Doing Duke of Edinburgh purely for UCAS?

Oxford interviews are subject based. They are not interested in whether you helped built a school in Africa or got bronze D of E. First get top GSCE grades with the majority grades 7 - 9, exceeding her cohort at school. Then get a minimum of A*AA for her predicted grades at the end of year 12. Then smash the admissions test & hope to secure an interview.

As others say - not useful at all. Competitive courses are after super curricular (related to the course) not extra curricular. In year 10 she could start reading books that she finds interesting (and making a note of which she has read and key points that she found interesting), find someone on YouTube / TikTok that talks about stuff she is interested in.

That and enjoy herself with things she enjoys doing.

Can she pick up a language, op? x

She can be a Young Leader with Guiding from 14. Very relevant to her chosen degree.

They are. They get a series of more structures questions instead but it sort of covers the same stuff that a personal statement would have

My son got the advice that the statement was much more about why that course, so everything kept having to relate back to what he wanted to study. So dof e could if structured well but then you could achieve that without d of e too..

Personal statements are not being phased out. They are the same number of characters (4000) but that now will be in response to three questions to give them some structure. For a highly academic course she will need to show passion and interest for her subject. Much better to focus on how she would do that.

If she wanted to do the D of E then Gold would really be the only level of interest…and only really to demonstrate that she can complete a programme independently…based on her interests.

Definitely won’t make any difference. Most important are grades (this is crucial), then subject knowledge/ reading around the topic. Plus anything that demonstrates she is bright (maths Olympiad etc). Maybe relevant work experience if she can get some (most students don’t), which might include things like working with children, working in a medical setting or something computing-related depending on which type of psychology career she is interested in in the long run.

My DC is doing it. I think the 6 months volunteering might be a help as a talking point, but not the Award overall for university applications.

Makes absolutely no difference for university entry. I’ve no idea why schools say it does. It’s the something quirky, or highly relevant to study that might make a difference, not a forced extra curricular.

DS never did his and it hasn’t impacted him at all.

Sorry, missed the psychology bit. In that case focus on analytical/mathsy activities (psychology has a lot of statistics) alongside clubs like the debating society.

My youngest cousin is going into her third year of medicine at Oxford. She never did d of e and it didn’t impact her at all. A strong personal statement and strong predicted grades is all they need for competitive courses.

I'd have thought she'd be better doing something health related eg St John's Ambulance.

No, it doesn’t make a difference, and it’s not ‘authentic’ for your DD. Focus on activities that help to demonstrate her love and aptitude for the subject. For example, if it’s veterinary science then doing voluntary work at an animal shelter would be good. Obviously this won’t work for all subjects but even doing something like doing a free online course, or making TikTok’s of elements of her subject, or joining the local council’s youth panel (for politics) - anything like that would be great. Her school will have societies for most activities. I was in the chess club and computer science society (nerd alert!) so she should join any she’s interested in.

My children didn’t bother and they all went to good universities.

Yes, starting from this year.

Aren’t personal statements being phased out?

My kids loved DofE especially the outdoorsy bits, but unless yours particularly needs to demonstrate exactly that kind of thing, or d of e particularly maps exactly onto the uni course she’s looking at, please don’t bother for that purpose. Much better to think of something specifically relevant if possible, or just keep on with what she’s already doing well.

My child wrote three sentences about achievements/extra curriculars. The rest was about the subject.

I don’t think you would be putting what you did in year ten in your personal statement anyway. Not only that but her sixth form college told them only to mention it if they did gold.

Will make absolutely no difference. I won’t say that DofE in itself is useless but it absolutely isn’t necessary, nor will placing it (especially just at bronze level) in her UCAS put her at any advantage for entry into a competitive uni.

DD did it because she felt she had to (pushy grammar school!) and absolutely hated it. Didn’t gain anything from it except from the knowledge that she never wants to camp again🤣 Yes it’s good for teamwork and communication skills but there are many different avenues in which she can work on these that don’t involve an expedition.

If I was you I’d definitely push on with the chamber choir as that in itself is very impressive (DD has multiple friends on choral scholarships at St Andrew’s & Oxbridge). I’d also get her to look at volunteering opportunities like St John’s Ambulance, local care homes, food banks, animal sanctuaries etc. There’s absolutely no reason to unnecessarily push her into sport, drama etc or go climbing up mountains if she isn’t already interested