Personal statement template for MSc programmes in the School of Psychology

The personal statement is an important part of your application. The personal statement should be no longer than one page.

Failure to follow the guidelines below may lead to rejection of your application. 

MSc Mental Health

  1. Please describe any relevant academic or professional experience that make you a good candidate for this programme.
  2. Please confirm that you understand that this programme is not a clinical training programme i.e., does not provide training in counselling/clinical psychology, mental health nursing etc. 

MSc Psychology

  1. Briefly describe a research project you have completed. This could be the final year undergraduate project or any other research project where you contributed at least 400 hours (e.g., full-time 12 weeks, part-time 24 weeks).
  2. Please describe any relevant academic or professional experience that make you a good candidate for this programme. What are your research interests? Briefly describe how your research interests fit within the areas of research expertise in the School of Psychology, University of Birmingham.

MSc Developmental Science and Neurodiversity

  1. Briefly describe a research project you have completed. This could be the final year undergraduate project or any other research project where you contributed at least 400 hours (e.g., full-time 12 weeks, part-time 24 weeks).
  2. Please describe your experience with running statistical data analysis (what kinds of analysis are you familiar with, and what statistical packages/platforms have you used?).  We would also like to hear about relevant academic, professional, or personal experience that makes you a good candidate for this programme. What are your research interests? Briefly describe how your research interests fit within the areas of research expertise in the School of Psychology, University of Birmingham.

MSc Cognitive Neuroimaging and Data Science

Pathway: Cognitive Neuroscience

  1. Briefly describe a research project you have completed. It could be the final year undergraduate project or any other research project where you contributed at least 400 hours (e.g., full-time 12 weeks, part-time 24 weeks).
  2. Please describe any relevant academic or professional experience (e.g., in neuroimaging methods, computer programming and/ or data science) that make you a good candidate for this programme. What are your research interests? Briefly describe how your research interests fit within the areas of research expertise in the Centre for Human Brain Health University of Birmingham.

Pathway: Computational Neuroscience

  1. Please describe any relevant academic or professional experience (e.g., in neuroscience, psychology, computer programming, mathematics, machine learning, data science, engineering, artificial intelligence, and robotics) that make you a good candidate for this programme.
  2. What are your research interests? Briefly describe how your research interests fit within the areas of research expertise in the Centre for Human Brain Health, and/or the School of Psychology, and /or Computer Science at the University of Birmingham.