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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

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Original poster

Oxbridge - Autistic Child - no extra curriculars?

41 replies

ComfortablyGlum · 01/04/2022 10:49

My son is Yr 11 and about to take his GCSEs. He is high functioning autistic who lives and breathes computers. He has no other interests whatsoever (despite my attempts to get him to try any number of activities!).

He takes his education very seriously and is predicted 8/9s in his GCSEs. He is the computer scholar at his current school and is looking to move to a super selective grammar for 6th Form in September. He has his sights on Oxbridge for comp sci (even though I personally think Imperial is a better fit for his skill set).

Problem is, he cannot seem to grasp that getting a place at ANY prestigious Uni is not just about grades or ‘being clever’ and that they will be looking for applicants that are well rounded, stand out and are passionate about the subject.

His logic is: “Why does climbing a mountain / playing hockey for the school / running chess club (or any other activity under the sun!) mean I’m suddenly better at CompSci?”

He is very emotionless and even when talking about computers, he is unable to convey passion for the subject. It’s all logic. I really wonder if it’s worth putting him through the process of applying as he will struggle to write a well rounded, stand out PS because he has nothing in his life other than computing.

His school have asked him to set up a computer club for the younger years but he won’t (has trouble with socialising and this would mean having to talk to people!) and I’ve suggested doing a summer school type thing for SOMETHING to talk about in a PS - he’s not keen but this has not had a definitive’No’ yet!

Anyone else had experience of a very insular autistic child going through the Oxbridge process?

OP posts:

ididntevennotice · 01/04/2022 10:55

I really wonder if it’s worth putting him through the process of applying as he will struggle to write a well rounded, stand out PS because he has nothing in his life other than computing.

Does he want to apply?

colouringfoxes · 01/04/2022 10:55

You don't need extracurriculars for Oxbridge. (autistic Oxford student here). What he does need is supercurriculars. This means doing anything to do with computing, outside of school! So does he do coding? Build his own computers? Read journal articles about developments in computing? Sorry, I'm a humanities student so I'm not really sure what he should be doing exactly. But he's right that playing for the school hockey team would be completely irrelevant to an Oxbridge admissions tutor.
Honestly having met a lot of the science students, living and breathing computers is basically what he needs. He just needs to work out how to prove it in a personal statement.

ididntevennotice · 01/04/2022 10:57

Sorry I see you said above he does!

My DS was the same although not oxbridge. He didn't see the point in anything other than his focus. I encouraged him to do some open uni free learn courses so he at least had something he was doing himself, rather then simply school

Lambanddog · 01/04/2022 10:58

@colouringfoxes

You don't need extracurriculars for Oxbridge. (autistic Oxford student here). What he does need is supercurriculars. This means doing anything to do with computing, outside of school! So does he do coding? Build his own computers? Read journal articles about developments in computing? Sorry, I'm a humanities student so I'm not really sure what he should be doing exactly. But he's right that playing for the school hockey team would be completely irrelevant to an Oxbridge admissions tutor. Honestly having met a lot of the science students, living and breathing computers is basically what he needs. He just needs to work out how to prove it in a personal statement.

I don't have an autistic DC but this was my understanding too.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 01/04/2022 11:01

Oxbridge will only care about his CompSci skills. They won't care about anything else. He just needs to write about computing, let him celebrate his love and ability for that. Those reading it, may very well have similar personalities anyway.

He may well enjoy and benefit from a computing summer camp, not for his PS, but just something for him to use his skills in a new and different way. Try and find ones associated with universities or an organisation like the Royal Institution, or Cyber First www.ncsc.gov.uk/cyberfirst/courses rather than paid ones.

Has he looked at the Informatics Olympiad? www.olympiad.org.uk

To be honest, he sounds exactly like a good proportion of Cambridge mathematicians.

alirudniamw · 01/04/2022 11:05

Cambridge academic here - we are not looking for extracurriculars and don’t even look at them on the forms. What we are after is talent in the subject alone, and all the admissions procedures are aimed at finding that. So no need to worry!

Chaotica · 01/04/2022 11:09

@colouringfoxes

You don't need extracurriculars for Oxbridge. (autistic Oxford student here). What he does need is supercurriculars. This means doing anything to do with computing, outside of school! So does he do coding? Build his own computers? Read journal articles about developments in computing? Sorry, I'm a humanities student so I'm not really sure what he should be doing exactly. But he's right that playing for the school hockey team would be completely irrelevant to an Oxbridge admissions tutor. Honestly having met a lot of the science students, living and breathing computers is basically what he needs. He just needs to work out how to prove it in a personal statement.

He needs this (which I can see from your OP he does already). Oxbridge are not interested (except in passing) in people's extra-curricular interests and they do not figure in the application process. Your DS being thoroughly into his subject is a real advantage and will be seen as such. I say go for it (although I agree that the Imperial course looks great). Very insular autistic students can do very well at Oxbridge because they are finally able to concentrate on what they like doing all the time.

Make sure his autism is noted though. The support at Oxbridge is improving but they do need to know. You could also note what you've said about him having difficulty conveying his passion for computing on the application (or perhaps a teacher could in the reference). Good interviewers will take note of this and will also avoid small talk if asked.

kitnkaboodle · 01/04/2022 12:18

He doesn't need to be well rounded at all, from what I've gathered! Sounds a good fit, if that's what he wants.

KaptainKaveman · 01/04/2022 12:21

Why are you stressing about Oxbridge when he is only in y11?

OhYouBadBadKitten · 01/04/2022 12:52

Kaptain - it's the time when people start trying to find things to do that they think will look good on their PS. Schools can be terrible at pushing this. DDs school keep trying to make her do DoE so it would look good on an Oxbridge application. She didn't want to and certainly didn't need to. It's entirely unnecessary to be 'well rounded' on it or pad it out with identikit experiences.

SimpleShootingWeekend · 01/04/2022 12:57

My child is well rounded insomuch as he plays 2 team sports, swims and coaches swimming, was in the school band, works, does voluntary work, has DofE gold, enjoys computer games and photography, hiking, skateboarding etc. None of it got a mention in his PS apart from volunteering as it was subject relevant. You only get 4000 characters, it’s not a lot to get in super curriculars and extra curriculars. Tbf, he was rejected from Oxford but has 4 very good offers from what would be termed “top unis” including 3 which are in the top 5 for his subject and he only has 1A in his predicted grades so they haven’t taken him based on having the 4As that loads of candidates seem to have this year. You can make extra curriculars relevant such as captain of hockey shows leadership and teamwork skills which are needed for something like nursing or medicine, climbing a mountain shows organisational skills and a degree of determination and you could shoehorn geography or environmental stuff in there, running a school chess club is useful if you want to teach or work with young people and you could get something in about logic or maths or culture or history at a push. They aren’t useful without context in a PS situation. Anything he writes needs to be related back to how it makes him an amazing candidate for compsci. He needs to look for relevant extras such as extra courses, books, summer schools etc. UNIQ and Sutton Trust are good if he is eligible.

LegMeChicken · 01/04/2022 13:14

@OhYouBadBadKitten

Has he looked at the Informatics Olympiad? www.olympiad.org.uk

To be honest, he sounds exactly like a good proportion of Cambridge mathematicians.

Also how much programming has he done? He can

have a personal projet on his GitHub repo
Contribute to open source code

Etc.
Don’t bother with normal, ‘generic’ extracurriculars.

His peers will have the ability level of a Google junior dev

LegMeChicken · 01/04/2022 13:15

Also as a dev loads of people in CompSci are like that. Including my own beloved Autistic DP

nipersvest · 01/04/2022 13:17

@KaptainKaveman

Why are you stressing about Oxbridge when he is only in y11?

Oxbridge does need a fair bit of forward planning and prep, Yr 11 a good time to start balls rolling if you're serious about applying.

Xenia · 01/04/2022 13:27

There are probably things he can do on his own relating to his subject such as national competitions done from home or programming that might help. I think his subject is likely to mean only his computer skills need to count. I have advised a lot of IT companies over the years and even had one meeting where the other directors who themselves were not very good with people had to warn me about one colleague they were bringing in because of his various issues and he did find it hard to speak to me (his lawyer) but he was very good at the subject and really valuable to the company and it was not a problem at all.

DahliaMacNamara · 01/04/2022 13:41

Your DS is bang on the money. Don't worry about the extracurriculars. But Oxbridge Comp Sci places are very hard to come by, so make sure your DS investigates lots of alternatives he'd be happy with in case he's not one of the fortunate few. It sounds as if he knows what he wants, which means he has a head start on lots of kids who only have a vague notion of 'computing' for their next step in mind.

opoponax · 01/04/2022 13:42

Similar experience here. In my workplace we recruit top CS graduates. The only thing that really matters to us is their technical ability. We have a number of high performing ASD employees in that area who have been mindblowingly brilliant.

Hillarious · 01/04/2022 14:28

As others have said Oxbridge will only be interested in the curricular stuff. However, the same application form and personal statement will go to the other four universities on his list.

Original poster

ComfortablyGlum · 01/04/2022 16:43

Thank you all so much for the invaluable information.

It does sound like it’s a more viable option than I thought it might be and I will encourage him to look at olympiads and developing his own software or app.

Just to add- I think this is something you HAVE to start thinking about going from Yr 11 to 12. Applying for high end institutions can’t be done on a whim in the last few months of Yr 13! His application (if he goes ahead) will need to be submitted to O or C in only 18 months from now which isn’t that long at all! Albeit he has a little longer for non Oxbridge unis but not much.

Again, thank you all for your responses - I feel I can give him more useful guidance and support in the process now. We are doing the open days this summer to see if either place would be a good fit for him.

OP posts:

KaptainKaveman · 01/04/2022 18:39

@OhYouBadBadKitten

Indeed. I hate the whole " I'll do this because it looks good on my PS" stance. It's very superficial and dishonest. My dd is in her second year at Cambridge. She certainly didn't start planning it in Y11. She was in Y13 before she realised it was something she wanted. No Duke of Ed award either.

Darbs76 · 01/04/2022 19:35

He’s right, they don’t care about climbing a mountain etc, they just want you to be passionate about your subject

withiceplease · 01/04/2022 19:44

Agree with pp's.
Went to a talk by admissions tutor from Cambridge. She said they are not interested in G8 clarinet or gold d of e. She actually said that they weren't interested in interpersonal skills at interview excepting medicine. She said purely interested in exceptional knowledge of their subject, problem solving in the subject etc

User11010866 · 01/04/2022 20:01

@Darbs76 OP said, "He is very emotionless and even when talking about computers, he is unable to convey passion for the subject". Not everyone is good at showing passion. How does the Oxbridge interviewer assess the passion?

ErrolTheDragon · 01/04/2022 20:10

[quote User11010866]@Darbs76 OP said, "He is very emotionless and even when talking about computers, he is unable to convey passion for the subject". Not everyone is good at showing passion. How does the Oxbridge interviewer assess the passion?[/quote]
In STEM subjects, by seeing how they engage with and go about tackling some novel (probably quite mathsy) problems. Not so much whether they get the 'right' answer as whether they can get going on it, try something else if their first approach doesn't work - that sort of thing.

ErrolTheDragon · 01/04/2022 20:16

He is very emotionless and even when talking about computers, he is unable to convey passion for the subject. It’s all logic

He may not be conveying his passion to you, that doesn't necessarily mean that he won't convey it to an oxbridge comp sci don who may well think in similar ways to him.

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