How to write the PERFECT Oxbridge Personal Statement
There is no shortage of advice on how to write a good Oxbridge personal statement. But there’s also no shortage of difficulty in knowing what to believe, what to prioritise, and how to apply a series of abstract Dos and Don’ts in practice.
This doesn’t claim to be a definitive guide to the personal statement, but it does aim at being a practical one. In the first part, I talk you through the function of the personal statement and the key rules for writing a good one. In the second part, I have a go at writing a “perfect” personal statement and explain why I think each paragraph is effective.
What is the personal statement for?
As far as an Oxbridge application is concerned, a personal statement essentially has three functions:
FUNCTION 1: Allows you to show that you are genuinely interested in the subject for which you’re applying;
FUNCTION 2: Gives you a chance to show that you have interesting, original thoughts, and hence would be a worthwhile student to teach;
FUNCTION 3: Provides possible talking points at interview.
Less obvious is a further question: what is a personal statement capable of achieving? This is an important question because the limits of this exercise need to be recognised from the outset. Even the very best personal statement won’t get any candidate in to Oxford or Cambridge on its own. It’s one piece of a large mosaic of data that admissions tutors use as the basis of their decision and its relevance becomes greatly diminished post-interview.
It’s also far more important for other universities than it is for Oxbridge. This is because in all bar a few Cambridge colleges, your Oxbridge admissions tutors will have read two longer examples of your written work that give them a much more detailed picture of your academic potential. And of course, almost all candidates are offered an interview, which is given more weight in the application process and supersedes the first impression given by the personal statement.
That said, it’s important to write a good personal statement for two reasons. A personal statement creates a first impression: a good one won’t get you that far, but a bad one will make things more difficult. Secondly, a good personal statement might give you some degree of control over how your admissions process goes. Interesting things you say in your personal statement are likely to come up at interview. If you can talk impressively at interview about something you mentioned in your personal statement, then the statement has worked for you: it’s steered the interview discussion into friendly territory. (This also makes the personal statement dangerous: it’s possible to mention something in your personal statement that you’re not prepared to talk about in more detail, then stumble when you’re asked about it at interview).
We’re now in a position to lay down a few important rules for perfecting the personal statement.
Personal statement: key principles:
1) SHOW OFF IN YOUR CONTENT, NOT YOUR STYLE
One of the key problems I faced when I drafted my personal statement for the first time was: what style should I write in? At the time, all of my instincts were wrong: GCSE (and, to some extent, A-level), rewards bad writing. Students are encouraged to show off complicated vocabulary and burden their prose with bucketloads of rhetorical techniques. As a result, many sixth formers tip over from sophistication into pretention.
There is no single writing style favoured. Some pepper their discussions with theoretical buzzwords. Some write sentences that go on for a page or more. Some are as simple and concise in their style as anyone could wish. But when they are writing about your subject (as you’re doing in your personal statement), a straightforward, non-pretentious style is clearly favoured.
The lesson to take from this is: don’t use your writing style to show off! (PS: Don’t start successive sentences with the word “I” – it sounds clunky.)
2) SHOW, DON’T TELL
You’ll already have had the message that personal statements are about showing off subject interest drummed into you. But this led me to despair when I was drafting my statement. I knew I was interested in my subject, but how was I supposed to convey this in a few characters?
The answer is actually fairly simple. Tutors know that a student who not only reads extra books and does extra-curricular things but also has interesting thoughts about them is by definition an interested student. They’re not convinced by someone who claims to be interested or someone who says, “I went to see this play, which shows that I’m interested.”
The three rules below should give you a more detailed view of what this is about.
Don’t say, “My interest in my subject was captured on a trip when …”. The sorts of things that first capture your interest in a subject aren’t the things that are going to make it interesting at undergraduate level and beyond.
Don’t use emotive language. If you catch yourself on thesaurus.com looking for synonyms for “passionate” or “enjoy”, stop yourself. This is a sign that you’re trying to tell the admissions tutor that you’re interested.
Don’t assume that listing extra-curricular things that you’ve done or read will convince the tutor that you’re interested. The fact that you went to the a summer school or a school trip isn’t inherently impressive. You can only show interest by explaining what you found interesting about that experience.
3) TELL A STORY
Lots of students attempt to manufacture an impression of interest by putting together (or being given) a reading list (often plundered from the first-year undergraduate curriculum) of canonical works and saying a couple of things about each of the things they read. This is just about alright as a strategy, especially if you have interesting things to say about each text, but certainly isn’t optimal. It risks giving the impression that you’re reading things so that you can talk about them in your personal statement – and if that’s what you’re doing, it’s probably obvious to your admissions tutor.
The ideal applicant (who doesn’t exist, but is something to aspire to) is curious, but also reads with purpose. They pluck a few texts off the shelf at random to see what they contain, but interesting things they read in text A will lead them to text B, and so on.
To look like the ideal student, you need to find links between the things that you’ve read. You could say that text A gave you impression X, which led you to read text B to see if it confirmed or rebutted this impression. Alternatively, you might say that you formed impression X after reading text A, but you changed your mind after reading text B (and explain why). This is particularly effective because it shows that you read critically (good), form views (better still), but also that you’re prepared to change your views in response to new evidence (excellent). Most importantly of all, it shows that your interest has developed organically and that you haven’t just followed a “get into Oxbridge” game plan.
4) COMBINE BREADTH AND DEPTH
I’m going to suggest two strategies. Each paragraph of your personal statement will be based on a key text or idea. Mine had four main paragraphs, each focusing on a different aspect of my interest, and that seems about right.
5) ADOPT A SENSIBLE STRUCTURE
The personal statement doesn’t give you many words to play with and it demands serious clarity of thought and structure. I’d suggest four to five main paragraphs that tell the story of your interest, each focusing on a main text or idea and what reflections you’ve had about it. A sensible mini-structure for each paragraph might be:
How your interest led you to read text X / consider idea Y
What aspect you found most interesting and why
How this changed/affirmed your opinion on a certain issue, or how it surprised you
Although this structure might seem fairly mechanical, you can make each paragraph feel fresh by making your content interesting and varying your sentence structure.
6) COMMENT ON A RANGE OF TEXTS AND EXPERIENCES
It would be easy to shape each paragraph around a single text that you’ve read. This is fine, and could be the basis of a strong personal statement … but it’s not very interesting.
There are a few ways of improving on a structure like this. One is to introduce comparisons. So rather than discussing two texts separately, introduce some kind of comparison. For example, a Classicist may be struck by the lack of a principal “hero” in the Iliad (this is especially striking when compared to the Odyssey, which has Odysseus front and centre).
Another method is to incorporate discussion of responses to literature. Perhaps you have changed your perspective; or perhaps you disagreed with the argument. These show that you have a range of interests and that you’re capable of making intelligent links.
Finally, it’s worth referring to something that’s not obvious. This doesn’t mean you should reach for the most obscure thing you can find, but try something new or difference. This shows that you’re able to develop your interest a little further than most, and that you appreciate that your subject is about more than the handful of authors you encounter in school.
This article was written by Tom (Oxford & Cambridge - Classics).
If you find this content useful, please visit Tom's profile for further information on applying to Oxbridge. Alternatively, book support now with Tom, using the form below.
Author: Tom - Oxford
BA/MPhil Classics
I’ve been lucky enough to study Classics at both Oxford and Cambridge. This means I’ve had experience of the admissions systems at both universities, as well as of the important differences in teaching and course structure.
