PS for a lad with no support.

[Serin]

I have been asked for help in preparing a personal statement by a lovely kid that I met in a voluntary role.
He has been dealt a terrible hand of cards so far in life and although his predicted grades are decent his PS is difficult to write.
He hasn't done any summer courses, has no work experience, no evidence of any long term commitment to anything.
He has never been away from home, not even for a school trip or a holiday.
No extra curricular activities at all.
Where does he/we start? I guess he could just talk about loving his subject? and what it would mean to him to go to university?
He wants to do computer games design. I know nothing about this but would have thought something like straight computer science would be a better bet?
He has 12 GCSEs, (3 are grade 6, all the rest are 7 and above).
A Level prediction ABB. In maths, physics and Comp science.
His parents dont see the point in uni at all and have told him he can only apply to the local one so that he can live at home and pay them rent.
His college provide some help with PS but it's an online "builder" and he doesn't seem to have any bricks.

Well done for offering help. Ps should be all about the subject- and his love for it. He must know a lot about computers/ programming? Has he taught himself stuff? Done coding, read up on line?
Will he need parental financial support to live away from home?
Has he been to any open days? There is lots of virtual stuff on line.
Get him to look at destinations/ salaries for those courses. Also look at gchq options.

Thanks Sandwich, No open days yet, but now booked on one in early Oct.
Spends a lot of time escaping reality by gaming. I will ask about whether he codes and has modified games?
Living away really isnt an option, he wouldn't leave younger siblings.

If he is only applying to one I would make it as specific to that course and it’s modules as possible. Maybe go through the course description details online with him to see if it triggers any relevant dialogue.

I know there are some posters in this industry- perhaps title a thread with asking for advice from those in computer games industry as to what degree is preferred? Might be comp science.
It is a massive industry !
Are his commutable unis good for his subjects?

My dp does computer games design, but the artistic side only. He has to know how to use the various art programmes.

I would say that it is relatively easy to get onto a course but you need to be constantly building your portfolio and working ouside of university on your own projects in order to stand out from the crowd when it comes to searching for a job.

Universities will be looming for enthusiasm and an understanding that this is a really difficult industry to get in. If the guy is looking at the artistic side, what else has he done in this area? Can be in any medium that shows that he has a real interest in art in general.

Hope that this helps.

I think in this kind of case it would be worth contacting the university's outreach / widening participation department and asking them if they have any advice on the PS but also ask if they are running any holiday programmes or similar that he could join. I think also worth contacting the admissions department for advice on the PS.

Can you sneak in something about aptitude, resilience and suchlike? And also talk about lack of opportunity?

It should sound like him as much as possible, ask him if he can think of five reasons why gaming is important eg, thinking strategically, managing outcomes, utilising resources. What is satisfying - immersion in alternative universes?
What in the ‘build’ makes a good game?
That sort of thing.
I wish him well.

I would also second contacting the uni’s widening participation staff member. There’s special arrangements for students who are ‘estranged’from their families, which it sounds like your lad essentially is.

Is there also any chance of you contacting some games design places and seeing if he can go in for a day? At least he can say he's visited or is currently doing some work experience?

I'd definitely agree with the suggestions of contacting possible universities' widening participation / widening access schemes. My university does mentoring and advice on financial matters, summer schools and pre-entry programmes as well as making lower offers for candidates. They target students from certain postcodes in the area as they are more likely to attend a local university.

In many universities an applicant with this background would qualify for a contextual offer (acknowledging that his personal circumstances will mean that his school attainment may not reflect his potential). This should be communicated in his personal statement, is say that he is the first person in his family to apply for university or to aspire to a professional career. Other than that I agree that he needs to aim to convey enthusiasm for the subject. Don’t worry about extracurricular activities, they are seldom taken into account. Widening participation is very important for universities, he should find out how to access contextual offers and ongoing support in the universities he is interested in.

OM Goodness, Thank you so much for all your advice! I would never have thought of these tips by myself. I'm going to ring the uni to ask about widening opportunities as soon as I've got his permission as well as trying to contact a few games designers.
He isn't that interested on the Art side, more the coding side of things.
My own son is applying for computer sci so I know a lot more about that as a subject but he is quite specific about games design.
The advice about resilience is great.
Thanks.

I suggest he looks at local gaming companies for some experience - being a gamer is very different to being a programmer, that doesn't mean to say he can't do it of course! I'd also advise looking at how the course is structured - is it mainly theory with some prac work or is it mostly prac based? Computer science tends to be very theoretical with less practical work. Year in industry is usually recommended.

He may need to go away for his course (some do team building weekends away from campus for example) so he needs some experience of being away for a short time at least to lessen the shock.

The bad news -

The student loans company won't accept he needs to pay rent/bills etc to his parents. The loan amount when living in the family home is considerably less for that reason, unfortunately. It'll be very hard for him to be able to pay them rent from the amount he gets to cover needs for his course/travel etc.

His parents may be asked to contribute and refuse to do so - mine did this but refused to put it in writing so I couldn't access any financial aid from uni. When I left years later (and later as a lecturer) I learnt many students went through the same thing - there's no way to force parents to pay and if they refuse then other avenues of support are blocked (unless they put in writing and state clearly in mediation they won't help which i suspect very rarely happens). I ended up forced to live off credit cards and forced to take a year out to pay them off. Of course they might not be asked to contribute.

universities' widening participation / widening access schemes

^^ THAT, definitely! He's the exact target audience. It's fine if he goes to the local Uni widening access scheme and does not attend that same Uni later.

I read PSs for applicants at our medical school. We barely use the PS in our selection process, tbh. My guess that it's similar for compsci courses. So PS just needs to be reasonable. Grades are what admissions care about most. So main thing I am thinking:

Make sure he writes in clear readable English

All applicants are young & lack experience. In place of experience he can write about ideas he has, and hopes for his future career, as long as they aren't crazy ideas. To write this he only has to browse some ideas on Wikipedia, about future of computing, AI, Internet of things, sound design or big data (etc). It'd be nice if he read books on those topics but he can quote the same great minds by reading the summary of their ideas online and why he is inspired by or disagrees with what they say. Show he has a critical mind and true interest in programming.

Also get him to look at ted talks by Steve jobs etc about the world of computing- that sort o& thing would be good for ps.
There are also loads of free on line courses - futurelearn, open uni free courses etc on ai, computer science etc. Worth a browse.

I would look at the employment stats for gaming degrees versus computer science. I suspect CS is way higher and opens way more doors. Even game programming ones.

Unfortunately he is pursuing what he knows and May well limit his work opportunities by this. It tends to go with a deprived background. Look at CS with him. He may not understand the differing outcomes. Ditto the best courses. He needs to escape his parents, not live with them even longer. He isn’t a parent either.

How can he demonstrate his passion? Does he subscribe to industry magazines or blogs? There are various free online courses and lectures he could sign up for. Could he volunteer in a library helping people access IT (not coding but it will open his eyes to the barriers people have accessing very basic, routine tech-based tools such as online banking or internet job searching.

I have a DS at the same stage and, for various reasons, he doesn't have the sort of experience you mention (summer courses/work) either!

But since starting back at 6th form, he has enrolled in a MOOC - Massive Open Online Course - in the subject he's interested in. There are MOOCs on just about every topic, including computer game design. They are mostly free - although you can upgrade to an assessed version and get a certificate. They don't take up too much time. My DS has been sitting with his headphones on doing it on the train travelling to school and back and he's almost finished.

So that's my suggestion. Get him to find a MOOC to do on game design.

Computer science can more theoretical - personally I'd advise computer science regardless of the area someone wants to go into, the skills are transferable and though other degrees may teach similar they aren't viewed the same as straight computer science.

It is however theoretical and requires a lot of maths though there are practicals as well.

I've just posted this on another thread.

Hoghgyni, where did you copy that image from? Seems to say Uni of York at top, but I found c&p parts of the same text here and
here

As someone who has read a lot of PS as part of an admissions process, I'm just going to throw in this tuppence (tbf, maybe only applies to our course):

We kind of assume the PS was written by a committee. This is understandable, and applicant still has to take responsibility, but ... kids with more supportive networks will have a better committee that wrote it. That makes it (social equity) unfair to be much swayed by the PS. That committee won't sit on the course. I rarely find a PS persuasive or remarkable. Best we can hope for is that the statement is truthful about what applicant is like, and interested in. I also kind of like statements with a typo or clumsy sentence. Feels like someone human wrote it after all.

I'm beginning to wonder if there's a lot of ... exaggeration? somewhere between that & bold lies in PSs & interview statements. I probably need to drop my naivete about that. I've lectured DD about not lying at all in her interviews. There's nothing interviewers loathe more than a sniff of untruth. Ignorance is preferable.

Have a look at futurelearn courses. Many are pretty short and could be included on a ps.

Thanks so much everyone. We have a lot to investigate now!

We picked it up at York last week.

In my day you listed school prefect, hockey team, D of E, part time jobs etc and I don't think I even mentioned why I wanted to study my subject. I had 5 offers, then dropped my first choice for an unconditional after a interview. I read DD's earlier this week and was allowed to point out that a stray capital letter should be replaced with lower case. Her form tutor and admissions tutor are the only two allowed to give any guidance beyond hat on university websites.