Politics Personal Statement Example

Sample Statement

Politics and its influence on world events is all too clear from following news and current affairs on TV, websites and newspapers. Even as a small child I was avidly interested in news, preferring adult news programmes such as Newsnight. The complexity of relationships between groups of people is fascinating and the way in which national governments devise and implement laws and regulations and how governments respond to international events never fails to intrigue me.

My interest in current affairs has been deepened by studying political events in history, both at GCSE and A level. I have combined history with Politics and Economics at A level and applying for a university place to study politics and economics at undergraduate level is an obvious next step for me. I look forward to being involved in debates and in learning more about the international response to the terrorist threat. The need to balance the needs of economics, cultural beliefs and international relationships is something that I would be keen to explore further.

Discussing political ideas with others who have deeper knowledge of particular events or ideologies has strengthened my knowledge and my motivation to study politics at a higher level. For the last two years I have been a member of a political debating club, which is allied to my local university and this has brought me into contact with students, postgrads and researchers and tutors. At first I listened intently and followed the debates but as my confidence has grown and as I have read more widely I now participate more, having been a speaker at two debates in the last year.

Last summer I obtained a placement to shadow some of the campaign managers for a councillor in a local election. I experienced at first hand the background work involved, from designing and printing fliers to canvassing door-to-door and attending councillor surgeries. A major feature of this was researching an application by a large company to build a wind farm development in the area. This brought into focus the need to balance the good of the community and the country as a whole (greener power generation) and the objections of the local people who were living within sight of the massive wind turbines.

My interested in economics has also developed through my part-time job as a sales assistant in a local clothes store chain. The full impact of the current recession was really brought home to me by talking to the manager of the store. Although we seemed very busy, a Saturday is much different to a quiet weekday and I saw the efforts made by the staff to promote and sell their goods to meet monthly sales targets with great difficulty.

Outside work and study, I love to play chess and have reached the finals of several national championships. I also swim regularly and have worked as a lifeguard at a swimming pool during the holidays.

I have chosen your university because it allows me to do a combined honours degree that focuses on politics and economics equally. It has also been important to choose a course that offers a wide range of modules within each subject to enable me to pursue by special interests in the role of terrorism in our modern world and its economic and social impacts.