Writing a personal statement can be daunting. As the admin of Personal-Statement-Examples.com, I’ve spent years advising others on how to write the perfect statement. Yet when I tried writing one myself, even I felt the pressure: Where do I start? What if it isn’t good enough? We all know the stakes — “a good personal statement can mean the difference between getting an offer and being rejected” (yes, I’m quoting myself!)
Recently, I decided to try something new: using an AI writing tool called UniWriter to help draft a personal statement. I’ll admit, I was a bit skeptical at first. Could an AI really capture my experiences and motivations authentically? To my surprise, the result was beyond my expectations. In this post, I’ll share my experience using UniWriter, why I was impressed, and some practical tips if you want to try it yourself.
I know how vital a personal statement is, but writing about yourself can be hard. Even with plenty of examples on our site, many students get writer’s block or worry their draft isn’t “good enough”. I wondered: could an AI tool make this process easier without losing quality or authenticity?
I chose UniWriter because it’s marketed as a student-friendly AI assistant. It’s designed for academic writing and even offers free drafts up to 1,000 words (plenty for a personal statement). I’d heard an academically-focused AI like this could provide quick, structured drafts when you’re stuck and that it was a lot better than generic AI. So, partly out of curiosity (and to help our readers), I decided to give it a go.
Using UniWriter:
Using UniWriter was as easy as filling out a form on the website (no software needed). I pasted in some course details, noted that it was for a UK university application, set a word count of about 600, and hit “Generate”. Within seconds, paragraphs started appearing on my screen – it felt like magic! No complex settings, no jargon. As the UniWriter site itself says, it “really is very simple to use” – just enter your title, add notes, and wait a moment.
Here’s what I did, step by step:
Input my details – I entered “Personal Statement for History BA application in England” as the title. In the notes section, I pasted all of the course description (to highlight the qualities they want) and some personal notes, pretty rough I admit!
Hit “Generate” – I clicked the button, and in under a minute UniWriter produced a draft of the right length. The speed was astounding – writing that much would have taken me hours!
The output: first impressions and quality
I was impressed – even a bit stunned – by the draft UniWriter created. It came back well-structured, with a clear beginning, middle, and end. The opening even used a personal anecdote I had provided as a hook. The body covered my academic background and worked in the examples from my notes (like my debate team and museum volunteering) seamlessly.
Here are a couple of things that stood out to me about the AI-generated draft:
Polished tone: The writing sounded professional yet personal. If I didn’t know an AI wrote it, I could have assumed it was crafted by a very articulate student. (It even used British spelling and phrasing – perfect for a UK application.)
Tailored content: UniWriter made good use of the details I provided. It echoed the course description in the draft and linked my experiences to the skills the university was looking for, making the statement feel targeted to the programme.
Of course, the draft wasn’t perfect – and I wasn’t expecting it to be. There were a couple of generic phrases like “ever since I can remember” that felt a bit clichéd (to be fair, many human-written first drafts have the same issue). There was also one sentence where the AI assumed something slightly inaccurate about me – it mentioned I “completed an extended project on historical analysis”, which I hadn’t actually done. However, these issues were easy to fix with a bit of editing. The important part was that 90% of the content was on-point and usable, which saved me a huge amount of time.
In the end, my experience with UniWriter was overwhelmingly positive. I found the site:
Easy and time-saving: UniWriter is extremely user-friendly and lightning fast. If you can fill out a simple form, you can generate a draft. There was virtually no learning curve – I knew what to do immediately – and what might have taken me days to write, UniWriter produced in seconds. For a busy applicant, that kind of time-saving help is invaluable.
High-quality drafts: The writing quality far exceeded my expectations (I did order ‘Premium’). The draft was coherent and well-phrased, and I could use most of it with only minor tweaks. It felt as if a skilled writer had handed me a strong first draft to refine, instead of having to start from scratch.
Learning booster: Perhaps the best part is how much you can learn in the process. Seeing my own experiences presented in a polished way taught me new ways to phrase things and highlight my strengths. It was almost like having a writing coach show me how to connect my volunteering or projects to the course requirements – an insight I can carry forward into future writing.
My tips for you:
If you’re feeling inspired to try UniWriter for your own personal statement, here are some practical tips to get the most out of it:
Be clear about the context: When you input your request, explicitly state that it’s a personal statement for a university application in England. For example, start your prompt or title with something like “Personal Statement for [Subject] at a UK university”. This helps the AI adopt the right tone and focus.
Paste in the course description: Copy and paste the actual course description from the university’s website into the notes section for the AI. Universities often spell out what qualities they seek in applicants (teamwork, critical thinking, creativity, etc.). This way, the AI will naturally include those keywords and qualities in your draft.
Include your own notes: The AI isn’t a mind-reader. It works with what you give it. So feed it some nuggets about yourself – your achievements, experiences, and any unique selling points. You don’t have to write in full sentences – a short list of phrases (awards, volunteering, skills, etc.) will do. These details will guide the AI to generate content that is actually about you. DON’T WORRY if you can’t figure out how something is relevant – just throw it all in, the AI is pretty good at figuring it out for you.
Don’t skip the editing: Treat the AI’s output as a very helpful first draft, not the final submission. Plan to spend time reviewing and tweaking it to ensure it sounds like you. Remember, the personal statement needs to genuinely reflect you. As UCAS warns, a bland, obviously AI-generated statement “is not what universities and colleges are looking for.”(ucas.com) So use the AI draft as a base, then make sure the final version is unquestionably yours.