Writing the Personal Statement
Only talk about yourself, do not mention your family or your country. Do not mention experiences before senior high school.
Make it short, you can get all the information in one A4 page
Talk about why you want to do this course for about one half of the page. This means you mention the details of the course that you like (and why).
Talk about why you are qualified for this course & perhaps why you will do well. This includes:
- Mention courses you have already studied that you are good at and that are relevant to your major. For example, if you are an English major applying for a Finance course (it is possible!), you must show you are good at Maths. So say something like, 'although I took no Maths course at university, at High School I excelled at Maths. Our study included algebra, calculus, and logarithms and I was one of the top three students at this subject'.
- All courses, especially business, need skills from outside the classroom and you should prove you have these. Think hard, you must have some experiences, part-time work, help in a charity, an impressive hobby. Give details otherwise it will sound not true. For example,'last summer I worked in a 4-star hotel reception desk, as well as requiring good English skills, this job expanded my confidence and team work skills and introduced me to the basics of customer & staff management. It also showed me how exciting a real business can be and I especially enjoyed our team discussions'.
- Make sure you answer these questions (1) Will this person (you) be a positive addition to my class? (to western Professors this means will you speak in class and question the teachers)? (2) Do they have the right kind of academic ability (see above) (3) Will they become a positive alumni - this means talking of your plans for the future (why you want to study this course). Have a real plan, something better than, 'return to China and work in a multinational company'.
View good Personal Statements, written by Chinese students applying to British universities by clicking below:
Personal Statement 1 / Personal Statement 2 / Personal Statement 3
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