MEd - personal statement and chance of scholarship?

[miss direct]

I'm putting together an application for an MEd - done everything apart from the personal statement. I'm really busy these days and am wondering how much effort to put into this. It's 15 years+ since I graduated - I've got loads of related experience but not quite sure how much detail to go into or what they're looking for.

I'm rushing to get my application in because I need an offer to apply for some scholarships (the deadline is approaching for those). Does anyone have any idea how likely a person is to get one? I realise the answer varies, but am wondering whether it's worth applying, or not.

 

[Steel Icarus]

I help students in their final year write their personal statements, and I tell them to essentially write it chronologically, telling their story, and including relevant strengths they have and how and where they discovered or developed them. I've even got a "how to write a personal statement" guide and a personal statement template if you'd like me to send you them.

 

[miss direct]

I help students in their final year write their personal statements, and I tell them to essentially write it chronologically, telling their story, and including relevant strengths they have and how and where they discovered or developed them. I've even got a "how to write a personal statement" guide and a personal statement template if you'd like me to send you them.

Yes please!

 

[chilango]

At a UK University miss direct ?

 

[miss direct]

Yes, in the UK.

 

[chilango]

Well, I suspect most Unis here are desperate to get suitable students on the books. The standard of some of the Masters work (in education)I mark/supervise is, erm, not great. Numbers have plummeted too since I did mine.

Can't speak for scholarships though.

 

[miss direct]

Yeah, I suspected the same. I wonder how I can find out about other students. A friend did an MA and said it was almost all young Chinese students who didn't participate actively. I really want to be part of "student life" - not bar crawls, but interesting discussions, sharing ideas, etc. It's a big investment and I'm not just doing it for the qualification.

There's two possible scholarships - I'm sure there's loads of competition. One of them requires me to prove my income from the last year and I'm not sure how to do that.

 

[equationgirl]

Yeah, I suspected the same. I wonder how I can find out about other students. A friend did an MA and said it was almost all young Chinese students who didn't participate actively. I really want to be part of "student life" - not bar crawls, but interesting discussions, sharing ideas, etc. It's a big investment and I'm not just doing it for the qualification.

There's two possible scholarships - I'm sure there's loads of competition. One of them requires me to prove my income from the last year and I'm not sure how to do that.

Bank statements or any kind of payslip that you have? There's often lists of what documentation will/won't be accepted by the university on the financial support section.

 

[Sue]

There's two possible scholarships - I'm sure there's loads of competition. One of them requires me to prove my income from the last year and I'm not sure how to do that.

Prepare your tax return stuff early and kill two birds with one stone?

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

I've no idea about in education (as a subject) but I've been involved in advertising quite a number of studentships in engineering over the last few years, at fairly high profile institutions, and they've really struggled to attract home students. Often there haven't been any home applicants. So don't assume there's a massive field in competition necessarily.

 

[chilango]

Yeah, I suspected the same. I wonder how I can find out about other students. A friend did an MA and said it was almost all young Chinese students who didn't participate actively. I really want to be part of "student life" - not bar crawls, but interesting discussions, sharing ideas, etc. It's a big investment and I'm not just doing it for the qualification.

There's two possible scholarships - I'm sure there's loads of competition. One of them requires me to prove my income from the last year and I'm not sure how to do that.

Yes, there's a lot of overseas students on our MA in Education, but I've been able to coax participation out of most of those I've worked with. At our place there's quite a lot of stuff that you could get involved with and staff are quite welcoming to keen MA students and will help them get into stuff.

 

[miss direct]

Thanks for the replies. Another question for anyone who knows more about UK unis than I do.

The course has a September start date, but no details. I vaguely remember that when I did my BA, there wasn't much going on for a few weeks. I'm meant to be working on a project in Turkey until mid October. Is that going to be an issue?

 

[miss direct]

Think I'm going to apply to two different courses. One is an MA and the other's a MEd. There doesn't seem to be any fee for applying so can't do any harm. Have a three day weekend this week for Bengali New Year so can work on it then.