What should I do over the next two years to improve chances of getting into Uni?

Hi there,

I have currently just finished doing my GCSEs and am about to start year 12 studying Maths, Further Maths, Economics and Physics. Ideally I would like to study Economics at University and hopefully become an actuary after that.

I would like to know what sort of extra things can help my personal statement and just generally impress universities.

Here are my ideas at the moment:

Currently I am thinking about helping a local wildlife charity this summer and would like to do some actuary work experience during my A-levels. I can also enter a speaking competition at my school and talk about something to do with the degree I would like to do.

My holidays are pretty dull at the moment so I feel that I need to do something productive and your ideas would be greatly appreciated

Cheers x

Hi there,

I have currently just finished doing my GCSEs and am about to start year 12 studying Maths, Further Maths, Economics and Physics. Ideally I would like to study Economics at University and hopefully become an actuary after that.

I would like to know what sort of extra things can help my personal statement and just generally impress universities.

Here are my ideas at the moment:

Currently I am thinking about helping a local wildlife charity this summer and would like to do some actuary work experience during my A-levels. I can also enter a speaking competition at my school and talk about something to do with the degree I would like to do.

My holidays are pretty dull at the moment so I feel that I need to do something productive and your ideas would be greatly appreciated

Cheers x

I don't think they would care much about the wildlife charity. Actuary work experience and 'speaking competitions' sound like good ideas though. You could also consider taking up an Extended Project related to Economics, although that's effort . . .

That's the whole point!

It's effort. Reading, on the other hand, isn't effort. Do plenty of reading as it is much good, and once you have much reading you will find interests in specific areas, which will give you things to talk about on your personal statement.

Dude

I have the perfect example for you, haha...
A mate of mine, really solid bloke but not exactly AAA material, wanted to do economics at uni. Read the LSE prospectus in year 12 and saw a degree for acturial science, thought it'd be cool (and lucrative).

He applied for LSE, among other more realistic unis. A lot of very clever people at my school applied for LSE, and they all got rejected - except him. He was predicted BBBA and they made him an AAA offer! I asked him how he did it... and he showed me his personal statement, it kicked arse.
Turns out my mate had found the number of an actuary in the area, rang him up and asked for help... the guy invited him over to dinner with his family, gave him a reading list, told him what to write in his personal statement.

He pulled his finger out (obviously!), dropped sport and stopped going out, studied like a nutter and got AAAA. He's at LSE now going on ski holidays with his new super rich friends and living it up.

Do the research and you'll fly, dude. Extra-curricular activities and grades only get you so far, I've got straight As all the way through my school career and I did everything for my school, was a Youth MP, house captain, rugby team, all of that - and I got rejected from my top 3 unis because I wrote a crap personal statement. Would say this is the key thing.

I don't think they would care much about the wildlife charity. Actuary work experience and 'speaking competitions' sound like good ideas though. You could also consider taking up an Extended Project related to Economics, although that's effort . . .

What do you mean by extended project? Is there a qualification for this or...?

Also yeah I would like to do young enterprise, not sure if my school is still running it though :/

Thanks for the ideas guys, really really helpful! Keep them coming though

What do you mean by extended project? Is there a qualification for this or...?

Also yeah I would like to do young enterprise, not sure if my school is still running it though :/

Thanks for the ideas guys, really really helpful! Keep them coming though

Yeah,it's worth half an A-Level& 70 UCAS points Apparently, it's is highly rated amongst uni's,but it will not be part of any potential offer,since it is not available to everyone.

Hmm okay thanks guys, I'll have to ask my school's career advisor or whatever but yeah I'll look into that. Do you know if it worth actually e-mailing these universities to ask what extra they would like or is that an unwritten no-no?

Dude

I have the perfect example for you, haha...
A mate of mine, really solid bloke but not exactly AAA material, wanted to do economics at uni. Read the LSE prospectus in year 12 and saw a degree for acturial science, thought it'd be cool (and lucrative).

He applied for LSE, among other more realistic unis. A lot of very clever people at my school applied for LSE, and they all got rejected - except him. He was predicted BBBA and they made him an AAA offer! I asked him how he did it... and he showed me his personal statement, it kicked arse.
Turns out my mate had found the number of an actuary in the area, rang him up and asked for help... the guy invited him over to dinner with his family, gave him a reading list, told him what to write in his personal statement.

He pulled his finger out (obviously!), dropped sport and stopped going out, studied like a nutter and got AAAA. He's at LSE now going on ski holidays with his new super rich friends and living it up.

Do the research and you'll fly, dude. Extra-curricular activities and grades only get you so far, I've got straight As all the way through my school career and I did everything for my school, was a Youth MP, house captain, rugby team, all of that - and I got rejected from my top 3 unis because I wrote a crap personal statement. Would say this is the key thing.