Can you use ChatGPT or another AI tool to help with your UCAS personal statement?
Yes – but there is an important line between getting help and getting AI to write your application for you.
UCAS recognises that AI can be useful for generating ideas, helping with structure and checking readability. However, your personal statement must still be your own work. UCAS warns against copying and submitting AI-generated material and states that applicants’ statements may be checked to verify that they are their own work.
The simplest rule is this:
Use AI to make you think harder, not to avoid thinking.
Here are 17 sensible ways to approach AI and your UCAS personal statement.
1. Don’t begin with “Write my personal statement”
This is probably the worst prompt you can use:
“Write me a brilliant UCAS personal statement for medicine.”
You might receive something grammatically impressive within seconds.
But it probably won’t tell the university very much about you.
The better starting point is:
“Ask me questions that will help me work out why I want to study medicine.”
Now AI is helping you think rather than pretending to be you.
2. Remember what universities actually want
Universities are not looking for the applicant who can produce the fanciest collection of sentences.
They want to understand things such as:
Why do you want to study the subject?
What interests you about it?
What have you done to explore it?
What have you learned?
How have your studies prepared you?
What have you done beyond your normal lessons?
AI cannot know the answers to these questions unless you give it the information.
The interesting material has to come from you.
3. Learn the three-question format first
For current UCAS undergraduate applications, the personal statement is organised around three questions:
- Why do you want to study this course or subject?
- How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?
- What else have you done to prepare outside education, and why are these experiences useful?
The answers are considered together rather than as three separate mini-applications.
AI can be useful for helping you sort your ideas underneath these questions.
4. Get AI to interview you
This is one of the best uses of ChatGPT.
Try:
“I am applying for physics. Interview me about why I want to study it. Ask one question at a time and challenge vague answers. Do not write my personal statement.”
Answer the questions properly.
You may be surprised by how much material you uncover.
5. Tell AI to challenge boring answers
Suppose you write:
“I want to study engineering because I enjoy maths and physics.”
There is nothing wrong with it.
But thousands of engineering applicants could say exactly the same thing.
Instead of asking AI to rewrite it, try:
“What questions could you ask me to make this answer more specific and personal?”
You might then start thinking about a particular problem, project, lesson or area of engineering that genuinely interests you.
That is far more useful.
6. Use AI to help you find the “why”
Students often list things they have done.
“I attended a university lecture.”
“I completed an online course.”
“I read a book.”
“I went on work experience.”
The activity itself is rarely the interesting part.
Ask:
Why did it matter?
What surprised me?
What did I disagree with?
What did I understand afterwards that I didn’t understand before?
What question did it leave me with?
This is where AI can be useful.
Ask it to question you until you can explain why an experience was worth mentioning.
7. Try “What? So what? What next?”
This is a useful test for almost anything you want to include.
WHAT?
What did you actually do?
SO WHAT?
What did you learn or think about?
WHAT NEXT?
Did it lead to another book, question, experiment, article, lecture or area of interest?
For example:
I studied gravitational fields at A-level.
So what?
I became interested in how Newton’s model describes orbital motion.
What next?
I started looking at situations in which Newtonian gravity becomes insufficient and encountered general relativity.
That gives an admissions tutor much more information than:
“I have always been fascinated by space.”
8. Ask AI to find the vague bits
Once you have written your own paragraph, paste it into an AI tool and ask:
“Highlight anything that sounds vague. Do not rewrite it.”
That qualification is useful.
You remain the writer.
AI simply acts as another reader.
If it highlights:
“I developed many useful skills.”
you can then decide which skills you actually developed and what evidence you have for them.
9. Use it as a cliché detector
Try:
“Highlight phrases that sound clichéd or could appear in thousands of UCAS personal statements.”
You may discover phrases such as:
“I have always been passionate about…”
“From a young age…”
“In today’s ever-changing world…”
“This prestigious course…”
“I have a burning desire…”
Don’t simply ask AI to replace them with more elaborate clichés.
Ask yourself what you actually mean.
Then say that instead.
10. Ask where your evidence is
Consider:
“I am an excellent problem solver and an independent learner.”
The problem isn’t necessarily that the statement is untrue.
The problem is that the reader has been given no reason to believe it.
Try asking:
“Which claims in this paragraph need evidence?”
Then supply that evidence yourself.
You may have investigated something independently.
You may have struggled with a difficult project.
You may have taught yourself some programming.
You may have solved a particularly difficult problem.
Show rather than announce.
11. Let AI organise your notes
Your initial planning might look chaotic.
Books.
Work experience.
A-level topics.
Podcasts.
Projects.
Jobs.
Competitions.
Lectures.
Volunteering.
That’s fine.
You can give the list to AI and ask:
“Sort these notes under the three UCAS personal statement questions. Do not add any information that I haven’t supplied.”
That last sentence matters.
AI should organise your evidence rather than manufacture more of it.
12. Never let AI invent your application
AI tools can confidently produce details that are untrue.
Never include:
a book you haven’t read
a placement you didn’t complete
a lecture you didn’t attend
a project you didn’t do
a competition you didn’t enter
an opinion you don’t hold
or a subject you don’t understand.
UCAS stresses that information in an application should be true and accurate, and the personal statement must be the applicant’s own work.
If you wouldn’t be comfortable discussing something with an admissions tutor, think carefully about including it.
13. Don’t ask AI what book will “look impressive”
This is particularly tempting for competitive courses.
“Give me three impressive books to mention for economics.”
That is approaching the problem backwards.
Find something you genuinely want to read.
Then read it.
Then think about it.
Then decide whether it is worth mentioning.
A thoughtful response to one book is far more convincing than a shopping list of supposedly impressive titles.
14. Use AI to test your understanding
This is one of my favourite uses of AI for a personal statement.
Once you have written a paragraph, try:
“Imagine you are interviewing me for this university course. Ask me five challenging questions based on what I have written.”
If you mention quantum computing, could you explain what interests you about it?
If you mention behavioural economics, could you discuss an example?
If you mention a novel, could you explain your interpretation?
If you mention an engineering project, could you explain what went wrong as well as what went right?
This can expose superficial statements very quickly.
15. Use AI for editing – carefully
UCAS itself suggests AI can help applicants check readability and identify ways writing might be clearer or more concise.
That can be genuinely useful.
Try:
“Which sentences are difficult to understand?”
“Where am I repeating myself?”
“Which sentences are unnecessarily long?”
“What could I remove without losing meaning?”
These prompts are different from:
“Rewrite this so it sounds really intelligent.”
The first group makes you a better editor.
The second risks replacing your voice with somebody else’s.
16. Read the final version aloud
This is an excellent AI detector – and it doesn’t require any software.
Read your statement aloud.
Does it sound like you?
Do you understand every word?
Would you normally use expressions such as “multifaceted”, “transformative”, “intricacies”, “profoundly resonated” or “further cultivated my passion”?
If not, why are they in your application?
A 17-year-old does not need to sound like a professor.
Clear, specific and genuine is better than artificially sophisticated.
17. Remember the Teach17 AI test
Before using AI, ask:
WHO IS DOING THE THINKING?
GREEN
AI asks you questions.
AI sorts your notes.
AI spots repetition.
AI identifies clichés.
AI checks spelling.
AI points out unclear sentences.
AI challenges your argument.
These can all help you improve your own work.
AMBER
AI rewrites whole paragraphs.
AI changes your vocabulary extensively.
AI suggests personal reflections for you.
AI produces sentences that you then slightly modify.
Now the boundary between your work and AI’s work is becoming much less clear.
RED
AI writes your answers.
AI invents examples.
AI creates experiences you didn’t have.
AI writes reflections you didn’t make.
AI produces the final text that you copy into UCAS.
At that point it is no longer helping you write your personal statement.
It is writing your personal statement.
A better way to use ChatGPT for your UCAS statement
A sensible process might look like this:
You collect your own experiences and ideas.
↓
AI interviews you about them.
↓
You explain what you learned and what interested you.
↓
AI helps sort your notes under the three UCAS questions.
↓
You write your first draft.
↓
AI highlights vague claims, repetition and clichés.
↓
You make the changes.
↓
AI tests you with interview questions based on what you have written.
↓
A teacher, adviser or trusted adult reads the statement.
↓
You produce the final version in your own words.
That uses AI extensively.
But you remain the author.
10 prompts that are actually useful
Try these instead of “Write my personal statement”.
- “Ask me one question at a time to help me work out why I want to study [subject].”
- “Challenge my answer if it sounds vague or generic.”
- “Ask me questions about this experience so I can work out what I learned from it.”
- “Help me apply What? So what? What next? to this experience.”
- “Sort my notes under the three UCAS personal statement questions without adding anything.”
- “Highlight clichéd phrases but don’t rewrite them.”
- “Which claims have I made without providing evidence?”
- “Which parts of this paragraph are repetitive?”
- “Which sentences are difficult to understand?”
- “Act as a university interviewer and question me about the academic interests I have mentioned.”
The Teach17 takeaway
AI isn’t necessarily the enemy of a good personal statement.
Used properly, it can be a very effective personal tutor.
It can ask the question you hadn’t considered.
It can notice that you haven’t explained something.
It can challenge an unsupported claim.
It can identify repetition.
It can help you organise a page of chaotic notes.
It can even test whether you genuinely understand the things you have chosen to write about.
But there is one job it shouldn’t do.
It shouldn’t become you.
Your experiences.
Your interests.
Your questions.
Your opinions.
Your reflections.
Your reasons for wanting to study the subject.
Those are the parts a university actually wants to hear.
Use AI to help you find them – not to replace them.
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