Your philosophy personal statement is your first opportunity to demonstrate the twin virtues,
much prized by analytical philosophers, of clarity and rigour. So if your personal statement is
is confused and maundering you will undermine your application. As a professional philosopher,
I have considerable experience of helping philosophy candidates hone their personal statements.
Your personal statement must also make it clear to the admissions tutors that you understand
what philosophy is and what the study of philosophy at university involves.
I have a collection of multi-media resources to help you understand
precisely the nature of philosophy as it is studied at contemporary universities.
Finally, your personal statement needs to give some indication of why you are applying to study philosophy. Philosophers
are highly-tuned to discussions of personal motivation, so your claims here need to be plausible.
I offer help and advice on all aspects of your philosophy personal statement:
Your philosophy personal statement needs to address two fundamental questions:
In planning your philosophy personal statement you can address the first question by linking your motivation to study philosophy
to what you take to be its principal benefits.
To address the second question your philosophy personal statement, at the very least, needs to convey the enthusiasm you feel for the subject.
Whilst I don't write personal statements for my students, I do help them
perfect their statements so that they present themselves in the best possible light.
My standard service is to review, and comment upon, successive drafts; passing the
statement back and forth until we're happy with it. I advise on logical structure and
philosophical content; and, if necessary, correct spelling, grammar, punctuation and style.
If you send me the latest, rough draft of your personal statement, I'll return it marked-up
in colour-coded contextual comments.
You may be at an advanced stage with your personal statement, or are pressed for time,
and simply want the reassurance that a professional philosopher has read what you've
written and checked it for basic mistakes.
I offer a simple proofreading service of philosophy personal statements where I correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, style
and any obvious philosophical mistakes.
If you're applying to a philosophy department that calls candidates for interview,
then the personal statement can be a significant hostage to fortune. For what you've said
in the statement may come back to haunt you in the interview.
I therefore offer a statement
analysis service where I examine your personal statement and list a number of questions
that spring to mind.
You can use the analysis of your personal statement as part of your interview preparation,
including any practice interviews that you schedule with me.
I'm hoping to collect, here, examples of good university philosophy personal statements for the
forthcoming academic year. I'll post news on the usual social media.
At any time, you can access free philosophy podcasts, videos, and articles on my
Facebook,
Twitter,
Google+ and
YouTube pages.
(Buttons to these pages are always available in the left-hand column of the website).
Meanwhile, simply paste your philosophy personal statement into the box below, and I and other
visitors to the site will comment on it.
You're very welcome to paste your university philosophy personal statement into the box below.
I'll comment on it, making possible suggestions
for improvement. You're also invited to comment constructively on other personal statements that have been posted.
If you think that a philosophy personal statement is particularly good, then by all means 'like' it.
