Any good sixth form college will inform parents and students of the UCAS application system since the day they walk through the door, perhaps even earlier when brochures and business cards are exchanged. Some students listen intently and realise that in attending lectures, reading widely and engaging in after school activities they will improve the skills and broader subject interest essential for the best possible courses. Others, typically boys, will pretend that they have understood and will completely ignore our advice and live in a sheltered world of basketball, online games, and homework as a mere distraction from their true loves (the first two).
So here is the story of a wonderful young man names Bai Shuo. I was his Economics teacher for his first year of A levels (commonly referred to as the AS year). I was also his personal tutor, the professional designated to work with him on his university course choice, his personal statement and to write his reference. He was, and is, a charming, intelligent and determined young man. He cared deeply about his education, and was immensely grateful to his family for their finding of the money necessary to send him to an international sixth form college in Oxford, United Kingdom. Unlike many young make students he spent all of the summer holiday, in between the AS (first) and A2 (second) year of A level writings drafts of his personal statement.
The personal statement is a students opportunity to sell themselves to their prospective universities in writing explaining why they want to study a specific course. Now here dear readers - lets play a little game - how many drafts of the Personal Statement do you think Shou wrote? Five, Six…. Ten? Higher! Shou write 22. 22 - can you believe it - some people wouldn't write that much in a lifetime - let alone for one area of a university application!
So why? Why did I - his eternally mean personal tutor - keep rejecting draft, after draft, after draft. The simple reason was that Shou had written a Personal Statement saying he wanted to study Economics at university, that was about as convincing as saying he wanted to jump off the nearest cliff. The simple truth was that in trying to explain why he loved Economics all he succeeded in doing was showing all the reasons why he wouldn't be suitable to study it. When I asked him which Economists he admired he couldn't provide a sensible answer. When I asked what books he liked to read to learn more about the subject all he could think of was his textbook. When i said has he ever attended a lecture by a famous Economist his eyes showed me that he couldn't think of a bigger waste of his time than to spend an hour listening to a speech about Economics.
When I pointed all this out to him he said, its ok - i do love Economics - I just can't explain it very well - went away and came back with another draft. This next draft would be yet more glaring holes in his argument that he was ready to spend the next three years of his life, reading and writing Economics essays and journals.
The truth was that he didn't love Economics. Few people do, i should know, i studied it for three years. What had happened was that Shuo's father liked the idea of his son studying Economics, and since Shou loved his father, he decided that he loved Economics too.
The fatal flaw here is that any university could see the dislocation, most importantly the lack of evidence for his professed love of Economics, so most universities would read his Personal Statement and decide to give their valuable place to another more deserving candidate. So unless Shou found a sudden love for Economics, or changed his course choice, he was bound for disappointment. This was difficult for Shou but in the end he plucked up the courage to explain this to his father. He asked why his father wanted Economics and admitted that he feared he would not show the level of interest needed to be expected. His father explained that he wanted Shuo to work in a stable and lucrative industry such as banking and thought this would be the best course. Shuo related that he would speak to his teachers for advice.
Luckily for Shuo he came to me and we had a simple solution. Banks need lots of graduates, linguists, economists, human resources specialists, most of all they love mathematicians. And what was Shuo's greatest academic love? Maths! So all was resolved. He wrote a new personal statement, about his love for Maths, which was easy because he did love Maths, and he was accepted by one of our nations top universities. And soon he will graduate and get a job in a top bank.
So what is the morale of the story? Don't panic. keep talking to your family and most of all seek good advice from British teachers. Until next week, happy UCAS researching...
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