Personal Statement Workshop Wadham College, University of Oxford Structure
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Personal Statement Workshop Wadham College, University of Oxford Structure • Things to know • Getting started • Being super-curricular • Extra-curricular Personal Statement • • • • • 15th 15th October subjects: and Oxbridge medicine-related Deadline for education university-style for preparation ofyour Evidence apply One to you document each to goes university that = 47 lines 4,000 of text characters of UCAS application Part (15 Januaryelse) everywhere Watch the following What are Tutors video and record the looking for? dos and don’ts. What are the outcomes of going to university? 1. Critical thinking 6. Professional skills 2. Discipline 7. Ethics and values knowledge 8. Creativity 3. Problem solving 9. Learning to learn 4. Teamwork 5. Communication Source: OECD 2013 What are universities looking for? Universities look for skills and attributes tailored to the course you are applying to. • What are the admissions criteria for the subject you are applying for? • Your personal statement should demonstrate them Admissions/ Experimental Psychology Selection • Appreciate the scope of psychology Criteria • Can evaluate evidence • Are able to consider issues from different perspectives • Have a capacity for logical and creative thinking • Appreciate the importance of empirical evidence in supporting arguments • Can cope with the quantitative demands of the course. Why do you want to study this course? 80% Academic • Current studies including • Outside reading • What has inspired you? super -curricular Super-curricular • What have you read, watched, visited or listened to that has excited you? 20% Extra- • Why was it interesting? Curricular • How do these support and compliment the course you are applying for? Extra curricular • Try and focus on transferrable skills • Selection criteria for other four universities Personal Statement Examples personal statement you’re looking at you’re statement personal the from Underline/highlight examples examples: statement the personal Lookat How douniversity they demonstrate outcomes? How dopassion? they demonstrate What do you notice? Getting Started Opening Paragraph • - it short. Keep it simply. Keep - show this? done to academically have What you -about subject? your excited are you Why format: a similar follow openings to tend statement Personal What do you notice? examples: openingsthe Look statement at of the personal Opening Paragraph (Tip 2: Draft 5 first sentences) 5 first (Tip 2: Draft it until last) (Tip 1: Leave -it short. Keep it simply. Keep - show this? done to academically have you What - about subject? your excited are you Why format: a similar openings follow to tend statement Personal “Classical literature has preserved the history and society Opening of the world that they have come from.• MostMust notably, be received the by College in November connection between drama and society• isArts/Humanities what I find most subjects Paragraph intriguing. From Aristophanes' Lysistrata• whichThink aboutseems yourto interests serve as a criticism of the ongoing Peloponnesian• A piece of War, marked to work submittedExamples as part of Homer's Iliad, which portrays conventionalA-Level ideas of masculinity and heroism.” Classics • May be discussed at interview • www.ox.ac.uk/writwork “While visiting the Joint European Torus at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, I discovered how strong magnetic fields, radio waves and the injection of high speed neutral atoms can heat plasma to over 300 million degrees to achieve fusion, potentially providing a long term solution for the world's energy crisis. I learnt how mechanical engineering is central to managing the heat transfer; this was a key experience in my choice of course.” Engineering “My first exposure to the concept of genetic disease was Opening whilst doing work experience at a deaf• school.Must beI found received it by College in November incredible that the assortment of four •basesArts/Humanities could have subjectsParagraph such a tangible effect on health and development.• Think about This your interests sparked my curiosity in the theory of genetic• A piece mutation, of marked work submittedExamples as part of and was my first introduction to Biochemistry.”A-Level Biochemistry • May be discussed at interview • www.ox.ac.uk/writwork “My admiration for French extends beyond its beautiful sounds to the richness of its history and culture. For my EPQ, I studied the Charter of Laïcité in French Schools and the history of secularism in France. In order to determine whether I believed it was coherent policy to ban religious symbols in schools, while subscribing to a motto of Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité.” French (and Arabic) Why do you want to study the subject? With the person next to you, decide who is person A and who is person B Person A: explain to person B why you’d like to study the subject (or convince them to study it) in 1 min Person B: is this explanation convincing? Swap! Top Tips “I got my first computer when I was X years old.” The ten most frequently-used opening statements. 1.”I am currently studying a BTEC National Diploma in ...” #1 Avoid 2. “From a young age I have always been interested in ... “ 3. “From an early age I have always been interested in ... “ Clichés 4. “Nursing is a very challenging and demanding career ... “ 5. “For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated with ...” 6. "Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only” ... “ 7. “Nursing is a profession I have always looked upon with ... “ 8. “For as long as I can remember I have been interested in ... “ 9. “I am an International Academy student and have been studying since ...” 10. “Academically, I have always been a very determined and ... “ Top Tips Don’t Copy “Ever since I accidentally burnt holes in my #1 Avoid pyjamas after experimenting with a Clichés chemistry set on my eighth birthday, I have always had a passion for science.” #2 Don’t Don’t Lie Copy (or Lie) Saying things you haven’t done. Saying you’ve read something you haven’t Top Tips “My interest in #3 Biology began when Don’t be my pet cat Snuggles #1 Avoid quirky died and I performed Clichés an autopsy.” "On the 20th of April a great figure in #2 Don’t history was born...It was me, who will Copy go on to make great changes in (or Lie) history as we know it" Why do you want to study this course? 80% Academic • Current studies including • Outside reading • What has inspired you? super -curricular Super-curricular • What have you read, watched, visited or listened to that has excited you? 20% Extra- • Why was it interesting? Curricular • How do these support and compliment the course you are applying for? Extra curricular • Try and focus on transferrable skills • Selection criteria for other four universities Being Super-Curricular How have you developed your knowledge? What have you read, watched, visited or listened to that has inspired you? • Books, magazines, exhibitions, talks, podcasts Why was it interesting? How do these support and compliment the course you are applying for? skills / knowledge Super-Curriculars examples: statement personal the Go backto through these activities? What skillsare demonstrating they in their course? curricular interest show super-What havedone they to Examples from current students Super-curricular activities Evidence of your interest Can they Can be grouped? they resources/activities? these learn What did from you activities. about you these to next person the Tell them down. 10? Note since Year done you activitiesacademic have How many “To find out more about the complexity of the brain, I read Admissions Tutor Comment: “So you want to be a brain “While this illustrates that surgeon” by Stephan Sanders. the candidate is reading This has around the subject, some given me a great deal of insight further significance [should] into neurosurgery.” be given.” Top Tips #4 • What did you learn? Don’t List • What do you think? • What questions do you have? • What do you agree/disagree with? “After reading John Donne's "The Flea", I was intrigued by his choice to represent love for a woman through the conceit of a parasite, eating away at himself. I saw this as an example of Donne's alleged misogyny furthering the stereotype of women as "cruel and sudden", in contrast to his predecessors who idealized and even worshipped them. However, I think it is equally interesting to consider the view expressed by Ilona Bell that Donne does not present the woman as singularly cruel, but as being capable of Critical independent thought and challenging patriarchal Thinking authority, even if Donne himself viewed that in a negative light and considered it a perversion of gender roles.” English What looks really impressive is if you can... …take your super- Or…say what it made curricular activity and you think, and use it as say what it made you a stepping stone to think or link it to things other activities you are have done or are learning about. (Using it as a stepping (critical thinking) stone) Can you see any examples in the personal statements you have? “Reading the book prompted me to listen to a Radio 4 series, Darwin: In Our Time, about how Darwin reached his theory of evolution and how this was received by 19th century society. As well as reading seminal texts on Biology, I have taken the opportunity to attend lectures, at the Imperial College Festival and at a residential course at Trinity College Cambridge, amongst other events. I particularly enjoyed a lecture by science author Kat Arney on genetics. It highlighted how much we don't understand about the function of much of our DNA, and expanded on what I had previously read in 'The Animal Stepping Kingdom: A Very Short Introduction', by Peter Holland, about embryological development and how DNA can Stones code for the construction of a complex body plan.” Biology “After realising how much Archaeology and History can combine to allow you to understand the ancient world I read 'Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction'.