Business and management degree personal statement example (2k) gap year applicant

Why do you want to study this course or subject?

My main interests are Business and Hospitality. I also enjoy playing sports and have a keen interest in nearly all sport and would wish to share this passion with others. Although I have not studied hospitality at a school level, I have a desire to study the subject because I feel it could throw up many different scenarios throughout the industry. On the business side of things, I took it as an A level because I was interested in how business work and what are the best options for business success, as well as it has strong links to both the sports and hospitality industries.

I believe university to be a great place to further my education and set myself targets for the future. I believe I will be able to fulfil many of my aims as a university student, and I hope to be a good ambassador for whichever university accepts me.

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?

Along with my main interest I also enjoy Maths, especially the problem solving side of maths, and I think as I am a good problem solver, it can help me in all my other interests. Many aspects of maths are useful in sports, and it goes further than just the dimensions of a rugby field or the height of a tennis net. The mechanics behind the movement of sports implements is intriguing. Not only are mechanics of maths involved in sports but also the statistical and probability aspects in many sports is very important. Maths is obviously well linked with both Business and Hospitality, and the financials of these industries are obviously heavily maths based. There are many ways of assessing business success but I believe the main way of determining success is the amount a business makes as a profit and evidently this comes down to the finance and accounts of a business control how the business performs by keeping all the other areas of a business in check.

A key aspect of my early childhood involved being a Chorister at Durham Cathedral. I started singing in the cathedral at 7 years of age, and was made a full chorister by the age of 8. This was the time when I started playing my favourite sport rugby at a competitive level, moving through the school to the 1st XV and captaining in my final year, before moving to Oakham, winning national accolades such as the Daily School Sports Matters National Team of the year in 2006, after a clean sheet season in which the team scored 486 points and conceded 0 in 10 games. This was possibly the highest point in my life and regrettably I have not pushed on and continued to get stronger and become an even better player which would have helped me greatly moving towards the senior rugby that I am playing with Tonridge Juddians RFC, though I still think that putting time and effort into fitness and other aspects of the game will help me to become the player I always hoped to be.

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

During my intended gap year that I am undertaking, there are many world events including the Rugby World Cup and the Olympics and Paralympics, for which I have already put forward my application to volunteer for between fifteen and twenty days. This would be towards the end of the summer before starting university, and I hope that I will be one of the 70,000 helping the games happen although I have still not heard whether I have gained an interview to become a Volunteer. I am going skiing in Austria for 5-6 Months at the end of November and hope I can keep my options open, as I would like to work as a Ski resort Rep furthering my skiing ability along with helping out around the resort.

Universities applied to:

• Leeds Met (Business & Management)
• Leeds Met (Hospitality Business Management)
• University College Birmingham (Hospitality Business Management)
• Birmingham City (Business and Management)
• Oxford Brookes (Sport, Coaching and Physical Education/Business Management)

Grades achieved:

• Business (A2) - A
• Maths (A2) - C
• Sport (A2) - D
• Chemistry(AS) - C

How personal statements have changed?

The current personal statement format, with three 'scaffolding' questions, was introduced by Ucas in September 2025. This personal statement was submitted before then, using the old essay-style format. It has been carefully edited into the three-question format, with all of the original wording kept.

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