It’s that time of the year again. I’m reapplying to Oxford after getting to the interview stage last year (went through all stages of grief and refrained from addressing it myself till recently, haha), and find this very helpful. Thank you as always.
i think that the way oxford cambridge assess their applicants is better than any other university, for example in usa i dont understand why they put a lot of weightage on extra curricular activites whereas in countries like india they assess candidates based on a written exam which mostly evaluates their learning ability but not their aptitude.These videos also are also very helpful for international candidates like me who doesnt have much parental/family support for applying to such universities.
Sir, My name is Drona Sharma and I'm applying to oxford this year. I have watched so many videos featuring you and you make all complex terms look so easy and fun to learn. My understanding of the application process has been extremely clear after watching your videos. I will be giving my LNAT on 11th October and I will join you for the virtual day day after tomorrow. Thank you so much
Dr Williams, thank you very much indeed. I wanted to apply this year, but after having watched your video, I've realized that I need one year to get properly prepared. Thank you for the guidance; I now have an action plan and an exiting 2023.
Applying to Cambridge as a foundation year student but this was incredibly helpful! It was very critical which is funny because most advisors on UA-cam sugarcoat common mistakes.
I’m not applying for Oxford but I’m going to apply for universities in other country. I would say your suggestion is super helpful! I appreciate you so much!
Amazing and desperately helpful as usual, would be even better if we could see your response to the questions at the end as I'm sure they would help many of us.
Thank you for all the tips, is it possible to use your EPQ question as your question throughout or would it be better to choose a new question as well?
For sure! EPQ is excellent evidence of your interests and motivations. Whilst it is technically part of your school curriculum, it's guided by you, and therefore can be considered as in part super curricular.
Its 30/12/2021 and I am still writing my personal statement. It is really difficult as a sixth form student who moved to UK 3 years ago and being the first one going to university in the family. I have 2 thousand words in and that much left to finish off and Im feeling extremely stressed since there is not much time left but still I believe in myself since stress is not helping me. I am applying for architecture and it is really really difficult and I hope I will be able to get a offer from the university I desire to go. (to make something clear; its Cardiff University and I have 5 qualifications. 3 a-levels and 2 BTECS. My predictions are; DISTINCTION, MERIT, B, B, C
How is your personal statement coming along now? I hope that you have been able to progress with it. It is a stressful experience, but I'm very glad to read that you still believe in yourself. Best of luck!
@@JesusCollegeOxford1571 I am still writing; I’m doing extra research and making everything sure. I would like to share my personal statement if possible to hear your opinions about it, it will be really helpful!
I have a question about the point you made when talking about the supercurriculars at approximately 50 minutes. You said that one should try to not read the books or articles which are provided by the university's reading lists. If you decide to do research on your own, how do you know which sources are legitimate and are actually good or at an undergraduate level?
It's a great question. There is of course nothing wrong with reading books that are recommended. It would be fairly unreasonable to punish you for following our advice! The issue is that if everyone reads the recommended readings, then no one is going to stand out, nor will it be easy to look self-guided or self-motivated if you just follow what is prescribed. So, what I meant was, try to use those recommended readings as a launchpad into more specific avenues of interest to you. For instance, those books will have bibliographies, and suggested further readings. These will typically be lesser read than the book itself.
@@florianlink5135 Not necessarily, no. Perhaps look up some contemporary interpretations of those older works. For example, the major work by John Maynard Keynes was published in 1936 and there would be no harm in reading that, but it would also be worth reading what contemporary economists think of Keynesianism.
Journals that are published by universities are typically of good quality. There are also journals that have very high 'impact factors'. You can search for these for each discipline. Examples would include 'Nature' and 'Science' for natural sciences (obviously!), or the 'British Medical Journal' and 'Lancet'.
Thank you for the video. Really helpful! Wanted to ask on how average what's the percentage of the 90 percent very good personal statements that are exceptional.
I suppose "exceptional" means literally just one personal statement per year. More helpfully, however, I would say that about 5% of personal statements really stick in the mind after reading. These are the ones that truly communicate someone's personal views about complex academic matters. Thanks for your comment!
Thank you! BBC documentaries are decent starting points, but they are not academic. Better would be a university lecture on UA-cam or equivalent. Something like In Our Time on radio four is more academic, because it hosts academics talking about their research.
How can you embed the "management" aspect from the oxford E&M course as management is not really taught at a level. Is it just the idea of the skills embedded through supercurricular work like leading others/groupwork activities?
Almost nobody has studied management prior to taking it up as a degree. You can, as you say, speak to super curricular experiences. You can also do super curricular reading on management theories.
I think it's a good thing on balance. The reason I needed to create these videos on personal statements was precisely because there was an uneven distribution of resources between people from different backgrounds with regards to the PS.
Is it worth mentioning the skills one has learned from subjects in school - e.g. the ability to write creatively from English - or is this too trite and not worth including?
That would be "intra curricular" information, and is unlikely to help you secure a place at competitive universities. The admissions tutors already know the skills developed by A-level, so it is fairly redundant to tell them again in a personal statement. What ca work, however, is to explain how something you covered in school launched you into some super curricular exploration and skills development.
Since Oxford doesn’t give any particular weight to extracurriculars, is it still worth mentioning them in order to discuss the skills I have developed from doing them?
Hi, thanks for this video. I have a query about extracurriculars though. Is it fine to just do a single sentence on extracurriculars, given that I don't have much to say of relevance, just that I play a few sports? I feel that writing any more than one sentence would be pointless. Thanks again
It's unlikely to do you any harm if you have a single sentence, assuming you're applying to academically competitive UK unis. These unis tend not to put weight on extra curriculars. Oxford certainly does not. Good luck!
if your personal statement goes off topic how much does that matter? I'd be applying for a mix of PPE and politics and Int Relations, so i'd have to blend those 2 courses and supercurriculars into 1 PS. how much would this effect me? thanks/ur a legend
I've already applied, but I wonder - for interdisciplinary degrees like PPE, is it best to discuss each subject individually (but still connected) or all together in every paragraph?
Thank you for this video, it's really helpful! As someone applying for postgrad studies in political economy and public policy, should my personal statement be more academically heavy and rely less on personal experience/anecdotes?
It's not necessary to pose and answer a question, no. But, you are affectively answering questions that will be in the heads of admissions tutors reading your personal statement. These questions I've outlined in the opening slides to this presentation.
No. A personal statement is written for undergraduate admissions, and a statement of purpose is for postgraduate admissions. They are, nonetheless, very similar. The postgraduate statement is just expected to be more detailed with regards to your academic interests and wider reading.
Do you think it is bad thing to just include books in your personal statement? And should we attempt to link the different ideas from those books together or is it very ambitious?
It's not necessary to link together different books, except by explaining how they are all of interest to you. Just including books is fine if you're applying for a humanities or social sciences degree. For natural sciences, it's worth reading academic papers, or practising problem sheets.
@@Surfing566 so for economics and management it is worth reading some academic articles, as well as books. Search Google Scholar for articles of interest.
@@JesusCollegeOxford1571 Thanks a lot for the useful video just to follow up on that is it enough just to have read/reflected upon research papers as a talking point for an interview if invited or is it something tutors are keen to see in the personal statement?
Him: . . . stuck in a cult . . . Me: slowly scraping a similar sentence out of my personal statement. 🙄😂 Jokes aside, can I replicate this methodology when writing a personal statement for master's?
Thanks! Yes, you can use the same method for a Masters degree. You just need to provide even more references to academic debates you'd like to contribute to.
“Happiness leads you to success, success won’t lead you to happiness”,
What a powerful sentence
Thanks!
It’s that time of the year again. I’m reapplying to Oxford after getting to the interview stage last year (went through all stages of grief and refrained from addressing it myself till recently, haha), and find this very helpful. Thank you as always.
For what course and where? Maybe i can help?
@@goyaldev0911 - For Law and I’m deciding between making an open application or to a specific college (Jesus / LMH)! Any help is much appreciated. ☺️
Thank you for your message. Best of luck to you!
Hey bro did you succeed?
@How’s life going for you at the moment?
i am gonna start today, i am going into year 13 so this is SOOO helpful. Thanks so much for putting out a video like this at the right time.
Good luck!! Thank you for your message
You might want to check this out ua-cam.com/video/5ZUgT5cgTg0/v-deo.html
Did you get in ?
i think that the way oxford cambridge assess their applicants is better than any other university, for example in usa i dont understand why they put a lot of weightage on extra curricular activites whereas in countries like india they assess candidates based on a written exam which mostly evaluates their learning ability but not their aptitude.These videos also are also very helpful for international candidates like me who doesnt have much parental/family support for applying to such universities.
Many thanks for your comment. All best wishes!
Sir, My name is Drona Sharma and I'm applying to oxford this year. I have watched so many videos featuring you and you make all complex terms look so easy and fun to learn. My understanding of the application process has been extremely clear after watching your videos. I will be giving my LNAT on 11th October and I will join you for the virtual day day after tomorrow.
Thank you so much
Thanks for your kind message! I hope we get to meet you soon
Hi, were you able to make it?
thank you so much for this once again dr williams!! i love your videos
Glad you like them! Thank you
Dr Williams, thank you very much indeed. I wanted to apply this year, but after having watched your video, I've realized that I need one year to get properly prepared. Thank you for the guidance; I now have an action plan and an exiting 2023.
Thanks and all best!
Thank you so much, you’re actually a hero!!
That's very kind of you!
Thank you so much! Your videos are always incredible. You're an absolute legend Dr Williams!
That’s very kind of you! Thank you
Thanks for sharing the Personal Statement preparation.
My pleasure!
Applying to Cambridge as a foundation year student but this was incredibly helpful! It was very critical which is funny because most advisors on UA-cam sugarcoat common mistakes.
Best of luck to you!
Thank you so much! I will complete my application tomorrow.
Best of luck!
I’m not applying for Oxford but I’m going to apply for universities in other country. I would say your suggestion is super helpful! I appreciate you so much!
Thank you! Best of luck
Amazing and desperately helpful as usual, would be even better if we could see your response to the questions at the end as I'm sure they would help many of us.
Thank you for all the tips, is it possible to use your EPQ question as your question throughout or would it be better to choose a new question as well?
For sure! EPQ is excellent evidence of your interests and motivations. Whilst it is technically part of your school curriculum, it's guided by you, and therefore can be considered as in part super curricular.
Its 30/12/2021 and I am still writing my personal statement. It is really difficult as a sixth form student who moved to UK 3 years ago and being the first one going to university in the family. I have 2 thousand words in and that much left to finish off and Im feeling extremely stressed since there is not much time left but still I believe in myself since stress is not helping me. I am applying for architecture and it is really really difficult and I hope I will be able to get a offer from the university I desire to go. (to make something clear; its Cardiff University and I have 5 qualifications. 3 a-levels and 2 BTECS. My predictions are; DISTINCTION, MERIT, B, B, C
How is your personal statement coming along now? I hope that you have been able to progress with it.
It is a stressful experience, but I'm very glad to read that you still believe in yourself. Best of luck!
@@JesusCollegeOxford1571 I am still writing; I’m doing extra research and making everything sure. I would like to share my personal statement if possible to hear your opinions about it, it will be really helpful!
@@sepy00 hello, how has it been?
I have a question about the point you made when talking about the supercurriculars at approximately 50 minutes. You said that one should try to not read the books or articles which are provided by the university's reading lists. If you decide to do research on your own, how do you know which sources are legitimate and are actually good or at an undergraduate level?
It's a great question. There is of course nothing wrong with reading books that are recommended. It would be fairly unreasonable to punish you for following our advice! The issue is that if everyone reads the recommended readings, then no one is going to stand out, nor will it be easy to look self-guided or self-motivated if you just follow what is prescribed. So, what I meant was, try to use those recommended readings as a launchpad into more specific avenues of interest to you. For instance, those books will have bibliographies, and suggested further readings. These will typically be lesser read than the book itself.
@@JesusCollegeOxford1571 Thanks for the great advice and quick response!
@@JesusCollegeOxford1571 One more question. Does it matter if the books are a bit older, for example from 1940, especially in regard to economics?
@@florianlink5135 Not necessarily, no. Perhaps look up some contemporary interpretations of those older works. For example, the major work by John Maynard Keynes was published in 1936 and there would be no harm in reading that, but it would also be worth reading what contemporary economists think of Keynesianism.
Thanks so much this is so helpful. Would you say that some journal articles are better than others? If so how do you know which are and aren't
Journals that are published by universities are typically of good quality. There are also journals that have very high 'impact factors'. You can search for these for each discipline. Examples would include 'Nature' and 'Science' for natural sciences (obviously!), or the 'British Medical Journal' and 'Lancet'.
Thank you for the video. Really helpful! Wanted to ask on how average what's the percentage of the 90 percent very good personal statements that are exceptional.
I suppose "exceptional" means literally just one personal statement per year. More helpfully, however, I would say that about 5% of personal statements really stick in the mind after reading. These are the ones that truly communicate someone's personal views about complex academic matters. Thanks for your comment!
In the process of writing my MA personal statement.. keep rewriting and rewriting 😅
Good luck with it!
Thank you for this! Extremely useful. Would you say a BBC documentary or documentaries generally count as an academic resource?
Thank you! BBC documentaries are decent starting points, but they are not academic. Better would be a university lecture on UA-cam or equivalent. Something like In Our Time on radio four is more academic, because it hosts academics talking about their research.
How can you embed the "management" aspect from the oxford E&M course as management is not really taught at a level. Is it just the idea of the skills embedded through supercurricular work like leading others/groupwork activities?
Almost nobody has studied management prior to taking it up as a degree. You can, as you say, speak to super curricular experiences. You can also do super curricular reading on management theories.
It's a shame this video won't be relevant next year. What are your thoughts on UCAS' proposed replacement of the personal statement?
I think it's a good thing on balance. The reason I needed to create these videos on personal statements was precisely because there was an uneven distribution of resources between people from different backgrounds with regards to the PS.
Thank you! Are extracurriculars necessary to mention for a postgraduate personal statement?
No, they are not required. Just super curriculars are needed.
Is it worth mentioning the skills one has learned from subjects in school - e.g. the ability to write creatively from English - or is this too trite and not worth including?
That would be "intra curricular" information, and is unlikely to help you secure a place at competitive universities. The admissions tutors already know the skills developed by A-level, so it is fairly redundant to tell them again in a personal statement. What ca work, however, is to explain how something you covered in school launched you into some super curricular exploration and skills development.
@@JesusCollegeOxford1571 thank you!
Since Oxford doesn’t give any particular weight to extracurriculars, is it still worth mentioning them in order to discuss the skills I have developed from doing them?
Yes, because other universities do value extra curriculars. A rule of thumb is to divide the PS roughly 80%:20% in favour of academic content.
Hi, thanks for this video. I have a query about extracurriculars though. Is it fine to just do a single sentence on extracurriculars, given that I don't have much to say of relevance, just that I play a few sports? I feel that writing any more than one sentence would be pointless. Thanks again
It's unlikely to do you any harm if you have a single sentence, assuming you're applying to academically competitive UK unis. These unis tend not to put weight on extra curriculars. Oxford certainly does not. Good luck!
When mentioning a book or an article, do we have to reference it at the end of our PS? (Eg. Harvard style)
No, that's not necessary.
if your personal statement goes off topic how much does that matter? I'd be applying for a mix of PPE and politics and Int Relations, so i'd have to blend those 2 courses and supercurriculars into 1 PS. how much would this effect me? thanks/ur a legend
Thanks for your kind words! I address that very question in this video ua-cam.com/video/955Z7n2L_C0/v-deo.html from about 31:00
I wish I could email you my personal statement just for some sort of feedback - would be so insightful :)
Great!! anyway, does it work for master degree also?
It's similar! There are more specific instructions for Masters applications that are provided on the website for each specific degree programme.
I've already applied, but I wonder - for interdisciplinary degrees like PPE, is it best to discuss each subject individually (but still connected) or all together in every paragraph?
It doesn't really make a big difference. It depends on how you want to describe your super curri
...super curricular interests and experiences.
Do these apply for MSc personal statements as well?
Essentially, yes. You would just be expected to have more references to academic literature in a Masters personal statement.
could you tell me a toddler question I can ask For entrepenurship/ Business Studies?
@jesus College Oxford
What creates demand?
Why does money have value?
Why are different brands of identical products valued differently?
Too late to start the personal statement now? For this year (October 15th deadline)
No. If you have done some reading around your subject, then you still have time. Good luck!
@@JesusCollegeOxford1571 Thanks for the reply. The videos are extremely helpful. Who knows, maybe I'll meet you face to face in Oxford one day!
Thank you for this video, it's really helpful! As someone applying for postgrad studies in political economy and public policy, should my personal statement be more academically heavy and rely less on personal experience/anecdotes?
Yes, for Oxford we would be looking for academic details. Although you can provide some personal details as well, just keep it relatively brief.
Is it necessary to answer a question in a personal statement?
It's not necessary to pose and answer a question, no. But, you are affectively answering questions that will be in the heads of admissions tutors reading your personal statement. These questions I've outlined in the opening slides to this presentation.
@@JesusCollegeOxford1571 Thank you!
Are personal statement and statement of purpose the same?
No. A personal statement is written for undergraduate admissions, and a statement of purpose is for postgraduate admissions. They are, nonetheless, very similar. The postgraduate statement is just expected to be more detailed with regards to your academic interests and wider reading.
@@JesusCollegeOxford1571 thank you 😊
Do you think it is bad thing to just include books in your personal statement? And should we attempt to link the different ideas from those books together or is it very ambitious?
It's not necessary to link together different books, except by explaining how they are all of interest to you. Just including books is fine if you're applying for a humanities or social sciences degree. For natural sciences, it's worth reading academic papers, or practising problem sheets.
@@JesusCollegeOxford1571 ok thanks, I am applying for economics and management this year.
@@Surfing566 so for economics and management it is worth reading some academic articles, as well as books. Search Google Scholar for articles of interest.
@@JesusCollegeOxford1571 Thanks a lot for the useful video just to follow up on that is it enough just to have read/reflected upon research papers as a talking point for an interview if invited or is it something tutors are keen to see in the personal statement?
🙏🇮🇳🙏
Him: . . . stuck in a cult . . .
Me: slowly scraping a similar sentence out of my personal statement.
🙄😂
Jokes aside, can I replicate this methodology when writing a personal statement for master's?
Thanks! Yes, you can use the same method for a Masters degree. You just need to provide even more references to academic debates you'd like to contribute to.
I wanted to send you an email directly cause the clarifications I need is kinda late prior to this video..please can I have your email?
he can't help you with that... he does admissions :)
@@christina-fe8lu..thanks for your kindness..in one of his videos he put up his email and once I reached out, he replied...so It's fine now.
I love your UA-cam it is very helpful,but please stop making that noise...TSS it is very distracting.