Oxford from the Inside #34: Writing a Personal Statement: History and Politics

In our latest episode Siam is with Ernest and Kirsty to discuss what makes a competitive HisPol Personal Statement. How should you structure your Personal Statement? Should you have some sections for Politics and others for History or should you analyse both simultaneously on each topic? What topics did they both talk about and do they find interesting now in the field of HisPol? Can I write about Philosophy in my Personal Statement, and if so how does one make it relevant to HisPol? We have it covered!!

Also, here are some reading material suggested by Kirsty and Ernest that you could use for your Personal Statement - you definetly do not need to use these resources if you don't want to of course!!

https://broadstreethumanitiesreview.com
https://plato.stanford.edu (for anything philosophy/politics related)
https://www.historytoday.com/ (lots off UK school libraries have subsciption to these!)
http://www.howtotalkaboutarthistory.com/
  / askhistorians   (the forum)
africasacountry.com
https://thediplomat.com
https://aeon.co

Episode Time Stamps:

00:50 Briefly, how what constitutes to a good HisPol Personal Statement?
03:50 How do you choose how many topics to write about? Is less is more the case?
06:45 Do you need to tailor your Personal Statement towards the modules that you can learn about in the Oxford HisPol course?
08:25 Is Philosphy releveant for a HisPol Personal Statement?
11:13 Do you have a vast choice to study from in HisPol; or is it that you have to study a very large range of modules?
13:58 What is Gender History? (A possible topic to include in your Personal Statement)
19:10 How do you choose how much you write about each of History and Politics - or should you write about both simultaneously?
24:27 How do you write you personal statement if your applying for slightly different courses to other universities?
26:30 How much can you specialise into either History or Politics in the degree?
28:15 Do you structure your essays differently for History compared to Politics?
31:06 What is the balance like between History and Politics?
33:00 Any reading resources you would suggest for a HisPol statement? (Suggestions in the caption!)
36:30 What are the admissions tutors looking for in your personal statement?