UCAS申请攻略：个人陈述——你不知道的事

　　So far I’ve given you some good advice about what not to put in your personal statement - no lists of books, less emphasis on your parents careers, no repeating of basic information found elsewhere in the form. Time for me to give you some constructive advice about what you should put in your personal statement.

　　Lets begin by considering what is it that this part of the UCAS process allows you to do. This is your chance to show to the admissions teams at a British university why it is that you would like to study a particular course. So what you should attempt to do is convince them with argument and evidence that you have an interest in studying the course and the pre-requisite skill set to succeed on the programme. For instance you might prove that you are a passionate lawyer by making intelligent comments on the aspects of British law that interest you most and that demonstrate that you have a sound understanding of the legislation, its history, its weaknesses and further areas of likely development over time. Doing this for any one specific area of law is very challenging in only 4000 characters, it is always hard to marry brevity with detail and grasp of nuance.

　　So here is some expert advice from me. Cheat. Seriously cheat. Well maybe, not cheat, just be a bit creative with the task in hand. Everyone agrees that you are allowed to write 4000 characters - no-one said that you can’t use these words to send admissions team to a URL of a further document or portfolio of your work. This is a clever way you can get yourself around the tight word limit and reinforce your application. There is no guarantee of course that the admissions tutor will be able to read all of your entires on this link but at least you’ve given them further evidence that supports your form.

　　For example if you are applying for a journalism course why not send the link to your blog which contains examples of the pieces you write for your school newspaper. Rather than referring to articles that they can’t judge this is your chance to send them everything that they could want to know and gives them the opportunity to make their appraisal of your strengths. The same would be true if you are applying for English literature or creative writing.

　　If for example you want to apply for a course that involves visualising material, e.g. Art, Drama or Cooking why not film yourself and your work and upload these videos to a social media host such as Youku which would allow the admissions teams to see you in action. Even if your course lends itself more to prose than imagery perhaps you can convene a few of your friends and film a live debate about a particular figure or event in History.

　　Whatever course you are applying for you will want to prove that you have undertaken extensive reading of the core texts in your subject area. Rather than creating bland list in your UCAS form of all the books that you claim to have read it would be much better to create an online bookshelf with reviews for each one. One excellent website with this functionality is goodreads.com. Not only will you be able to demonstrate the authors that you are already familiar with but also using their polls, algorithms and recommendations from your friends you will be soon add to your repertoire and discover new books which develop your knowledge of the subject.

　　So actually you can use your personal statement very cleverly to cover a wealth of videos, blogs, electronic bookshelves and social media accounts that all reinforce your application.

　　Good luck and enjoy the challenges ahead….