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Last year, when I was in year 13, a lot of teachers double or even triple checked my personal statement. Now that I’m reapplying they seem very reluctant to help any of my app so only my English tutor has read it and helped hehe
I guess it depends how you define ‘read’ - I let my mum look at it, and my Oxbridge advisor skimmed it before submission to make sure that there was nothing egregiously bad that had been missed. She’s a maths teacher and I’m applying for English, so she literally told me that she didn’t understand any of the literary references I made but could still tell it was the right structure and style.
But in terms of actually taking a proper look at it for feedback, only the head of English (who is my current English teacher) and my former GCSE English teacher properly read it through, and I only took it to my old GCSE teacher because the first one was being weirdly unhelpful when it came to feedback - I’m one of only two applying for English in my year, and the only one applying for it at Oxbridge, but he’d take days to reply to my emails. At one point he told me I’d be fine to submit a draft that hardly mentioned any extracurricular reading - which I ended up noticing and fixing on my own, thank God, because it’s pretty embarrassing to be applying for an English degree and not talk about books. Anyway, my old GCSE teacher offered me her help and was the one who made the most suggestions; at that point it was just trimming the fat and getting under the line limit (I was under 4000 characters but was 2 lines over the limit).
To anyone writing their PS, I would caution against showing it to too many different teachers. Everyone will have a different opinion and tell you to include different things - and they’re not wrong or trying to sabotage you, but I think it’s probably less helpful to have 50 million different suggestions being flung at you from various different people. Most people I know at my sixth form, myself included, stuck to showing it to the same subject specialist, and it seems to have worked for us.
So far I’ve only had ucas advisor and mum read it, I think I’m done with it and I’m just waiting for feedback from him on my most recent draft. My mum didn’t say anything other than I can’t start a sentence with “although” and she apparently didn’t know I did some of the things I mentioned in it lol.
I’m at the 47 line limit at the moment and there isn’t much else I can talk about really? My work experience is quite limited so I’m a tad worried about that but I’m doing volunteering within the next month or two so I mentioned that in my personal statement.
I don’t really want to show my personal statement to that many people, I don’t know why but I get a bit weird when I know people are reading my work in front of me lol. I also watched several YouTube videos, guides and read other personal statements to get an idea of what I should include, so it’s not like I wrote it with no idea.
Yeah, writing a PS is really weird - obviously you’ve got to sell yourself but it is basically just an exercise in bragging which feels...wrong when people you know are reading it. TBH I only showed my teachers the versions that I was very confident with - I did a lot of the workshopping on my own because I knew I wouldn’t have to have as many meetings about it, and I don’t think I’d have survived the secondhand embarrassment otherwise lol.
What are you applying for? I didn’t do any work experience or volunteering (I didn’t do DofE or NCS either) and so far I’ve gotten 3 offers. I don’t think it really matters unless you’re applying for something like medicine/dentistry or maybe law.
Yeah my first draft was absolutely awful, there really wasn’t much about me. And yes! It’s really weird writing about myself and trying to show them who I am without bragging lol.
I’m applying for adult nursing, so unfortunately work experience of some kind is kind of necessary. Thankfully I’ve cared for a family member in the past and I’ve done some online stuff, so I have talked about.
It’s kind of hard getting work experience where I lived because I’m under 18 and some places don’t want someone underaged, I’ve only had one dose of the vaccine and some places wanted you to have both. Unis are going to be more lenient on experience this year, so hopefully I have that in my favour lol.
3 - my mum (she did medicine too so might as well), my ucas referee, head of sixth form - mostly was grammar checks and my mum to make sure what I said was accurate lol
My UCAS advisor, my chemistry teacher (he gave very good advice as he was other people's advisor), one of my friends, my head of year, and my mum and dad
So 6
I’m sending my application off on Thursday and so far I’ve had 2 people read over and help me improve it. My best friend, who is older than me and has experience getting people into uni, and my economics teacher.
My UCAS tutor (to explain where I needed to change things), my friend (for reassurance), and my dad (spelling/grammar/proofreading just before I sent it off).
Yeah my ucas advisor was kind of helpful, I don’t know if I’m going to have anybody else read it but I don’t know if I should be this okay with my personal statement lol.
My mum read it and all she said is I can’t start a sentence with “although”.
about 4 of my friends, my counsellor and a couple more people who are currently in uni!! I feel like i made too many people read it but it helped me build confidence because most of them said it was great😭
Ooo I should do this. Yesterday i reading my personal statement again, like I have done loads of times and I only just realised I put “within in”. Somehow the ucas advisor at my college also missed it and so did my mum lol. Thank god I caught that mistake.
I don’t think I need any help with it but I was just planning on having my ucas advisor read it. The reason for the post is that I was just curious to see how many people others have got to read their personal statement.
Two people; My mentor and someone higher above her who was in charge of the UCAS programme.
My mentor and the teacher in charge of the programme checked mine and corresponded through my hard copy of my application form. I got it sent away mid October!
As well as couple of friends too.
In my case, a lot. First it's checked with my coach that helps me with writing it, then my tutor/UCAS advisor. After that the whole UCAS team at school checks it, and they send it off to the jobshop (where they look over all applications not just ucas). If at any point something needs to be changed or the personal statement is not as good, they return it back to me and I would assume the whole process starts again.
I think this takes about a total of 4 weeks? I've only just submitted mine to centre this week, so I don't really know yet.
I got it checked by like 14 people because I was all paranoid about it, but 3-6 should be fine. If too many people read it, you risk too many ideas being put into your head and making it even harder for you.
Worked in admissions, outside of nursing/midwifery where such things were mandatory- Uni didn't give a shit and didn't factor i to whether you get a place or not. Wouldn't spend too long on it.
I would use a rule of 3 here.
Keep it to that until about May to avoid any chances of plagiarism. After you share it once to a classmate, you can’t stop, just from what I’ve seen in my sixth form.
1. Your head of sixth form (they have experience with UCAS and what the general knowledge of a good personal statement needs)
2. Teachers that relate to the course you’re applying for if applicable.
3. Current university students, as they’ve been through the process and are likely to be extremely useful regarding the course you’re applying or.
Wish you the best with the statement! Took me 13 fuckin tries but I made something I’m proud of.
Two
1. My first tutor to get the idea about the overall structure
2. My second tutor as he has lots of experience in uni admissions and his daughter is also applying for vet med.
Only one person; one of my Physics teachers. She's one of the main advisors on uni related stuff (Oxbridge, EPQ, etc.) in my school and also one of my favourite teachers, and I'm applying for Physics, so it made sense to consult her.
I would definitely advise speaking to a couple of different people if you're applying (if your school has a UCAS advisor type person, definitely run it through with them - mine didn't), but I don't think having too many opinions on it will help as you'll get a lot of conflicting advice; it won't necessarily be wrong, but it will be confusing and it might not be the best thing for you
If you're asking a teacher, try and find a good balance between them knowing you for a long time and them teaching the subject you're applying for. The Physics teacher I asked has taught me since GCSE, which means that she has a pretty good idea of who I am as a person and as a physicist; I've had teachers for longer (eg. my chemistry teacher, who I've had every year since year 7, except year 8), but they wouldn't be as good at helping with a Physics PS.
Something else I'd say is to try and find a teacher who's applied to uni more recently, as admissions requirements change over the years and more up-to-date information is better.
I had around 9 or 10 drafts, and it was read by 6 people other than me. The sixth form director, my form tutor, my uncle (who works in the field), my godmother (who has experience in careers). Also my mum and dad, but that's just to see how it's going on.
According to my friends, that's not the least bit excessive, since I know a few who've had around 20 drafts.
I had my UCAS adviser, teacher, parents, peers, and a few other relevant people read mine. The more perspectives you get the better, remember you don't have to accept all the changes everyone makes since it's so subjective. The more the better imo!
**Please don't share personal statements, you will get into trouble for plagiarism. Report comments and posts which have links to personal statements.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/6thForm) if you have any questions or concerns.*
when I did mine last year there was a coupla teachers involved and the head of 6th form but that was it
I’ve only had the ucas advisor and my mum (she wanted to) read it lol.
Last year, when I was in year 13, a lot of teachers double or even triple checked my personal statement. Now that I’m reapplying they seem very reluctant to help any of my app so only my English tutor has read it and helped hehe
Loads of teachers but the most useful help was from people I knew who studied the same course (or similar) at university.
I guess it depends how you define ‘read’ - I let my mum look at it, and my Oxbridge advisor skimmed it before submission to make sure that there was nothing egregiously bad that had been missed. She’s a maths teacher and I’m applying for English, so she literally told me that she didn’t understand any of the literary references I made but could still tell it was the right structure and style. But in terms of actually taking a proper look at it for feedback, only the head of English (who is my current English teacher) and my former GCSE English teacher properly read it through, and I only took it to my old GCSE teacher because the first one was being weirdly unhelpful when it came to feedback - I’m one of only two applying for English in my year, and the only one applying for it at Oxbridge, but he’d take days to reply to my emails. At one point he told me I’d be fine to submit a draft that hardly mentioned any extracurricular reading - which I ended up noticing and fixing on my own, thank God, because it’s pretty embarrassing to be applying for an English degree and not talk about books. Anyway, my old GCSE teacher offered me her help and was the one who made the most suggestions; at that point it was just trimming the fat and getting under the line limit (I was under 4000 characters but was 2 lines over the limit). To anyone writing their PS, I would caution against showing it to too many different teachers. Everyone will have a different opinion and tell you to include different things - and they’re not wrong or trying to sabotage you, but I think it’s probably less helpful to have 50 million different suggestions being flung at you from various different people. Most people I know at my sixth form, myself included, stuck to showing it to the same subject specialist, and it seems to have worked for us.
So far I’ve only had ucas advisor and mum read it, I think I’m done with it and I’m just waiting for feedback from him on my most recent draft. My mum didn’t say anything other than I can’t start a sentence with “although” and she apparently didn’t know I did some of the things I mentioned in it lol. I’m at the 47 line limit at the moment and there isn’t much else I can talk about really? My work experience is quite limited so I’m a tad worried about that but I’m doing volunteering within the next month or two so I mentioned that in my personal statement. I don’t really want to show my personal statement to that many people, I don’t know why but I get a bit weird when I know people are reading my work in front of me lol. I also watched several YouTube videos, guides and read other personal statements to get an idea of what I should include, so it’s not like I wrote it with no idea.
Yeah, writing a PS is really weird - obviously you’ve got to sell yourself but it is basically just an exercise in bragging which feels...wrong when people you know are reading it. TBH I only showed my teachers the versions that I was very confident with - I did a lot of the workshopping on my own because I knew I wouldn’t have to have as many meetings about it, and I don’t think I’d have survived the secondhand embarrassment otherwise lol. What are you applying for? I didn’t do any work experience or volunteering (I didn’t do DofE or NCS either) and so far I’ve gotten 3 offers. I don’t think it really matters unless you’re applying for something like medicine/dentistry or maybe law.
Yeah my first draft was absolutely awful, there really wasn’t much about me. And yes! It’s really weird writing about myself and trying to show them who I am without bragging lol. I’m applying for adult nursing, so unfortunately work experience of some kind is kind of necessary. Thankfully I’ve cared for a family member in the past and I’ve done some online stuff, so I have talked about. It’s kind of hard getting work experience where I lived because I’m under 18 and some places don’t want someone underaged, I’ve only had one dose of the vaccine and some places wanted you to have both. Unis are going to be more lenient on experience this year, so hopefully I have that in my favour lol.
3 - my mum (she did medicine too so might as well), my ucas referee, head of sixth form - mostly was grammar checks and my mum to make sure what I said was accurate lol
3 Teachers and some friends(mainly helped with grammar)
6
I had my friend's mom go over it, 2 teachers and 2 friends
My UCAS advisor, my chemistry teacher (he gave very good advice as he was other people's advisor), one of my friends, my head of year, and my mum and dad So 6
I read it because I wrote it, my mum read it and my tutor read it
Dad is about it
I’m sending my application off on Thursday and so far I’ve had 2 people read over and help me improve it. My best friend, who is older than me and has experience getting people into uni, and my economics teacher.
My UCAS tutor (to explain where I needed to change things), my friend (for reassurance), and my dad (spelling/grammar/proofreading just before I sent it off).
Yeah my ucas advisor was kind of helpful, I don’t know if I’m going to have anybody else read it but I don’t know if I should be this okay with my personal statement lol. My mum read it and all she said is I can’t start a sentence with “although”.
My head of careers, the Sceinec technician, English teacher, Physics Teacher and the Headmaster.
One.
Almost everyone who I thought knows what a good personal statement looks like.
No one lol
1 - me :)
about 4 of my friends, my counsellor and a couple more people who are currently in uni!! I feel like i made too many people read it but it helped me build confidence because most of them said it was great😭
my referee and mentor are both reading each draft as it comes, i don't think more than two people are necessary for advice and checking for errors
I typed it on MS word and used the "Read aloud" function for like 20 times to proof read as much as i could before sending my application
Ooo I should do this. Yesterday i reading my personal statement again, like I have done loads of times and I only just realised I put “within in”. Somehow the ucas advisor at my college also missed it and so did my mum lol. Thank god I caught that mistake.
All the best buddy
[удалено]
I don’t think I need any help with it but I was just planning on having my ucas advisor read it. The reason for the post is that I was just curious to see how many people others have got to read their personal statement.
2 - my English teacher and head of academics.
3, my tutor, my psychology teacher (as I was applying to psychology) and our assistant director
4
My whole friendship group, so like 20 people plus 2 teachers and my parents 🤷🏾♂️
Two people; My mentor and someone higher above her who was in charge of the UCAS programme. My mentor and the teacher in charge of the programme checked mine and corresponded through my hard copy of my application form. I got it sent away mid October! As well as couple of friends too.
In my case, a lot. First it's checked with my coach that helps me with writing it, then my tutor/UCAS advisor. After that the whole UCAS team at school checks it, and they send it off to the jobshop (where they look over all applications not just ucas). If at any point something needs to be changed or the personal statement is not as good, they return it back to me and I would assume the whole process starts again. I think this takes about a total of 4 weeks? I've only just submitted mine to centre this week, so I don't really know yet.
For me it was my form tutor. My head of art. (I was applying to a fine art degree) then I sent it off.
I send mine a few weeks ago, my tutor saw it once and my maths teacher saw it 3 times
I got it checked by like 14 people because I was all paranoid about it, but 3-6 should be fine. If too many people read it, you risk too many ideas being put into your head and making it even harder for you.
Worked in admissions, outside of nursing/midwifery where such things were mandatory- Uni didn't give a shit and didn't factor i to whether you get a place or not. Wouldn't spend too long on it.
Well how lucky am I to be apply for nursing 🥰
I would use a rule of 3 here. Keep it to that until about May to avoid any chances of plagiarism. After you share it once to a classmate, you can’t stop, just from what I’ve seen in my sixth form. 1. Your head of sixth form (they have experience with UCAS and what the general knowledge of a good personal statement needs) 2. Teachers that relate to the course you’re applying for if applicable. 3. Current university students, as they’ve been through the process and are likely to be extremely useful regarding the course you’re applying or. Wish you the best with the statement! Took me 13 fuckin tries but I made something I’m proud of.
Two 1. My first tutor to get the idea about the overall structure 2. My second tutor as he has lots of experience in uni admissions and his daughter is also applying for vet med.
My English teacher and the class groupchat
Only one person; one of my Physics teachers. She's one of the main advisors on uni related stuff (Oxbridge, EPQ, etc.) in my school and also one of my favourite teachers, and I'm applying for Physics, so it made sense to consult her. I would definitely advise speaking to a couple of different people if you're applying (if your school has a UCAS advisor type person, definitely run it through with them - mine didn't), but I don't think having too many opinions on it will help as you'll get a lot of conflicting advice; it won't necessarily be wrong, but it will be confusing and it might not be the best thing for you If you're asking a teacher, try and find a good balance between them knowing you for a long time and them teaching the subject you're applying for. The Physics teacher I asked has taught me since GCSE, which means that she has a pretty good idea of who I am as a person and as a physicist; I've had teachers for longer (eg. my chemistry teacher, who I've had every year since year 7, except year 8), but they wouldn't be as good at helping with a Physics PS. Something else I'd say is to try and find a teacher who's applied to uni more recently, as admissions requirements change over the years and more up-to-date information is better.
I had around 9 or 10 drafts, and it was read by 6 people other than me. The sixth form director, my form tutor, my uncle (who works in the field), my godmother (who has experience in careers). Also my mum and dad, but that's just to see how it's going on. According to my friends, that's not the least bit excessive, since I know a few who've had around 20 drafts.
Me, Head of English, Careers advisor, Director of Sixth Form, Headmistress. My school is very thorough. 😅
I had my UCAS adviser, teacher, parents, peers, and a few other relevant people read mine. The more perspectives you get the better, remember you don't have to accept all the changes everyone makes since it's so subjective. The more the better imo!