The UCAS personal statement is a very specific essay that is both seemingly simple and mission critical to the process of applying to university in the UK. This is the only opportunity you have to introduce yourself to your chosen university in your own words, and the same essay will be sent to all of the universities that you apply to. And you only have 4000 characters to say everything you need to say.

4000 characters is roughly 650 words. That’s not a lot, so it’s important to be clear, specific and concise. Although the essay should be written in formal language it pays to keep things simple: you won’t impress the universities with fancy, thesaurus-sourced language, and it’d only waste valuable characters.

The British Education System

The nature of the UCAS personal statement strongly reflects the British education system itself. A defining aspect of British education is that students are able to narrow down their chosen fields of study over a period of years, and applying to university is the culmination of that process: with rare exceptions, students apply to study one specific subject that they intend to focus on for the next three years, and which is likely to inform their career choices that shape the rest of their lives.

In fact, when you apply to a British university you are not so much applying to the university itself as to a specific department within the university. Your personal statement will be read by the Director of Admissions but also by the faculty members who teach your chosen course. As a result, the people reading the essay are experts in their field and are looking for evidence that the applicant has an aptitude for the particular subject of study.

Since the British system forces students to whittle down the subjects that they opt to study at GCSE and then to specialize even further at A Level, they will typically have explored their chosen subjects at a deeper and more specific level than their counterparts in other education systems; and the professors at British universities expect their applicants to already be conversant with the technical language and concepts of their subject.

British students who have completed A Level studies have been specializing in their chosen subjects for two years and are likely to have explored their subject at a deeper level than students who have been following a broader curriculum. Therefore, it is this deeper level of knowledge and interest that the British professors are looking for. It is not enough to wish to study a certain course; one has to show a clear track record of interest and activity in that area.

The Content of the Personal Statement

In essence, the UCAS personal statement is a persuasive essay with an introduction, a conclusion and several body paragraphs explaining why you would be a great student for the particular subject you’re applying to study. The thesis of the argument is simply that you should be studying this particular subject. Anything that doesn’t support that thesis doesn’t belong in the essay.

It can be hard to process that one’s heroics as the star of the football team or the organizer of a charity may in fact be irrelevant to this essay, except insofar as they provide evidence of character traits that might enhance your studies. Even then, such impressive achievements that demonstrate one’s enthusiasm, dedication, resilience, or initiative in general will only warrant a mention towards the end of the statement as a bonus. The point of the UCAS personal statement is simply to leave no doubt that you are passionate and determined to study this particular subject. In just 650 words. For reference, there are already over 600 words in this essay by this point. Space constraints mean that the kind of achievements that stand out in an American university application are merely reduced to a quick list in one sentence in the British personal statement.

The Structure

The key to grabbing the reader’s attention in the introduction – and therefore standing out from the thousands of other applicants – is to leave no doubt about how enthusiastic you are to devote your time to studying your chosen subject. Preparing for the UCAS personal statement is a great opportunity for self-reflection, including thinking about where your passion for this subject began, and what motivates you to keep studying it now. Sharing the journey of how your initial interest grew into a deep desire to explore this area further is a powerful statement that will resonate both intellectually and emotionally; thus it is a great way to begin the essay.

The body paragraphs should provide clear evidence that this passion has already motivated you and driven your behavior for some time, and that the desire to study your chosen subject for the next three years is the culmination of a string of historical choices and activities rather than merely a whim or ambition.

Each paragraph will introduce a new aspect that provides further evidence of this suitability, and each example should be clear and specific. Typically, half the space will in fact reflect academic experiences at school. For example, a student who wants to pursue archaeology will be able to discuss a history project that they carried out, while the student who wishes to learn more about pharmacology will be able to talk about – and have anecdotes to provide evidence for – their interest in chemistry.

The other half of the body paragraphs will demonstrate how the fascination with the subject is so deep that it spills over into extra-curricular activities. It’s crucial that these activities aren’t merely impressive but rather that they directly relate to the chosen topic. For example, an internship at Goldman Sachs will be a great anecdote for a prospective Economics student, but irrelevant for our archeologist. It is also beneficial to reflect on how these activities have impacted or deepened your insights and appreciation of the field.

Coming to the end of the essay, a few sentences can be spared for a little ‘bragging’, especially if these edited highlights demonstrate good character traits that will support your studies. Even then, there is no credit for being a ‘hero’. The professors at British universities who are reading the UCAS personal statement are not looking for stars but rather individuals who are invested in their education. You’ll certainly score bonus points if you can see yourself having a career in this field after graduating, or wish to follow those professors on an academic path. Dedication and devotion will be the qualities that win over the university gatekeepers.

Educating Young Adults

British universities aim their education at young adults rather than old children, meaning that they are not a more advanced version of high school. Students are expected to behave as adults and are treated as such: they must organize their own time, arrange their schedules and hold themselves accountable.

Academically, students are not going to be spoon-fed concepts as is typical in earlier education. Rather, they will be expected to be engaged in self-study, which is why the drive and motivation to pursue the subject is so important. At the same time, the long-standing interest in the subject – coupled with the naturally deeper study offered by A Levels – means that students are typically expected to already know the terminology and technical language of their chosen topic. Students who don’t have that pre-existing passion for the subject may find themselves floundering. And there’s every chance that you will be taught by the very professor who wrote the course book that you are studying from, so there is no room for students who aren’t invested in the material.

However, if you know what you want to study and have been fascinated by the subject for years, and you can’t wait to understand more or ask all the questions that only experts could answer, then finding the evidence to write the UCAS personal statement should be very straightforward. The hard part will be condensing it into only 4000 characters!

By Nick Thomas, Private Tutor, Brad Hoffman, M.S.Ed., Board Certified Educational Planner, and Faya Hoffman, M.A., Board Certified Educational Planner

The Ivy League vs the Russell Group and why educational quality is more than just branding.

The United States and the United Kingdom together dominate the world of higher education. At the uppermost levels, elite universities in the US and the UK have banded together to share information, lobby the government to protect their interests, and market their own prestige internally and abroad.

In the US, we have the Ivy League, and the UK, the Russell Group. According to US News and World Reports, 4 of the 10 Best Global Universities in 2022-2023 were in either the Ivy League or the Russell Group. According to the Times World University Rankings, schools from these two groups take six out of ten top spots. While universities from both the Ivy League and the Russell Group may be on the same list, these consortiums of top universities vary significantly in age, membership, and influence. So what’s the difference?

The older of the two, the Ivy League, is a group of eight American private research universities located in the American Northeast. Officially formed in 1954 as an athletic conference, the term Ivy League had been in use since at least the 1930s–when collegiate sports were first growing in national popularity. Members include, from smallest to largest student body: Dartmouth, Princeton, Brown, Yale, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, and Columbia.

Larger than a small liberal arts college but smaller than the typical state school, these eight pre-colonial universities represent some of the oldest and most renowned institutions of learning in the United States. Their endowments range from the low billions at Dartmouth to over $50 billion at Harvard, and this money is used to fund cutting edge research, hire leading scholars, build immense campuses, and offer generous tuition assistance to qualifying students.

Applying to Ivy League schools is not much different from applying to other super-selective US schools, with acceptance rates ranging between 3.4 and 8%. Requirements include the Common App, plus a battery of supplemental essays, test scores (technically optional), recommendations, and top grades. A bevy of meaningful volunteer work or impressive accolades, plus athletic or artistic talent can all help move the needle.

However, admissions criteria at Ivies are in a state of unusual flux because of ongoing litigation. In October of 2022, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a suit against Harvard and other schools accusing them of “reverse racism” for race-conscious admissions programs that aim to improve educational access for historically disadvantaged students. What this means for the future of admissions is an open question, but many commentators believe top universities will find other proxies for race, such as zip-code, in order to increase student body diversity and meet their inclusion goals.

Today, the Ivy League has become synonymous not just with a high quality education, but with the alumni networks and professional opportunities that come with it. The Ivies dominate some measures of “degree value,” including prize-winning alumni and students, and research spending. But is this a reflection of the quality of the education students receive or merely a self-perpetuating system? Increasingly, some experts argue that Ivies are not all they’re cracked up to be. Some point to lower faculty-student ratios at other top research universities, like Cal-tech and University of Chicago, as indices of higher quality teaching. Others note that the Ivy League barely cracks the top 10 schools for producing PhDs in total quantity or adjusted by size.

But for many applicants, what matters are the opportunities these schools open up for alumni. When it comes to salaries earned in the first three years after graduation, median pay for Ivy Leaguers in 2022 was $86,025, compared to $58,643 for those who graduated from other American universities. Whether this career success can be attributed to the universities or the fact that many students are children of Ivy League alumni and enter these schools already having studied, perhaps, at the best prep programs is difficult to parse. Still, five of the last six US presidents have graduated from an Ivy League school, so that alumni network must be worth something. And while graduating with an Ivy League degree can greatly improve a student’s access to job opportunities (even the Oval Office), dropping out of an Ivy League school to start a tech company may confer even more prestige–at least according to Peter Thiel.

Such is the grip that the Ivy League has on our collective imaginations that in 1994, the UK felt compelled to create its own equivalent, known as the Russell Group. The Russell Group is a voluntary organization of twenty-four publicly funded research universities in the UK. Since its establishment in 1994 and subsequent incorporation in 2007, its main purpose is to advocate for the interests of its member institutions, particularly to the government and UK Parliament. Aside from Cambridge and Oxford, the UK’s two oldest and most prestigious universities, the Russell Group includes top “redbrick universities” and research powerhouses, such as London School of Economics and Imperial College London. While the group is commonly regarded as the best universities in the UK, some researchers and educators have challenged this idea.

Proponents argue that what sets these universities apart from competitors is the quality and quantity of their research output. According to the Research Excellence Framework, Russell Group universities account for 65% of world-leading research. Their research is considered an engine of British economic growth, with many inventions, patents, and technologies developed through government research grants that ultimately are spun out into valuable, even world-changing, businesses. The relationship between Cambridge and Astrazeneca to produce Covid vaccines and research epitomizes this three-way partnership between public, private, and university stakeholders. Given this reputation for success, many students are keen to study with its members; half (55%) of all postgraduate research students studying in the UK attend a Russell Group university.

However, some critics argue that the Russell Group is too broad a network to really be elite. Founded with 17 members, the Group has grown to 24–equivalent to combining the top 50 American schools into a single category. And some of the UK universities with the best reputations, such as St. Andrews (which counts Prince Harry among its alumni), are not included among its members. Even the former chief of UCAS (the British equivalent to the Common App and College Board) said that the performance of only four or five of the Russell Group’s members could really be called “outstanding,” going on to call the group “a self-selecting, hollow brand.”

Ultimately, both the Ivy League and the Russell Group offer obvious advantages to prospective students. Fantastic teaching, excellent facilities, opportunities to be involved in cutting edge research, and powerful alumni networks all add to their value. But would-be applicants should take these claims with a grain of salt. Increasingly, students and professors are beginning to probe data behind some university rankings, drawing into question just how exactly we evaluate the worth of a university education. While both groups include schools that will provide a world-class learning experience, students should not limit themselves to only applying to Ivies or Russell Group schools. There is a whole wide world of higher education, and students would be wise to seek out the most suitable universities for themselves, not the first ones that pop up first on a Google search of “best universities.”

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