How you package yourself is important, but the bottom line is you need to have done your market research and got your product right. Admissions tutors are looking for an honest, well-researched, and engaging statement that shows you understand what you’re applying for, and that you’ve got relevant skills or experiences to offer.
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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:
- Write about what specifically interests you about studying marketing – whether it’s market research, decision science, psychology, or public relations – and why you want to investigate these topics further.
- Sheffield Hallam University expects you to demonstrate 'an interest in and awareness of business/marketing, or some level of practical experience'. Showcase things you’ve learned from reading about branding or watching TED talks from experts like Rory Sutherland or Jessica Apotheker, or if you admire the way a brand markets themselves, from their website to their social media, explore this and how it’s inspired you.
- Mention any work experience you’ve had, for example doing some digital marketing for a company, and how that has made you want to study marketing further. Even better if you know where this degree might take you in your career.
- Leeds Metropolitan University’s sport marketing degree tutors will be scanning your statement for evidence of the 'personal attributes, experience and/or commitment to the area of study that will stand you out from the crowd’, so try and keep your answers unique to you.
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:
- Think of the skills you’ve picked up during your studies. University of Bath says its management with marketing degree applicants should be able to demonstrate experience of working with others and relevant transferable skills, but this could be achieved through things like your involvement in the running of a society or a position of responsibility at school or college if you haven't had direct work experience.
- Mention projects you’ve worked on where you had to work well in a team, such as a design technology or science project, and subjects that have allowed you to build your presentation and communication skills.
- 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?
- What else about you would suit you to a degree like this? Are you interested in people? Are you particularly brand aware? Can you demonstrate you’re a good planner, for example in the way you’ve planned for your A level or equivalent studies?
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:
- Mention any part-time or Saturday jobs that have given you good customer service or sales skills. How will these help you on this course?
- Write reflectively about any work experience. That could be what you’ve gained from your job at a supermarket, the book you’ve just read on branding, the charity event you recently helped to organise, a business project you just undertook on your BTEC or A level course, or why your Young Enterprise company didn't make a profit.
- York St John University flags the value of your reflections on any relevant workshops or seminars you've attended too, or how you've shown leadership and teamwork skills through project work or awards such as Duke of Edinburgh.
- What about your hobbies – do you play a team sport, or do you have an interest such as learning a language or teaching yourself guitar which shows you’ve got the commitment and perseverance to succeed in something you’re interested in?
- 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?
Bournemouth University highlights that demonstrating qualities like creativity, an understanding of the marketing and communications industry, your ability to work in a team as well as independently, good presentation and communication skills and computer literacy will help to give marketing students the edge.
Have you ever done any content creation or search engine optimisation (SEO) for a website or on social media that you can mention? Perhaps you’re an art enthusiast and you’ve helped a local artist build and market themselves online? Or maybe it’s your own artwork you’ve been advertising?
Think what else makes you interesting to admissions tutors that’s still relevant to a marketing course. If you enjoy horse riding, don’t just mention that, mention the other skills it brings you too like empathy, time management, organisation and an antidote to sitting in front of a screen.
Make it relatable
It’s even better if you can link your personal attributes back to something you've learned in your information technology (IT), economics, or psychology studies, or read in The Drum or Marketing Week.
Or relate it back to games you enjoy. If you’re big into Roblox, explain how the platform persuaded you, and millions of others, to spend money on in-app purchases like Robux.
Some more tips to consider
- Understand the marketing landscape: Focus on why you want to study marketing and pursue a career in it. Comment on something interesting you've found in newspapers or industry-related magazines, by following key industry figures on social media, or when meeting business professionals face-to-face.
- Demonstrate a strong understanding of business: Explain the role you feel marketing plays in the success of any business operation or an awareness of how marketing is responding to a changing world.
- Highlight any marketing or business operation you’ve been involved in: Don’t forget to reveal what you’ve learned from work experience or a part-time job where you've made some relevant observations, or demonstrated skills or commitment.
- Include examples from enterprise schemes at school or college: This can be just as valuable as real workplace experience, as long as you say something interesting about it. Don’t worry if you weren’t successful: it’s ok to discuss what went wrong as well as what went right, provided you learned from it.
- Give them a balanced, rounded picture of yourself as a potential student: Your achievements, evidence of your key strengths and qualities, a project you’ve undertaken, or the subjects you’ve found genuinely interesting and how they’ve enhanced your potential as well as your interests outside the academic world. No need to oversell yourself too. Write in a clear, concise tone and give examples of activities you’ve been involved in.