How important are extracurricular activities, sports, hobbies etc for UCAS application?

[BlueSkyHawk]

We're Brits, currently living in the US, but my DD wants to return to the UK for uni. Here in the US, there's a really big focus on what you do outside of school, especially sport, for your college (uni) application. It seems more important than your grades!
My DD is very academic but not at all sporty and I'm trying to reassure her that in the UK, universities are focused on your predicted grades and less interested in extracurricular stuff. But is that still the case? Obviously it's been 25+ years since I did my UCAS application! What kind of extracurricular stuff do you think UK universities expect/are interested in?

depends, we often ask for feedback when a promising student is turned down, and comments are often along the lines that relevant work experience, or hobby involvement was missing from the application.

Often not read, I am sure, but unpredictable. I think more likely to be read after the first half of a course is filled, and universities are choosing who to turn down out of the remaining applications - having said that, people with top grades are often turned down too

Just to warn you, DD will need to be back in the UK for three years to qualify for home fees, even if born British (certainly for England - I don't know if the other parts of the UK differ on this). DD's friend has done A-levels here and is having a gap year before uni to qualify.

The only extra curriculars that count are any that are specifically related to the degree you want to study.

If you think about it, it would be wildly discriminatory if extra curriculars carried much weight...

I think that's why universities tend to ignore extra curriculars like D of E.

I am sure, but unpredictable. I think more likely to be read after the first half of a course is filled

I'm sure you are right. The admissions tutor at DD's university told us that they only read the personal statements of borderline students. If they had the required grades they received an offer straight away.

Why discriminatory? Doing voluntary work cost nothing, and in many cases you can get board and lodging for doing it, so it is cheaper than not doing it

ds had offers from all his choices based on grades. Don't know if they look at his personal statement, but it was all about why he wanted to do engineering, some work experience and some reading around the subject.

He did the Duke of Edinburgh bronze and never mentioned it, he does some other activities but it was one short line along the lines of "In my spare time I ............."

@sheoaouhra because if you have to work to cover the cost of your bus to college and the shoes on your feet, or babysit younger siblings to facilitate parents working, volunteering is attainable as flying to the moon.

You can work and volunteer. honestly, it is just a matter of initiative - volunteering shows initiative - it doesn't have to be much, and making excuses not to is a bit pathetic - not someone I would offer a university place to if I had the option

As @jay55 said above, plus the fact that most extra curriculars cost money. Even volunteering as you have to be able to get to where you are volunteering, which costs money. The bus that was free to students when I did A levels was once a day each way from college, if you missed it you either walked home (when being eligible for the bus meant living several miles away) or paid for expensive public transport. Where I lived the only volunteering opportunities were also quite physical, which excluded anyone less physically able. Plus a lot of volunteering roles, quite reasonably, require commitment to particular days / hours, which often don’t fit in around college transport / classes / caring responsibilities.

As for other extra curriculars.. Dd was desperate to do gymnastics like her friends. It was £35 for one half hour session a week. Totally unaffordable. Music lessons the same. If it’s not offered at a subsidised rate by the school, then it’s a no can do. So by the time she’s at sixth form, a lot of options her friends will have to make money to pay for extra curriculars that cost, (teaching younger students, lifeguarding at the pool), will be unavailable to her as she won’t have the necessary skills and experience, because I cannot afford to pay for the teaching she needs now and over the next few years in order be able to obtain them.

Honest question: how? With no transport except a once a day bus from college to home? Walk five miles each way? All the options for volunteering were physical, you would only consider physically able students? Nice.

Extra curricular stuff isn't relevant to most degrees though, volunteering isn't going to enhance my ds's maths skills.

Disabled kids, rural kids, kids who are carers, and all sorts of other disadvantaged kids would suffer if extra curriculars were taken into account when they're not relevant to the actual content of the degree.

Anyone who can't see how requirements for extra curricular stuff disadvantages disadvantaged children should probably go and do some voluntary work with actual disadvantaged children.

@sheoaouhra

Talk to me about all these volunteering opportunities for under 18s that include bed and board......

For reading around the subject she might like to look for a relevant and interesting MOOC. DS did one from an American university in the summer before UCAS application.

There are few volunteering opportunities. Ask all those doing DofE. Many organisations can't take on under 18s for health and safety reasons. DS looked into dog walking for the local rescue and they would only take over 18s or over 16s if a parent/carer went along and held the lead!

You really are ignorant of many young people's circumstances aren't you.

Depending on where you live there may not be the opportunities to work and volunteer.

Please stop being so tone deaf.

I have volunteered with severely disadvantaged children all my life, and facilitated them applying to voluntary positions.

Maths, of course you can do voluntary work associated with maths. The last student I supported with their UCAS application who got into Oxford for maths volunteered with our local premiere league football team, to design football themed maths lessons as fun booster sessions for KS3 children with learning difficulties.

I think it took him about an hour a week, collaborating online, (but not in real time, - he used a school lunch time) for a couple of months, and then he went to see a couple of the lessons in action - that was in school time.

This was a child who I am sure would fit your definition of severely disadvantaged, but who had the initiative to put a decent UCAS application together.

"Disabled kids, rural kids, kids who are carers" are best off not assuming they get a free pass in life by playing for the pity card.

For the record DD was a young leader in the local Brownie pack for three years. It was the making of her.

Ignoring the minor bunfight...I had similar concerns when I saw the kind of universities DD intended to apply to. She assured me they wouldn't give a stuff about her lack of sporting prowess or all-consuming hobbies, and she was quite correct.

"Disabled kids, rural kids, kids who are carers" are best off not assuming they get a free pass in life by playing for the pity card.

JFC.

Are the expectations different for different kids though?

My niece goes to a lovely independent school and there is a big push to do extracurriculars and they are all convinced they wont get far without them.

My ds goes to a local sixth form college. He is a young carer and works part time. I dont feel there is the same expectation that he also plays flute and rugby.

I presume you are of the "ahh, bless 'em, lets chip their shoulders good and proper and keep them feeling oppressed for life" camp.

how many young people have you supported out of disadvantage? how many have you educated, and helped get into great careers, how many have you fostered? how many homeless young refugees have you hosted in your home? how much time have you spent in youth prisons?

Quite frankly children like this are a lot better off with a far more constructive and robust mind set than yours, which is very much "consign to scrap heap from day one."

Sorry if you don't like it being pointed out that your child could have strengthened his UCAS application with voluntary work but chose not to. yes, he might have got in anyway, but without the personal growth, and without the benefit being passed on to others that he could have contributed to, but didn't.

Some universities do pay a lot of attention to them, I've heard St Andrews and Durham do, but again they are more interested in relevant experience and a good fit, rather than specific things.

Duke of Edinburgh doesn't seem to make a difference these days, maybe Gold might a tiny bit, which seems a bit unfair considering how much time and effort is required for it.

Speaking as a former admissions tutor in an excellent School I can tell the OP and others that this post does not reflect the values of any admissions tutor I’ve known.

Do colleagues and I participate in voluntary work? Do I encourage students to do the same? Yes and yes. That is a far cry from making voluntary work some kind of admissions criterion, especially for those who must themselves work or support parents in precarious circumstances

I am not saying it is an admissions criteria - I am saying spouting invalid excuses not to do makes you look ridiculous.