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Higher education

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Original poster

Widening participation week at uni - put on personal statement?

7 replies

itsmyp4rty · 04/08/2023 14:23

Hi DS got on a widening participation week at the beginning of the summer hols at an RG uni which he enjoyed. He's not 100% sure if it'll be his first choice and will apply to a few others. I was wondering if he should put on his personal statement that he has done this week? Would other unis see it as a positive thing?

OP posts:
Survey99 · 04/08/2023 14:53

ds(19) did a uni engineering fundamentals short course and mentioned it on his PS. But not just for the sake of mentioning, but to explain where the course lead him to next, the further interests and extra reading it triggered and the efforts he put into finding them and what he was most passionate about them etc.

Original poster
itsmyp4rty · 04/08/2023 15:30

Survey99 · 04/08/2023 14:53

ds(19) did a uni engineering fundamentals short course and mentioned it on his PS. But not just for the sake of mentioning, but to explain where the course lead him to next, the further interests and extra reading it triggered and the efforts he put into finding them and what he was most passionate about them etc.

Thanks that sounds like a really interesting course. DS's didn't involve a huge amount of work on his topic as it covered 3 different subject strands so i don't know if he could take anything as helpful as your ds from it (he did really enjoy the lecture on his topic but they used special software he doesn't have further access to). For him is was mostly about getting an idea as to what uni is like and taking away some of the anxiety of it as he is autistic. I will definitely talk to him about anything he could take away from the lecture though and look at further at home.

OP posts:
Dixiechickonhols · 04/08/2023 15:31

My understanding is it’s not the having done it but the what he got from it and expand on that.

Original poster
itsmyp4rty · 04/08/2023 16:36

Ok thanks, he going to start to design an ant simulation based on what he did there and maybe move from that on to an evolution simulation which he always thought were really cool. He got a lot from going there from a social/independence perspective being autistic but I don't know how much a university would value that.

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ofacertainage · 04/08/2023 21:25

Sounds great OP. As a pp says, he shouldn't just list things he has done, but mention them as a starting point for talking about what he learned. He should take a view, have opinions - make it 'personal.' So yes, something like "During my week at x uni, a lecture on x,y,z caused me to reflect on .... This inspired me to design an ant simulation ... (give some details).., I believe the most successful aspect of this was ...., but if I were to repeat the process, I might experiment with ... Currently I am creating an evolution simulation inspired by .... which has deepened my understanding of ...

And so on....!

jgw1 · 04/08/2023 21:29

itsmyp4rty · 04/08/2023 14:23

Hi DS got on a widening participation week at the beginning of the summer hols at an RG uni which he enjoyed. He's not 100% sure if it'll be his first choice and will apply to a few others. I was wondering if he should put on his personal statement that he has done this week? Would other unis see it as a positive thing?

As others have said its not about what has been done, but what has been learnt from those experiences.

It is I think worth noting that there is the option of putting courses such as this in the Extra Activities section of the form, so one can still inform univerisities without including it in the personal statement.

Original poster
itsmyp4rty · 05/08/2023 14:13

Oh thanks that's really useful - love that way of putting things @ofacertainage and I didn't even know about the extra activities section so thanks for that @jgw1

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