example personal statement cambridge university

How to write a great personal statement

Student Admissions & Access

Your personal statement is your opportunity to tell us more about yourself and why you are interested in studying your chosen subject. In this article, we offer you some tips and advice on how to start building your personal statement and make the best impression with your application.

Where to start

Don’t let the blank page put you off. Just start writing and try not to overthink it - you can always change and refine your statement later.

You might want to begin by thinking about the following questions to help you make a list of what to include:

• What do I know about the course and its modules?
• Why do I want to study the subject?
• What do I like about the subject?
• What do I already know?
• What have I read, watched or attended that is relevant to the subject?
• What excites me about the subject?
• What are my academic strengths?
• What makes me a good fit for studying this course?

Start turning your list into sentences. Think about how each thing in your list relates to your subject, and start to form concise sentences. Aim to organise the sentences into paragraphs and form a logical structure to make a case for your suitability for the course.

Aim for one idea per sentence, and one major theme per paragraph. If you can, try to tie it all together with common themes and ideas. For example, you may have learned a topic during your A Levels, then read a book about it and independently researched more about the theory, which sparked some ideas and questions of your own. You may have read a number of books on a similar theme - think about any parallels or contrasts between them.

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Draft, draft, draft

Get everything down on paper first. Then go back to draft and start to rework it. Don’t let your personal statement become a long list of ideas – that was your starting point. Think about the most important points you’ve made, and work on developing those. Remember that sometimes, less is more. At this point, you may have to delete whole sections, so don’t become too attached to what you have written.

When working on your draft, try to be clear and concise – remember, you only have limited space.

The beginning at the end

Often it’s easier to write the main body of your statement first, and come back to the opening later. The first sentence should really show your enthusiasm for the course, so talk about something that excites you.

In conclusion…

Don’t forget your conclusion. Try to tie everything together at the end, and finish on a positive note that leaves the admissions tutor with a positive impression. If you approach your personal statement as a short academic essay about yourself and your motivations, we should be left with a clear sense of where your passion lies and your suitability for the course.

Check before you submit

Before you submit your application, it’s a good idea to carefully proof your personal statement and to share it with someone else – that could be a family member, friend or teacher. You don’t always have to follow their advice, it’s personal after all, but you may find that they have some good ideas and they might spot mistakes you’ve missed.

• Show your passion, don’t just tell us.
• Be yourself and sound like yourself – you don’t have to use the thesaurus for every word!
• Make sure you can talk about everything in your personal statement in detail, as you’ll be asked about it at your interview.
• Link any extra-curricular activities to your study – maybe your part time job taught you time management or communication skills.
• Make sure it relates to the course you have applied for.
• Check your spelling and grammar, and use clear, plain English.
• Avoid sweeping, general statements, make every word count.

Watch this video from UCAS for some more great tips to get you started:

If you choose to apply to cambridge, we can’t wait to find out all about you.

The information in this article is correct at the time of publishing. Last reviewed July 2023. For more information about applying to the University of Cambridge, visit our website .

• College Application

The Best Cambridge Personal Statement Examples

A deep perusal of Cambridge personal statement examples can help you understand how to go about crafting your own finely honed statement. You can also look at college letter of intent samples, diversity essay examples – also called diversity secondary essays – or the Common App essay for inspiration.

Writing college essays is tough. Whether you need help with how to start a college essay or how to structure your college essay, reading essay samples written for Cambridge will help you navigate this intimidating process and submit a personal statement that impresses the admissions committee. Now let’s dive in!

>> Want us to help you get accepted? Schedule a free strategy call here . <<

Article Contents 8 min read

Cambridge personal statement examples, example no.1.

Working as a private tutor has changed my life dramatically. I started out because some of my peers wanted assistance with their studies, but I quickly became frustrated. Tutoring seemed like an easy way to make money. All I had to do was explain some concepts – or so I thought. When I started tutoring, I would read out a lesson or concept, then go over problems with my student until I knew they could handle that particular problem, and I would be back for the next session. However, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something deeper to teaching a subject.

I was working with my friend Eli on math every week. What frustrated me with Eli was that, although he could grasp concepts, he was always in need of help. I realised that I wasn’t helping Eli; I was only teaching him one concept at a time. What I needed to do was teach Eli how to learn. It wasn’t enough to show him answers and equations; I had to teach him how to spark his curiosity. I had to teach him how to think, not what to think. This was the missing element in my instruction. It wasn’t enough that I should help a student grasp a difficult concept, but rather to acquire the tools he would need to grow in his curiosity and approach to studying.

Want to learn easy ways to make your college essay standout? Watch this video:

When next I taught Eli, I changed my methods. Instead of just telling Eli when to use a specific calculus formula, I started bringing in oddly shaped containers and showing him how calculus would be useful in determining their volume. Giving him physical mysteries to solve and showing him the applicability of calculus fired Eli’s imagination and engaged him far more. I was on my way to teaching Eli how to think.

Eli needed fewer sessions after that, which became my measurement of success. Strangely enough, doing my work optimally would put myself out of a job. While there will always be new students to help, the goal of a teacher or tutor should not be to keep working with one student, but to help that student move beyond the teacher and then to seek out the next growing mind to aid.

I felt like I was ready to throw my computer monitor out the window or give up entirely on coding. I was trying to learn how to programme a video game, but I was becoming frustrated with my project. Our deadline was looming, and I felt like I had taken on a bigger project than I could handle.

Fortunately, I learnt the most valuable lesson that day. My friend, Kaylee, noticed my frustration and asked, “Can I help?”. I showed her what was wrong, and she helped me move past my hurdles and smooth out my code. I shared some of my ideas, and we both went away with a better understanding of computer coding. Along with improving my own project and getting over my own frustrating hurdle, I was also able to help Kaylee. Our conversations throughout the day had me suggesting several shortcuts to tighten up her coding language, making it more efficient and precise. While I hadn’t intended to help Kaylee, our collaboration benefited her as well.

The lesson was to stay connected. We live increasingly in a virtual world, from social media to online work-from-home jobs, and it is harder than ever to maintain connections with actual human beings. This led Kaylee and me to found the “Human Programming Club,” which emphasised human interaction, along with collaboration and a team effort. The club grew to include several schools in our area, which improved the programming experience of a lot of computer science students in our city.

Your Computer Science programme emphasises these human and collaborative elements. In second year, students work on a group project “…which reflects current industrial practice.” This emphasis on working together attracted me to your programme and is the reason I am applying. The Cambridge Ring, which emphasises social, career and community, is something I would love to be a part of. This is also because I have long-term goals that I believe will be best served with this type of education.

My plan is to bring the liveliness of the Human Programming Club to our current computing technologies, both in programming environments and through the interactions we have with machines and with apps in our day-to-day lives. I want our interactions with computers to serve relationships and human society, not replace them. Most importantly, I want to bring an inclusiveness and sense of belonging to the world of programming. When we emphasised these aspects of our Human Programming Club, we saw an increase in underrepresented persons among the membership. Making marginalised persons feel more accepted in the world of coding and computer science would be amazing. You also offer positive action programmes for women and LGBTQ+ computer science students, and I find this encouraging and something I would like to support.

I believe your programme is optimal for me to work towards those goals, and I hope to hear from you – and connect – soon.

Want to learn strategies to increase your chances of getting into an Ivy League School? Check this out:

Example No.3

The sky seemed smaller when I saw the eagle pass across the sun. I immediately pulled out the nature journal I had with me. These journals have kept track of every scientific discovery I have experienced. I did a quick sketch of the bird – some extras of the wings – and wrote down my observations. I also recorded questions about the bird – mostly diet and habitat – that occurred to me while sketching. My journals, based on Kipling’s “six honest serving men” (What, Why, When, How, Where and Who), guided and augmented my insatiable curiosity. I returned from my US vacation with two full journals of sketches and questions about everything. Fascinated with how a bird’s wing works, it became an obsession at the library for weeks.

These questions gave me purpose in another favourite place of mine: the lab. I couldn’t wait to get home and get into the science labs of my school, which would provide me the opportunity to ask my questions and get answers. My teacher, Mr. Shepherd, books the lab for me after school to allow me to go deeper into research. He has helped me set up experiments in aerodynamics, lift and velocity, which would help me to understand a bird’s wing better.

I also used my shop class time to build different gliders to test. I tried one that really flapped, but it never got off the ground. Still, I learnt why it couldn’t work – the wood was too heavy for the small engines I used. That failure became as informative as a success would have been.

I love all aspects of scientific inquiry, and it is for this reason that I have applied to your Biological Sciences programme, which is both comprehensive and focused. I am particularly interested in your research projects on organisms, evolution and ecology. How do new species arise? How did we get to the species we have now? Birds’ wings didn’t come from nowhere, and I’d love to explore the past, present and future of the evolution of species. I believe your programme will allow me this opportunity.

Cambridge recommends that you follow the UCAS advice on personal statements when writing your own. While acceptance to Cambridge is based solely on academic criteria (ability and potential), your personal statement may be discussed during the interview, so it is an important aspect of your college interview prep .

When writing your personal statement, consider the following 4 points highlighted by Cambridge:

It will also be helpful to keep Cambridge’s core values and mission statement in mind and reflect those ideals in your essay.

Also remember that every essay is, to some extent, a “ why this college” essay . You should always use that as a baseline for how to write a college essay .

Mission Statement

“The mission of the University of Cambridge is to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence."

Core Values

Freedom of thought and expression

Freedom from discrimination

Integrating Values

You don’t need to specifically use the exact wording Cambridge chooses, but your essays should reflect these goals. Here’s what every essay can include:

• Something to show that you think about your community and the global community, to correspond with the stated goal of contributing to society
• A focus on education and research – mentioning your curiosity or pursuit of knowledge
• Expressing yourself and telling your story to fulfil one half of the core values
• Are there any ways you represent diversity? This could be in your personal profile or experiences, but more important will be ways you might have contributed to assisting diversity, progress, or the advancement of underrepresented persons.

All Cambridge personal statements have a 4,000-character cap, which includes spaces, and must be no longer than 47 lines. Some universities might have college essay topics , but Cambridge’s personal statements are not prompt-based.

These three examples should give you a good sense of the structure, tone and content you can consider in your Cambridge personal statement.

If you still need more examples, you can get good insights from different institutions’ requirements, such as the Oxford personal statement . Columbia Medical School secondary essay examples or Brown Medical School secondary essay examples might not seem germane to your Cambridge essays, but they will still provide you with the structure and focus you need. Looking at other essay systems, such as the one that applies to the AMCAS personal statement , might also give you ideas.

Cambridge University personal statements should be no more than 4,000 characters, and this number includes spaces.

No. If you express yourself well, it doesn’t really matter if you have a shorter personal statement. Brevity is a good thing, provided you have fully communicated why you are the perfect candidate for the programme to which you are applying.

Give examples of your connection to the programme you are interested in, and remember the rule of “Show, don’t tell” when communicating this. Traits you want to show include curiosity, passion, and personal growth. You might choose to highlight some of your extracurriculars for college , too.

Anything irrelevant, which has no bearing on your goals or accomplishments, as well as anything negative. You don’t want to cast yourself in a negative light or just be perceived as a negative person. 

Stay very focused on one or two main points. You must show your greatest strengths and connect yourself to the programme. You don’t need to include everything, so just focus on one, driving point.

Start with a good “hook” sentence and use your opening paragraph to set up the rest of the essay. Keep to one theme per paragraph and link everything together with your conclusion for the perfect essay.

They will want to see creativity, curiosity, persistence, a good work ethic, a connection to the material and some sense of goals and aspirations. College admissions consulting , such as a college essay review service , can give you excellent advice on your personal statement. 

Two or three weeks, working daily on your statement, to give you the chance to not only write, but re-write, refine, edit, proofread and find someone to read and critique your paper.

Brainstorming for a few minutes will help. Take two or three minutes and a blank page and write down everything you love about your chosen subject. Free-associate, and you’ll almost definitely have something when your time is up.

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Personal statements

Your personal statement gives you the chance to tell us:

• why you're interested in the course you want to study and what excites you about it
• about your academic interests
• how you've explored your interests outside of school. For example, books you've read or podcasts you've listened to

Your personal statement must be no more than 4,000 characters and is sent to all five of your university choices.  

Please remember that interviewers will review your personal statement as part of the admissions process. Make sure you read through your personal statement before your interview and remind yourself of its contents. Your interviewers may or may not draw on your personal statement during your interview.  

In addition to your UCAS application, My Cambridge Application gives you the opportunity to submit a second personal statement. This should not repeat information but instead be used to expand or fill in gaps in your personal statement. This option is mainly used by those students applying to unique courses at the University of Cambridge to express what about this course attracted them. 

Preparing your personal statement

Information about preparing a personal statement can be found at the:

Which program are you applying to?

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March 22, 2021

The Personal Statement That Got Me a Large Scholarship to Cambridge

When I submitted my application for the Masters program in Latin American Studies at Cambridge University, I was a bit lost in life. I was what they call a “super-senior” at UCLA, taking my last three General Education requirements during Fall quarter of a fifth year. I had already walked for graduation the June before and the future was oddly wide open, and incredibly empty to me. Like many students who are “good at school,” I thought that a graduate program seemed like a reasonable idea, especially because I graduated during an economic crisis and the job search was difficult. I opened a number of applications for PhD programs in the United States and, on the advice of a professor, I applied to Cambridge because of the opportunity to focus exclusively on Latin American Cinema and a chance to be considered for the Gates Cambridge Scholarship.

My Gates Cambridge personal statement

While the application to Cambridge’s Latin American Studies program did not differ greatly from that of most global graduate schools, in order to be considered for funding opportunities like the Gates Cambridge award I was required to submit an additional personal statement. 

The prompt was daunting:

In not more than 500 words, please describe below how your interests and achievements, both academic and extra-curricular, demonstrate a capacity for leadership, commitment to using your knowledge to serve your community and to applying your talents to improve the lives of others.

I was 22, and I had never really tried to articulate how my curiosity about foreign languages, Latin American literature, culture, and film could demonstrate “ a capacity for leadership ,” or the ability to “serve my community.” But I gave it a go.

The statement of purpose I wrote and submitted to Cambridge:

I grew up in Oakland, California, one of the most violent and disparate urban communities in America. While I knew this as a child, I only knew it in a distant sense. I caught glimpses of newspaper headlines with phrases like “gang violence” and “high homicide rate.” I heard rap songs on the radio that referred to the infamous “O-town of the West,” or the area code “510.” Those were always funny references to my hometown, but they were words and sayings; they never felt like realities to me as I grew up. To my great surprise, these newspaper articles, statistics, and song lyrics only became real to me when I left Oakland and America to spend my junior year abroad in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and then return home. Before I arrived there, Brazil only existed on paper, in books like Peter Winn’s Americas, and on screen in films like City of God. The mesmerizing topography and diverse population of Rio de Janeiro were realities that I approached with trepidation. But after a year, I abandoned my preconceptions about the city and was even comfortable using unofficial vans, or kombis, to navigate my way through the chaotic and sprawling city. I overcame my fears and learned how to assert myself appropriately in difficult situations. Just as I had become comfortably aware of the realities of Oakland, I became inured to the violence and class conflicts that had frightened me before arriving in Rio. With regards to this experience, the most educational and enlightening moments of shock came to me as I drove through Oakland on my way home from the airport. I had not been home for a year, my eyes were glued to the car window, and I saw everything differently. Though the terrain between the Oakland airport and my home is relatively flat, that day the socio-economic inequality was as clear to me as the diverse topography of Rio de Janeiro. To put it simply, there were houses with fences and window guards, and houses with large driveways and beautifully landscaped gardens. Through subtle markers and contexts, the issues and conflicts that had surprised and scared me in Rio were suddenly applicable to the scenery and media of my hometown. Both of these experiences, of arriving in Brazil and returning to Oakland, are powerful instances of where academic or literary knowledge solidifies through the experience of real events. I want to know more about issues of urban Latin America because they are directly related to urban American issues. Emotional and analytical access to these socio-economic issues through literature and film is a bridge that I passionately want to extend towards students. Every person who enters a college classroom is profoundly privileged with the opportunity to see herself and her surroundings differently. It is my dream to inspire others to see education as an opportunity to travel, to experience difference, and to return home with critical points of view, and the desire to create positive change.

Here’s what happened after I submitted:

• On December 10, I received an email from the Center of Latin American Studies informing me that I had been accepted to the program and would be hearing from the Board of Graduate Studies shortly.
• On December 14, I was informed that I had made it to the finalist round for Gates Cambridge, and that interviews were to be held in February.
• After finishing my coursework at UCLA , I moved home in December, picked up a job as a waitress at a local diner, and started applying for office jobs in the Bay Area.
• And on January 1, 22-year-old Oscar Grant was fatally shot by a BART cop at Fruitvale Station in Oakland, California.

How I was shocked during my Gates Cambridge interview:

During my 25-minute interview with the Gates committee in February, I was completely stunned by a question that one of the British members posed as a research question. It was something like: “Given that you propose to study Latin American film as part of your research, what do you think of the footage of Oscar Grant’s death?” I was pretty much speechless when this question was asked, and I had a hard time composing myself. Footage of Oscar Grant’s killing was impossible to avoid in Oakland. The cell phone recordings of Oscar Grant’s death were also the first reel of raw film images that I had ever seen to depict the end of an actual person’s life. I had seen American History X, a movie in which a white man brutally commits racist and fatal hate crimes, but those were fictional images. Most of the films that I studied regarding Latin America were also made of fictional images. The footage of Oscar Grant dying was a visceral reality for me, and it came with weeks of rioting in my hometown, a series of incredibly tense conversations with neighbors and family, feelings of guilt about my whiteness, and a deep sense of helplessness about the world around me. None of those words came out in my interview. Overwhelmed with emotions, I just wasn’t able to express myself in that moment, and I tried to move on as quickly as possible. But since then, I’ve thought a lot about that question.

What I learned from writing my personal statement for the Cambridge College Scholarship Application:

In hindsight, the question that the committee asked me was a genuine response to my personal statement, which means that the statement had been effective even before it became timely. Remember, I was selected for the shortlist before Oscar Grant was shot, but the setting that I created by observing my own surroundings in the personal statement is what allowed for the committee to connect with a reality that was (and still is) unfolding around me. When I first wrote this statement, I was afraid it didn’t say enough about my achievements, past leadership experiences, or meaningful accomplishments . I wasn’t ready to discuss obstacles overcome, I acknowledged my privilege, and I didn’t know anything about what the essay was supposed to be like. In fact, I didn’t share any of my applications materials with advisors or friends before submitting (a horrible idea!).  

However, after my many years of working with students from a variety of backgrounds on diversity statements and scholarship applications , I understand why this was a successful statement. All I did was observe myself in the world, genuinely and honestly at that stage of my life. I described my relationship to Oakland from an insider’s eyes, and an outsider’s eyes, and that allowed the committee to learn about me within the context of where I grew up. Because I described Oakland from the eyes of someone just off of a plane from Rio de Janeiro, I gave the committee concrete insights that they couldn’t have surmised from the first sentence: “I grew up in Oakland, California.” This is an issue that comes up a lot when I work with people on personal statements. Oftentimes the things that you know about yourself and your surroundings are so obvious to you that you forget to describe these insights to your audience. In a personal statement it is your job to explain who you are, what drives you to accomplish your goals, why your current course of study matters to you and how it can impact others.

How to write a compelling personal statement

If you’re working on a statement like this and you start to wonder what it’s supposed to be, or what you’re supposed to talk about, tell yourself to stop asking that question. Instead ask yourself, what do you know intuitively about how you move in the world? How can you observe yourself so that someone else gets a glimpse of how you think, what you care about, and why you want to do the things that you want to do? I didn’t end up getting the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, which felt like a blow at the time. 

As a result of the same application materials and essays, however, I was awarded a Cambridge Overseas Trust Scholarship for £10,000 ($17,000) which covered most of my tuition. Because of this funding, I ended up going to Cambridge and studying Latin American film. I also took away some incredible lessons from Gates Cambridge interview, and those personal insights made the whole process worth it.

Applying for multiple sources of graduate funding through the Cambridge Trust

My experience interviewing for the Gates Cambridge scholarship also marked a moment when I began my journey into the world of research, grant writing, and teaching college level composition. What I’ve learned since then is that, when it comes to competitive opportunities like the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, it is important to approach the process with level-headed expectations about the chances of getting through to the final rounds and being selected. However, that doesn’t mean that the time you spend building strong application materials and scholarship essays isn’t worth it, as your effort can likely pay off in other ways. 

At universities like Cambridge, there are usually numerous opportunities for funding through entities such as the Cambridge Trust and Funded Research Projects , and they all have different application procedures. Within the Cambridge Trust, for example, there are awards like the Hughes Hall PhD Scholarship, which requires students to select Hughes Hall as a first-choice college and fill out the general College Scholarship application, and the Kanders Churchill Scholarship, which has an entirely separate application process and personal statement. 

So, if you find yourself working on personal statement for a specific university scholarship, that’s a sign that there are other available opportunities at the same institution. The frustrating truth is that it is more than likely that these opportunities are not centralized into one application process. In order for you to make the most of all the work you’ve put into composing a personal statement, it is worth it to conduct additional research about how to be considered for additional scholarships and put together multiple applications based on your profile. 

Working on your SOP?

Get the help you need to write a personal, meaningful graduate statement of purpose. Work one-on-one with an experienced admissions advisor – one who has personally been there – to create an application you’re proud to submit. And did you know that Accepted’s clients received over $1 million dollars in scholarship offers in the last application cycle? Learn more about how Accepted can help when you check out our Graduate School Admissions Consulting Services .

Related Resources:

• What I Learned about Grant Writing from Putting Together 3 Fulbright Applications Before Finally Being Selected • What Is a Scholarship? And Why Didn’t I Get One? • Awards! Grants! Scholarships! Oh My! a podcast episode

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Personal statements

Your UCAS personal statement is your opportunity to impart specific information about yourself and that you feel it is important that we know.  This could be detailed reasons why you wish to study your chosen course at Cambridge, what motivated your interest in this subject, your hobbies and interests outside school, or your future aspirations, to name but a few.

It is important to remember that the person conducting the general interview at St John's will not be a Teaching Fellow in the subject you have applied for, and may therefore rely heavily on your personal statement in order to engage you in discussion of subjects about which you feel comfortable talking at length and in some depth.  Therefore, if you have just watched your brother abseiling once or twice, you don’t want to list it as one of your hobbies!  Equally, it is not a good idea to list as “favourites” books that you have every intention of reading, or quote as a favourite author someone who has published 20 books, but you’ve only managed to read one so far!

In general, we find that the majority of personal statements are made up of two-thirds information of a more academic nature, and one-third information about extra-curricular interests.  However, that being said, the whole idea of a personal statement is that it is  personal  to you… it is your statement and your chance to communicate to us the things about you that you would like us to know.

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Medicine Personal Statement Examples – Cambridge (Lucy)

Home » Application Guide » Medicine Personal Statement Examples – Cambridge (Lucy)

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Welcome to our collection of Medicine Personal Statement Examples! We’ve searched far and wide to find personal statements from successful applicants all around the UK and asked them to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of their work for your own inspiration. Today’s subject is from Lucy, who studies Medicine at the University of Cambridge.

Lucy applied to study medicine in 2020 at some of the top Universities in the UK, including Imperial and Birmingham , and subsequently received offers from three of her four choices, of which she chose Cambridge.  

Let’s read the personal statement that got her a place at the University of Cambridge , or skip straight to her feedback to learn what made her personal statement a success!

Please be aware that these examples are meant purely for the sake of inspiration, and should absolutely NOT be used as a model around which to base your own personal statement. UCAS have a rather strict system that detects plagiarism .

Cambridge Medicine Personal Statement Example

Whole personal statement.

My interest in medicine stems originally from my fascination with science and its relation to the human body, and the opportunity to apply medical research to improve people’s lives. However, it was volunteering in a nursing home for a year and realising how much joy just offering care and empathy can give that motivated me to pursue a medical career.

Watching one of the residents with whom I had built a bond gradually showing the unrelenting impacts of ageing highlighted the difficulty in maintaining emotional resilience in medicine. This inspired me to read ‘Being Mortal’ which shed light on the roles of a doctor in end of life care whilst making me increasingly aware of the ethical dilemmas in supporting an ageing population. To enhance my interpersonal skills, I also volunteered at a charity shop where facing difficult customers has made me more confident and versatile in my interactions with the public.

Shadowing a GP emphasised to me the incredible demand put on primary care services but also the efficacy of triage and good organisation. Nurses ran minor illness clinics, freeing up GPs to see more urgent or complex patients which enabled the practice to run smoothly and efficiently. Despite having a backlog of patients to see, the GP’s calm and sensitive manner towards each individual was inspiring. A high level of care I aspire to achieve as a doctor. My hospital work experience reiterated the value of cohesive team-work during an anterior cruciate ligament replacement and I was impressed by how team members’ roles and responsibilities complemented each other. Team-work and leadership are integral to my role as a Prefect and as co-secretary in BAYouth, the Welsh NHS’ youth advisory panel, ensuring that minutes are written and projects completed. Sitting on interview panels has given me an insight into the diversity of roles within healthcare and the importance of each member in a multidisciplinary team.

I thoroughly enjoyed doing my Extended Project on nanomedicine as it showed how the scientific disciplines of physics, biology and chemistry overlap each other in medicine. Synthesising complex scientific literature taught me valuable critical thinking and extended writing skills. Through time-consuming amendments, challenging me to deal with uncertainty and situations not going to plan, I found that effective organisation made the research process much more manageable, allowing me to complete my EPQ to a high standard in one year. The scientific principles that underpin medicine continue to fascinate me, and therefore, I arranged work experience in the Centre for Nanohealth. It was exciting to successfully make and test my own glucose microneedle biosensor and assist in cutting-edge medical research.

As a naturally curious person, I enjoy investigating medical advancements in the New Scientist magazine. Since coming across a patient with fibromyalgia in my work experience, I have also been interested in topics surrounding neuroscience. The prospect of utilising scientific innovation in clinical contexts excites me and I look forward to furthering my understanding of science throughout my career.

As a Grade 8 pianist, I relish in performing in concerts and competitions under pressure. However, music, alongside badminton, mainly helps me to relax. I enjoyed completing my Bronze Duke of Edinburgh award and the UKMT Mathematics challenges which made use of my problem-solving skills, and doing Grade 8 LAMDA examinations enhanced my communication skills. I believe effective time-management enables me to integrate academia with relaxation so that I can maintain a good work-life balance.

My resolve to study medicine is the result of long contemplation. I know that it will often be gruelling and will involve sacrifices, but I believe it will offer a sense of satisfaction like no other job. My intrinsic scientific curiosity along with my desire for social interaction drive a commitment to medicine as a life-long endeavour.

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Cambridge Medicine Personal Statement Example Analysis

Now, let’s go section by section and see what Lucy has to say about what she wrote:  

INTRODUCTION

Introduction

The introduction is simple & clear, with no filler or frills. My intention was simply to state why I wanted to go into healthcare rather than a purely scientific career . It’s always good to hone in on what is about medicine in particular that interests you, as it is very easy to discuss topics that could apply to other subjects like Biology, Chemistry, etc. It was also backed by evidence from my time in the care home. It is not too long which is important for maintaining attention, but gets across a lot of points and provides topics for further discussion in the main body of the statement.

It does feel a bit cliched to speak about medicine in such a noble and positive way, but it is how I genuinely felt when writing this statement. This can be seen in some of my choices of words, such as ‘joy’, which could have been a bit more sincere and less idealistic. The admissions team want to see people with an actual desire to enter medicine, but it can perhaps seem naive to describe experience like this in such a way. It also reads as if the nursing home was the only reason for me to pursue medicine rather than an accumulation of experiences, which wasn’t the case.  

Paragraph 1

This paragraph follows on from the introduction very directly as it goes into my experience in a nursing home which linked to my reading of ‘Being Mortal’, indicating that I have followed up on my interests and reflections. You should always be looking to demonstrate you understanding of the subject by discussing the connections between different experiences, as well as discussing how they link with medicine as a whole. Not only does it show an understanding of the things you do, but it also tells a story, which makes the statement more interesting to read. I also stated what steps I had done to improve on the skills I saw/read, another key element of writing a personal statement; reflection of one’s experiences.

I was a bit too vague with my discussion of ‘ ethical issues ‘ but it does give some room for exploration in the interview. However, the biggest flaw with this paragraph is the last sentence. While the connection between difficult customers and difficult patients may seem fairly obvious, this is still the type of thing that I should have actually explored in writing. Even with this in mind though, trying to connect retail experience with medical work was a very big stretch, one that makes me seem even more naive as the two fields are on completely different levels. This was a case of me having experience I wanted to mention without thinking about how it would work in the statement as a whole.  

Paragraph 2

Here, I delve into my most relevant work experience , which is essential for any medical personal statement. Through my description of the things I saw and did, I was able to express the various lessons and values I learnt from my time there. Showing how meaningful the experience was to my development is important for showing my commitment and engagement with the subject. As a more general example, I emphasised the importance of teamwork and showed appreciation for all healthcare workers I had encountered rather than just the doctor, further displaying my appreciation of the work it takes to enter the medical field.  

My first major issue isn’t really with the paragraph itself but with the format of the statement as a whole. This should have been my first main body paragraph, as it is a much stronger introduction to my abilities and understanding compared to my experience in care or retail. Those two things are important to mention, but I didn’t start with my best foot forward, which is a definite mistake. In terms of the actual writing here, I didn’t go into detail of specific experiences/things I saw that showed teamwork and was quite vague in ‘complemented each other’- in what way? Instead of describing that I saw a lot of teamwork, I could have cut down the experiences and went into one specific one in more detail.  

Paragraph 3

This paragraph emphasises my scientific interest which is an important skill to demonstrate,   especially for Oxbridge applications. Since I sought out work experience in an area related to my EPQ, it shows I am truly interested and dedicated in the topic. While you need to be prepared to branch out into other area throughout your studies, demonstrating that you have already formed an interest in a specialist subject is great for showing that you are proactive and independent.  

Instead of just saying I arranged work experience, I should have reflected more on what I gained from it or learnt from it. I could have also described a more specific area of nanomedicine or an interesting case I saw to guide/predict interview questions more easily. The amount of detail I went into was decent, but you can always go deeper into topics, provided you’ve got the word count for it. Either way, it creates a good discussion point at you interview.  

Paragraph 4/5

These two paragraphs delve deeper into my research and extra-curricular activities , which is always an important thing to discuss in the latter half of your personal statement. The research especially further demonstrates my interest in the subject, while my extra curricular activities help to portray me as a hard-working, well-rounded and multi-skilled individual, something that’s always important for admissions teams.

While my research shows further dedication and understanding for the medicine, I have not linked any of my extra-curricular activities to the subject in anyway. I do mention so very general skills that have been developed from these activities, but the best personal statements would link these activities back to medicine in some way, even just with a brief sentence or passing mention. How do my piano or badminton skills make me a better medical student? This is the type of question you should aim to answer.  

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This conclusion is short and sums up my reasons to study medicine nicely, which is exactly what a good conclusion should do. However, it also describes how I appreciate the challenges that come with it, which show a level of self-awareness and realism that I perhaps missed in my introduction. It follows from the paragraph about my work/life balance which demonstrates appreciation of the sacrifices made in medicine, while demonstrating that these are sacrifices I would happily make for a chance to study, and eventually work, in medicine.

I think that ‘ social interaction’ could have been replaced by something more specific to medicine such as saving lives or advancing medicinal technology, as social interaction could encompass quite a lot of professions. Overall though, I feel this is a very solid conclusion!

Final Thoughts

I have covered practically everything that is expected of a good personal statement in some form here. Despite a couple of structural issues, I believe I have prioritised the the most important and most effective parts of my experience in order to create a statement that paints me in a very good light. From almost all of my work experiences, I have tried to improve certain skills and I showed that I took action to do so. The introduction is as clear as I could make it which is important to convey my key reasons to study medicine while the conclusion sums everything up nicely without repeating too much from the rest of the statement.

There are various smaller issues scattered around this personal statement, but nothing that makes it become a weak piece of work. For one, some of the statements I made were unnecessary and vague. Rather than aiming for quantity of experiences/skills, I think that delving into the most important ones with good reflection and understanding of their relevance would have been better. I could have also removed the section about LAMDA exams and piano exams as they would have been described in my UCAS application anyway, and don’t link to medicine in any meaningful way in my writing.  

As I said before, I didn’t start the discussion of my experiences with the most impressive and important part, my work experience, which undervalues all the work I did during the time somewhat. My final paragraph about my extra-curricular activities was also a bit weak looking back at it, as the admissions team will only be so impressed by these achievements if I haven’t explained how they have improved my abilities in medicine.  

So there you have it! This personal statement helped Lucy get 3/4 offers in her application, which is an incredibly desirable position for any applicant to be in!

Everyone has different experiences and abilities, so you may not be able to relate to everything that was said in this personal statement. However, the information and advice provided by Lucy is universal and will help any applicant write a better personal statement!  

Be sure to check out more Medicine Personal Statement Analyses to see advice from all different kinds of applicants, including Ali Abdaal himself, who also attended Cambridge! Or if you want to get started on your own statement, check out 6med’s Personal Statement Bundle for all the support and resources you’ll ever need! If you want full support on every part of your application and a guaranteed place at med school, the Complete Bundle will be perfect for you.  

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Classics – 2016 ( cambridge, durham, st andrews, exeter, ucl ).

I believe it is essential to study classical languages and civilizations because they are the source of our literature, our philosophy, our political systems, our conception of art and even ...

Please note UCAS will detect any form of plagiarism. PSE and its contributors do not take any responsibility for the way in which personal statements are used.

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Successful Oxbridge Personal Statements

Your Personal Statement is the first demonstration of your character that the admissions teams at Oxford and Cambridge will see. Your perfect Personal Statement can only be written by yourself as it has to convey exactly who you are, why you want to study at Oxbridge and why you deserve to be there. But that doesn't mean help isn't available. There are many things to learn that can improve the effectiveness of your statement when implemented correctly. One of the best ways to get a deeper understanding of what makes a good Personal Statement is to read successful statements that have transferable qualities. This page features over 25 Successful Oxbridge Personal Statements from a whole variety of subjects. Read through them and learn what makes them so good (as well as the mistakes that some make), so that you can create a strong base for your own writing.

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Your personal statement is essentially you introducing yourself to the Oxbridge admissions teams and explaining why you should be given an offer on their courses. It’s a piece of writing that will have a lasting impact throughout the application process, so you need to make the best first impression.

The admissions teams aren’t just interested in the achievements that you have made or the grades you have earned; they are looking for applicants with the right attitude for the course. They need applicants who can go the extra mile, have a true understanding of the subject and have the qualities needed to become successful in their chosen field. All of these things can be expressed in a well-written personal statement.

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Your personal statement may not be prepared for in the same way as an entrance exam, but there are still things you can do both before and during the writing process.

Firstly, it’s a good idea to view examples of successful personal statements, such as the 25 + available below. It helps to view those related to your chosen subject, but there are still benefits to looking through as many as possible. 

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Successful Personal Statement For Law At Oxford

Read through a successful Law Personal Statement for Oxford with a full analysis by Oxbridge Tutors. Find out why the Personal Statement helped the candidate to receive an Oxford offer.

Successful Personal Statement For Economics & Management At Oxford

Writing an Economics and Management Personal Statement for Oxford? If so, you’re in the right place! In this post, we go through a REAL Personal Statement submitted to UCAS for a candidate wishing to study E&M at Oxford.

Successful Personal Statement For PPE At Oxford

Writing a PPE Personal Statement for Oxford? If so, you’re in the right place! In this post, we go through a REAL Personal Statement submitted to UCAS for a candidate wishing to study PPE at Oxford.

Successful Personal Statement For Medicine At Oxford University

Writing a Medicine Personal Statement for Oxford? If so, you’re in the right place! In this post, we go through a REAL Personal Statement submitted to UCAS for a candidate wishing to study Medicine at Oxford.

Successful Personal Statement For Medicine At Cambridge

Writing a Medicine Personal Statement for Cambridge? If so, you’re in the right place! In this post, we go through a REAL Personal Statement submitted to UCAS for a candidate wishing to study Medicine at Cambridge.

Successful Personal Statement For Veterinary Medicine At Cambridge

Read through a successful Veterinary Medicine Personal Statement for Cambridge with a full analysis by Oxbridge Tutors. Find out why the Personal Statement helped the candidate to receive a Cambridge offer.

Successful Personal Statement For Philosophy At Cambridge

Read through a successful Philosophy Personal Statement for Cambridge with a full analysis by Oxbridge Tutors. Find out why the Personal Statement helped the candidate to receive a Cambridge offer.

Successful Personal Statement For Modern Languages At Oxford

Writing a Modern Languages Personal Statement for Oxford? If so, you’re in the right place! In this post, we go through a REAL Personal Statement submitted to UCAS for a candidate wishing to study Modern Languages at Oxford.

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Human, social, and political sciences personal statement example (cambridge).

Thinking, to me, occurs in patterns.

I’m a scavenger when it comes to ideas: borrowing from this, considering that, using a thought to spark off another. The process of peeling back the layers behind something - be it an institution, a symbol or a person - and trying to engage with its various levels of significance is, to put it simply, what makes me tick. Over time, it is what has drawn me to the arts and social sciences, where adopting diverse perspectives has allowed me to ‘dive back and forth’ between the concrete value of things and their more abstract meanings.

Learning about anthropology and sociology, through “Small Places, Large Issues” was one of the first steps I took towards focusing my interest. I was captivated by Eriksen’s discussion of religion and the cultivation of the ‘social person’, both of which made me question how behaviours and world-views are passed across generations. This enriched my exploration in Theory of Knowledge at school. The consideration of the formation and impact of cultural knowledge systems on people inspired me to inquire about the duality of shared and personal knowledge, as well as how modes of thought are shaped.

Later, as I read “The Invention of Tradition”, Hobsbawm’s explanation of the ‘mass production’ of traditions to form claims for nations was thought-provoking. It made me reflect on how the ritualization of symbols can be used for political causes, an idea which took on a key role in how I developed my Extended Essay on the causes of the Rwandan genocide. My critical understanding of an event where a society fragmented encouraged me to consider the wider structures which support societies and pushed me to investigate a variety of sources. Though the project was not without challenges, it taught me to refine my analytical skills and undoubtedly, reinforced my love for academic research.

The IB diploma content has, overall, been very stimulating. My analysis of “The Great Gatsby” in English encouraged me to think about how emblems of status and conspicuous consumption shape social relationships, as well as how they might arise. I was drawn by the novel’s use of symbol and form to convey a sense for the collective fantasy of the ‘American Dream’. These themes and their relevance to the context of the 1920s challenged me to bridge my interpretations of literary elements to social commentary. This has led me to wonder how art informs cultural perceptions and vice versa. A literary portrayal of material excess was complementary to our more practical study of sustainable development and the water-food-energy nexus in Geography. In this module, I uncovered links between cultural attitudes and social policy, growing to understand their dynamics in relation to political agendas. Above all, it is these interdisciplinary connections which I find most fascinating in my pursuit of knowledge.

My extracurricular activities also allow me to engage with contemporary issues. My participation in MUN for over 5 years has given me the chance to ‘experience’ facsimile scenarios of international politics, which encouraged me to throw myself wholeheartedly in debate. My involvement with Security Council committees, in particular, has made me more comfortable voicing my ideas and shifting between ‘big picture’ and specific thinking. As the editor of my school magazine, I have realised the importance of keeping an open mind when managing diverse opinions. It’s also taught me that strength lies in heterogeneity and empathy - values I hope to carry as a student and person.

These ideas have made my mind their habitat for a few years - now, they’re looking for an intellectual expansion. That’s why I want to study at an academic institution; a place where inquiry is at the epicentre of learning. It certainly feels like one of the ways I might be able to pursue the questions I wonder about... or at least begin to understand the social forces that are driving me to ask them in the first place.

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Author's Comments

As an IB student applying to the competitive Human, Social and Political Sciences course at Cambridge, I wanted my personal statement to really stand and highlight my engagement with knowledge at various different levels. Although this personal statement was mainly written with an Oxbridge application in mind, it also granted me offers to my 4 other UCAS choices, namely Durham (Combined Honours in SocSci), UCL (Social Sciences), KCL (Liberal Arts) and York (Soc and Pol Sci with Philosophy).

The most important advice I would give to someone writing their personal statement is to highlight what really makes their relationship and understanding of their subject unique. I would also recommend to start with a punchy opening line that immediately summarizes to the admissions officer what kind of person, and more importantly thinker, you are. Showcasing your mental model and the way you approach the world is the best way to portray yourself as an attractive applicant! Make sure you're also going in depth about the books you've mentioned and find a way to relate them back to your academic experience. Be ready to be questioned on any part of your PS! For Oxbridge arts applicants in particular, I would go as far as say it is perhaps the most important component of your application, as your interview may be largely based on it.

Best of luck to all!

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