Masters Application Statement

lynzpower

Dear all

Hope someone can help. I need to write a statement to apply for a masters part time ( hopefully for September)

http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/cv/PersonalStatement.htm

Ive found this, is this really the sort of standard I should be aiming for ( possibly seems a bit basic) I don't want to miss the boat on this!

Wonder if anyone can point me in the direction of other good resources that might be able to help?
thanks in advance!

leelee24

Hi there

I'm in the same boat at the moment and finding the personal statement more difficult than expected. I found this site has some useful tips and some sample statements that you can feedback on:

http://www.studential.com/afteruniversity/postgraduate_study/personal_statements

Good luck!

lynzpower

Yeah I saw some of them lee!

Some of them are really "forward"

Are you really supposed to write things like "there was never any doubt in my mind that I would study XXX" as an opening gambit!?!?

How many words have you got for yours? I think my first draft was the best everytime I tinker with it its seems worse!

alwaysonthego_2

I did a personal statement for my MA social work and I just did it similar to my BA except I included the modules I had studied and how these related to a MA and I discussed my dissertation and what work experience I had done.

I started off why I wanted to do a MA and what my future aspirations were.

leelee24

To be honest I found reading them helpful as an example of what not to do! Some of them do sound a bit pompous!

I've written about 500 words so far and will try keep it to about 750 max - better to be succint than waffle on!

Pigget

Hi,

Have you looked at the application form for the institute you are applying for?
Sometimes they provide a basic summary of what they wish to be included and also hint at word count.

My statement was one page of A4 in font size 12, so about 500 words.

The course I applied for is a professional preperation scheme so it may be different to the courses you are applying for.

It was a little like applying for a job in that I outlined my previous employment and voluntary roles which were relevant and the skills I aquired from them and mentioned any courses I had been on as well. I also made reference to the link between my undergraduate course and the postgraduate qulaification I hoped to achieve.

The one thing I picked up was that it is important to show that there is a reason why that particular course/instituion interests you, so I included a paragraph which said why the institute appealed to me and mentioned a particular module I was interested in.

Not sure if that can be of any help. Unfortunately postgraduate personal statements are a bit of a grey area.

Good luck with your applications.

lynzpower

Thanks for this
It is a professional course yes.

The reason why I want to apply there, well its the only place in london that does it? I take it thats not really a good enough answer!

Pigget

Lynzpower - Sounds very similar to mine! They also asked that question in my interview.

I said it was due to the mix of theoretical and practical learning, but you could mention the faculty, the modules offered, that sort of thing. Take a look at the module choices at the other universities that offer the course, they're usually different, so you could say that the institue you are applying offers a module in X, or that you can choose more optional modules and therefore have more flexibility than at other institutes.

lynzpower

Pigget wrote: »

Lynzpower - Sounds very similar to mine! They also asked that question in my interview.

I said it was due to the mix of theoretical and practical learning, but you could mention the faculty, the modules offered, that sort of thing. Take a look at the module choices at the other universities that offer the course, they're usually different, so you could say that the institue you are applying offers a module in X, or that you can choose more optional modules and therefore have more flexibility than at other institutes.

The problem is that its a fixed curriculum- only done in a handful of universities.

Its equivalent to say nursing or accredited town planning, theres no real variation between the course content at the universities.

Good idea though, Ill see if I can angle that in in some way

Char_pdc

I did a postgrad science masters and I had to write a personal statement.

I described why I was so interested in science and in particular what fields. I also outlined why I wanted to do the course and experience I had that I thought might be useful. I also then said at the end what I wanted to do after the course.

I looked at it in a similar way to applying for a job.

If the course content is quite similar to other places, then maybe say why you chose to study there over other places. For example it might have a good library, wide variety of journal subscriptions or good transport links (not sure if I'd put that myself though.

Hope this helps and good luck