The harvest is in, the smell of dried leaves is in the air, Parliament’s back in session, and pretty soon the 17-year-olds will start ringing: the university admissions deadline is approaching and someone will need to write their personal statements for them.
Everyone who wants to go to university is required to fill in a Ucas form. It’s an administrative task until you get to the dreaded personal statement section, and then you have to call for back-up. The Ucas website encourages students to commit their personality to paper. In no more than 4,000 characters, they should outline key skills and hobbies and explain what’s drawn them to their chosen subject. Worse still, the personal statement is allegedly extremely important: ‘This may be your only chance to make the case for you to be offered a place,’ the Ucas website says. Those 4,000 characters (about 850 words) are the bane of sixth-formers’ lives.
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