Year 12 Chemistry Work experience

Does anyone have any advice for any (preferably lab-based, although I know this is less common) Chemistry work experience opportunities ?? I want to apply to NatSci (Cambridge)/Chemistry next year and I feel like work experience would help boost my PS but I’m just stuck for where to look for it for Chemistry
I’ve already got quite a few generic super curriculars but I just feel like this will help me take it further

Does anyone have any advice for any (preferably lab-based, although I know this is less common) Chemistry work experience opportunities ?? I want to apply to NatSci (Cambridge)/Chemistry next year and I feel like work experience would help boost my PS but I’m just stuck for where to look for it for Chemistry
I’ve already got quite a few generic super curriculars but I just feel like this will help me take it further

Hi! @ocqitlin! 🙂
I'm currently a Natural Sciences student at UEA, but I originally applied for chemistry.
I personally did a Nuffield Research Placement, although the deadline may have passed now and you will need to see if there are internship locations near you.
I'd recommend just emailing research parks/labs and seeing if you can shadow scientists (finding internships where you are allowed to do lab work before your degree is quite rare!)
Work experience will help boost your personal statement but you can also highlight your passion for chemistry through other activities. You may already know this, but just reading a book or listening to a chemistry podcast can also enhance your application if you do it correctly. Academics who read your personal statement can tell if you are genuinely interested in the subject or not, so make sure you choose a topic you enjoy and genuinely research it. This can also come up in interviews where they'll ask you to expand on what you found out during the book/podcast. If you'd like specific recommendations, let me know what topics in chemistry you enjoy more!
Overall, whilst an internship will help to make your application stand out, it isn't the only way so don't be disheartened if you can't find any!
I hope this helps! 🙂 Let me know if you have any questions!
Fatma.
Natural Sciences student.

Look for any volunteering options in your local place if possible.
Also try to do some online courses which provide certificates to boost your CV. There are lots of free websites which you can do a research on.

Thank you! I’m primarily interested in organic/physical chemistry - I want to go into medicinal chemistry in the future as a career.
I’ll definitely email around about shadowing, but my college has also recently sent a link around about a work experience opportunity in a genomics lab - The Genome Academy - and it does seem interesting and something I’d like to do, but I know it’s not inherently/directly linked to chemistry, but more so to biology. Would it still be worth applying and finding a way to incorporate it into a chemistry-based PS (as I can still find links, they’re just not so obvious) or investing my time into something else. Although, the genetics work experience opportunity is still lab-based and only 3 days long, so maybe it could still work whilst I also find more direct chemistry shadowing opportunities? Sort of just explaining my thoughts here, sorry if it’s a bit rambly LMAO - thank you again!

Hi @ocqitlin! 🙂
That sounds like a great opportunity! As you said, it does lean towards biology, but as you're interested in medicinal chemistry you can definitely find links between the two fields.
If you can it's definitely something to check out because lab work is quite rare for pre-university level.
You can always include multiple things in your personal statement,. A good idea here is to do the placement and then further research a topic, in your own time through books/the internet etc... , from the placement. This allows you to say:
What I'd suggest is try to make the topic a bit more relevant to medicinal chemistry or chemistry in general. For example, you could research techniques used in genetics labs that are based on the chemistry of DNA etc...
I hope this helps! Fell free to ask any questions you may have! 🙂
Fatma.

Hey, it’s definitely worth contacting any local universities and asking for work experience in their chemistry labs. I’d also recommend sending a physical letter to anywhere you apply to rather than an email, I only got responses from people I sent letters to, emails seem to just get lost. I applied for natsci at cambridge last year having done this and have had an offer so it seems to work!!

Thank you !! I’m looking to apply for Cambridge NatSci as well so that’s reassuring