Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Extra curriculars help!

Hi guys just wondering if you think these are good/bad extra curricular activities to mention in a medicine personal statement?
Part of school comenius science project for over 2 years (travelled to Germany and France) and working in groups with foreign students...does this count as teamwork?
President of school chess club and will start organising events etc.
Making and programming robots with lego (shows problem solving skills maybe?), won an online competition with my robot

Playing violin casually only grade 2/3

Playing for school orchestra
Tennis (not sure how this will fit)
Film society member.
Calligraphy, art and origami for fun. Won 2nd place for calligraphy competition.
Fishing (a lot)
Silver DoE ...is it bad if I don't do gold?
So do these extra curriculars stand out or are they just really bad? I don't play team sports and I'm not really amazing at music, and not head boy/house captain either. Therefore probably lacking leadership experience which I'm trying to gain from volunteering with Barnardos.

Any advice would be great, thanks!

Reply 1

arabish

This is plenty! Remember that extra curricular activities isn't meant to take up your whole PS, Its basically suppose to take up a few lines, to exhibit things like teamwork and as a means of stress relief etc. You can't possibly fit all this into your PS, you need to figure out a structure upon which to build your PS will flow.

Here's some useful links;

http://www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/study/medicine/pre-clinical/applying/anatomy-of-ps
http://www.doceatdoc.com/3-ways-your-personal-statement-can-make-you-look-foolish-and-what-to-do-about-it/

Reply 2

TheoremOfMe

Hey

There's been so much debate over whether extra curriculars are important, however I think the main thing to focus on is making sure you have the right grades and any work experience you do is relevant to your course.That being said, it's always a good idea to prove that you are well rounded person, so maybe, instead of being okay at lots of different activities, do one or two extra curriculars and really give it your all, be as good as you possibly can be. They're never going to say "oh, you play football? We only prefer applicants who play lacrosse.", it's more about your tenacity, passion and drive to pursue the thing/s you love. This is your way of proving you're a hard, dedicated worker...

I hope this help and good luck!! :smile:

Reply 3

Helenia

They're ok. You won't be able to fit them all in your PS though, so I'd pick a couple and focus on what skills you gained from them which are relevant to medicine, rather than just producing a list.

Posted from TSR Mobile