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Writing Your Essay/
Personal Statement

Writing your essay

Drafting your Personal or Motivation statement. (commonly asked for in Europe or Asia)

**UCAS Hub has a helpful section called: Personal Statement builder (use it to build your motivation statement if you are asked for one)

NOTE: UCAS is the way that students apply to Uni’s in the UK. You can register on UCAS Hub even though you’re not going to apply to the UK.  In addition to helping you draft your personal statement, it also has a lot of very useful resources you may find helpful. 

First, you create an account in the UCAS Hub.

Get started  


  • Start your studies: 2025
  • Level of study: undergraduate
  • Where do your live: Uruguay
  • Connect to your school: Type in: Uruguayan American School
  • Answer a few questions about what you’re interested in
  • Finally: click “create my account”. Once you have your account, then…
  • Scroll down to Personal Statement builder and click “continue writing”
  • Personal statement guides are also very helpful

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Writing your essay

Important Dates
Recommendation

UCAS Personal Statement
Your personal statement is your chance to describe the ambitions, skills and experience that will make you right for your choices. This tool was created to get you thinking about what to include.

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Common Application Essay
You must select one essay prompt to respond to in 650 words. Some universities may require you to respond to supplementary questions.

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When you apply to college, you’ll need to complete an essay as part of your application. This is your opportunity to show admission officers who you are and to provide information about yourself that didn’t fit in other areas of your application. The essay also reveals what you can do when you have time to think and work on a writing project.

The number one piece of advice from admission officers about your essay is “Be yourself.” The number two suggestion is “Start early.” Check out these other tips before you begin.

 
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Keep Your Focus Narrow and Personal

Don’t try to cover too many topics. This will make the essay sound like a resume that doesn’t provide any details about you.

Do focus on one aspect of yourself so the readers can learn more about who you are. Remember that the readers must be able to find your main idea and follow it from beginning to end. Ask a parent or teacher to read just your introduction and tell you what he or she thinks your essay is about.

Show, Don’t Tell

Don’t simply state a fact to get an idea across, such as “I like to surround myself with people with a variety of backgrounds and interests.”
Do include specific details, examples, reasons and so on to develop your ideas. For the example above, describe a situation when you were surrounded by various types of people. What were you doing? Whom did you talk with? What did you take away from the experience?

Use Your Own Voice

Don’t rely on phrases or ideas that people have used many times before. These could include statements like, “There is so much suffering in the world that I feel I have to help people.” Avoid overly formal or business-like language, and don’t use unnecessary words.
Do write in your own voice. For the above example, you could write about a real experience that you had and how it made you feel you had to take action. And note that admission officers will be able to tell if your essay was edited by an adult.

 
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Other resources
John Hopkins University, Essays that worked, Sample Essays.

Ask a Teacher or Parent to Proofread

Another great resource for essay writing support is College Essay guy. Ethan Sawyer has podcasts, resources on his webpage and books for purchase.

See his webpage:

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College Essay Advisors

These are free resources and also include videos on writing supplemental essays.

See his webpage:

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