Human Sciences Personal Statement Guide

Your personal statement is arguably one of the most important steps of your Human Sciences application. It gives the admissions team an insight into who you are and why you’d be a good fit for the course, especially considering it’s so different to the majority of courses out there!

Personal statements are also an excellent opportunity for you. You get to showcase your personality, strengths and interests, and really explore why you would like to study Human Sciences. It’s not often you get to talk about something that interests you while you’re studying, so remember to make the most out of it!

To help you get on track, this guide will tell you everything you need to know to ace your human sciences personal statement:

• Why are Personal Statements Important?
• What Should I Include in a Human Sciences Personal Statement? 
• What Should I Avoid in a Human Sciences Personal Statement? 
• Advice on How to Start a Human Sciences Personal Statement 
• Advice on How to Finish a Human Sciences Personal Statement 
• FAQs 

Why are Personal Statements Important? 

Your personal statement is a written submission that accompanies the rest of your UCAS application. It should be 4000 characters in length or 47 lines (whichever you fulfil first) and tell the University why you would be a good fit to study your chosen course.

Remember, you only get to submit one personal statement as part of your application, and this will be sent to all five of your university choices. Make sure to keep it general and do not address it to a particular university nor mention specific course details.

Your personal statement should prove to the university's admissions tutors that you are capable of studying your chosen course, so you should be including proof of the skills that you will need to succeed, evidence of your academic interests, and your passion for studying Human Sciences.

Your personal statement is unique; don’t just write what you think the admissions officer wants to hear. Be honest about your experiences, and highlight your interests that relate to a field of human sciences, as this will be personal to you.

Remember, if you are applying to Oxford or a Top UK University, you will need to make sure everything you include in your personal statement is related to Human Sciences. If you want to list super-curriculars, make sure you can relate them to either your interest in Human Sciences, or the skills you have that will set you apart and help you succeed on the course.

What Should I Include in a Human Sciences Personal Statement? 

Passion for Studying Human Sciences

One of the main purposes of your personal statement will be to convince the admissions tutors that you are passionate about your future course. This is especially important when choosing to study Human Sciences, as one of the biggest questions an admissions tutor will have is why Human Sciences over more traditional courses.

One of the best ways to show your passion is to think about what led you to the course? Were you looking at biology degrees when you stumbled across human sciences? why do Human Sciences interest you over a degree in evolutionary biology, social sciences or medicine? Which parts of the course were you most attracted to?

This answer will be different for everyone, some students may have been thinking of applying to medicine when they heard of the course, realised it had a lot of the groundings in physiology that they were looking for but also expanded into more theoretical questions about evolution, how it has impacted human behaviour and how it interacts with our physiology. For others they might have been budding social scientists, who discovered that the study of ecology may be just as interesting and important as sociology or psychology.

Whatever the answer is for you, it is important you use it as your basis for demonstrating your passion. But remember, it should be your passion. Tutors are very good at being able to tell if students are being insincere or plagiarising, plus it will be much easier to write about if it genuinely comes from you!

Academic Acheivements and Experiences

When you think back on all your experiences at school, which are you most proud of? Was it winning a writing competition, or getting into a super competitive scheme for budding young scientists?

Whatever these experiences may be, you can use them to demonstrate why you are capable of studying Human Sciences.

If you feel like you may be disadvantaged due to not having studied biology or maths at A-levels, this is the perfect opportunity to use your transferable skills. Maybe you didn’t study biology, but you did write your EPQ on biopsychology, where you learned a lot of biological frameworks that can help you in your degree. Or maybe you have chosen three science A-level courses, but you did win a creative writing competition, so you are more than capable of thinking outside the box.

Whatever your skills may be, don’t be afraid to highlight them, even if they don’t seem relevant at first. If you can find a way to link it in with your reason for being suitable for the course, then you should absolutely be including it in your personal statement.

Specific Interests and Evidence of Research

If you are thinking of applying to Oxford, listen closely, as this will be one of the areas admissions tutors will be paying the most attention to.

Having an interest in your degree subject outside of what is covered in the curriculum is extremely important. This will show the admissions tutor that you genuinely love your subject, and that you would make the most out of their course.

You can show your interest through reading books which talk about the concepts you’ll be exploring during your course, the films or documentaries you have watched, or newspaper articles you have read. Even podcasts and Tedtalks can be a great way of showing that you care about a topic beyond what you have been taught in a classroom.

What Should I Avoid in a Human Sciences Personal Statement? 

Don't be Stereotypical

As much as it is important to share your reason for studying your chosen course, starting off your personal statement with “since I was 5 years old, I’ve wanted to be a …” might be the quickest way to bore the admissions tutors.

Instead of using well-rehearsed lines about thoughts you definitely didn’t have at 5 years old, speak about the lessons you found interesting at school, the museum that you went to, the Tedtalk you watched or the business you shadowed. These are much more likely to keep the admissions officer’s attention, and show that you have made efforts outside of school to pursue and further your academic interests.

Don't be Stereotypical

While the admissions officer wants to get to know more about you and your interests, they do not need to know about your favourite colour or that you’ve been taking piano lessons since you were eight.

Make sure that everything you mention in your personal statement can be linked back to either 1) what makes you interested in the course and 2) what makes you suitable for the course (and piano lessons don’t really relate to physiology).

Avoid Confusing Language or Grammar

Please read over your work, ideally out loud. In the excitement of getting all your thoughts down on paper, you may have made a few (or a lot) of grammatical errors, which is why you have to read over your work.

If you can’t read it out loud and have it make sense, then an admissions officer probably won’t be able to either; this is a very easy way to waste both your and the admissions tutor's time. Make sure that you watch out for things like run-on sentences, that your paragraphs have a clear flow, and that your personal statement has a beginning, middle and end.

Advice on How to Start a Human Sciences Personal Statement  

There’s no one right or wrong way to start your personal statement, which means you get to be as creative as you like! The most important thing is to keep it interesting and authentic. Try and capture the attention of the admissions tutor straight away by taking us through the story of who you are and why you want to study human sciences.

This may sound difficult, but it is much easier than you think! Start off by thinking about the experiences that made you want to study Human Sciences (Outside of being good at biology or  because you  like how it sounds). In order for your personal statement to be successful, you have to get to the root of why you want to study your chosen course. Is it because you want to make an impact on other people's lives? Is it because you think you can be a source of innovation? Because you're passionate about equality and you think this might be the way to think about it? Whatever reason you have for wanting to study your chosen degree, don’t be afraid of sharing the parts of your life that it comes from.

Tutors know why the average student might want to study Human Sciences, but they don’t know why you do, so let them know how you connect and identify with the course, and what having the opportunity to study might mean for you.

Advice on How to Finish a Human Sciences Personal Statement  

Finishing your personal statement may be just as difficult as starting it, so be patient with yourself if the perfect ending doesn’t just fall into your lap.

The ending should be a short summary of everything you talked about throughout your personal statement, leave the admissions tutor feeling assured that you are in fact the right person for a Human Sciences degree, and that you have got what it takes to do well in the course.

Most importantly, leave them with something that resonates, so that they will always think of something that differentiates your application from the rest.

FAQs