How can you be original in a Personal Statement?

Universities read through thousands of personal statements every year, and because of this and restrictiong in length, it does become quite difficult ot be original. However, it is not impossible. 

Originality does not come from the stylistic features of your statement but from its content. For example, using original words and complex syntax will not give you as much credit as reading a book which most will not have read. That is where you get points for originality. Avoid topics which are common occurences in univeristy applications, as this makes it very difficult to be in any way original. 

If you seek orginality through style, your personal statement can become convoluted and cliche. For example, many students think that opening it with a quote from their favourite author, historian etc... will make their statement interesting and punchy. In actual fact, it is perhaps one of the greatest pet hates for unviersity adminstrators. While a mature writing style is obviously a bonus, don't sacrifice characters for big words and complex sentence structure. The purpose of a personal statement is to get across your "passion" (a word hated by most unviersity tutors - I'd use "interest" instead) for your subject in very few characters.

They don't care about your extra-curricular activities unless they relate directly to your subject. After all university is a place of academic study.