Extracurriculars on a personal statement?

Hi all,
I am a student from the USA and I am applying to Universities in the UK. :smile:

I have a wonderful transfer adviser who read the personal statement that I planned, but she suggested I completely cut out my extracurriculars, because "UK Universities don't care about extracurriculars". Does anyone support/negate this? I read somewhere that Universities like to see some extracurriculars because it proves you are a well rounded individual. To be specific, I had a section where I stated that I've been involved in Student Government, Campus Activity Board, Student Leadership Academy, and volunteer in a youth mentor program. Any thoughts from anyone on whether or not I should cut these things out? At an American University those would be valuable things to put on an application. Anyways, sorry for the long post!

Reply 1

ByronicHero

Unless they are relevant to you proposed course(s) of study, they are all but irrelevant. This said, there is little harm in mentioning a few things if you feel they have furnished you with skills that will be useful to you in your studies. Generally, though, that space would be better spent taking about the subject(s).

Best of luck.

Reply 2

Charlotte's Web

If that sort of thing is important to you, you could maybe just do a sentence saying that you'd be keen to get involved with similar things at a UK university - they're usually quite keen to have people who want to get fully involved. If you really do want to include them, I'd make it a small section and try to relate the skills you've developed to your degree (if relevant).

Reply 3

nursy

like all these things - it is not what you do/write but rather how you reflect on how it makes you a better student for that course. For example not that you were captain of the swim team buth rather that as captain of the swim team you saw that in organising a meet there were elements to the marketing that interested you and an online presence is what attracts you to study management and computing ... blah blah blah.

there are more examples at helpwithpersonalstatement.co.uk/writing-your-personal-statement/ which is what i am using as my template. down the left hand side it says what to include in each section and how much of each to add.

Reply 4

Exon

If you include them, you have to say what you gained from them and how that makes you a better candidate. If you don't, you're just wasting characters.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 5

TroyAndAbed

A few lines with some tenuous links to your subject is enough. :smile:

Reply 6

SlowlorisIncognito

Original post by LissyDearest

Hi all,
I am a student from the USA and I am applying to Universities in the UK. :smile:

US applications and UK applications are very different, for various reasons. The general rule of thumb for UK universities is that around 2/3-3/4 of the statement (as a minimum) should be directly relevant to your subject. The content of this section will vary depending on whether you're applying for a vocational degree i.e. a degree relevant to a specific job (like medicine, nursing, vetmed) or an academic degree e.g law, economics, chemistry etc, however, it should always focus on things directly relevant to the course.

The other 25% can include some mentions of ECs, and most people do give a brief mention to these. However, unlike at a US uni, it's unlikely ECs will influence your chances of getting an offer. Some admissions tutors at some universities may not even bother to read this section properly, just skim over it for anything relevant or important.

I wouldn't say you should cut this section, as long as it's brief and you've got enough room to mention everything else. Although it's not a rule, the usual place to put this section is just before your conclusion.