History Personal Statement - Wish I'd Known (Expert Oxford & Cambridge Application Advice)
The History undergraduate degree at Oxford and Cambridge remains one of the most popular programmes at both universities, with around 200 applicants accepted onto the course each year, and several more dozen studying it as part of a combined degree with Politics, English, Economics or Modern Languages. Whilst the straight History course is moderately competitive with acceptance rates varying between 20% and 30% across the two universities, the joint degrees tend to attract up to 9 candidates for every place. Regardless of your course, however, your application will comprise of three stages: 1) Personal Statement 2) Entrance Exam 3) The Interview.
Personal statements are perhaps the most needlessly complex element of the entire application, with plenty of often contradictory advice being offered by everyone from schools, tutors and parents. The basic principle is that the personal statement is intended to demonstrate your passion for the subject (ideally without using the word passion) and provide evidence of your academic excellence beyond the school curriculum. The whole ‘trick’ is to find ways of showcasing your interest in a way that also highlights your intellectual potential, studiousness, critical thinking and writing skills. These can take any number of forms. Here I will discuss the one that I personally think is the most effective: extracurricular reading and essay writing.
Writing your personal statement with a clear focus on the extra-reading and writing that you’ve done has several clear advantages.
Firstly, it demonstrates the most important skills that will be required of you as an Oxford student: initiative, discipline, self-study and research skills. Secondly, referencing books you’ve read and essays you’ve written will provide an excellent material that you can use to enrich and refine your answers in an interview setting.
There are countless history books one can recommend to read. My rule of thumb would be to read at least one extra book on each A-level/IB Unit that you have covered in your studies. Having studied these topics in depth for the previous year and a half, there is a good chance that you will lean on them when trying to answer questions in your interview, and it is perfectly appropriate to write about them in your personal statement. A slightly different approach is to anchor your statement around a book or books you’ve read that are not directly relevant to the school curriculum but that has nevertheless caught your in interest. This is a slightly riskier approach as the depth of your subject knowledge may be smaller but you may also find it personally more gratifying.
Remember, it is not enough that you’ve read a book and mentioned its title.
You also have to ensure that you understood it and that you have considered its contents critically. Your place in any university is not only dependent on your ability to consume information but more importantly, on your ability to analyse it and articulate your thoughts on the subject in question. This should be the case both in the confines of the personal statement as well as the interview.
Additionally or alternatively, you can choose to focus your statement on an Extended Project or an essay you’ve submitted as part of a competition (Oxbridge colleges run several competitions for 6th formers every year and I would encourage all prospective applicants to take part). Such independently produced essays are an excellent indicator of your potential and so are rated highly by tutors. It is well worth discussing the main conclusions of your work, what you’ve learned in the process, and how and why this has strengthened your desire to study history. It is also possible to combine the discussion of your own essay with the wider reading that you had done and reflected upon your work within the academic literature. Did you end up agreeing or disagreeing with the arguments made in the books you’d read? How did you evaluate the validity of these arguments? What did you learn in doing so?
Lastly, it is always worth reminding students that Oxbridge, in general, does not attach significant value to the “extra-curricular” part of the statement which is not directly relevant to the course. I would personally recommend confining your remarks about your musical interests, sports clubs and others to the last quarter or even final fifth of your statement.
Let us know if you have any questions about this article or anything related to History at Oxbridge at all.
This article was written by Wojciech (Oxford - History & Politics).
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Author: Wojciech - Oxford
BA History & Politics
Since graduating I have acquired extensive experience in Mentoring for Oxbridge admissions. I have worked in person with students in London, Hong Kong and Budapest and taught A-level History and Politics at Akademeia High School in Warsaw.
