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Duke of Edinburgh Gold - is it worth it?

I have done the Bronze + Silver award and am thinking about doing Gold.
I hated bronze and silver but did it for the award. I'm not looking forward to doing Gold but am only thinking about doing it purely for putting on my cv/uni application.

Gold will waste a lot of money + 10 days of my life (+recovery+trauma)

Is Gold really worth it? And do top universities care about the award?

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 1

Rachaiec

Personally, I wouldn't recommend it. If you have bronze and silver that's definitely enough to put on your CV. I done the gold practice and literally my feet were dead, would have completed the expedition only I had a speech and drama exam over the date of the real thing and I decided having grade eight would be better to have as I already have silver duke of ed. Also uni's don't take it into much consideration.

Reply 2

JennJay

I did both Bronze and Silver and have done the expedititon for Gold because that was the only part I actually quite liked doing but i havent even started the volunteering for it. So I doubt its actually worth doing if you hate it, it doesnt give much of an advantage since loads of people do DofE now and its the first thing they write about.

Reply 3

optimystic

I'm just finishing my Gold now, and would recommend doing it. Honestly I hated the expeditions (partly due to someone being airlifted to hospital) but the rest of it was pretty enjoyable and I feel like it is a significant thing to have - a lot of people says it doesn't matter to uni/employers because everyone has Gold DofE but I wouldn't necessarily believe that. Even if it is true, I've found it to be really rewarding personally. However, you have to be prepared for the expeditions (not a lot of fun) and arranging your residential can be quite tricky, so be organised!

Reply 4

Andy98

If you didn't enjoy Bronze and Silver don't bother with Gold.

Reply 5

GaelicBolshevik

Original post by Supreme_

If you hated Bronze and Silver, don't do Gold.
But absolutely everyone has done Bronze, most have done Silver, but very few people do Gold because they either can't be arsed, are put off having done the first two, or find it too much effort.

When you tell uni interviewers you've done Silver or Bronze they're not that interested, but they sit up when you say you've done Gold.