YEI UCAS free application guide for 2027 entry.

Personal statement guidance, teacher reference guidance, extenuating circumstances guidance, admissions tests, insider tips, and real examples.

By Hanzallah Hanif.

By September 2026, I aim to compile at least five successful personal statement examples for each course at LSE, Oxford, Cambridge, UCL and Imperial.

This would amount to hundreds of personal statements in total.

It is an ambitious goal, and I would greatly appreciate any help. If you can contribute, please fill in this form.

After drafting your personal statement using this guide and the other resources linked below, if you need personalised help, please apply to our free YEI Access & Mentoring Programme.

Introduction

Please note that this guide is still incomplete, and the website is currently undergoing major updates, so forgive any typing errors or missing information. I plan to expand this guide a lot further, including adding YouTube videos, and I hope to have it fully completed by September 2026. That said, it is still useful in its current form.

Also, because the 2026 cycle has not fully finished yet, I cannot complete this guide properly, as I do not yet have enough information from the cycle.

I have also attached links to other useful personal statement guides at the end.

The reason this guide often focuses on LSE is because LSE cares more about the personal statement than almost any other university in the UK, arguably even more than Oxford and Cambridge. So if your statement is strong enough for LSE, it will usually be competitive for your other choices too, as long as the courses are similar.

Although there is a focus on the social sciences, I have also included examples from STEM subjects and the humanities.

Founder’s note
My cohort had to navigate UCAS’s new 2026 entry personal statement format, which replaced one contentious piece of writing with three separate questions. In theory, these guided questions were meant to make the personal statement easier to write.

In practice, though, it was confusing, not because the writing itself became harder, but because there was so little to learn from. There were no proven examples, no real reference point, just guesswork based on outdated personal statements, mixed messages, and universities often giving contradictory advice.

Honestly, the new format also gives you less room for creativity. Many students, myself included, found it difficult to properly weave in our super-curriculars and the points we actually wanted to make while still answering all three questions clearly.

For example, my answers to Questions 1 and 2 were heavily linked, but I still had to split them up while keeping some sense of flow and staying within the word count.

And, of course, students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, who often have less guidance and fewer opportunities, found this even harder to navigate. So, for those applying in the 2027 cycle and beyond, I’ve put together this Personal Statement Bank to make strong, high-quality information free and accessible.

Every example included comes from an applicant who received an offer from a leading university, so you can see the level of clarity, reflection, and structure that actually works.

The personal statements in this bank do a strong job of showing the core qualities universities genuinely care about, which is why they helped secure offers from some of the best universities in the world. I hope you find them useful.

Even if your specific subject is not here yet, examples from other subjects should still give you a strong sense of how to write, structure your answers, get the tone right, reflect properly, and support your points with evidence.

If you are applying for a course we do not currently have examples for, feel free to reach out to YEI, as we may be able to connect you with someone who received an offer for that course.

I have also included my teacher’s reference. It is a really underrated part of the application, and if used well, it can help you stand out a lot. Make sure you have a strong relationship with your referee, because that can make a real difference, but obviously, do not expect an amazing reference if you are not putting the work in.

Use this bank as a guide to get a sense of what strong applications look like. Do not copy anything from it. UCAS applications can be flagged for plagiarism or similarity, and that is not a risk worth taking.

Hanzallah Hanif
Founder, Young Economist Initiative (YEI)

Question 1:

Why do you want to study this course or subject?
For Question 1, I’d recommend keeping it short, punchy, and simple.

This is because you want to save most of the space for what differentiates you: your academic super-curriculars, your reflection, your research, and the ways you’ve explored the subject beyond the classroom.

One effective approach is to mention an event, idea, or experience that is personal or genuinely unique to you, and then link it directly to why you want to study the course.

This does not have to be a life story. It can just as easily be something academic that genuinely pulled you in and made you want to go deeper.

From there, you can transition straight into Question 2, because admissions tutors read all three questions together, not in isolation.
Two strong examples of this approach are below.

Example 1: Ismael Salvador Fuentes El Borji, PPE @ Oxford

“During childhood visits to Spain, the hollow shells of unfinished apartment blocks served as an unlikely playground for our games of hide-and-seek. In retrospect, they now function as a stark reminder of the economic crash that uprooted my family to the UK. Fuelled by a combination of reckless land liberalisation, lax oversight, and speculative lending, the Spanish financial crisis demonstrates to me how crises emerge from the interplay between ideology, institutions and markets; phenomena best understood through the interdisciplinary lens of PPE.”

Example 2: Sonny Tyrer, PPE @ Oxford

“Seeing the sharp contrast in my parents’ generation’s ability to purchase their own homes in comparison to mine sparked deep curiosity in my mind about what led us here, and how one of the world’s most prosperous economies contains such large inequality between classes. Exploring this, I discovered that political economy frames this as an institutional outcome, an inseparable combination of politics and economics that I am committed to learning more about. Understanding the causes and effects of inequality in living standards to ultimately mitigate them is an aim of mine, partly catalysed by my first-hand experience with the consequences of those circumstances.”

In both cases, the applicant uses Question 1 to introduce a clear academic theme. The personal element exists primarily to motivate an intellectual problem.

Both applicants then go on, in Question 2, to explore these same themes in depth and in a highly academic way. That said, you do not have to follow this structure rigidly. Many successful applicants did have a longer Question 1.

However, even in those cases, their reasons for choosing the course were clearly academic, rather than generic or personal for their own sake.

Question 2:

“How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?”
Question 2 is often the most confusing part of the application. A lot of applicants understandably start writing about their A-levels as the main content, because the question asks:

“How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?”

But universities can already see what subjects you take, as well as your grades and predictions. In most cases, repeating that does not differentiate you as a candidate.

That is because A-levels, by themselves, do not make you stand out. Thousands of applicants take similar subject combinations and study the same specifications.

The strongest candidates use this space to show what they have done through their own initiative, the ideas they have explored independently, and the opinions they have formed through genuine intellectual effort.

If you use Question 2 to summarise your A-level content, or to talk vaguely about the “skills” you gained from your subjects, you are usually being generic and using up valuable character count that could be spent showing super-curricular exploration, independent learning, and original thinking.

You need to be very disciplined with your character count. Every word should earn its place, and every character should add value if you want to be competitive for top universities.

What tends to matter more is what your studies show about you: how you think, how you learn, and how deeply you have engaged with the subject beyond what was required in class.

The strongest applicants use Question 2 to show what their studies prove about them. They use it to show how they think, how they learn, and how far they take their interests when nobody is telling them what to do. That is what universities are actually looking for.

That said, this does not mean you cannot mention your A-levels at all. You can reference them briefly, but only as a springboard into something more substantial.

A strong example of this is Alishba (Engineering Science, Oxford), who is also featured in the personal statement bank below.

She opens Question 2 by referencing her A-level Physics, but then moves very quickly beyond the specification into detailed, technical, self-directed work.

She begins by linking A-level Physics to a specific line of inquiry:

How have your qualifications helped you to prepare for this course or subject?

“My A-Level Physics studies on the properties of materials inspired me to investigate the materials used in aeroplane manufacturing and their suitability for specific functions……”

From there, she describes a university placement at the University of Birmingham, where she used a Universal Testing Machine to investigate the tensile strength of different metals.

She discusses assessing Young’s Modulus, analysing stress-strain graphs, and comparing materials to understand strength-to-weight trade-offs.
She then reflects on how collecting and analysing failure data allowed her to justify selecting aluminium over steel for aircraft wings.

She goes on to describe how reading about Elysian’s E9X electric aircraft led her to explore electric flight, specifically the problem of dendrite formation in lithium-ion batteries.

She engages with existing research, identifies a real engineering constraint, and explains how feedback control systems, such as PID controllers, could be used to regulate temperature during charging in order to reduce dendrite formation.

The key point is that she develops highly specific, technical material while constantly reflecting on why it matters and what it taught her.

Her A-level Physics is mentioned once, right at the beginning, and then disappears. It serves only as the trigger for a chain of independent investigation, technical depth, and reflection that no other applicant could replicate.

Now compare that to the following weaker example, taken from an unnamed applicant:

How have your qualifications helped you to prepare for this course or subject?

“My A-level subjects have given me an extremely strong and relevant academic base for studying economics and related subjects, which complements this.

Economics has introduced me to core concepts such as market structures, macroeconomic policy, and economic development within various countries, while encouraging me to evaluate assumptions and real-world data case studies rather than just accepting conclusions at face value. This has helped me to strengthen not only my analytical evaluation of things worldwide, but also my problem-solving skills.

A-level Accountancy has developed my confidence in putting to use numerical data and attention to detail when interpreting a business or an individual’s financial position. Furthermore, learning how financial information is constructed and interpreted has helped me understand how economic decisions translate into organisational outcomes. It has also improved my discipline and precision when working under time constraints when set deadlines to complete case studies of financial statements.

Media Studies further complemented these subjects by sharpening my ability to analyse narratives, institutions, and audience behaviour by applying universal theories which can impact consumer demands or cater to more niche audiences within society. It has taught me to question sources, identify bias within media, and communicate ideas clearly to create an effect, which are skills that are extremely transferable to economics. In particular, when engaging with policy, marketing, or social research.
Overall, these subjects have prepared me for the academic demands of a versatile economics-based degree.”

At first glance, this sounds reasonable. However, none of it is distinctive.
The applicant mainly lists subject content rather than showing any independent thinking or genuine engagement.

They also make broad claims about things like “analytical evaluation”, “problem-solving”, and “transferable skills” without giving any concrete evidence to support them.

Almost any student taking Economics, Accountancy, or Media Studies could write paragraphs like this with minimal effort.

Most importantly, it fails to answer the question universities are implicitly asking: what does this tell us about how you think?

If you want to be competitive for the top universities, you need to be ruthless with your character count. Nothing can be generic, and no space can be wasted.

Universities are primarily looking for:

1) Enthusiasm and motivation for studying the subject

2) Understanding and/or experience of the subject

3) Academic engagement with the subject
(people often say this is around 80% of it. I would personally push it closer to 95%)

4) Relevant knowledge and skills for the subject

5) Originality and independence of thought

(Source: LSE Advising the Advisers, 2018)

It is also important to understand the distinction between extracurricular and super-curricular activities.

Extracurricular = things you do outside school that are not directly linked to the subject you are applying for, such as sport, music, volunteering, part-time work, or societies. These can show discipline and transferable skills, but they are rarely what differentiates you for the most competitive courses.

Super-curricular = things you do outside the curriculum that are directly linked to your subject and take you beyond the A-level syllabus, such as reading around the subject, independent essays or projects, lectures you reflect on, online courses, competitions, or relevant work experience. This is where you show academic interest and independent thinking.

LSE admissions gave the following comment about a student who dedicated a large section of their personal statement to being a football captain, but did not reflect enough on their subject:

“The applicant has reflected on the transferable skills they have developed by leading the football team.

This is good, but it would be nice to see the same level of reflection applied to academic topics – this student has spent more time talking about football than about history.”

The point is not that football is bad.

The point is that if you spend more time showing passion for unrelated things than for the subject you are applying for, you are missing what top universities are actually screening for.

A very strong way to stand out is to show a genuine appetite for research.
Universities are not just teaching institutions. They are also research-intensive places, and their rankings are heavily influenced by research output and citations, so research matters culturally as well as academically.
More importantly, interest in research is one of the clearest ways to show genuine intellectual engagement with your subject.

If you can engage with research, even at a basic level, it signals that you are already thinking more like a university student than just an A-level student.

What this might look like in practice:

-Reading a journal article, working paper, or research-based book chapter, then actually saying what you thought about it: the claim, the methodology, the limitation, and what you would test next.

-Following a debate through two opposing papers and taking a position, with your own unique reasons.

-Making your own research paper/project that shows independent research skills. This is especially good for STEM courses, but it works well for the social sciences and humanities too.

-Engaging with what academics at your target university publish or teach, not as empty name-dropping.

Do not just list research. Use it.

One well-explained idea that you have actually thought about, reflected on, and responded to is far stronger than a shopping list of books, articles, or lectures.

Q3:

What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?
For Question 3, I would definitely recommend staying under 800 characters.
LSE and other top universities say you can use this space for anything extra you could not fit into Questions 1 and 2, and that writing only the minimum 350 characters for Question 3 is completely acceptable.

Source: LSE website

Honestly, what matters more is the content than which question you put it in, but to be safe, I would just aim to hit the minimum character count.

A good approach is to mention one extracurricular and one super-curricular, then link both back to your course and to how they will help you handle university study. You can see this done in my own personal statement.

Again, you do not need to follow this structure rigidly, as some successful applicants did write a longer Question 3.

The key point, though, is that even in those cases, they still focused mainly on super-curriculars, along with their reflection and original thinking. That is what the strongest longer Question 3 responses tend to do.

Another very useful tip: if you are in Year 12, first make sure you are on track for excellent predicted grades, and then start preparing for any admissions tests over the summer. Starting early gives you a huge advantage.

I personally made the mistake of starting one to two weeks before the Oxford TSA, and the only reason I got away with it was because I was naturally quite decent at it.

Please do not make the same mistake. Start early.

Understanding your university.
Understanding what each university department and course is specifically looking for, as well as the modules in the course, is really important, especially when you are building an application strategy for courses that are similar but not identical.

For example, for LSE Politics and Economics, I made a Google Doc with every compulsory module and worked through exactly what each one was trying to do: what it teaches, what skills it demands, how it leads into later optional modules, and why that module is important for understanding Politics and Economics properly.

What I noticed was a heavy emphasis on quantitative techniques. Because of the compulsory Mathematics, Statistics, and Econometrics modules, even the Politics side, to my surprise, involved a lot of maths and statistics.

Understanding that let me tailor my personal statement accordingly. I made it more quantitative, but I did not just name-drop maths and econometrics for the sake of it.

I showed that I had actually explored parts of it in my own time, and I reflected on how mathematical techniques can be useful in both Politics and Economics. That kind of reflection is exactly the sort of thing they want to see.

Another important thing is understanding which universities care most about the personal statement.

LSE, more than almost any other university in the UK, places serious weight on the personal statement, arguably even more than Oxford and Cambridge, since Oxbridge usually has more other information to assess, such as interviews, admissions tests for some subjects, and written work.

For Oxford PPE, the website specifically says:

“If it appears from your personal statement that you are applying for different but related courses elsewhere, this would not disadvantage your application.”

“For PPE applicants [the personal statement] is of lower importance in shortlisting decisions compared to your TSA result, your qualifications, and the academic reference.”

source: Oxford PPE website

Because of that, I focused only on Economics and Politics in my personal statement and reference, because I knew Oxford would not mind.

UCL’s PPE course also makes you drop either Philosophy or Economics during the degree, so it would be a bit unfair for them to expect every applicant to focus equally on all three.

That said, I still tried to show skills and ways of thinking that would also be useful in Philosophy, and I tried to get some of that across in my reference too.

The main takeaway is: properly research the university and the course. If you do that, you’ll be able to tailor your personal statement much better.

The teacher’s reference – the single most underrated thing in your UCAS application, which most students overlook.
Everyone knows the personal statement matters, but not everyone uses the reference properly.

In many cases, universities can place significant weight on the reference, and some, like Oxford, may sometimes place more weight on it than on the personal statement, because it is usually stronger evidence. A personal statement can be heavily polished, or even written, by someone else, so on its own, it is not always the best indicator of academic ability.

If your referee can clearly evidence why you are a strong candidate and why you have the potential to do well on the course, you are in a strong position.

Earlier, I said your personal statement should be around 95% super-curricular rather than extracurricular. Part of the reason for that is that a lot of your extracurriculars can go in the reference instead.

My own personal statement only had one line on non-academic extracurriculars right at the end, and even that was still linked back to my course and to university study.

Pro tip:

If you have significant extenuating circumstances and want to save characters in your application, email admissions and ask whether you can send those circumstances separately due to how extensive they are.

As a care leaver, my extenuating circumstances ran to seven full pages in a PDF, so I sent my universities a separate headed letter instead. Every university I contacted, including Oxford, Imperial, UCL, Warwick, and KCL, allowed this.

I would imagine most other universities would allow the same, though you should still check. LSE actually has a separate extenuating circumstances form on its website, which is especially useful.

Another useful tip: LSE explicitly suggests using a short link, such as Bitly, TinyURL, or a simple web path, for the “school information” section of the reference, and then only putting the key points in the reference itself.

That saves more space for things such as teachers’ comments and details about your extracurriculars.

As LSE puts it:
“One way to save space, if you have a lot of information to add about the school, is to include a link (bitly, tinyurl).”

Source: LSE UCAS reference guide

LSE reference website and teachers’ workshop:
Please go through these fully to understand what they are looking for. Again, this applies to all unis, not just the LSE

-LSE Reference Website
-LSE Reference Teachers workshop

Below is an example of my reference. My reference is quite long, which I actually think is a positive, because it means far more useful information about me could be included.

That was only possible because I used the approach mentioned above and sent my extenuating circumstances and school context separately. A lot of students with extenuating circumstances end up with shorter references because so many characters get used explaining their situation. That has never really made sense to me, because it pushes out the academic and super-curricular evidence that other students are still able to include.

In hindsight, there probably should have been a bigger focus on my academic ability and slightly less on showing off my extra and super curriculars, although it still worked in the end lol.

One thing you should really aim for is quantified comments, like “top in the cohort” or “top 2% in the school”. Statements like that carry much more weight than vague positive comments about attitude or aptitude, because almost every reference says those kinds of things.

You can, and should, push your teachers and referee to include details like this. I asked mine to cut down a lot of the generic praise and focus more on concrete achievements that could actually be evidenced, like my involvement in Model United Nations or specific details about my economics think tank, which was much more relevant to a Politics and Economics application.

Also note that I even linked my travels back to political economy reports and made clear that they were self-funded, to show independence and maturity. I do not think that makes a huge difference on its own, but it is still much stronger than just name-dropping things with no reflection.

My reference

My Subjects Mathematics A*
Economics A*
Politics A*
A in AS business
Start of Reference:

-Please find information about the college attached (link to the college details)

– Due to the extensive nature of Hanzallah’s extenuating circumstances, including details of his experience in care, this information will be sent separately.

Predicted grades are based on in-class assessments and formal mock exams. Being top of the cohort in his subjects has resulted in Hanzalah being one of the very few students predicted all A*s.

Politics:
Hanzallah is an outstanding Politics student whose intellectual curiosity, independence of thought, and remarkable initiative place him at the very top of the cohort. His academic rigour is inspiring and respected by teachers and peers alike.

In Class discussions, he engages deeply with complex ideas and debates respectfully, yet confidently defends his ideas.

When issues are discussed which have moral and ethical implications, many students are prone to be heavily guided by their emotive response. It is in these instances that Hanzallah’s logical and reasoning skills are really put on display.

While he holds clear moral principles, he also considers economic and practical political realities, making him exceptionally grounded and well-suited to university study. His written work mirrors his spoken contributions, consistently displaying analytical depth and clarity of thought.

Beyond the classroom, he has shown initiative by participating in and organising academic forums. He has attended over 20 Model UN conferences and debates, canvassed for two candidates in the 2024 election, and actively engaged with two pressure groups.

It has been a privilege to have taught Hanzallah, and I have no doubt that he will excel at a top university. I recommend Hanzallah without reservation.

Economics:
Hanzallah is consistently the top-performing student in his Economics cohort. His essays show exceptional analytical ability and precise application of knowledge. He extends his learning through independent research and extensive reading of economics books.

His passion for research is evident through his YEI think tank, of which he is the main founder. He started it in collaboration with fellow LSE Pathways to Banking students. Publishing articles and papers on economic issues, YEI has grown to 25 members, including students from LSE, Oxford, Imperial, and UCL, with researchers spanning five countries across three continents.
In addition, his wealth management fund has secured £10,000 in funding, showcasing his soft skills. He is a valued member of the class, always willing to collaborate and support his peers.

Mathematics:

Hanzallah is a diligent student with exceptional algebraic and analytical skills. He approaches complex questions confidently and is highly disciplined and proactive. He often learns topics well ahead of the class.

He engages enthusiastically in discussions and has developed a strong interest in areas beyond the A-Level syllabus, particularly econometrics, reflecting his appreciation of the link between mathematics and economics.
He works collaboratively with his peers in a small group and willingly helps those falling behind. It is no wonder his performance falls within the top 2% of his cohort.

Hanzallah has shown initiative with work experience in:
-Hedge fund portfolio management at Tudor Capital

-Asset and portfolio performance advisory at MACE

-Commercial real estate at CBRE

-Investment banking at Peel Hunt

-Youth Management consulting board
at Q5 (2025-2026)

And competitive university programmes:

-LSE’s Pathways to Banking and Finance

-Imperial mA*ths

-KCL K+ Public Policy

-Warwick scholars

-Bristol Economics and Finance summer school

-Loughborough LUDUS Gold

Hanzallah aims to help his university better support care-experienced and estranged students.

He has also self-funded his solo travels to 20 countries in the past two years, producing political economy and history reports for each.

My extenuating circumstances form:
For obvious reasons, I’m not going to go into detail about my own extenuating circumstances, especially the family-related parts.

My extenuating circumstances followed this structure:

description of the event or issue that affected me → how it affected me → how I responded to it → what that shows about my work ethic and ability to thrive at university

If you do it properly, your extenuating circumstances form can almost act like an extra reference, and that can help you stand out from other applicants.

Again, this is just to give you an idea of the kinds of things worth including.

Select sections of my extenuating circumstances form:

Extra Information about Hanzallah:
(skipping due to personal reasons, but use this to declare income information, free school meals eligibility, being the first in family to go to university, being estranged and so on)

Family background and entry into the care system
(skipping due to personal reasons, but my main tip would be get a social worker or your referee to back up everything you say and provide their contacts – you may be uncomfortable doing this, but it is very unlikely they will contact anyone – if you have maintained your grades with little family support it is important to let your universities know)

Work during his education and care.
Hanzallah taught Mathematics and English GCSE, helping all his students achieve grades 8s and 9s, also showcasing his own improvements in Mathematics and Economics.

His first placement was unstable and violent, with police raids being common and Hanzallah reporting multiple instances of being threatened with being stabbed by his housemates, and drug abuse being common. He later moved to a stable placement.

During his A levels, Hanzallah worked full-time, which, combined with his college hours, resulted in him having 80-100-hour working weeks.

He would have 12-hour shifts on the Weekends and 6 – 7 hour shifts on weekdays straight after school.

He maintained his excellent A level grades by studying during his one-hour work break and his work commute, which was 1 hour 20 minutes each way.

He is known to often sleep in the school’s first aid room bed during his free periods to compensate for lack of sleep due to his extreme workload.

Since the age of 16, he has worked in multiple
roles, including:
-Food Runner at X and Y company
-CSCS-qualified Construction Worker at X
-Retail Assistant at X
-Mathematics and economics GCSE tutor
-Kitchen assistant at X
-Polaroid photographer on Westminster Bridge (personal business)

Moreover, he has been living in independent or semi-independent placements since 2024, bearing responsibility for his own well-being, cooking and studies.

Despite these responsibilities, he has maintained exceptional grades and participated in extracurricular activities, proving his exceptional ability to manage extreme workloads, skills which will serve him well at university.

Academic Context
(explanation of circumstances, skipping due to personal reasons….)

This context is essential to fairly evaluate Hanzallah’s academic performance, and in the context of

These GCSEs being done in extreme circumstances, without access arrangements, and him doing some of the GCSEs from his own initiative, Hanzallah’s GCSE profile should be looked upon very favourably.

Current Circumstances
Hanzallah has stated he worked primarily to repay loans and build future financial stability.

He intends to dedicate himself fully to his studies and research at university and not work alongside them.

This process of constant movement, losing carers, lacking a stable education, estrangement from parents, and surviving unstable environments inside and outside the care system has deeply impacted his education, yet I believe his track record of excellent results and being predicted A*A*A* in his A levels despite mitigating circumstances shows the academic potential Hanzallah has.

My personal statement: (PPE/Politics and economics at Oxford, UCL, LSE, Warwick and EFDS at imperial)
Why do you want to study this course or subject?
Experiencing homelessness and a failing care system led me to campaign for Corbyn in 2024 and study his manifesto. I saw how his view of freedom justified taxation for redistribution, whereas Thatcher’s 1979 manifesto framed liberty as freedom from the state to justify neoliberal policy. This contrast showed me how political theory underpins economic policy, solidifying my desire to study this course.

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?
I founded the Young Economist Initiative (YEI) think tank, authoring 5 papers critiquing Corbyn’s high-income tax policies, which I initially supported, but my research led me to conclude they may inadvertently worsen disparities between wage earners and asset holders, strengthening my support for wealth taxation. This aligns with Piketty’s r>g framework, which shows how inequality may persist during growth, yet I argue Piketty underplays the growth potential of wealth taxes; Using Indonesian Zakat data, I showed how targeted wealth taxes not only redistribute but also reinject stagnant wealth into the circular flow without discouraging value creation.

But can taxation alone dismantle inequality if rooted in institutional structures? Through Duke’s Political Economy course and my observations of Pakistan’s education system, I saw that redistribution without political reform is palliative. I developed this argument in a 3000-word paper for Loughborough University on Pakistan’s two-tiered education system; elites attend English-medium schools, while others are confined to Urdu-medium ones, entrenching disparities as white-collar employers hire only English-proficient graduates.

I saw how inequality is not only economic but also about power; who writes the rules and who benefits. Reform requires confronting entrenched interests, which I explored via game theory. In Pakistan, inequality persists because the poor face a collective action problem; challenging the government carries personal costs, as elites rationally protect their interests by punishing political opposition, sustaining a stable yet inefficient status quo. Policymaking in English reinforces exclusion by barring non-speakers from political participation. These strategies create an equilibrium which I believe undermines the social contract: when citizens lack the linguistic means to engage politically, the promise of democratic legitimacy is hollow. To strengthen my research on the political economy of development at YEI, I turned to quantitative methods.

Learning Linear Algebra from Michael Gmeiner during LSE’s Pathways TB&F laid the foundation for me to self-learn Lambert’s econometrics course, which helped me apply OLS using STATA to regress GDP growth on education spending across 20 countries. Comparing results to corruption indices illustrated how institutional quality correlates with the productivity of public spending.

However, working with OLS made me conscious that it is BLUE only if the Gauss–Markov assumptions hold. I was most concerned about violations of exogeneity, such as simultaneity bias. While education appeared to raise GDP, it was equally plausible that higher GDP expanded access to schooling, and corruption might both weaken the effectiveness of education and be reduced by it. I also saw how results were sensitive to specification; a relationship that seemed strong in a linear model weakened when I added a quadratic term, deepening my awareness of how methodological assumptions shape conclusions and leaving me eager to study methods to overcome such biases to strengthen causal inference.

What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?
At a Hedge Fund portfolio management placement, I assisted in calculating Sharpe ratios and economic forecasting. I was fascinated by how a single political decision, Trump’s unexpected tariffs, triggered losses, reinforcing my view that economies are not neutral mechanisms but are deeply entwined with power and state authority.

Balancing two jobs while studying and competing nationally in MMA has instilled in me a strong work ethic, which I apply to my studies.

Successful personal statements:

Reminder: Many of these personal statements divide the three questions in very different ways and adopt varied structural approaches.

That is perfectly fine: they are all doing the right things and demonstrate that there is no need to follow a rigid formula.

However, one clear pattern is that Question 3 is usually kept short in many successful personal statements. Even when Q3 is longer, it is typically used to discuss super-curricular activities and to reinforce academic interest, rather than extracurriculars, which many applicants mistakenly focus on too heavily.

Notably, in all the successful personal statements I have come across for elite universities, none use Question 2 to discuss A-levels.

STEM and Medicine:

Hanna Dlubak – Biomedical science – University of Oxford.

Why do you want to study this course or subject?
An introduction to the nervous system in my biology class revealed to me the bridge between biology and psychology: neuroscience, and its place within biomedical science. Seeing how unique experiences, like Cotard’s syndrome to universal phenomena like consciousness, all trace back to purely biological processes, fascinated me in the concept of qualia: the subjective qualities of conscious experience. My interest in this idea sparked with Helen Thompson’s Unthinkable, which delves into the most unique neurological disorders throughout history. A case that stuck with me was a condition called mirror-touch synaesthesia (MTS), characterised by feeling tactile sensations from observing them in others. I questioned if this was an extreme case of a placebo. In reality, I learned, mirror neurons-the basis of experiences like empathy, imitation, and interpreting the actions of others-underpin this experience. This idea that direct stimuli arent always necessary for sensory experience was reinforced by attending a lecture on the neuroscience of pain by Professor Irene Tracey. She discussed an orthopaedic surgeon who controversially used placebo surgery controls in clinical trials, leading to the decommissioning of ineffective shoulder operations. As with MTS, I was intrigued by the brain’s ability to alter perception, and its implications to medicine. These experiences solidified my drive to study the molecular and systemic processes that underpin the brain’s function, with biomedical science as a foundation.

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?
The Oxford Neuroscience Experience program allowed me to engage with experimental neuroscience first hand, such as ongoing research into sports brain injuries, circadian rhythm and fMRI technology. Designing and presenting an experiment on fMRI technology to investigate brain activity during a fear response taught me experimental design and application of theory to practice, as well as transferable skills, such as the importance of collaborative work and ability to simplify complex data for a broader audience. The most rewarding aspect was analysis of results, any unexplainable results excited me, and rather than frustration, I felt even more drawn to contributing to this evolving field. Studying Psychology at A level encouraged me to logically evaluate pieces of research. I enjoyed this aspect of analytical thinking, and applied it to the British Biology Olympiad, Intermediate Biology competition and the Royal Society of Chemistry Olympiad. These stretched me to not only apply concepts to unknown scenarios, but also reason possible answers, and commit to the best supported one-much like in psychology; overall deepening my regard for the multi-faceted nature of science.

What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?
Work experience at the Oxford Brain Bank allowed me to observe a post-mortem brain dissection of a patient with PSP. Witnessing physical manifestation of disease-how small changes in structure have such detrimental effects on a person’s behaviour, gave me a sense of the link between pathology and lived experiences, whilst preparing brain slides and analysis of abnormalities, revealed the meticulous skill needed in neuroscience research. On top of this, at a placement at the John Radcliffe Hospital in the life sciences laboratories, I explored the breadth of biomedical science in immunology, microbiology, cellular pathology and genetics, particularly the need for interdisciplinary collaboration through how closely the work of these labs overlapped. Using the PCR process to perform a DNA extraction highlighted to me how simple, fundamental processes drive forward innovation in medicine, such as advances in pharmacogenomics. These experiences motivated my ambition towards contributing to improved diagnostics, treatments and preventions of disease. In summary both my formal education, and those additional experiences I have sought out to develop my understanding of this discipline, have reinforced both my resolve to study biomedical science and skills needed to support this.

Alishba – Engineering Science – University of Oxford.

Why do you want to study this course or subject?
I came across effective altruism while engaging in ‘The Mathematics of Morality’, a course which highlighted to me the crucial nature of problem-solving and cost-effectiveness. Effective altruism in engineering involves targeting the most pressing problems to maximise societal benefit. This idea of applying mathematical formulae, such as Bayes Theorem, to find optimal interventions aligns with my interest in sustainable aviation and striving towards net zero. I take a keen interest in the development of electric aeroplanes and the use of materials which maximise energy efficiency.

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?
My A-Level Physics studies on the properties of materials inspired me to investigate the materials used in aeroplane manufacturing and their suitability for specific functions. In Year 12, I took on a placement at the University of Birmingham, where I used a Universal Testing Machine to investigate the tensile strength of various metals. I assessed the Young’s Modulus values and shape of their stress-strain graphs to compare their strengths. This
enabled me to develop an understanding of strength-to-weight trade-offs. By collecting data and analysing how and why these materials failed, I was able to apply this knowledge when selecting Aluminium over steel as the better option for the wings.

Following this, reading an article on Elysian’s E9X drove me to look into electric flight, specifically dendrite formation in lithium-ion batteries. I examined current research aiming to improve battery maintenance and lifespan, and realised that a feedback control system could
be used to control temperatures. PID controllers, for example, use a feedback control loop to ensure temperatures remain close to a setpoint. By implementing this during charging, the rate of dendrite formation can be reduced, hence making travel safer and cheaper. This
project reflected my curiosity and my ability to seek practical solutions to real-world problems. I learned how engineers must compromise between cost and performance to find solutions that suit both factors.

To further my understanding of PID control loops, I applied a PID algorithm to a line-following robot that I had made using Arduino. I faced many setbacks while completing this project, from 3D-printing wheels that were too small to setting the speed so high that the robot would swerve off track. Each failure made me realise that engineering revolved around analysing earlier mistakes, redesigning, and adjusting methods to find better and more effective
solutions. By implementing iterative design in this project, I was able to modify the speed on the code. I tested it repeatedly until I found the speed at which the robot was able to detect the line and follow it flawlessly with minimal compromise on its speed. I also experimented with multiple different wheel sizes until I found a suitable size that did not hinder the robot’s
movement.

What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these
experiences useful?
I used Isaac Science during my participation in the STEM SMART program with the University of Cambridge. Through attempting these questions, I gained insight into the patience required when solving tough questions in mechanics and enhanced my problem-solving skills. The weekly tutorials encouraged me to reflect on my methods when reviewing solutions with the tutors, and enabled me to gain a deeper understanding of the
topics. I received gold on the SMC and progressed to the Senior Kangaroo round, which put me in the top 10%. These questions encouraged me to use creative thinking and strengthened my ability to approach difficult problems from many angles to find the most efficient solutions, a skill that is essential in engineering.

Completing my bronze DofE award helped me grow confidence in my ability to tackle problems under time pressure. I enjoyed working with my group to navigate unknown areas. This taught me the importance of interpersonal skills such as teamwork and communication. I am eager to apply and develop these skills in aerospace research to make flight cleaner
and more accessible.

Social sciences and humanities

Ismael Salvador Fuentes El Borji – PPE – Oxford/LSE/UCL

Why do you want to study this course or subject?
During childhood visits to Spain, the hollow shells of unfinished apartment blocks served as an unlikely playground for our games of hide-and-seek. In retrospect, they now function as a stark reminder of the economic crash that uprooted my family to the UK. Fuelled by a combination of reckless land liberalisation, lax oversight, and speculative lending, the Spanish financial crisis demonstrates to me how crises emerge from the interplay between ideology, institutions and markets; phenomena best understood through the interdisciplinary lens of PPE.

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?
Intrigued by my experience of the Spanish Housing Bubble, I attended a talk by Anthony Breach from Centre for Cities on the growing UK housing crisis. Breach argued that ‘discretionary’ planning systems had disconnected supply from demand and, as the primary cause of the national shortage, required immediate reform. Whilst compelling, I found his monocausal analysis reductionist, oversimplifying a complex crisis driven by multiple factors. Seeking more nuance, I undertook an EPQ sponsored by investment bank VLK, exploring house price determinants and affordability. Through regression analysis and a comparative case study between London, Amsterdam and Tokyo, I concluded that whilst supply constraints partially affected prices, surging demand from higher-income first-time buyers proved the more decisive factor. My examination of the Rosen–Roback Spatial Equilibrium model corroborated this, with wealthier households systematically outbidding others for limited housing. Upon reflection, I recognised that an Agent Based Model’s bottom-up approach could be used to more accurately simulate how fierce competition in a constrained market impacts prices.

Following Reform UK’s breakthrough in the 2024 election, I began questioning the drivers of populist movements. Initially attributing support for these causes to ignorance, it was an episode of The Rest Is Politics on Reform’s popularity that challenged my view. Campbell argued that Reform voters felt a perceived breakdown of collective values and societal direction. Recognising the anecdotal nature of his claims, I turned to Inglehart and Norris’ Cultural Backlash. Using large-scale survey data, they showed that support was driven more by cultural concerns than material deprivation. I realised that rational choice models, focused primarily on pecuniary incentives, were thus insufficient to capture voter motivation. Looking beyond Homo-economicus, I explored Akerlof and Kranton’s Identity and Economics, which posited that individuals derive utility from group identification, formalised through an adjusted utility function. This new perspective informed my winning entry to the LSESU Essay Competition. Drawing on Shayo’s identity salience model and Besley & Persson’s political hysteresis, I demonstrated that identity shifting, in response to economic and social changes, creates self-reinforcing political dynamics that shape long-term policy outcomes.

Intrigued by my experience of the Spanish Housing Bubble, I attended a talk by Anthony Breach from Centre for Cities on the growing UK housing crisis. Breach argued that ‘discretionary’ planning systems had disconnected supply from demand and, as the primary cause of the national shortage, required immediate reform. Whilst compelling, I found his monocausal analysis reductionist, oversimplifying a complex crisis driven by multiple factors. Seeking more nuance, I undertook an EPQ sponsored by investment bank VLK, exploring house price determinants and affordability. Through regression analysis and a comparative case study between London, Amsterdam and Tokyo, I concluded that whilst supply constraints partially affected prices, surging demand from higher-income first-time buyers proved the more decisive factor. My examination of the Rosen–Roback Spatial Equilibrium model corroborated this, with wealthier households systematically outbidding others for limited housing. Upon reflection, I recognised that an Agent Based Model’s bottom-up approach could be used to more accurately simulate how fierce competition in a constrained market impacts prices.

Sonny Tyrer – PPE/Politics and economics – Oxford/LSE/UCL

Why do you want to study this course or subject?
Seeing the sharp contrast in my parent’s generation’s ability to purchase their own homes in comparison to mine sparked deep curiosity in my mind about what led us here, and how one of the world’s most prosperous economies contains such large inequality between classes. Exploring this, I discovered that political economy frames this as an institutional outcome, an inseparable combination of politics and economics that I am committed to learning more about. Understanding the causes and effects of inequality in living standards to ultimately mitigate them is an aim of mine, partly catalysed by my first-hand experience with the consequences of those circumstances.

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?
A desire for the reasons behind the economic intergenerational divergence led me to read Thomas Piketty’s ‘Capital in the Twenty First Century’ which highlighted his idea of patrimonial capitalism. I resonated with the idea that an absence of institutional checks and a political system rife with clientelism and rent seeking cause a skewed outcome, and ultimately a living standard squeeze. Whilst I acknowledge the dangers of this, I believe that Piketty overlooks the importance of international cooperation constraints when enforcing his remedies to this issue: the book proposes solutions such as a progressive annual wealth tax that in a globalised world are slightly limited by state capacity. After considering the warnings against large amounts of concentrated wealth, I read an article by N. Gregory Mankiw, ‘Defending the One Percent’, to enrich my understanding. Although the publication sufficiently evokes reconsideration around the political philosophy that may guide desire for a wealth tax, it falsely equates wealth with societal contribution at times as highlighted by Piketty. Particularly enthralled by the behavioural responses to a proposed wealth tax, I attended a lecture at LSE on rational choice which led me to the Meltzer-Richard prediction that higher inequality would result in higher redistribution. However, I noticed that due to the rising presence of populism shifting salience to identity, this is not the case and so this area became an interest of mine: a political trend directly causing an economic model to falter.

Increasingly observing the presence of populism in the UK, I read Alastair Campbell’s ‘But What Can I Do?’ after listening to him at a PolEcon conference. This book displayed the presence of populist outcomes in our society in recent history and I viewed President Trump as a current example of democratic backsliding, as demonstrated in Levitsky and Ziblatt’s ‘How Democracies Die’, and whilst currently not as severe as historic examples I do believe signs of eroding democracy are starting to appear in the US. Despite this, I am also aware that referendums, used by ‘populist’ Nigel Farage are the purest form of democracy, and the Brexit outcome explored in Campbell’s book is a democratic one. The economic consequences of Trump limiting foreign aid grasped my attention, as I had previously encountered global inequality in countries receiving this aid, such as in The Gambia. Encouraged to explore ways of improving living standards abroad as well as at home, I studied LEAF’s Mathematics of Morality course which displays effective use of quantitative skills to achieve maximum positive goals, an incredibly useful principle in politics and economics.

What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?
Following this, I co-founded a think tank, The Young Economist Initiative, with peers from the Sutton Trust Pathways programme and published an article exploring the real effects of foreign aid being cut. Work experience with PwC gave me analytical skills in a finance context, and presenting a consulting solution to partners in which I evaluated political and economic factors influencing a company improved my awareness of these subjects. I use my position as school Head of Politics and debate club to further increase debate in these subjects and in turn contribute to a more educated and prosperous society.

Caleb – PPE – University of Oxford.

Why do you want to study this course or subject?
Growing up in one of my country’s most economically disadvantaged regions before moving to the capital for further education provided a firsthand view of how access to education and opportunity shapes a person’s future. This prompted me to ask: how do these factors influence a country’s political stability? I am interested in how a state can create opportunities for broad participation while ensuring institutions effectively structure them. I view the government as the most organized actor in addressing structural injustices, drawing me toward a career in policymaking. Politics helps me understand institutional architecture; Philosophy allows me to weigh the moral trade-offs in policy; and Economics, especially mechanism design, provides the tools to align individual incentives with collective well-being.

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?
Reading Plato’s The Republic, I questioned his Principle of Specialisation. While Plato suggests individuals should focus on a single role, I considered the spillover effects of cross-disciplinary work. Spreading effort across domains can create greater societal value, challenging Plato’s rigid hierarchy and his skepticism of democracy. If citizens are not confined to a single role, political participation could be broadened without leading to instability. This taught me the importance of questioning foundational assumptions, regardless of the author’s prestige.

I realized Plato’s concern with democracy was primarily the threat of demagogues exploiting an uninformed electorate. My observations of how unequal education leaves communities vulnerable to populist rhetoric led me to identify with Robert Dahl’s On Democracy. However, the rise of AI-driven disinformation makes me wonder if traditional institutions are sufficient. How can a system reliant on the wisdom of its citizens survive modern disinformation? Furthermore, Why Nations Fail convinced me that inclusive institutions are both morally and economically beneficial. While the authors argue economic inclusion leads to political inclusion, the Chinese model challenges this. This disconnect sparked my curiosity about how institutions shape societies in practice. To deepen my understanding of economic application, I explored lectures on mechanism design, learning how rules can address information gaps. This resonated with my observations of national scholarship allocations, where information access often outweighs potential.

What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?
As the Executive Director of a regional student movement, I led initiatives to expand educational access and promote civic engagement, representing the group at national democratic forums. These experiences reinforced that policies are most effective when local communities help shape them. They also led me back to mechanism design—specifically how institutions can distribute resources fairly. My leadership roles strengthened my communication skills, which are vital for PPE, where synthesizing insights requires articulating complex ideas with clarity.

Other useful guides for personal statements, University applications and work experience.
Wize Foundation:
Personal statement guides, an opportunity tracker, mentoring schemes, and degree apprenticeship guides.

The opportunity tracker is gold. Apply to every single university access scheme if you’re from a disadvantaged background.

Everyone at the Wize Foundation is lovely, and I’d highly recommend getting in touch with them.

Tracker:
Specifically, the pre-university section for finding work experience in finance.

Sutton trust programmes:
Summer Schools and programmes at unis like Warwick, LSE and Nottingham, gets you reduced offers, higher chances of getting an offer, mentorship and work experience.

Daniyaal Anawar’s YouTube channel and GCSE potential guides:

All of his guides are super useful – defo do check him out.

The GCSE potential guides include:

🏫 How should I choose a Sixth Form?
📄 Advice on choosing A Levels
🤓 How can I prepare for A Levels?
📐 How I got an A* (99%) in Maths (Pure)
🧮 How I got an A* (90%) in Further Maths
📈 How I got an A* (90%) in Economics
📜 How I got an A* (83%) in History)
University Applications (incl Oxbridge)
🏛️ How to get the Avicenna Scholarship
🧠 How to prepare for an Oxbridge interview
📜 How to write an LSE/Oxbridge Personal Statement
✳️ How to get a 9.0 in TMUA
💷 How I got into Imperial EFDS
🏃‍♂️ My Oxbridge Gap Year Experience
💤 Why I DIDN’T Get into Oxford PPE (+ TSA Advice)