Ancient History Personal Statement Example 1

Ancient History, English language and history of the English language are my special interests. I have a particularly strong interest in ancient history and - more recently - in the history of the English language. However, the complexities of the Roman and Greek Empire caught my imagination, which enveloped me in my own thoughts for many an hour.

My earliest interests in The Roman Empire were to come about in my second year at school, where we drew diagrams of what the Roman "Tortoise" defensive manoeuvre would look like. My interest however, dimmed on this subject when we were no longer taught it. This was when I started middle school. Instead, I pursued other historical interests that were more recent historically. In particular, I enjoyed (and still do) studying the Second World War. I enjoyed this topic during this time I suppose because my Father was in the Army, and I wanted to be like him.

Towards the end of Middle school I discovered such programmes as Time Team, which showed me how exciting the task of uncovering the past and its secrets could be. This kindled my interest in Archaeology. My mother can vouch for me when I say that I spent about 6 months of my life wanting to become an Archaeologist!

My interest in ancient history was re-ignited when my mother lent me a book that she had read. It was the first of five books in the EMPEROR series by Conn Iggulden. The Book itself was about the childhood of Julius (or Gaius) Caesar and Marcus Brutus, whose lives would progress through the five books right through to the murder of Caesar. After reading this enthralling book, I was convinced that this was a literary text, instead of the slightly altered fiction that it turned out to be.

After finding out in the acknowledgements that it had been altered slightly to make the storyline flow better, it spurred me on to find out what really happened and when. Unfortunately, the curriculum that we studied at GCSE and A-level did not cover any of the Classics, so to compensate I embarked upon lots of personal study, in particular on the life of Julius Caesar, and most recently The Peloponnesian War, the twenty-seven year long war between the Spartans and the Athenians in 431-404BC. Resources that I must include in this is The Histories, By Herodotus, and The Landmark Thucydides:

A comprehensive guide to The Peloponnesian War. These I am now currently studying as a hobby, rather than begrudgingly slogging through an un-enjoyable subject, which I had experienced pretty much throughout all of my GCSE and A-level history. These topics were all on recent political history such as Poverty in Great Britain in the 18th and 19th Century. Although some of it was incredibly interesting, I don't have a passion for these types of subjects as much as the Ancient Histories.

After finishing the three years completing your Ancient History degree,I will go on to take a Bachelorship of Education, and find a post at a University to teach exactly this subject. As personal interests, I enjoy golf, football and other recreational sports. I was also allowed to use my knowledge of the past in other subjects at A-level, particularly English Language, as I am studying the history of the English language, and its roots, which are derived mainly from the Persian and the Indo-European Languages.

I would like to join your university because I believe that this is the best course for me to study if I am to carry on to teaching at a university. This is because of your high level of teaching standards, as I wish to be the best, therefore I need to be taught by the best to follow in their example.

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This personal statement was written by joezef7 for application in 2008.

joezef7's Comments

draft copy - Comments would be appreciated

Thanks,
Joe

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Too much natter

You could do without all the 'suppositions' and reminisces methinks; keep it to what you like and what you like about it - we don't need to know about your Dad in the Army, nor where, when and why your interest in the Tortoise manouvre dropped. It needs to be a little more conceptual too - talk a little bit more about the actual essence of history, what it means and why you like it... if you could without so many references to school, family, etcetera etcetera. You should be able to justify your interest in history without the anecdotal info.

PS - it also reads too much like a story. Make it less of a narrative and it'll look much more profesh.

- from a layman

Over all, the statement

Over all, the statement itself wasn't too bad however, the last paragraph is aweful. This personal statement (I assume) will be sent to five different universities and they themselves will know this. Sucking up majorly, is not a good thing!

sucking up will not help you

sucking up will not help you ! trust me i have been doing personal statements for a long time!

if anyone wants a chat add a

if anyone wants a chat add a comment

ive been looking at these

ive been looking at these personal statments for quite a while and it is fairly obvious that the majority of this has been simply cut and pasted from other documents - it just looks stupid!

I've just started writing my

I've just started writing my personal statement today. I've been dreading doing it as i hate the idea of having to big yourself up so much and THEN have your teachers read it, it's embarrassing :S. But anyway, from what I’ve read of personal statements that are meant to be good, they never put themselves down very much - so if you say you lost interest in it, just mention it quickly by saying that when the content of your history classes moved onto more modern material, your interest diminished slightly and then moved straight on to say HOWEVER, when my mother sent me this book etc...the fire was reignited or some cheesy shit :P Don't mention too much about how the history at school bores you because although you're meant to be really interested in the subject, I think they also want you to enjoy using the skills that you use in history even if the content isn't entirely to your tastes. Also, is it just me, or does it seem a bit bizarre to use exclamation marks in a personal statement? It just seems a bit too personal. And one more thing - don't stress that your reason for wanting to study this subject is so that you can get this thing afterwards that means that you will be able to teach at uni - make it sound like your primary interest is in the subject and having the opportunity to spend 3 years studying it. Well anyway that's what I would do if I were you, say what you're interested in doing afterwards but concentrate on the course primarily. And I realise that this was written in 2007 so this comment is of no use to you now, but it might be for people looking at this as an example :)

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