UCAS Application

[Tally]

Does my referee get to see my whole application? Only I've mentioned having Asperger's and ME in the question about disability and I would prefer her not to know. I don't mind too much but I want to know whether or not she's going to see that bit!

 

Should I mention anything about it in the personal statement? And should I say anything about losing my brother this year? I don't feel it's at all relevant to my choice of subject and I don't really want to claim I've overcome some kind of hardship or anything like that. Presumably any support needs can be discussed directly with the university or the DSA assessor.

 

Is it really bad to talk about your cat in your personal statement? She is, after all, the reason I first became interested in animal behaviour, which is what I want to study.

[Special_talent123]

i think the more people know about your condition, the better- although u may think they will treat you differently, but they need to know so they know how to help you in the best possible way. If you have some mental health should also write it on your form so that if you do study they can get you help in uni so they can keep you in.

[barefoot wend]

I can recommend looking on The Student Room site for good examples of personal statements and the sorts of things people include for particular courses.

 

I think it would be good to mention that your interest began via your cat but show how it has developed since then, i.e don't go on about it too much!

 

There are also some good books on how to write a persoonal statement that you can buy from a well known book selling internet site.

 

I don't think I would mention your brother unless it has affected any exam results or impacted on your studies toward your intended degree.

 

Barefoot

[Tanya52]

Hi Tally,

 

 

I agree with Barefoot, that if you choose a positive and pragmatic approach for talking about your pet observations, it’s going to indicate your key self-drive for doing this course. But you have to make it short & interesting.

 

Regarding to your loss, I’m sorry to say that you‘re right and it’s not relevant. As for your referee, ask yourself how this knowledge can affect all this process. If it doesn’t feel right telling her, than don’t do it. Even if she’s going to notice your disability statement, it’s supposed to be strictly confidential between you and the uni’s disability team.

 

Regarding to your DLA. It’s well worth to get in touch with the uni’s disability team and to ask which assessment centre they usually work with. It might be that they have a few different and you might want to look closer which one is better suited for your needs. I found that to some degree I could control this process and as a result got a better deal this year.

[Kathryn]

I asked L as she's been through the process recently, but she didn't know what happened to her application or who saw it - as she applied via college it was a fairly automatic process. She didn't even get to see what her referees wrote about her. . UCAS are fairly helpful - maybe they can tell you?

 

I agree with you and others about mentioning your brother in your statement- if it's not directly relevant, leave it out as you are limited in length and you want to leave room to say as much as possible about your reasons for wanting to do the course. In her personal statement L briefly mentioned that she had been ill, but in her case it was relevant as she wanted to explain why she had not finished school.

 

Your cat is relevant though - and cats are your passion so don't hold back on that as you want to show them what motivates and inspires you and the more interesting your personal statement is, the more it will stand out. Don't worry about following a formula - your personal statement will make more of an impression if it doesn't look like everyone else's.

 

Good luck with it

 

K x

[Tally]

No, you definitely do not get to see your references.

 

Your referee is not allowed to mention any disabilities unless you give them permission to do so, although I don't know how you'd ever know since you're not allowed to see the reference! But I think the person I've asked is supportive of what I want to study and wouldn't say anything bad.

 

It's too late to worry about whether she will see it now, because she told me today she's received the email asking her to write the reference. She just hasn't had time to look any further yet, which I expected anyway. I'm not too worried, I think she is the kind of person who will be OK about it. I'm pretty sure they ask the referee to look over it and confirm it is accurate to their knowledge, so she must be able to see it. I panicked a bit but I'm not too worried about that now. I'll probably find out next week anyway.

 

I've been researching on the internet about mentioning disabilities in personal statements and the general advice seems to be to mention them. But then they give examples of how the disability has made you passionate about the subject, for example, wanting to study engineering as needing to use a wheelchair has made them passionate about a career in designing wheelchairs. Or how they have overcome a disability resulting from an accident. Whereas I can't really say anything like that about my disabilities.

 

The only thing I haven't really mentioned is the reason for the long gap between finishing school and deciding to study, but that's nothing to do with my disabilities. But I think I can talk about how it's taken me a while to decide what I want to do, but now I have I don't feel I have time to waste, I think I can word that in a way that makes me sound dedicated to the course and to a career afterwards (they love to be able to say what ex-students have gone on to do). It's not just something I just fancy doing because I don't know what else to do.

 

So at the moment I think it's best not to mention it (other than the specific question they ask on the form) in my personal statament, nor bring it up at interview, just be prepared in case they ask me about it. And then if they offer me a place I can ask about support then. To be honest, I'm not even sure what kind of support I might need as I never had any in school. The kinds of things that have been suggested to me aren't the kind of things I would need, like a note-taker, I am pretty good at taking notes.

 

My only major concern is travelling there. Public transport would mean a mile walk, train (what if I can't find a seat?), bus (seat issues again), and another mile and a half walk, which I don't think I can manage either. I find driving really tiring, but I think it's going to be my best choice, and I could arrive early to avoid the rush hour, I think classes finish early enough to avoid it in the afternoons. And at least I will be assured of a seat. I just need to be assured of finding a parking space, but I don't even know if that's going to be a problem. I might do a recce once term starts in January and see if there are many spaces left.

 

Anyway, I've managed to cobble together a first draft of my personal statement which my mum is looking over now. She was a teacher until recently and helped her students write theirs, so she knows what she's doing. I can't find anything online about the subject I want to study because it's a bit unusual so I think I'm going to have to go for the "interesting and different" approach anyway. Hopefully it will be less rambling than this post!

Edited December 29, 2011 by Tally

[Tally]

My mum was impressed with my first draft of my personal statement, but it was 50% under the maximum word count and she suggested some other things I could mention. So I added them and my second draft was 50% over the maximum word count So I've stripped it back as much as possible and it's now only 3 lines over, my mum is going to have a go at cutting out a little bit more.

 

I thought it made most sense to still mention everything, but in less detail, so that they are aware of everything. I will have the opportunity to go into more detail at interview (I will definitely have to interview), and they will know about the restricted space on the application form.

 

I haven't mentioned that I have ME or Asperger's, but I have said that I've taken an informal interest in autism and that I am the secretary of the autism special interest group of Mensa. I think I'll only tell them at interview if they specifically ask why I am interested in autism. Otherwise I'll just talk about one of the career options I'm considering, which is to teach animal care skills to disabled adults at a city farm.