This article is for those applying for Marketing undergraduate degrees at UK universities through the UCAS system.
For applying to UK universities, it is important that the majority of the personal statement is made up of “supercurricular activities”. These are activities, undertaken outside of school, that directly relate to the subject which you would like to study at university.
Here is a list of some supercurricular activities for marketing:
Podcasts
With podcasts, I recommend focussing on a particular episode and your personal takeaways, rather than only generally mention that you listen to the podcast without further detail.
- The Cambridge Marketing Podcast.
- Marketing Week.
- Other relevant marketing podcasts.
Essay competitions
You may be able to find relevant essay competitions. These may be essay competitions for related subjects such as economics or business.
In this case, make sure to choose an essay question to answer that relates to marketing. This means you may need to be selective about the choice of essay competition.
Examples of essay competitions include the RES Economics essay competition or the King’s Lab entrepreneurship essay competition.
Behavioural economics / behavioural science books
You can find books on these areas, relating to the so-called “behavioural biases” that consumers and other groups may face.
Again with books, I’d recommend picking a particular chapter or idea to go into detail on and offer your own personal takeaway, rather than talking about the book generally.
- Thinking Fast and Slow – a book by Kahneman
- Or another book called Nudge by Thaler and Sunstein.
- There are several other books about behavioural economics.
Lectures
Papers can be difficult to read. So another option is to look up a marketing academic on YouTube, and find a long lecture by them.
For example Andrew Stephen has a lecture here on the future of marketing.
There is also Philip Kotler on marketing here.
Hands-on marketing activity
You may have tried your hand at marketing. This could be for a business and could involve design or communication. Mentioning this kind of activity can be a great addition to a personal statement.
Papers
You could even read academic papers where you have something interesting to say about it. For instance, an interesting insight that you think could be applied elsewhere, a new thought beyond what the authors say, something you agree or disagree with, something you recognise from your own experience etc.
You can find papers for instance here:
- You could sort a famous journal by its most read or most cited articles. For example in the Journal of Marketing, you can find: “The rise of new technologies in marketing: a framework and outlook”.
- You could seek out articles from a particular academic.
You can also find “research features” or shorter versions of the full academic article that may be more accessible. For instance:
- You can find a lot on marketing at the link here. Some of these may be behind paywalls or have limits on number of reads.
- Summaries of academic papers can also be found for economics on the CEPR Voxeu website. For marketing, you will need to be selective.
Final thoughts
This is just a sample of the types of activities you can include in your personal statement. Feel free to look for additional activities beyond this list – this list is meant as inspiration, not for you just to copy the activities.
Moreover, make use of your interests within marketing. If you are interested in online marketing, focus some of your activities on this. Or if you are interested in marketing and design, discuss supercurricular activities relevant to this.
Hope this helps and good luck with your university application!
For more university application resources, mostly relating to economics, click the blue button below:
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