You know the courses and the universities you want to apply for but you still need to write your personal statement. How do you write a convincing and interesting personal statement for the admissions teams? Here are some of my top tips:

• Explore a range of sources for extra and super-curricular activities 

The initial instinct of most students is to hop onto Waterstones and buy a long list of books and academic texts that cover interesting topics within their field. However, there are other ways of demonstrating your passion. When it came to my personal statement, I only actually read one book. My other sources of passions came from online courses, documentaries and real-life experiences I had that related to my field. This demonstrates a wide-range of sources and a greater engagement with the field beyond academia, which is more likely to emphasise your passion for the subject.

• It is a personal statement, so make it personal

You have a long list of these activities and sources of passion that you want to include, but how do you write about them? Instead of listing all of the things you have achieved and done leading up to writing this statement, focus on a select few pieces of evidence that have a common theme between them. When writing about something such as a book, talk about what YOU found interesting, difficult or surprising, and discuss how this made you want to study this course at university. For example, when writing my personal statement, I focused on a paticular chapter of a book I struggled to understand and explored why this interested me and what I learnt from it, rather than just recounting what was discussed.

• Be creative! 

This is your chance to show off to the universities and display why you are the best candidate for this course. Universities such as LSE use your personal statement very heavily to differentiate candidates from one another, so you need to stand out! Examples of personal statements can be found online but I would actually recommend to read as few as possible. This is to ensure that you are not plagirising (which UCAS will check for) and because each person will write in a unique way. Trying to emulate somebody else’s style or structure may seem like a good idea, but could come across as inauthentic. Take a risk with how you disucss your passions and use your imagination to help decide what you will include and how you will structure this.

• Get a second opinion 

Once you have your first draft of your personal statement, do not be afraid to take it to someone and allow them to give feedback. When writing my personal statament, I sent my drafts off to my tutor in college to give me any advice. I am so glad I did this as he pointed out a number of issues with my initial structure and content that meant I needed to rewrite a lot of my statement, which I would not have known to change if I hadn’t asked. It also ensured that any grammar issues were identified, an important part of potraying yourself as academic and professional throughout your application. If it were not for this second opinion, my personal statement would not have been as strong and I may not have gotten my place here at LSE.

I hope these pieces of advice are useful and allow you to write an excellent personal statement that could get you a place at LSE! Good luck!