Personal Statement

You will need to construct a personal statement which sells you to the university. It should advertise you as a person, should be written by you and should make the admissions team reading it go “Wow. Give this person a place!”. You have 4,000 characters to sell yourself, so what should you include?

Firstly, check the university course website. Most universities may post personal requirements that they are looking for. For example, some universities might be looking for a confident resilient individual that has strong communication skills. You want to read across your chosen universities’ websites and refine what you should include. Sometimes there will be an overlap, but you want to sound as appealing to the universities as possible!  Merge all the personal qualities from your chosen universities and construct one personal statement. It is the only one you’ll write and all five universities will receive the same statement.

Don’t fixate TOO much on Medicine in your personal statement. You are applying to five universities, but only a maximum of FOUR of these can be Medicine. Therefore, one university has to be non-Medicine. So this could be Biomedical Sciences, Biochemsitry, Human Anatomy etc. If you apply to Art, they are most likely going to reject you as your personal statement will all be about Medicine!

What should you include?

• Show don’t tell – If the university is looking for a “confident resilient individual that has strong communication skills”, you could use these words but with caution. Don’t use the string of words exactly how they’re written in the prospectus. So instead, show the admissions team what makes you that individual. Maybe you were a head boy? A peer mentor? An adviser for younger pupils? Don’t just say “I work well in a team”, give examples of team led activities you’ve taken part in. 
• All your experience journal entries! Mention BRIEFLY what you did, but what you learnt from it. Don’t dwell too much on certain aspects as interviewers may take them as opportunities for you to elaborate on certain points. I’ll give an example later. Say what you’ve learnt and how it changed you as a person. 
• Your most perfect English, spelling and grammar. Make sure you use spell check! 
• Be passionate without using the word. Do not say “I am very passionate about medicine” because it’s extremely cliché. You want you just put across your passion and strong interests without saying it. 
• Don’t say any cliché terms – it is a complete waste of characters and you only have 4,000 of them so use them wisely. You haven’t wanted to study medicine since you were a child, so don’t waste the energy to type it.  
• Take on board all feedback you receive. Hand your personal statement to anyone that you can! I handed my personal statement to my Villiers Park mentor, two teachers, two doctors and a nurse! I had conflicting feedback, three against three on different parts. One person would say they love one bit where another person would say “Scrap it!”. Personally, it all comes down to you. If you think it should stay, then keep it. If it should go, remove it. You don’t have to take all feedback and act on it – it’s YOUR personal statement. 
• Use short snappy words if you can. Don’t waste characters as “next” uses less characters than “in addition to this”. Remember, conserve those 4,000 characters wisely. 
• Avoid cliché terms like “I am passionate for Medicine”, “I really love Medicine”, “I was born a doctor!” 
• All your own work – do not plagiarise! You will be found and caught out on it. This will affect your opportunity of reading medicine.

Make sure you apply to medical school before the deadline! Then it’s a waiting game….waiting for the university to reply to your application!