Your child may find writing their personal statement the most difficult part of the application process – they’re not alone.
For most applicants, it will be the first time they’ve had to write reflectively about themselves. Taking a positive approach, and leaving enough time to do a good job, really can make your child’s application stand out from the crowd.
The personal statement format is changing for 2026 entry. If your child is applying to start their studies in 2026, we have updated guidance to help you support them.
Help your child think about what to write and how to structure it, with UCAS’ personal statement tool – available in the UCAS Hub.
Not only is it a great tool to get them thinking about what they should be writing about, but it also tracks the characters they use, making sure they keep to the 4,000 limit.
To get started, encourage your child to:
Taking all those ideas, and structuring them into a perfect personal statement of up to 4,000 characters, is the next
step.
There’s a lot more to a university – or a job – application than academic achievements.
Admissions tutors and employers want to see how applicants have built up skills and experience outside of their studies too.
Work experience looks great on a personal statement, but only if your child can reflect on what they learnt from it, and how it’s relevant to the course they’re applying for.Using a real work experience example to answer the all-important question ‘why should we give you a place on this course?’ is bound to impress. For those looking to study medicine, for example, work experience that shows an interest in caring professions would be valuable – like nursery, preschools, or care home experience.
Work experience doesn’t always have to be in a relevant industry – at this stage, just gaining some experience in the workplace is more important.
Getting some professional experience, ideally relevant to your child’s chosen industry, will be looked on favourably by employers, and will help them decide if a particular career is right for them.
A Saturday job in a shop can demonstrate potential to admissions tutors. Encourage your child to be specific and describe a situation they’ve dealt with. How did they handle the situation? What did they learn? Get them to keep
it relevant to the course, and describe how the skills link to their degree work. If they’ve developed strong communication skills as a result of interacting with customers, they should mention how they would put them to good use when presenting ideas in seminars, for example.
A part-time job can equip them with transferable skills, show they can balance work with their studies, and help cover living costs.
Doing voluntary work at a younger age shows that an applicant has drive. It's often a good way of building up communication and interaction skills too, so help your child reflect on these in their personal statement.
Volunteering could give your child the opportunity to gain more hands-on experience in a particular role than they would in a part-time job, or even through work experience. Many smaller charities are willing to give students more responsibility, as they don’t have the funds to pay lots of staff.
Talking about other interests or hobbies helps inject some personality into their statement. Before it goes in, they should
ask themselves ‘so what?’. Less can sometimes be more – only include an example if it’s relevant.
The key words here are moderation and motivation. They should be picky, and avoid the temptation to sign up to everything in freshers’ week. It’s far better to actively contribute to one or two societies or initiatives so they have something more meaningful to put on their CV and job applications.