Most of our postgraduate require a personal statement appended, outlining why you want to take that particular course. See Supporting Documents website to see if your programme has this requirement. If it does, this blog post by Claire Murphy and Kendra Cassidy from the Career Development Centre will be extremely useful.
Before you write your personal statement, you really need to do a lot of research. You need to research the entry requirements, the modules that you will be studying, the research you are expected to carry out during the course and if there is a placement involved in your course.
Ideally, you should attend an open day where possible and or try and talk to (or email) the programme director to get a deeper understanding of what it is (s)he is looking for in the personal statement for their course. If you can, speak to someone who has already been accepted on to the course—this would be a great way to find out what the course director values and likes to see in the personal statement of potential students.
After you have done this research, we recommend that you download our personal statement booklet. It contains guidelines and useful information on how to write a personal statement. There is also a set of questions which will help you to think about what to write and how to break up your personal statement into different sections.
We suggest that you structure your personal statement accordingly:
- State your motivation for doing the course, why do you want to do this course, how did you decide this course is for you?
- State if you previously studied any modules or subjects related to this course during your degree, or have you worked in the area or similar area of the course? Have you academically excelled in your degree or in certain subjects? Did you do really well in your research project or final year project?
- State what relevant skills and attributes make you suitable for this course. For example, are you caring and empathetic having worked in a nursing home and you now feel those skills could be applied to your career as a social worker? Did you study a language and you now feel that has given you a great insight into another culture? This could be relevant if making an application to a sales or marketing masters or any that would allow you to market a product to that country and culture.
- State how your extra-curricular activities contribute to your suitability to this course? For example, did promoting science with (a voluntary body like) Cell Explorers give you a flavour of what a school setting is like? Did working three days a week in a part time job while studying full-time equip you with excellent time management skills? Did working as a mentor make you realise that you enjoyed mentoring, and that a career involving mentoring such as teaching might be a very enjoyable career or job for you!
- This section is really about reiterating your motivation to do the course and what you want out of the course. It is ok not to know what you want out of the course long-term but you really do need to know what the course will give you now and in the short term. Where do you hope to end up as a result of the course?
Any claim you make regarding any of your skills or achievements, you must evidence them. In other words, you need to provide concrete examples of you how you excelled in your degree, and how you acquired your skills through volunteering or part-time work. Basically anything you state in your personal statement, you must back up with an example! The above set of questions is a loose guide as to how you should structure your personal statement but the booklet has more detailed and specific questions that will help you to write your personal statement.
Most personal statements do require a specific word count but before you focus on your word count, you need to focus on a well-structured coherent personal statement that has a good flow and is written in chronological order. You can start from where you are now and work your way backwards, or you may want to start writing about when you were in secondary school, and then work your way forward to where you are now. It is very important that you do write either in chronological order or reverse chronological order, so that your personal statement has a nice flow and is not difficult for the reader to follow. Don’t jump in and out of time periods throughout your personal statement as this can make it hard to follow.
The first step to writing a personal statement really is about writing as much as possible, then maybe looking at sample personal statements online to see how they are written and structured. Do not however plagiarise from another person or online source. Your statement needs to be unique and authentic and above will help you to create your own.
It is important to note that your personal statement is not an autobiography and every sentence is important and should convince the reader that you have the academic ability, skills and attitude to complete the programme successfully. Keep your sentences clear and concise and avoid colloquial language such as you ‘like’ or you ‘know’ or ‘getting on with things’. Remember, this is a formal document, it is however a very personal document, so use the personal pronoun ‘I’.
Once you have your personal statement written, and had it checked by a family member or a friend for spelling, grammar and content, you should be ready to submit it. However, if you are hesitant or unsure that you have addressed the brief well, then you can book a personal statement review appointment with your careers centre/adviser. Please don’t leave this to the last minute as appointments may not be available at short notice.
UPDATE, Feb. 2023: watch our latest Writing an Effective Personal Statement video here.
More information:
Career Development Centre
Postgraduate Studies at NUI Galway
Apply online here
NUI Galway is one of Ireland’s top universities for graduate employability. 96% of our undergraduates and 94% of postgraduate students are in employment or further study within six months of graduating. Career prospects are excellent for NUI Galway graduates both in terms of an exceptionally high employment rate upon graduation and in terms of career progression.
Your Postgraduate Studies at University of Galway 