How to Write an Oxford PPE Personal Statement

You probably know that in 2025, UCAS changed the personal statement format. Before it was to be written as one essay covering your interest in the subject, your studies, and your experiences. This format was particularly good for PPE, as you could base the essay structure around the three subjects, i.e., have an introductory paragraph, one paragraph for each subject, and then a conclusion paragraph. However, the new personal statement asks for answers to three questions:

1. Why do you want to study this course or subject?

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

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

This poses a challenge for PPE applicants, as you have to talk about three different subjects for the first two of your answers. However, it's important to remember that the personal statement is still read as one piece, and your answers don't have to be all the same length. Indeed, according to UCAS, while there is a 4,000 overall character limit (including spaces), there is minimum character count of 350 characters for each answer, so you may focus more on some questions over others.

Oxbridge candidates are likely to devote fewer characters to the final question, as it offers an opportunity to discuss extracurriculars, whereas Oxbridge personal statements ought to have more of an academic focus.

Now, let's delve into ideas for each question in turn.

1. Why do you want to study this course or subject?

Why do you want to study PPE? What is it about this combination of subjects which attracts you? You might talk about your current experience with the subjects, perhaps studying one of them at A-Level, or you might discuss how your keen following of political news led you to this course. You may also bring up future career plans you have, and how you believe this course to be a great fit for those plans. You should reference the unique combination of subjects, and why you believe it will be enriching to study all three.

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

As we have three subjects to deal with, this is likely to be the longest of your answers. Even if you are not applying for PPE to every uni on your list, you should ensure that you discuss all three subjects. You will likely want to have a section for each subject in your answer. This is your opportunity to show off all of the reading you've done and projects you've completed which pertain to philosophy, politics, and economics.

For example, in the philosophy section, you have start with the fact that you aren't studying it in school, but have embarked upon self-guided enquiry, reading a few introductory books which have developed your interest in the subject. As you learnt more, you found yourself attracted to the topic of ethics, and so attended a lecture on virtue ethics by a prominent philosopher. Following this you entered into a philosophy essay competition, engaging with the question, 'If we live in a physically determined universe, is anyone ever morally responsible for what they do?' To answer this question, you read several books on the subject, and your essay was ultimately shortlisted for a prize.

In the example above, we have shown how you can weave in multiple books, display genuine interest by pursuing specific topics, demonstrate a knack for independent study of the type you would do at Oxford, and academic ability through your successful essay. This covers many of the things the tutors will be looking for, and is vastly preferable to naming books and saying what they're about, as by bringing up specific topics within the books, and then explaining how you pursued them further, you can show genuine passion and interest in the subject. Similar paragraphs should be written for each subject, although if you have less experience with some, it is natural that they be slightly lighter.

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

As mentioned above, this should be the shortest answer in your statement, as more characters are needed for the more academic answers, particularly as we have three subjects to discuss. Here, you may talk about responsibilities in school such as Head Boy/Girl, extracurricular achievements through sports or music, interesting hobbies, past or current jobs, or anything else you can think of which help to create a view of you as a person, and may be useful for university life. You should only mention things that you feel are impressive or unique, and always tie them back to why they're useful for university (if you can tie it back to PPE, even better!).

It's important to remember that your personal statement will be read at Oxford by academic tutors, not admissions tutors, and they will thus be much more interested in your academics, and so anything else should be kept very brief.

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If you feel like something you've written could fit more than one question, don't sweat it; as it's read all together, it doesn't matter too much whether you've chosen to put something in one answer over another, as long as it's coherent and well-written.

When writing your personal statement, you should start by planning thoroughly, and then aim for early drafts to be significantly above the character limit (~6,000). This will give you more room to work with when redrafting, as you can continually cut down weaker parts, making your final draft strong throughout.

This should hopefully give you some ideas for your own personal statement. As a next step, book a session with one of our Oxford PPE personal statement tutors, to make sure you impress.