The key to a good personal statement is to relate your passion for whatever you do locally, or somewhere you’ve travelled in the UK or overseas, to why you want to study geography.
Geography is a far-reaching subject, meaning you can cover a multitude of activities, interests, or experiences that relate to it. Find out how to write about these passions in an engaging and reflective way that will make you stand out from the crowd.
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Think about why you want to study the subject
- Have you been inspired by someone, a news story, a documentary, or a podcast?
- Do you have career aspirations in this area of study?
- What interests you about the subject – be specific; rather than saying you enjoy it or are good at it, try to explain the ‘why’ behind your reasoning.
- What do you already know about the subject and what are you looking forward to learning more about?
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What makes you suitable to study the subject?
- Have you done projects or essays in this subject at school or college?
- Think about who you are as a person; your personality, your strengths, your experiences in life – how do these make you suited to study the subject?
- How have you shown an interest in the subject outside of school or college – have you done extra reading, online courses, been part of clubs or competitions?
- Your current subjects and grades will be included elsewhere in your application, so try to think about specific things you’ve learned during your studies that relate to the subject, rather than listing your grades and subjects.
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Look at the bigger picture
- Have you done any work experience, an internship or had a part-time job in this subject area or related? Most job or work experience will give you transferable skills, even if it’s in a different industry.
- Do you have any hobbies you can mention that might relate to your chosen subject? Many hobbies show that you can be motivated outside of school to achieve and succeed in something you’re interested in.
- Think about how your life and personal experiences have helped make you the person you are today, and how these challenges and experiences can support your application by evidencing essential qualities for certain subjects.
- If you’ve got ambitions and goals for your life and career, can you express how this subject will help you reach these goals?
Guidance and examples you can use
Question 1: Why do you want to study this course or subject?
This is your opportunity to showcase your passion and knowledge of your chosen subject area and to demonstrate to universities and colleges why it’s a good fit for you and your future ambitions.
Examples:
- The London School of Economics is looking for what's motivated you to apply for their course – including wider reading or activities and your interest in 'contemporary geographical problems and their alleviation'. Maybe you’ve joined a campaign group after learning about air pollution in your area, or you listened to Rob Beckett: Bees in a Pod and started planting wildflowers to encourage the wild bee population.
- Avoid obvious phrases like 'I’ve always enjoyed geography’ – instead, if regeneration, GIS, tropical savannas, glaciology, coastal zones, tourism or geopolitics fascinate you, write about them in a specific way.
- If your UCAS choices include specialist areas such as development, population, marine or environmental aspects of geography, include evidence of relevant interests – maybe you’ve travelled somewhere and taken note of social conditions, read something interesting about migration or marine ecology, or contributed to an environmental debate which has sparked an interest to learn about environmental policy.
Question 2: How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?
This is your chance to shout about the relevant or transferable skills you’ve gained from your formal education and highlight your understanding of how they will help you succeed in this subject area.
Examples:
- Write about something that excites you about geography, whether it’s a particular aspect of the syllabus, your wider reading, a project (the EPQ would be relevant if you’re doing one), fieldwork, your extracurricular interests – and the skills you’ve picked up. If you enjoyed your geography field trip, explain how you monitored or collected samples, or analysed data afterwards.
- If you’re a curious person, or you want to understand more about our planet, demonstrate that in your statement. Perhaps you’ve done a geography or sociology project on green spaces in urban areas, which led you to start volunteering for a charity like Trees for Cities.
- If you studied maths, and enjoyed statistics, explain how those skills will help you when studying geography.
- Have you done any online courses to boost your knowledge in the subject? For example, why not try Subject Spotlights or Virtual Work Experiences from Springpod to grow your skills and interest?
Question 3: What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?
This is your chance to talk about any other activities you have undertaken outside of your formal education, or personal experiences which further demonstrate your suitability for the course. This section is likely to be highly personal to you and anything you do include should reflect on why you’re including it.
Examples:
- The University of Southampton is looking for 'A high quality piece of writing that outlines your interests in geography, your extracurricular pursuits, and something of what makes you distinctive as a person’.
- Write passionately about hiking, collecting maps or rocks, canoeing, or other outdoor activities you enjoy, and show how these might suit you to studying geography (through, for example, being curious about and comfortable in the natural world).
- Geography students need skills like project management, good communication and planning. Talk about a time you’ve led a school or extracurricular project, or part-time jobs in a cafe or a hairdresser’s and how they’ve given you skills you’ll use on this course.
- If you’ve overcome a challenge in your personal life, how will that resilience help you study for a degree?
- Do relate any examples back to the subject you’re applying to – make it relevant
- Do make it personal – admissions staff want to get to know who you are
- Do use a spell-checker and grammar-checker to ensure there are no errors
- Do ask people for feedback, whether that’s family members or teachers
- Do your research to find out what universities are looking for, and make sure you include evidence to show how you are suitable for the course
- Don’t just list out examples, subjects you study, or experiences you’ve had without any evidence
- Don’t copy something you’ve seen online or use AI to write something for you
- Don’t make things up just because you think they’ll make you look good on paper
- Don’t leave it until the last minute – you need time for several drafts
- Don’t worry about making each section the same length; as long as you hit the minimum character count, you can use the 4,000 characters across each answer in the way that suits you best
How to set yourself apart
The key to setting yourself apart in your application is to remember how important the ‘personal’ bit is to your personal statement. What makes you, you?
What personal experiences have you had that impact how you might approach this degree course? If you’ve been a carer, you’ll know how to manage your time effectively. If you’ve had to commute from a rural area to a town or city for college, you’ll understand transport routes, planning and comparisons between urban and rural living.
If you captain a sports team, or you’ve directed a drama production, you’ll have good leadership skills. If you’ve done some travelling with friends or family, you’ll have needed to plan and be adaptable. Be specific about what you learned about tourism or the local environment during your trip and, if you can, relate it to what you hope to do next with your geography degree or your future career.
Are you a regular podcast listener?
Whether it’s Climate Rising from Harvard Business School or Jane Goodall’s Hopecast – explain what you like about them and what you’ve learned or want to know more about.
Maybe your ultimate goal is to host your own podcast on sustainability!
Some more tips to consider
- Research the course: Why do you want to study geography, which part of geography (for example, human or physical geography) interests you, how does it relate to your academic studies, and what additional reading or other activities have led you to apply?
- Remember to be passionate, and include the why: Dr Reimer at Southampton says: 'We are keen to teach students who are fascinated by the subject, so we want you to demonstrate your enthusiasm for it in your statement’.
- Teamworking skills: To study geography, you’ll need to work well as part of a team. What school projects or part-time jobs can you mention that demonstrate these skills?
- Transferable skills: Think of other relevant skill you’ve picked up, whether it’s time management from balancing sports or other extracurricular activities with schoolwork, good communication skills from part-time work at a leisure centre or in a shop, or a curiosity about the world from a special trip, holiday, or weekend walks in your local area.