules that I did particularly well in. I’m not the hardest worker in the world but I’m probably about average for my age. While you’ll catch me doing long stints in the library, this might include a few Netflix breaks to watch hour-long episodes of the newest binge show. But, staying in the library rather than going home demonstrates resilience, which I have plenty of, and ambition.

I also have some work experience. Although, this was only a couple of weeks long and didn’t really teach me anything other than how to look like I know what I’m doing and make a quick coffee. I believe these will be valuable skills for the Masters degree which I am keen to keep working on. I currently work a part-time customer service job which I will continue to do throughout the degree in order to afford to live. Again, this job has taught me resilience and given me the drive needed to one day work in a very different role.

Personal interests

I enjoy playing video games, drinking with my friends and taking naps. While I have some achievements in my personal life, these were a long time ago and not particularly relevant to this application. As an undergraduate student, my main interest is learning how to support myself and figuring out the tastiest, low-effort meal for those days when the stress of deadlines consumes me. I also learnt to knit during lockdown.

Leave a lasting impression

I probably won’t be the best application you read today, but hopefully I’m not worst. While I’m excited to submit this and join the course, I’m also terrified there is a spelling mistake in here that I’ve missed. I’d love to talk to you about how this Masters course will benefit my future career plans, but I don’t know what they are yet. If anything, I think that shows my passion for this subject because I wish to continue studying it even though I’m not sure how to make any money from it.

I’ll be nervously awaiting your verdict.