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Original poster

EPQ or D of E gold?

29 replies

blackwych · 08/07/2019 15:13

My son is starting 6th form in September. He is doing 3 STEM A levels and has been given a choice of doing the EPQ or D of E gold. My question is - which should he do? He wants to do the D of E because there is 'less writing' but I am worried that this will harm his chances of getting into university. Do universities really care about the DofE award? Also, he has already started doing the DofE bronze with Explorers, so in theory could achieve the EPQ and a DofE award.

OP posts:
bpisok · 08/07/2019 16:17

For the humanities courses we have looked at they do take the EPQ into account and offer a reduced grade eg AAB is reduced to ABB (and that's RG Unis).
When you go to the course page on the Uni web site it shows grades and often has 'alternate qualifications' (which you would assume is Scottish, IB etc) but many of them have EPQ listed. A few say that they like it but don't take it into account but most say they reduce the grade eg Birmingham, Liverpool, Exeter, Lancaster, Manchester.

D of E - the admissions departments have all said that it doesn't add any weight to your application.

TheFirstOHN · 08/07/2019 15:55

DS2 is applying to university this Autumn to study a STEM subject. We have been to five open days. In the Q&A at the end of the admissions talks, people asked about both.
For D of E: the answer was that you can mention it in your personal statement, but it's not the sort of thing they are looking at when they assess applications.
For the EPQ: the answer (for all) was that they don't take it into account when giving offers. This might be different for Arts / Humanities.

TheFirstOHN · 08/07/2019 15:44

D of E in itself will make no difference either way to a university application. It's not listed in the qualifications you can include on the UCAS form. If as part of his D of E he did some volunteering or learned a skill that was relevant to the subject, then that would be something he could include in the personal statement (e.g. volunteering in a care home for an application for a healthcare relates degree).

EPQ might make a difference to a university application, depending on the subject. Some universities will give a slightly lower grade offer if the applicant has a high grade in the EPQ. If the EPQ is relevant to the subject, this would be useful to include in the personal statement.

However, both of these activities are primarily for personal development / education in itself, not for university applications, and he should really do the one he is most interested in.

Yotam · 08/07/2019 15:43

I don’t think universities care about DoE, but then I’m not sure how much they care about EPQ either. Sometimes people get lower offers if combined with an excellent EPQ, but they aren’t essential. I have one at Oxbridge and one holding an Oxbridge offer and neither did EPQ, but did do other things to show their interest in their subjects over and above the A level syllabus.