Should you use the same personal statement to apply to all universities?


Posted June 29, 2013 by davidbanks00

When applying to several different universities at one time, it is very tempting to consider sending the exact same personal statement over and over again.

 
When applying to several different universities at one time, it is very tempting to consider sending the exact same personal statement over and over again. After all, if your experiences and interests have not changed, it seems like it almost makes sense to go ahead and send a carbon copy personal statement to every university. One of the most important things to keep in mind, however, is that every university is looking for something a little bit different and you can really hurt your chances for getting that programme that you are really trying for.

Every university—even when they have very similar programmes and courses with nearly similar curriculums—has its own culture and expectations for its students. When you are writing your personal statement, it is very important to tailor your statement to reflect your understanding of what the university is looking for and to showcase your ability to give them what they are looking for. Even though your personal interests and experiences have not changed from one personal statement to the next, what emphasis you place may need to change according to what a course is looking for. One course may want a student to showcase their academic experiences because they consider their course to be particularly challenging, whilst another one may want to see that the student is well-rounded with outside interests to ensure they can handle the pressures emotionally. So when you apply to both programmes, you want to ensure that what you focus on for each is slightly different.

On an even more practical note, when you send the same personal statement through to several different courses, mistakes can be made and things sent through to a course that should not have been sent. Careless copy and pasting may mean that you end up telling the University of X how much you are looking forward to attending University of Y! By sending an individually crafted, carefully tailored personal statement to each course that you are applying for, you can ensure that what you are sending out is exactly what you are wanting the admissions board to read.

One of the most challenging aspects of sending out new personal statements to each programme that you are applying to is making sure that you have the time and organisation necessary to ensure that you are making good plans for each one. It takes some time and effort to read up on each individual course and university, but the benefits make it well worth the extra work as tailoring each personal statement can make the difference between getting several different admissions offers and getting none. By doing some careful research at the outset, it is possible to flag up any particular issues that a university has noted they want to know about and make sure that you address their specific questions. When you are working with a shortened worth limit, it is important to make every single character count and it is not always possible to do that if you are trying to make a single generic personal statement to work for several different programmes. It is far more beneficial to your application to take the extra time and effort that it takes to ensure that each personal statement speaks directly to the admission board of each course.

When universities ask specific questions, they are looking to have those questions answered. You will do yourself a real disservice if you ignore these questions in order to save yourself a little bit of time not having to edit or rewrite a personal statement that you already have on hand. Taking the time to personalise each personal statement also ensures that your information is always up to date and checked for any changes or errors.

Personal statements http://www.personal-statement.com/ are the most important step of your university application and play a vital role in getting you an admission offer. Professional personal statement writers are trained to use their writing skills http://www.personal-statement.com/our-services.php to tailor your relevant skills and attributes to a particular university whilst injecting personality into the writing in the process.
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Issued By david banks
Country United Kingdom
Categories Education
Last Updated June 29, 2013