How to write a great Oxbridge personal statement

Ready to apply to Oxford or Cambridge and not sure where to start? In this guide, we show you what Oxbridge admissions tutors are looking for so you can write a smashing personal statement that shows the best of who you are and what you have to offer.

A personal statement for Oxford or Cambridge is no more or less challenging than any other type of personal statement. Regardless of where you’re applying, you need to show your passion for your subject and demonstrate that you’d be a great student on the course. In saying that, Oxbridge tutors do look for slightly different things to other universities, and the deadline is much earlier.

This guide will give you tips on what Oxbridge are looking for; for more general guidance on what to write in your personal statement and how to write it, head on over to our guide ‘How to write your personal statement like a boss’.

Here's a quick reminder of the questions:

1. Start Drafting Early 

Because the Oxbridge deadline is in October, and because of the extra level of preparation that an Oxbridge application requires, you should start planning your personal statement towards the beginning of Year 12 / lower sixth. Try starting your preparation in January so you still have time to complete extra reading and ask your teachers for help.

It usually takes a few drafts before you have a perfectly polished personal statement, so ideally your first draft should be done by the end of the summer holiday before you start Year 13 / upper sixth. This means that you should try to have completed any extra reading or work experience that you want to write about by then as well. 

Tip: If you haven’t decided which course you want to study yet, start off by writing about your general academic interests and how you’ve engaged with the subjects you enjoy the most. This will give you a good first draft to work with, and may even help your decision-making process! 

2. Write about the ‘right’ thing / Know what your admissions tutors expect to read about

You don’t need to be a ‘well-rounded’ applicant with a shopping list of extracurricular activities to be admitted into Oxbridge. In fact, both Oxford and Cambridge recommend that 80% of your statement should be about your academic interests and abilities. This means that you should focus your writing on questions one and two of your personal statement, and write less for question three.

In saying this, however, you must check your course page as some courses (e.g. medicine) will require you to have work experience, which you should write about in question three.

You can show your interest and ability in your subject with examples of books you’ve read, an EPQ you’ve completed, a prize you’ve won, lectures you’ve attended, documentaries you’ve watched, podcasts you’ve listened to, or really anything you can think of that’s related to the subject you’re applying for. Check out the Read, Watch, Listen tool to get started, or take a look at Oxford’s specially curated subject-based resources list to help you find material.

3. Show that you’re intellectually curious and thoughtful

How much material you have consumed on your subject is not as important as how deeply you’ve thought about each one. There’s no point listing thirteen books that you’ve read with no comments or thoughts about any of them. 

Whether you’re writing about your academic interests, work experience, deeper reading, or extracurricular activities, you need to write about what you got out of those experiences: i.e.:

• What did you learn?
• How did they affect you?
• How did they inspire you?
• What did you read/do after as a result?
• What do you want to learn next?

Oxbridge place more importance on your evaluation of what you’ve done than on how many places you’ve visited or how much material you’ve read. Don’t worry if you haven’t had the opportunities to complete lots of work experience, or if you don’t have the funds to visit lots of cultural institutions. Write well about what you have experienced; that’s far more valuable than simply listing lots of prestigious experiences.

For example:

Instead of:

‘My love of literature extends beyond the classroom, and even beyond the pages of the texts. I have visited the Globe theatre multiple times in the last year in order to see different interpretations of key Shakespeare texts, including Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Othello.’

Try writing about what you got out of one or two of those performances instead:

‘My love of literature extends beyond the classroom, and even beyond the pages of the texts. I recently visited the Globe theatre to see a macabre interpretation of Romeo & Juliet where the actors were painted as clowns, giving the play a chaotic, circus-like feel. The director had also combined scenes where there is miscommunication to further add to the confusion of key moments in the play, such as Romeo’s message to Juliet being lost. This interpretation highlighted to me how flexible written texts can be when they’re performed on stage and, as a result, I began to look into more alternative interpretations of classic texts, for example Rupert Goold’s 2007 production of Macbeth in a boxing ring…’

4. Set yourself up for an interview 

All successful Oxbridge candidates are interviewed as part of the admissions process, and interviewers often ask questions about elements of a personal statement to help guide the discussion towards things an applicant is interested in. 

So, for example, if they’d offered an interview based on the example above, they might ask questions about other interpretations of Shakespearean texts the applicant has watched, or about the impact of theatre on audiences. 

This is one of the reasons why it's so important to be honest in your personal statement about what you’ve read and done. You should never claim to have read a book that you haven’t (even if you plan to read it after submitting your UCAS form, because who knows what will happen!). You also shouldn’t pretend to have an interest in something just because you think it will sound impressive. Interviewers are likely to ask you about it and it will be pretty clear if you don’t know anything about it. This is also why you should start your research early!

Only write about things you genuinely find interesting; this will make it easier to talk about anything you write in your personal statement (if you get asked about it), and it’ll make it easier to answer the questions on the day. You should also keep anything you choose to delete on a separate document, and make notes as you write so you have something to start with when you come to prepare for your interview. Be prepared: you might not get asked anything you wrote about at all, and get complete curveball questions!

5. Know how to write about extracurricular activities

The right way to use extracurricular activities in an Oxbridge personal statement is to explain how your experiences were specifically relevant for the course you are applying to.

For example, if you’re applying to study French:

• Instead of: ‘Taking Grade 8 violin taught me the self-discipline required to study a university degree.’
• Try: ‘As well as teaching me self-discipline, taking Grade 8 violin allowed me to explore French culture further by performing the work of French composers like Gabriel Fauré.’

If you can’t find a link between your extracurricular activity and your course, then it might be better to just not include it, unless it’s particularly interesting or impressive in its own right (for example, you wouldn’t mention a trip abroad, but you might write about an overseas volunteering activity you completed).

If there’s anything that you can’t fit into your personal statement, but think would benefit your application, discuss it with the teacher who’s in charge of writing your reference.

Your reference needs to focus on your suitability for the university course in question, but it has more scope to also cover activities which will paint you in a positive light more generally. For example, if you are a school prefect, this would normally be better off in the reference.

6. Try to be original 

In 2019, Oxford University received more than 23,000 undergraduate applications for roughly 3,300 places. The vast majority of these applicants had good grades, which can make it difficult to stand out from the crowd. This is where your ability to be perceptive and original comes in. Think about how the subject that you’re applying for relates to your other studies, the world around you, and even your personal experiences. 

Some examples:

• A classics student exploring the relationship between Medea and Eastenders
• A politics student drawing comparisons between a piece of propaganda used in WWI and a recent election campaign
• A computer science student exploring the reality of fictional AI disaster movies through real-life examples of AI malfunctions.

Remember that the people who read your application and interview you are also passionate about your chosen subject; they’ll be genuinely interested to have a conversation with you if you can bring an interesting or original thought to your personal statement and interview. 

7. Don’t overdo it

Don’t try to be original for the sake of it. You don’t need clever jokes, outrageous anecdotes, or forced links between things that have nothing to do with one another. Let your original thoughts shine through naturally, and if you don’t have anything original to add, just leave a note for yourself and come back to it later to either leave it as it is, add something to it, or delete it entirely.

And don’t go overboard with the thesaurus – concentrate on being clear rather than trying to be a lexical aficionado (annoying, right?) 

8. Proofread, then proofread again 

Even the smallest of typos can derail an excellent personal statement. Some tutors are very strict on accuracy, and an error could be the difference between receiving an offer or not.  

Proofread your personal statement several times yourself, leaving time between each reread so you can go back with fresh eyes. Then, ask someone with a good nose for accuracy to read it over, looking specifically for typos or grammatical errors. A lot of the time, it's easier for someone else to spot a typo than for the person writing.  

9. Don’t name drop Oxbridge 

Remember that you need your personal statement to be relevant to all five of the universities you are applying to. This means that you shouldn’t mention course names or Oxford, Cambridge, or any other university by name.