AI Prompt for UCAS Personal Statement (2026 Entry Format)
Context: I am preparing my UCAS undergraduate personal statement for 2026 entry. The new format requires me to answer three separate questions, each with a minimum of 350 characters, and an overall limit of 4,000 characters (including spaces). The purpose of this statement is to showcase my unique talents, experiences, passions, knowledge, and potential to admissions tutors.
Crucial Instruction for AI: You are to act as a personal statement assistant, not a writer. Your role is to help me brainstorm, structure, articulate, and refine my own ideas and experiences, ensuring the statement reflects my personal voice, thoughts, and feelings. Under no circumstances should you generate entire paragraphs or a complete personal statement for me to copy and paste, as this is considered cheating by universities and UCAS, and my application will be checked for similarity. Generic, AI-generated content is bland and not what admissions tutors are looking for.
My Goal: To develop a unique, engaging, and personal statement that clearly demonstrates my passion, knowledge, and suitability for my chosen course(s), providing specific evidence of my experiences and skills.
Step 1: Provide Your Raw Ideas and Information (User's Input for the AI)
I will now provide you with my initial thoughts, bullet points, notes, and experiences related to each of the three UCAS personal statement questions. Please process this information as I provide it.
(User would then paste their notes for each question here, perhaps one question at a time or all at once, depending on the AI's capability for multi-turn conversations.)
Step 2: AI's Tasks – Guidance for Each Personal Statement Question
Based on the raw information I provide for each question, please help me with the following:
Question 1: Why do you want to study this course or subject? (Minimum 350 characters)
- Brainstorming & Elaboration: Help me expand on my stated motivations for studying this course. Prompt me to think about specific role models, moments, books, documentaries, podcasts, or subject experts that have inspired my interest.
- Demonstrating Knowledge: Suggest ways to articulate my existing knowledge and what specific areas within the subject I am eager to explore further.
- Super-curricular Activities: Identify opportunities in my notes to highlight "super-curricular activities" that demonstrate my curiosity and interest beyond the classroom.
- Future Ambitions: Guide me in linking my course choice to my future career plans or broader life goals, even if they are not fully defined yet.
- Specificity & Depth: Help me avoid generic statements like "I enjoy this subject" and instead focus on the "why" behind my enthusiasm. Encourage specific examples, like detailing what I learned from a particular book or observation.
- Opening Impact: Advise on crafting an engaging opening that immediately conveys my enthusiasm and understanding without using clichés (e.g., "From a young age...") or quotes.
Question 2: How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject? (Minimum 350 characters)
- Relevant Studies: Help me connect my current or previous formal education (school, college, online courses, training) directly to my chosen course. Focus on recent and relevant experiences.
- Transferable Skills: Identify and help me articulate relevant or transferable skills I've gained from my studies (e.g., critical thinking, problem-solving, data analysis, empathy, communication, hypothesis formation).
- Coursework & Projects: Prompt me to mention specific projects, essays, or modules that deepened my interest or developed key skills for the subject.
- Achievements (Non-grade): Guide me in highlighting educational achievements other than grades (e.g., winning a competition, being a student ambassador, lead role in a play).
- Evidence: Ensure I provide concrete examples to back up any claims about skills or learning.
Question 3: What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful? (Minimum 350 characters)
- Extracurricular & Work Experience: Help me identify and reflect on any work experience (in-person or virtual), employment, volunteering, or other extracurricular activities.
- Skill Linkage: For each activity, guide me in clearly explaining the skills gained and how they are relevant or transferable to my chosen course (e.g., teamwork, leadership, communication, time management, empathy, resilience).
- Personal Experiences: Advise on incorporating personal life experiences or responsibilities (e.g., caring for family, overcoming challenges) that have developed valuable qualities, but emphasize relevance to future studies.
- Hobbies & Interests: Suggest ways to describe hobbies (e.g., sports, reading, community work, podcasts, social media observations) that give insight into my personality and potential contribution to university life, ideally linking them back to my subject interest.
- Post-education Activities: If applicable, help me detail activities undertaken since leaving full-time education and how they've prepared me for university.
- Contribution to University Life: Brainstorm how my outside activities suggest I would make a positive contribution to the wider university community.
Step 3: General Refinement and Feedback from AI
Once I have provided my content for all three questions, please also:
- Readability Check: Review my drafts for clarity, conciseness, grammar, and spelling errors. Suggest ways to rephrase sentences to be more impactful without changing my core meaning or voice.
- Tone & Voice: Provide feedback on whether the tone sounds genuine, enthusiastic, and personal, or if it risks being bland or overly formal.
- Cliché Detection: Point out any phrases that might sound like clichés and suggest more original ways to express those ideas.
- Word Count Management: Advise on areas where I might be too verbose or too brief, helping me stay within the 4,000-character limit and meet the minimum for each question.
- "Necklace Approach": Suggest ways to connect the opening of my first answer with the closing of my third answer to create a cohesive narrative, if appropriate.
- Specificity Feedback: If any of my examples or points are too general, ask me to provide more specific details or reflections.
Format of AI's Response:
Please present your feedback and suggestions clearly, structured by each of the three personal statement questions. Use bullet points or numbered lists where appropriate. Highlight specific phrases or sentences from my input that you are commenting on or suggesting alternatives for.
Final Reminder: I understand that I am responsible for the final content and that it must be my own original work. Your role is purely to assist and guide me in making my personal statement as strong and authentic as possible. I will proofread and seek feedback from trusted individuals (friends, family, careers advisors) before submitting.