Imagine: you are excited to begin your study abroad journey, eager to soak up new cultures and atmospheres and expand your horizons.
One of the most crucial aspects of the journey of applying to an overseas university is getting your personal statement and CV proofread. Study abroad agents will help you with getting your documents together, and one of these is the personal statement, but they won’t proofread and edit it for you.
We asked Dominic Vuyo from StudyAbroad ZA, a study abroad advisory in South Africa, for some tips of getting a personal statement proofread and edited.
“Personal statements vary greatly in length and content, for example the UK has the very specific UCAS personal statement. The statement has to be 4000 characters and 52 lines. However, UCAS does not simply count these characters like you would in Word document. It has its own unique way of doing so, thus you need to use a personal statement counter.”
He went on to say that it is worth using a professional company to get this done for you. London Proofreaders has a special UCAS proofreading and editing service. This is different from a standard proofreading service as it goes in to detail and specifically looks at reducing the word count, as with UCAS, every character really does count!
“You only get one chance to make a first impression and the personal statement is the first ‘contact’ the university will have with you that is more personal – so you need to get it right!” he elaborated.
Other countries like the USA, Canada and Australia have different requirements, in contrast to the UK, the personal statement is generally much longer and is more like an essay. Thus, you have more flexibility.
