This revision presentation offers some advice on what makes a great personal statement for university applications in economics.

1. Advice on Economics
Personal Statements
Geoff Riley FRSA, Co-Founder of Tutor2u

2. Outstanding Economics UCAS
Statements
• Are personal and not manufactured by many hands
• Show academic / intellectual curiousity
• Understanding important issues in your subject
• Indicate you have left the A level course behind
• Show hard evidence of enrichment work
• Confirm you are a motivated independent learner
• Reveal plenty about your drive and commitment
• Focus heavily on the academic disciplines you
intend to take for the next 3-4 years

4. Geography - Paragraph 1
• Geographers have a responsibility to think about the future in
relation to urban development. This was the basis of a
presentation I delivered on the failures of urban planning.
During investigative trips to East London, I gained an
awareness of how informal economies in deprived areas can
play a role in bolstering regeneration. Sudhir Alladi
Venkatesh's book 'The Underground Economy of the Urban
Poor' illustrates how, in Chicago, the shadow market provides
a backbone for urban renewal. Indeed, Paul Knox's 'Atlas of
Cities' taught me how the social structure of cities is integral
to their success. Structure and function should be integrated,
encapsulating a fine balancing act between social diversity and
cohesion as well as economic prosperity within a city. One
could argue that such structure and function in a city are
indispensable to a successful holistic approach to urban
planning.

5. Geography - Paragraph 2
• This balance, between structure and form, may be challenged
by a city's role as a hub for migrants. Migration is another area
in which geographers have to look forward and seek solutions
to an often-divisive topic. My research for an internal essay
prize on migration and economic development illustrated the
variety of different opinions surrounding this topic and the
importance of being able to evaluate the positionality of the
different arguments. In his book 'Exodus', Professor Paul
Collier argues for a human capital quota system to be
introduced on immigrants. Although providing convincing
evidence that diaspora could be obviated through the use of
quotas, I challenged this conclusion. Given the popular
support in Germany for victims of the current Syrian migration
crisis, there is an opportunity for a diaspora to integrate
without social disruption, something that Collier believes to
be impossible.

6. Geography - Paragraph 3
• Gaining an understanding of how geographers analyse data for decision-making
motivated me to write a research project titled, 'To What Extent has the Use of
GIS Become a Way to Exclude the Global Poor?' I assessed how technology can
be used to gather and analyse data to offer solutions in areas ranging from
rainforest conservation to urban planning. For example, I investigated the use of
GIS in Kenya to examine land uses between 1987 and 2011. This data allowed the
Ministry of Environment to identify bush areas under threat from environmental
changes and human settlements, ultimately leading to new legislation preventing
permanent damage. During my research, I interviewed Mathenge Mwehe, a
researcher at the GIS Research Institute in Nairobi. Our conversations reinforced
the importance of considering how data can be misrepresented by different
stakeholders, and made me alert to the risk of making decisions without proper
human context, especially, in this case, given the lack of data on lower income
citizens. I have further explored this interest in GIS through its incorporation
into my start-up, Edge Mobile. Edge helps ski resorts explore how their visitors
interact with the environment around them. Data collected from the app on skier
performance enables the analysis of patterns, helping reach conclusions as to
where inefficiencies and safety issues may lay; this enhanced my ability to
interpret and analyse data.

7. Geography - Paragraph 4
• At school, I ran the Entrepreneurship Society that
involved hosting and leading discussions with CEOs of
major firms as well as innovative start-ups. I also had a
senior role in the Geography Society and was house
captain. Over two years, I have mentored English and
Maths at local schools and given lectures on enterprise
at the Brent Summer School, teaching me the
importance of clear communication and succinct
explanation. I enjoy skiing, sailing, to instructor standard,
and the camaraderie of house matches.
• For me, geography is strategic and fundamental, it not
only evaluates critical issues facing the individual and
society but also seeks solutions to these big problems -
there can be little more rewarding than that.

9. Economics Paragraph 1
• In the aftermath of the 2007 financial crisis, I first became
aware of how consumer and business confidence is
necessary to maintain a stable and progressive economic
system. Growing up in a time of economic downturn,
constant 'recession' media and the subsequent austerity
measures imposed intrigued me to explore the workings
of what I came to know as 'the economy'. Economics at
AS Level has provided me with a valuable insight into the
workings of both the macro- and micro-economy.

10. Economics Paragraph 2
• I have particularly enjoyed discovering and evaluating
governments' macro-economic objectives, such as 'a low
and stable level of inflation'. The common yet unrealistic
assumptions made in economics, such as 'Ceteris Paribus'
and 'The Rational Economic Man', have often made me
question the theory. This scepticism led me to read
Ormerod's 'Positive Linking', which aims to tackle
conventional economic thinking, most notably its theory
of utility-maximising agents. Ormerod affirms the
immense relevance of social networks and refers to work
done by Keynes and Simon with a clear 'Behavioural
Economics' theme. Heuristics and non-Gaussian
distributions are also key discussion points.

11. Economics Paragraph 3
• Reading Davis' 'Game Theory' demonstrated to me not only that
microeconomics has many mathematical, 'utilitarian' elements, but
also that it encompasses many behavioural aspects of economics. I
further developed my interests in Game Theory following a
'Massive Open Online Course', taught by Professor Polak at Yale
University, in which relatively complex 'games' are evaluated.
Varian's 'Intermediate Microeconomics' provided me with a clear
indication of the extent to which A2 Mathematics can be directly
incorporated into Economics, such as through geometrically
modelling demand and supply curves and demonstrating basic
profit maximisation using a variety of cost and revenue curves. The
adoption of tools such as calculus undoubtedly plays a key role in a
great amount of economic work, enabling the optimization of
functions denoting for example revenue and cost, as well as
measuring relative changes and responsiveness. Alongside my A-
Levels I am also teaching myself AS Further Mathematics.
Exploring topics such as the use of Lagrange multipliers in
constrained optimization, I am also giving myself a head-start in
useful undergraduate-level mathematical methods.

12. Economics Paragraph 4
• My interest in Economic History has been prompted by Heilbroner's
'The Worldly Philosophers', which attempts to assess the life and
work of history's greatest economists. Particularly intrigued by the
work of Keynes and his heterodox approach, as part of an EPQ, I
studied his influence on economic thinking, which allowed me to
look into deeper and more complex economic theory. I also
learned about the many political implications in applied economics,
as Keynes indicated in 'The Economic Consequences of the Peace'.
An Easter School at Gonville and Caius College broadened my
knowledge on topics such as China's prevalence in the global
economy and geopolitics. The Eton College University Summer
School in July 2013 also provided the opportunity to learn about
more complex, contemporary economic concepts and the true
relevance of mathematical concepts in economics.
• I was elected on to my Sixth Form's elected Senate, which
required, amongst other things, the ability to speak with charisma
in front of over 400 people. As a member of the school's
nationally-recognised Chamber Choir, I sing with them regularly
and am looking forward to performing at the Royal Albert Hall in
November. I hope to pursue my musical interests whilst at
University.

14. Economics & Politics Paragraph 1
• Being shortlisted to become the nation's Youth
Chancellor this March was my first exposure to the
conflicting yet complementary nature of Economics with
Politics and Philosophy. The opportunity to decide fiscal
policy left me with questions that transcended the graphs
and statistics of Economics. I questioned whether
Friedman was right to say that taxation was an
infringement of economic freedom or if utilitarianism can
be used as a justification. For the first time Economics was
not the panacea to all my academic inquiries and I knew
that I had to use university as a means of investigating my
many remaining questions.

15. Economics & Politics Paragraph 2
• Studying Stalin's Russia for AS History sparked an interest
in political ideology and spurred me to research more
about the application of socialism in today's society. To
this end I read Owen Jones' "Chavs", which explored the
neo-Marxist concept of class and pushed me to question
how far the perception of the exploitation of the working
class has shaped the political landscape of the UK over
the last 150 years. What most struck me was how the
simple notion of personal class affiliation has led to an
actual realisation of class blocs with significant, but
diminishing, economic and political power. This
observation led me to theorize the extent to which
arguments against trade unions are indeed economic, or
if they are appeals against the new dynamic to the
balance of political and economic power in an unspoken
class war.

16. Economics & Politics Paragraph 3
• Studying Economics & Politics at Eton College's Summer
School developed my ability to challenge orthodox views in
both disciplines, a skill I now use in my role as Economics
Prefect to take Economics beyond the narrow remit of the
syllabus by making Economics as inter-disciplinary as
possible. For example, I organised the attendance of the
Economics Society to an LSE lecture entitled 'What Would
Hayek Do?', in reference to the 2008 economic crisis. The
lecture made me view Economics as a moral science, as the
values of security and freedom offered by Keynes and Hayek
seem to represent the clash between deontology and
consequentialism; as economic freedom can be considered
intrinsically good, while the security offered by Keynes
virtuous because its outcome protects the economy. My
desire to explore more heterodox Economics ideas led me to
read Ha-Joon Chang's "23 Things They Don't Tell You About
Capitalism". I found the argument against the existence of an
objective free market fascinating, as it made me question how
much more of Economic theory is defined by Politics.

17. Economics & Politics Paragraph 4
• My internship at the constituency office of David
Cameron MP allowed me to fully grasp how democracy
benefits the lives of individuals at the grassroots level,
and truly gauge just how accountable MPs are to their
constituents, and thus understand why the stakes are so
high in places like Syria where democracy is still a luxury.
Whilst my constituency placement developed my
understanding of politics at a local level, interning at the
Department of Energy & Climate Change gave me an
insight into how conflicting political priorities at a global
level hinders progress. The internship incited an internal
philosophical debate about whether we have the right to
impose western values of environmental responsibility on
countries like China where economic development is
threatened by sustainable practices.

18. Economics & Politics Paragraph 5
• To challenge myself in areas outside academia I
completed the Duke of Edinburgh Award, which exposed
me to the art of boxing and motivated me to use my
interest in personal development to volunteer as a Maths
tutor in my inner-city community and mentor low-ability
SEN pupils in Geography. I hope to further develop my
sense of social responsibility at university. I look forward
to finding the panacea to my current academic inquiries,
whilst developing my ability to inquire at greater depth.

20. Economics Paragraph 1
• I first became aware of the importance of Economics
when I represented Iraq at a Model United Nations
conference in Edinburgh. I debated issues ranging from
the problem of aid dependence to the economic impact
of terrorism, and won the “Best Delegate” award in the
Economics Committee. Since then, I have extended my
knowledge of different areas of Economics by reading the
Financial Times and The Economist, and by attending
open lectures at the LSE and RSA. In my gap year, I am
working as an economic research assistant for the
International Growth Centre (at the invitation of
Professor Tim Besley) in a team planning to measure
private returns to education, with the exciting possibility
of undertaking fieldwork in India.

21. Economics Paragraph 2
• My interest in Game Theory as a method for
understanding strategic decision-making encouraged me
to read ‘The Art of Strategy’ by Dixit and Nalebuff. I am
intrigued by how empirical evidence seems to refute the
assumptions of Rational Choice Theory, leading us to
question how rational we are and how useful the
assumption of self-interest is, given the strong social,
cultural and moral influences promoting altruism. Game
Theory also appeals to me because it provides an
opportunity to use my aptitude for Mathematics to
analyse economic problems. I am working through
‘Mathematics for Economics and Business’ by Ian
Jacques, and have enjoyed applying calculus to problems
such as those encountered in constrained optimization. I
am eager to develop my Mathematical skills and their
application to Economics at University.

22. Economics Paragraph 3
• Recent turmoil in the global economy led me to read
'Animal Spirits' by Akerlof and Shiller, which introduced
me to the intriguing manner in which psychology affects
the performance of the macro economy. In my essay for
the RES Young Economist of the Year Competition,
entitled "Are Economic Recessions Inevitable?” I argued
that there was convincing evidence to suggest that
underlying psychological factors, rather than policy
failures, cause the business cycle. Since then, I have
begun to explore rival theories of business cycles,
including Keynesian, Monetarist and Austrian ideas.

23. Economics Paragraph 4
• Amartya Sen’s ‘Development as Freedom’ sparked my
interest in the role of economic and social liberties to increase
the advancement of poor countries, via the market
mechanism. However, I found that much debate surrounding
development is concerned with the time frame in which
transitions towards market-based economies occur, rather
than simply evaluating the benefits of free markets. The
development of social capital appears to be a challenging but
essential part of this process. My belief that it is necessary to
adopt a bottom-up approach to improving living standards of
citizens in developing countries was reinforced by reading ‘The
White Man’s Burden’ by William Easterly. My interest in
microfinance came from reconciling this approach to
development with the improvement of economic freedoms
and my entry for my school’s Economics essay prize focused
on the recent growth in microfinance to fund small Indian
businesses. I concluded that regulation of microfinance
lending should be increased to ensure that credit bubbles do
not grow, burst and cause havoc, as they have done in the
developed world.

24. Economics Paragraph 5
• In my view, education is the best remedy available to
improve global living standards. Through mountaineering
expeditions to the Himalayas and the Andes, I have
raised $12 000 to help educate orphan girls from the
Masaai tribe in Tanzania. I will be teaching in Tanzania
for three months from next April.
• As the secretary of my school’s Economics Society, I
sought out inspiring speakers from varied academic and
business backgrounds to enthuse budding economists
from several local schools. This experience has helped to
develop my organisational and time management skills. I
am keen to make the most of the opportunities that a
university education can offer, and hope one day to
pursue a career in academia.