Undergraduate Personal Statement — page 1

When

my

grandmother

was

diagnosed

with

early

-

stage

dementia

last

year

,

my

family

faced

a

quiet

crisis

:

how

to

ensure

she

took

her

medication

at

the

right

times

without

stripping

her

of

autonomy

.

I

built

a

simple

reminder

application

using

Python

and

a

Raspberry

Pi

,

pairing

auditory

alerts

with

a

large

,

friendly

interface

that

she

could

navigate

confidently

.

Watching

her

interact

with

something

I

had

made

reframed

my

understanding

of

computer

science

entirely

.

Code

,

I

realised

,

is

not

merely

syntax

and

logic

;

it

is

empathy

made

executable

.

It

is

this

intersection

of

technical

rigour

and

human

impact

that

drives

my

ambition

to

study

Computer

Science

at

undergraduate

level

.

My

A

-

level

studies

have

provided

a

strong

foundation

for

this

path

.

In

Mathematics

,

I

have

developed

an

appetite

for

formal

proof

and

algorithmic

thinking

,

particularly

enjoying

the

discrete

topics

that

un

-

derpin

computational

theory

.

Physics

has

sharpened

my

ability

to

model

complex

systems

,

while

Computing

has

given

me

practical

fluency

in

data

structures

,

object

-

oriented

design

,

and

SQL

.

For

my

Extended

Project

Qualification

,

I

investigated

the

algorithmic

bias

present

in

automated

hiring

tools

,

in

-

terviewing

two

data

scientists

and

surveying

forty

local

businesses

.

The

project

taught

me

that

tech

-

nical

solutions

are

never

politically

neutral

,

and

that

ethical

literacy

must

be

embedded

alongside

pro

-

gramming

skill

.

I

was

awarded

an

A

*

for

this

work

,

and

it

remains

the

standard

by

which

I

judge

my

own

intellectual

curiosity

.

Beyond

the

classroom

,

I

sought

experience

at

the

point

where

software

meets

the

physical

world

.

Last

summer

,

I

interned

at

Flux

Labs

,

a

Manchester

-

based

startup

building

IoT

sensors

for

agricultural

monitoring

.

I

spent

six

weeks

debugging

firmware

written

in

embedded

C

,

tracking

a

memory

leak

that

caused

intermittent

crashes

across

a

deployment

of

fifty

sensor

nodes

.

The

solution

required

reading

hardware

datasheets

,

collaborating

with

an

electrical

engineer

,

and

running

overnight

stress

tests

in

a

cold

barn

.

That

process

taught

me

resilience

more

than

any

textbook

could

.

I

also

read

Tracy

Kidder

’

s

The

Soul

of

a

New

Machine

,

which

crystallised

my

respect

for

the

marathon

of

sys

-

tems

engineering

:

the

deadlines

,

the

team

dynamics

,

and

the

obsessive

attention

to

detail

required

to

ship

working

hardware

.

I

believe

the

best

technologists

are

those

who

step

outside

the

terminal

.

As

captain

of

my

school

’

s

debating

society

,

I

have

argued

cases

ranging

from

the

ethics

of

autonomous

weapons

to

the

regula

-

tion

of

cryptocurrencies

,

learning

to

articulate

technical

concepts

to

non

-

specialist

audiences

.

This

skill

proved

invaluable

when

I

volunteered

with

CodeHer

,

a

local

initiative

teaching

primary

-

school

girls

pro

-

gramming

fundamentals

through

physical

computing

.

Watching

a

ten

-

year

-

old

debug

her

first

LED

cir

-

cuit

reminded

me

that

abstraction

barriers

in

computing

are

often

social

,

not

technical

.

Away

from

screens

,

I

hold

Grade

8

violin

and

play

in

a

string

quartet

.

The

discipline

of

score

interpretation

,

of

lis

-

tening

while

leading

,

translates

directly

into

the

collaborative

version

-

control

workflows

I

have

used

in

team

software

projects

.

1 / 2

Undergraduate Personal Statement — page 2

I

am

applying

to

study

Computer

Science

because

I

want

to

move

beyond

writing

scripts

that

work

;

I

want

to

design

systems

that

fail

gracefully

,

scale

responsibly

,

and

respect

the

humans

who

depend

on

them

.

The

next

four

years

represent

a

rare

gift

of

time

and

mentorship

in

which

I

can

deepen

my

theo

-

retical

understanding

while

contributing

to

open

-

source

and

research

communities

.

I

am

excited

by

the

prospect

of

joining

a

cohort

of

students

who

see

code

as

a

craft

,

and

I

am

ready

to

embrace

the

intellectual

discomfort

that

genuine

mastery

demands

.

Thank

you

for

considering

my

application

.

Yours

sincerely

,

Sophie

Brennan

2 / 2

Undergraduate Personal Statement

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