Getting more words on the page

You may find that your personal statement is just a little too long to fit in the space provided in the UCAS form. Assuming you've edited it down as much as you think you can, and it's still a little too big, there are a few things you can do to make it fit.

In general the more you use these techniques, the harder your statement will be to read, you need to strike a balance between having a great personal statement and one which fits on the page. A statement which doesn't fit is no good, but then neither is a statement which fits but is almost unreadable. You need to play around with your word processor and find something which fits.

Whatever changes you make, be sure to do a few test copies first, sometimes small adjustments can have bad effects which you might not notice until you come to print the statement.

Lower the font size

Though UCAS recommends you use a 12pt font, though you should be able to get away with 11.5 pretty easily. Some word processors give you a lot of control over the font size and let you set it to 11.25 or 11.225, which allows you to find an optimum font size for your statement. It's not recommended you use a font of 11 or less because when the universities receive your UCAS form it is shrunk in to A5 rather than A4. If you want to use a font of 11 or lower make sure you try reducing the page to A5 just to see if it is readable or not. Remember, if you find it difficult to read, so will the admissions tutors, and they will end up looking at your personal statement for less time.

Use indentation rather than paragraph spacing

Rather than waste a whole line of space between each paragraph you can use indentation (by using the tab key or moving the slider at the top of the page) to show where your paragraph starts. This is an often used technique, but it may make the statement harder to read. Alternatively you can reduce just reduce the amount of spacing between paragraphs to 1/2 a line or so.

Change the font

Though the most common fonts are Arial and Times New Roman, you may find that using a different font allows you to get more words on the page. Don't use a decorative or script type font, go for something close to the one you are already using. Many fonts also come in a narrow option, where the characters are slightly thinner, the disadvantage is it may make your personal statement harder to read.

Change the line spacing

Many word processors let you specify exactly how much space is used between the lines in a paragraph. By lowering this slightly you will be able to fit more lines on a page. However if it is lowered too much, characters will start joining together making your statement harder to read.

Change the page margins

The template provided to write your personal statement in gives you margins which are a little wider than the space on your statement, you may find that you can alter these slightly, and the statement will still look fine. Be very careful when doing this, as you can easily end up with a statement which runs off the page in one direction.