Gap Year STEM Experience

Hi, I just finished my A levels and I am planning a gap year. I have a deferred place for Biological Sciences, but I am also considering redoing my UCAS applications, depending on how results day goes. Ideally, I would love to volunteer/work doing something that is related to biology, marine biology, or something along those lines. However, I am really struggling to find any opportunities. I want to find them as soon as possible, so any help or advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you. :3

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alfwego

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Original post by cephlmax

Hi, I just finished my A levels and I am planning a gap year. I have a deferred place for Biological Sciences, but I am also considering redoing my UCAS applications, depending on how results day goes. Ideally, I would love to volunteer/work doing something that is related to biology, marine biology, or something along those lines. However, I am really struggling to find any opportunities. I want to find them as soon as possible, so any help or advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you. :3

Hi!

I just wanted to ask if you found anything as I am currently in the same position as you. I'm planning on taking a gap year in September and I will be studying Biochemistry.

Original post by cephlmax

Hi, I just finished my A levels and I am planning a gap year. I have a deferred place for Biological Sciences, but I am also considering redoing my UCAS applications, depending on how results day goes. Ideally, I would love to volunteer/work doing something that is related to biology, marine biology, or something along those lines. However, I am really struggling to find any opportunities. I want to find them as soon as possible, so any help or advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you. :3

Hi Cephlmax,

I can see this is from 7 months ago and so I hope I am not too late in replying to you here.

Many people find themselves in similar positions, including myself many years ago. My gap year was in the world of tutoring, as I wanted to do something impactful with my time whilst working and saving for the plunge into University. When working I met others with similar ambitions to yourself, with the boundaries for Sciences at University being quite stringent many of them were re-sitting exams to get into their preferred placements - because the role was tutoring, you are still very close to education meaning that the idea of revising doesn't become too alien.

A lot of the opportunities for STEM look to be abroad or include lots of travelling, upon some googling this morning. There are many gap year programs out there to consider but the important thing to recognise is that you don't need to specifically sign up to a program to put yourself out there.

Universities love seeing keen, passionate and self-driven people that can demonstrate these qualities through their personal statement. This is why a lot of people do volunteer with their time off because it shows Universities that you're wanting to support a part of the community with no incentive apart from the experience of doing so. I know people who have volunteered in care homes, hospital wards and nursing homes - they've found it incredibly helpful when applying for things like medicine, dentistry and other biology related subjects and a lot of them were successful in getting onto their chosen course.

If I were you I would look into companies that do the work you're interested in and reach out to them about the possibility of volunteering. It doesn't hurt to get in touch with those places and enquire!

Hopefully, this has given you some insights.

Gap Year STEM Experience

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