Physics Personal Statement Example (International Student) 1

Some people believe there is no universal key to the mysteries of the world, but I am convinced otherwise. Since early childhood when my parents, both physicists by training, patiently answered all my why-questions and encouraged me in my fascination with astronomy, I have been thinking of Physics as the perfect science that can unveil all the secrets that fascinate humanity.

I like physics because it is capable of operating on different scales, it also constantly widens our perspective on what could be its object of research while consistently perfecting the equipment that it uses to handle the task set that also incidentally benefits the humankind. I hope that one day I will be theoretically and practically equipped enough to make my contribution.

Since some of the subjects of the A-Level are not covered in Russian high schools, I had to take extra-curricular classes to cover AS and A2 in Physics, Geography and Mathematics and to do so in much less time. I was captivated by some of the topics, especially by particle physics and the nature of light.

The existence of antimatter and the fact that you can create new particles by colliding them intrigued me and so did the wave-particle duality. I also chose to study geography because I always loved it and was successful in studying this subject in my Russian school as well as in physics.

At my Russian school I did some basic experiments like determination of "g" and determination of the "spring constant", which inspired me to do more practical work. I searched for the place where to do it and was finally lucky to have a chance to conduct a series of experiments under the supervision of a professor from the Physics department of the Moscow State University.

The first one dealt with the determination of the work function of the electron, and the subsequent ones will involve obtaining and investigating polarized light and studying the interference phenomena.

In my spare time I enjoy expanding my knowledge of physics by reading such books like "Universe in a Nutshell" by Stephen Hawking, but my interests spread beyond the world of science. I love travelling and studying languages. I am a self-taught student of Japanese, which fascinated me after my trip to Japan. I am planning to continue studying and practicing it as a student.

I intend to study Arabic later. My interest in languages and sign systems prompted me to create my own language, with its own grammar and writing system that has been learned by some of my close friends. I also write song lyrics and currently am working on a novel.

I am a certified diver and I have spent four years mastering freestyle wrestling and chess and was rather successful at both. Once I won a bronze medal in an arching competition at a British summer school. Finally, I am interested in the school social life as well: I served two terms as the prefect of my class and was the class representative in the student council.

I have always wanted to study in a British university. I feel that I would benefit immensely both personally and professionally from its multicultural experience, being able to work in well-equipped labs under the guidance of top specialists in physics. I am not a stranger to the British culture and have studied in Britain before.

In the last 5 years I have spent a total of six months in the UK, 21 weeks of which I studied English and other subjects in English language at the St Edmund's Summer school and at the Kings Oxford during the preparation for my IELTS examination.

In the future, as a postgraduate student I am considering studying particle physics to research further the standard model and beyond, which seems to be extremely prospective as the recent discovery of Higgs boson has confirmed it.

However, shall I during my studies find a research field where I will make use of my geography knowledge I would be more than happy to contribute to solving such global problems as global warming and energy insecurity.

Profile info

This personal statement was written by alexeiefimov for application in 2013.

alexeiefimov's university choices
The University of Durham
Imperial College London
University of Bristol
The University of Liverpool

Green: offer made
Red: no offer made

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Comments

You spent quite a lot of

You spent quite a lot of space for your other interests. It's fine that you show them in your PS, but you should point out how they relate to/ help studying the subject further.
And if you do any extracurricular reading, you should tell more about it than just a name: what you've learnt from the book, why is it so interesting to you etc.

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