No volunteering and no work experience

He's not 100% sure yet, but either politics or PPE, which I know is very competitive...

Hi, I hope it's ok to ask for advice here, being a student's parent. My son is going into year 13 and is currently in an 'anxiety overdrive' about his personal statement. Due to a combination of circumstances, he doesn't have any work experience and hasn't done any volunteering, so can't put any such things on his personal statement. He would like to go to university and is worried that his personal statement will not be good enough and will result in him not getting any offers, even if his predicted grades are good. Is he right to be worried about this? He had an operation last month, is still recovering from it, so picking up a summer job of any description or volunteering this summer is not feasible. I would be grateful for any advice on how to handle this, please. Thank you in advance.

PPE is not a vocational subject. No work experience is necessary. Is he going for Oxbridge PPE?

Thank you, that's really helpful. No, not Oxbridge; he did think about Oxford at some point last year, but concluded that it wouldn't be a right place for him. He's now looking at universities to come up with a list and his top two at the moment are Nottingham and Loughborough. I'm trying not to interfere, so he knows it's his choice and his decision what he wants to do, but he's really panicking now and I just can't bear watching his anxiety going through the roof, hence my post... The key question is - how much does a personal statement really matter? Can it make a difference between getting or not getting an offer, all other things being equal?

It matters, but the predicted grades matter a lot more. If your son meets their entry requirements I would be very surprised if he did not receive an offer from the universities you have listed.

Hi there!
Having a lack of volunteering/work experience is certainly not the end of the world. I am now going into my third year of Politics at the University of Kent and I would suggest that a personal statement should be a glance into what your son finds interesting so that the university knows whether their course content would be right for him. Maybe he could write about what element of PPE he is particularly interested in and maybe mention some of the books/documentaries he may have read or watched to show his interest.
With the pandemic making it a lot harder for young people to go on work experience trips and start volunteering it is completely understandable that he may not have a lot of experience. However, as long as his statement proves that he is passionate about the subject and also shows that he has hobbies that he could potentially bring to the table once he has started uni that should be a good enough insight for the uni.
Also, make sure he is using resources from his school and also some of the online resources that have been specifically catered for writing personal statements so that this way he can be certain he hasn't missed anything important.
I hope this has helped!
-Bethany, UKC Rep