Writing Personal Statement for Masters Application- Help :)

My daughter is looking to apply for a Masters course at MMU. She graduated from Durham last year and I think she is having a bit of the overwhelming blank page syndrome-- although she has started it a bit so it isn't blank.

The main thing is she said there is really no guidance.

Couple questions-- and please share anything else you think is valuable!!

1- How long? They provide a page and say attach additional pages if needed-- what is the preferred length?

2- How much personal background do you include- how much focus on course specific background?

Thanks for any help, ideas, personal experiences you may share!

Hello. I just wrote one, and was accepted, so I'll tell you what I did...

I made everything relevant to the programme that I was applying to. I kind of wrote it as a simple essay. The introduction included my reasons/points for wanting to study the subject (relevant education/my qualifications/work experience). And then I expanded on those points in the body. Then wrote up a conclusion, which was something like, "you'll do really well in choosing me".

As far as style, I included a cover page. The university gave me a word limit. It was definitely no more than 500, but I can't remember exactly. Double spaced, times font.

Thanks, good luck to her!

I suppose it depends on the type of programme, but mine was 1 page (550 words, roughly?). I thought of it sort of like a covering letter, where you don't really want it to get too long.

I studied art history, so I opened up with talking about one specific class I took in undergrad that made me want to carry on with studying art history. Then I talked about how I spent 2 months travelling around Europe and visiting major collections and how that impacted my decision to truly pursue postgrad. Then I discussed what I was looking for in a postgrad programme and how the one I was applying for suited those criteria.

I had absolutely no guidance either, minus the basic "a personal statement telling us why you want to go here", so I have no idea if what I wrote was normal or not, but it worked!  

Good luck to her! I'm sure she'll manage to get something great written down.  

Thank you both for your advice!

Has she been specifically asked for a personal statement? I work in postgrad admissions in social sciences in a large university, and we don't require  a personal statement unless the applicant has a degree in a non-relevant subject, or with a lower grade than we require, in which case we would ask them to describe any relevant work/voluntary experience that might make up for the deficiency. In fact apart from these cases we don't usually read personal statements even if someone has included one.

Our university's standard online application form includes a space for a personal statement, but not all departments require one; it's always worth checking.