Personal statement

jackdaw

Hi
im thinking of applying for a PHd and 1 of the requirements is a "personal statement" -- that's all it asks for (i mean it doesn´t elaborate on "personal statement") ..

What should i talk about here ? myself ? educational history ? goals i want to achieve through this Phd .. ?

and has anyone any examples ? just for order etc..

Red Alert

Is this for IRCSET, or for study in the states possibly or for a department based in Ireland? Taught or research?

It's quite unusual for departments to do this, as they usually tend to recruit students through an initial informal contact.

jackdaw

its for research and the course is in IReland, the contact is after the student is selected (interviews)

Red Alert

Personal statements really are a grey area - on the one hand, in an ideal world they'd be personal statements, but unfortunately nowadays they're quite formulaic.

One thing i'd say is to really state your commitment to research, and make it clear that you have both short term (like doing things on time) and long term (like wanting to be a researcher in your own right) goals.

The other thing is to litter it with real-life examples. So you say you have initiative - what did you organise/do etc?

dK1NG

Might be worth getting onto the net and searching some american universities, jobs etc - they usually give great advice on personal statements as they're much more common over there.

Stepherunie

UCAS is another place to look - it is undergrad but you have to submit a personal statement to the colleges so they do give some advice iirc from my own lc.