"after I have completed my Journalism degree I would like to go into Journalism"
"after completing my degree in the field of Journalism I would like to do a postgraduate in Journalism"
"when I finish my Journalism degree I'm going to abandon everything and live in Goa as a nudist"
The final paragraph is where it all comes together, only to come to a dramatic halt. Writing about Journalism and taking a degree in the same field kind of hints that Journalism is what I wish to go into (correct, if you hadn't guessed up to this point). So why I have to write about postgraduates and finding work and using all my new found skills is beyond me. I haven't even taken my A2 exams yet - I don't even know if I can actually do a Journalism course until next summer, but I'm already expected to know what I wish to do after I've finished said degree.
Personally, I'm quite happy with the fact I know what I want to do a degree in. At the ripe old age of 17 and a half my concerns are more tailored towards illegally purchasing alcohol and getting home from parties rather than looking at postgraduate average salaries and finding the best degree location in the UK. Although I've known I want to do Journalism for about 4 or 5 years now I hadn't actually started researching and analysing universities until a few months ago. And why not? Because as previously said, I have more pressing concerns. Right now, my main one is actually passing the exams I need to get into university!
I agree that a Personal Statement is important - exam marks are subjective at the best of times and downright ignorant at the worst, but having to fit my future into 4000 characters is never going to be easy and as a result of that I think there should be other methods available for 'testing' (as it isn't called but pretty much should be) for a place. For example, someone could be an amazing musician (sadly not me) but have no writing skills and not get into their university of choice on that basis. Along with this, said musician could have terrible flu on the day of their practical exam and consequently miss their grades on this too.
This makes me wonder where those internet 'buy your Personal Statement online' people come in. Did they gain a degree in this? Did they fail their results and end up missing out on university? Surely it can't have been from a bad Personal Statement if that's what they've resorted to doing for a living. On the other hand, they could just be undernourished students looking for an extra income. We'll never know.
Most universities look for people with flair, or creativity, but fitting that into the boundaries of college experience, 'relevant work experience' and out of college activities require more than flair - more like a blue moon type occasion. It's the issue of fitting everything necessary in but also allowing room to show what you're really like. Being an aspirational Journalism student I should be good at this type of thing however this is where the 'aspirational' part comes in. How am I supposed to apply skills I haven't yet learnt?
Showing posts with label university. Show all posts
Showing posts with label university. Show all posts
Monday, 23 September 2013
Thursday, 19 September 2013
A Personal complaint about Statements
For the past 15 minutes I've been sitting at my computer trying to write a personal statement. I've googled 'Journalism Personal Statement', I've read through some of my friends' applications and I've even (albeit eventually) tried to write my own. But, nothing. I find it so easy to write whatever comes into my head, unfortunately in the current day and age this won't get my into my University of choice. Apparently nor will sending off a short message saying "please take me in, please, please, I promise I'll work hard, I'm quite intelligent I promise!" (not that I'd consider that anyway..hmm).
Bribery, begging, pleading.. none of these methods will get me into uni. The only method it seems is actually just writing the statement.
My biggest problem I think is having nothing to talk about. Us Brits are brought up to play down our successes and focus on our bad parts. All well and good for modesty but absolute rubbish for when it comes to selling ourselves. It's the same with CVs and Cover Letters. There is a thin line between selling yourself and showing off and so far no one seems to have sat comfortably on that line.
I remember going to Turkey a few years ago with my family and swimming out to sea with them. Once you've got a certain distance out, a pipe/line stops you going any further. The problem going further? You risk the chance of swimming into boats. I feel like I'm in a similar situation with my Personal Statement. My sister, Jennifer, and I reached a perfect equilibrium by balancing on top of the line - this way we could succeed at both crossing the line and also not getting chopped apart by boats at once. This is the metaphorical line I need to somehow reach.
As previously said, I have no problem just writing away, it's only when I have a purpose to write for I struggle. Given a topic specifically I am fine - it may take a few minutes and possibly a few drafts in order to write something worth reading but realistically I can be done pretty quickly.
I think that the character count also inhibits me when I'm writing a Personal Statement. I have little faith in UCAS patiently sitting there copying and pasting each applicaton into a character counter however obviously in order to appeal to them I should aim to stick under the limit (4000 characters if anyone was curious). 4000 also doesn't sound like a small number but for anyone who hasn't yet tried, squeezing the whole of your future ambitions and plans into 4000 characters is quite a task in itself. The fact that I'm also applying for Journalism makes it doubly difficult in my opinion as not only do I have to write a good Statement, I also have to write proving I can write whilst writing about my ambition to, in one sense, learn to write.
I guess anyone applying to university will struggle with their Personal Statement for the same reasons that I am; it's difficult not to show off, it's difficult to stick within the limit, and more importantly for me, it's difficult to stop blogging and start actually writing.
Bribery, begging, pleading.. none of these methods will get me into uni. The only method it seems is actually just writing the statement.
My biggest problem I think is having nothing to talk about. Us Brits are brought up to play down our successes and focus on our bad parts. All well and good for modesty but absolute rubbish for when it comes to selling ourselves. It's the same with CVs and Cover Letters. There is a thin line between selling yourself and showing off and so far no one seems to have sat comfortably on that line.
I remember going to Turkey a few years ago with my family and swimming out to sea with them. Once you've got a certain distance out, a pipe/line stops you going any further. The problem going further? You risk the chance of swimming into boats. I feel like I'm in a similar situation with my Personal Statement. My sister, Jennifer, and I reached a perfect equilibrium by balancing on top of the line - this way we could succeed at both crossing the line and also not getting chopped apart by boats at once. This is the metaphorical line I need to somehow reach.
As previously said, I have no problem just writing away, it's only when I have a purpose to write for I struggle. Given a topic specifically I am fine - it may take a few minutes and possibly a few drafts in order to write something worth reading but realistically I can be done pretty quickly.
I think that the character count also inhibits me when I'm writing a Personal Statement. I have little faith in UCAS patiently sitting there copying and pasting each applicaton into a character counter however obviously in order to appeal to them I should aim to stick under the limit (4000 characters if anyone was curious). 4000 also doesn't sound like a small number but for anyone who hasn't yet tried, squeezing the whole of your future ambitions and plans into 4000 characters is quite a task in itself. The fact that I'm also applying for Journalism makes it doubly difficult in my opinion as not only do I have to write a good Statement, I also have to write proving I can write whilst writing about my ambition to, in one sense, learn to write.
I guess anyone applying to university will struggle with their Personal Statement for the same reasons that I am; it's difficult not to show off, it's difficult to stick within the limit, and more importantly for me, it's difficult to stop blogging and start actually writing.
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