Earth Sciences BSc (Hons) personal statement example

Why do you want to study this course or subject?

Halfway along my postal round the field walls change colour. For the first few miles they are built from warm, layered sandstone, then within a few hundred metres they become dark, blocky stone that rings when tapped. I passed that change daily for years before asking why it happened in one place. A borrowed geological map showed a dolerite dyke crossing the road there, and the walls simply reflected what farmers had dug out of their own fields. That made me want to understand the processes recorded in ordinary landscapes: how molten rock cut through older sediments, why one rock weathers into rounded lumps while another splits into slabs, and how those differences affect soil, drainage and where people chose to build. Earth Sciences appeals to me because it joins chemistry, physics and biology to questions about deep time, and because its evidence is often outdoors and open to anyone who looks closely.

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare?

I left school with few qualifications and am now completing an Access to Higher Education Diploma in Science through evening classes, alongside full-time work. Chemistry has been the most useful unit so far. Learning about ionic bonding and crystal structures helped me make sense of Bowen's reaction series, which I first met in a library book, and of why olivine breaks down faster than quartz at the surface. In maths I have become confident with logarithms and rearranging equations, which I needed for a physics assignment on radioactive decay where I calculated half-lives from sample data. My extended project compared the weathering of sandstone and dolerite gravestones in two village churchyards, recording the legibility of inscriptions against their dates. It was a small sample and I said so in my conclusion, but planning a fair method taught me a lot about controlling variables. Reading Marcia Bjornerud's Reading the Rocks showed me how geologists build a history of the planet from fragmentary evidence, and her account of the carbon cycle made me realise that rock weathering affects climate over long timescales. I study at the kitchen table after my son goes to bed, so I have learned to plan my week realistically and to keep going when the material is hard. Legibility is only an indirect measure of weathering, which is a limitation I would want to examine more closely.

What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?

Eight years as a postal worker have given me stamina, reliability and a good knowledge of rural ground in every season. I walk around twelve miles most days, and I notice where lanes flood, where banks slump after heavy rain and where new springs appear in wet winters. After finding the dyke, I spent several weekends recording the stone type of walls along my route, photographing each change and marking it on an Ordnance Survey map. When I showed this to a local geology group, a retired member pointed out that some walls had been rebuilt with imported stone, so I learned to check mortar and weathering before drawing conclusions. I now go on the group's monthly outings, where I have learned to use a hand lens, describe grain size and keep a proper field notebook, and I helped sort a member's donated collection into labelled trays for the village hall open day. Outside study, I swim in the sea from spring to autumn and coach the under-tens' rounders session at my son's club on Saturdays, which has made me patient when explaining things simply. I am used to working outdoors in poor weather, organising my time around other people, and asking questions when I do not know something. I would bring that steadiness, along with genuine curiosity, to a demanding degree.