Your personal statement is only 4,000 characters or 47 lines long; that’s roughly 500 words, or only a little longer than this blog post. So you may be wondering, with all that time ahead of you, why should you be looking at writing it now?

The answer is that your personal statement is too important to leave until the last minute. Most of the rest of your university application demonstrates to the university admissions tutors that you have the ability to study the subject you’ve chosen. Your personal statement can serve this purpose as well, but it also serves to show why you want to study this subject. Admissions tutors want to see evidence of both, and a great personal statement can even help compensate for lower grades.

Are you a little short on material to include? Perhaps you need to spend your summer looking into supercurricular activities; they’re like extracurricular activities, but they build on your knowledge of the subject you’ve chosen, such as visiting an archaeological site for prospective historians, or going to see a Shakespeare play for English literature students. Maybe the content is fine, but it’s much too long, or not well written. 

Summer months are the longest break you’re going to have, so take advantage of that time and get your personal statement into sparkling shape. Come September, you’ll be glad you did.