Example Medicine Personal Statement

Introduction to the new Personal Statement

As an Oxford admissions tutor for PPE neatly puts it, winning personal statements, particularly for top research-focused universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, clearly answer three questions: 

What is your motivation to study this area? 

You would be surprised with how many personal statements do not really answer this question. By ‘motivation’ they want to see academic motivation (unless this is a highly vocational course) – i.e. why study the law academically for three years rather than train as a lawyer after studying a different degree? 

What evidence do you have to support this? 

Talk is cheap! You must support your alleged passion with evidence that you have pursued the subject area independently, beyond school. This ‘super-curricular’ evidence is, perhaps, the most important factor distinguishing otherwise strong applicants. 

Do you know what you are getting yourself in for? 

Academics reading your statement need to be reassured you will flourish on the course. They want to see that the material you discuss relevant, and that some of the content is typical of undergraduate study. 

Consider a love letter. For a love letter to be effective, it needs to be truly personal rather than derivative or using other people’s words. It also needs to be vivid, providing evidence of love rather than empty words. It needs to be specific to the person it is addressed to, rather than being applicable to any similar love interest. It avoids emotional blackmail, pretentiousness, and forced wackiness, but instead is authentic to the writer and the purpose of writing. It needs to show rather than merely pay lip service to their devotion.  

Markers of excellent personal statements mirror these attributes. The best personal statements: 

• Show substantial independent pursuit of relevant subject matter – they follow interests. This does not stop at one article or one lecture but moves through several stages of development.  

• Demonstrate mature reflection on subject engagement rather than credulous acceptance of material.   

• ‘Hit the target’, speaking to some of the very core concerns, debates, and ideas in the chosen discipline rather than peripheral or vaguely connected areas, even if there is some variation among the courses chosen.  

How, you ask?  

To achieve this, we recommend following these steps…