Personal statements - nothing to write

[Claybury]

DS has abondonned all hobbies and extra curricular over his teens in order on 'focus on studying '. Well this is his view, I think he wanted to free up weekends for partying, recovering and a bit of homework.
As a result I'm wondering what on earth someone puts in their personal statement who has literally no hobbies. Gave up his instrument in year 11, did not want to do any field trips for biology ( had chance of overseas one ) , refuses to do voluntary or paid work, does no sport, refuses to participate in school clubs.

Is this unusual?

All of that stuff about hobbies and extracurricular activities are utterly irrelevant. He should write about why he is passionate about the subject he wants to study at university and give concrete examples. The rest is just icing, not the cake.

Of course, it depends what you want to study...

Molio I thought it was just MN where DC's lives were a constant round of extra curricular activities "for the PS". A friend with DC at a selective school appears to be under the impression that her very bright, studious child is doomed if he doesn't fill every hour playing sport or hiking up hills.

Some bright and studious kids do 'extra curricular' stuff just because they want to, you know...

Absolutely right Gently but lots just don't do anything spectacular, and just kick around like so many teens. Wanting to do stuff and being good at it is great, but it's also good to hear of kids who don't do loads. Your kids are genuinely off the scale.

Music kids are always like that though. DD1 does less than many of her music friends round the country (she does everything she can given where we live - but opportunities are limited). DD2 does a lot less than the other dance kids at her performing arts place, but then she does music too which most of them don't. I think she is a bit off the scale but I don't expect her to keep up with everything all the way through. At the moment she still has lots of spare capacity for devilment - the EC stuff keeps the devilment in check. DS on the other hand does practically nothing. 2 hours of drama a week, 1 music lesson in school and that's it. Where my kids really are off the scale is in their own specialist areas of expertise. If only there was a degree in Dr Who/Lost/Trek/GOT/TWD/BSG they would be top applicants!

I think they possibly all took too much to heart the fact that my Cambridge interview was mainly about Blake's 7 not maths - I'm sure they all secretly hope that when the time comes for them to go through that, this will happen to them too. I suspect it won't.

I do think though that the idea that kids in Y10 up do EC stuff just for their PS is a bit mad - I don't know anyone who does stuff for that (except vet med possibles). My kids' friends do the stuff they do cos they like it not to tick a box on a form. When I suggested to DD1 that she should do an intensive grade 8 theory course in the summer for box ticking purposes she asked me if I was mad. She isn't doing the course.

Dd school encourage students to do volunteering for charities and help local residents so they can put it on their PS as extra curricular. However couple of the charity shops near us are rather fed up with getting kids that neither want to help or commit to the work involved. It was just serving a purpose of boosting their PS they are used. I'm sure there are kids that genuinely do want to help and do, but there are also many that aren't. So some students will have PS that look so impressive with all the extra curricular stuff but how much of is was out of the goodness of their heart?.

One of mine started to learn Elvish (weird I know ). Wonder what an admissions tutor would make of that one! Would it be relevant to a language degree? So tempting to encourage dc put it on, just for sheer devilment.

Anyway they all seem quite clear that it is the subject that is important not the extra curricular stuff.

I would say definitely mention Elvish, Littleham! Really, I'm serious. I was an A level tutor for many years and used to love helping students write personal statements - I could really get my teeth into that one!

I think hobbies are only useful to mention if they give the students skills they might not have gained otherwise. In the end, thousands do DoE - it's no big deal to a university really. They want a lecture room full of students who love the subject.

So for Littleham, her child is learning a language of her own volition - that in itself is a massive recommendation for someone who wants to study languages.

This is very interesting. My DD is in lower 6th and doesn't really have any extra cirricular interests. She was very quiet in her old school but has made good friends in her new one. Her interests are Marvel .
She, and a friend , will design and make costumes for Comic-Con. Is that ok to put in PS?

But some kids do do stuff for box ticking Gently. It used to worry me and I felt very indolent compared to others but I'm over it now :)

Littleham DS taught himself Old English which is not as niche as Elvish (indeed pales in comparison) and I think it may actually have helped in his interview (stroke of luck that though, but I've mentioned the luck factor before).

Cocolepew - I think the answer to that would be depending what skills she's wanting to show in her PS. E.g. If she wants to do a design type course - great. If she wants to do Chemistry, it may be not so relevant unless she can explain how the experience gained (independent research? team working? initiative? etc) would help her do well on the course.

FWIW, one of ds's all round high achieving friends has been offered a place on probably the most difficult to get on courses at Cambridge. In his PS he didn't mention his national chess win, or his school prefect post, or his sports team captaincy or his gold D of E. Irrelevant, he said. sickening

I remember all this panic to be seen to have loads of hobbies for ucas! Seems it hasn't changed.

I had loads of ec stuff at school. Three instruments, choirs, cricket, cadets, scout leader, d of e... Amazing I ever had time to study!

Within a week of lectures, I ditched almost the lot, although i tried a few other things while in my first couple of years. Certainly by graduation it was all historical! Not sure it can be so important to admissions really, or the uni would encourage people to keep it up!

dd approached her personal statement by going to the website of the university UCL which gives advice what to put into the PS and on you tube the admission tutor of this uni gave hints of how to make her statement stand out, basically what they like to see what they don't what it should include etc so she used this as the basis for her PS as this uni was the one she really wanted to go to so she went for it, ignoring what the other uni that she applied to wanted but I guess may have been similar. Come Jan she got rejected from them, she got written feed back from them that said it was her Personal Statement that let her down so with all the will in the world and doing what she thought was right can still end up feeling rather glum, deflated and defeated. However 1 day later she got a offer from Bristol at least somebody liked her PS after all!!

DS1 is the only one of mine to be a senior prefect and certainly didn't mention it, I'm not sure being a prefect is of any relevance at all. There's really not that much room in the ps - outside interests at the most will get two or three lines. Another reason why you should pursue them for enjoyment only. Obviously if they're relevant to your intended subject, then they go into the main part of the ps.

Littleham - but sometimes the subject they want to study is relevant to their EC stuff (and sometimes EC stuff is the main way they engage with what they want to study).

The most brilliant PS I saw this year was by a girl who wrote about her experiences of music and sport as harmonious and organised meetings of minds and bodies and used them to illustrate philosophical concepts.

bonsoirthink you hit the nail on the head having some flair and uniqueness of thinking really does make it a pleasure to read. My dd PS she admits now when she reads back hers is rather boring, prescriptive and lacks personality, she can see why she her PS let her down. Ah if only she could go back with hind sight

I brief French candidates (who are clueless before writing their PS's) and one of the things I suggest is to find a way to illustrate with insights into their own personality their interest in their subject.

This doesn't have to be ECs - insights can be taken from any meaningful life experience.

The best PS I saw was from a girl whose dad was accused of a very serious crime when she was aged 8 or so. She saw all the stages of the trial and saw the role of the prosecutor, defence and judge in action. He appealed his sentence and she learned all the processes involved there. She wanted to be a defence barrister as she felt he'd been badly let down by his. It was the most passionate PS I've seen and she got low offers from every university she applied to.

That sounds an amazing PS, Bonsoir - I'd love to read it!

Sadly I cannot share it with you!

Your example sounds fabulous too.

I do think that the advice not to write more than 25% about ECs is to avoid PSs droning on about DofE, Grade 8 piano and sailing courses!

Can I ask , my dd might want to go through this process again depends come august?? She might want to try again, is it alright to be a bit quirky, think outside the box, would it make her look bonkers though. She is a quirky child with peculiar thinking in her subject her ideas are not necessarily right either but if she injects some of that would it be ok. She has been too cautious and safe and feels she should have been herself and not be too influenced by what the norm is. She just didn't have the confidence. What do you think?