Do universities actually care about summer camps?

1

I'm new to the UK system (a foreigner studying in a boarding school) and was told by my peers that summer camps are really, really great. However, after searching, I got the impression that personal statements should focus on wider reading and personal perspectives instead.

Reply 1

vchang

2

I personally think the personal statement isn't about the stuff you did, but more so the things you learned and reflect from it that link to the course you want to do. It just happens that wider reading and doing specific activities that link (like work experience) may make it easier to write things you've learned. Summer camps can link to that too, though it depends what you actually did and what course you're applying to - always be thinking if you can link back to your reasons for applying to the course. If it doesn't link too much, a single sentence or two is enough in Q3, but talk through what skills you learned.
Hope this helps, this is my personal opinion.

Reply 2

BCU Student Rep

Official Rep

18

Original post

by marina correa

I'm new to the UK system (a foreigner studying in a boarding school) and was told by my peers that summer camps are really, really great. However, after searching, I got the impression that personal statements should focus on wider reading and personal perspectives instead.

Hey @marina correa , this is a great question! I hope I can answer this in the clearest way possible, but always feel free to ask any more questions you have. I am also an international student studying in the UK, so I completely understand your dilemma.

I always say, a personal statement is a representation of you and why you want to study that specific degree. You do not have to sound generic nor do you have to bring out the thesaurus! What you do need to do is to always refer back to the skills you learnt from doing a specific thing and how they link back to your desired degree. So summer camps are totally worth mentioning as long as you can then link it back to what you learnt, and how it will help you in your desired degree. And remember, transferable skills are always worth mentioning too! So these do not have to be educational summer camps, as long as you can articulate what you learnt and how you can apply what you learnt.

I did write a post on personal statements. Though it was more catered for aspiring law students, I believe it is still worth reading it, even if you are not interested in studying law:

https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7636000&p=100939504

And furthermore, you can download this personal statement guide which has examples of each question for different subjects that you can use for inspiration: https://bit.ly/46cEosx.

I really hope this was helpful and all the best!

Ru
BCU student rep.

Reply 3

UniofReading

Official Rep

14

Original post

by marina correa

I'm new to the UK system (a foreigner studying in a boarding school) and was told by my peers that summer camps are really, really great. However, after searching, I got the impression that personal statements should focus on wider reading and personal perspectives instead.

Good afternoon,

All experiences are great if you can demonstrate how they influenced you and why they are relevant. For example, at summer camp, you may have done a lot of teamwork. This could also be important for your future career or degree. So, try to draw on experiences from the summer camp that are relevant to your chosen subject and how this experience has affected your education or occupational skills.

If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to let us know.

All the best,
Ella
Bsc Ecology

Reply 4

Kingston Trenyce

Official Rep

11

Original post

by marina correa

I'm new to the UK system (a foreigner studying in a boarding school) and was told by my peers that summer camps are really, really great. However, after searching, I got the impression that personal statements should focus on wider reading and personal perspectives instead.

Hi @marina correa I believe as long as you can link what you've learned, skills you've built etc. to the course you desire to study, it would be great to add.

Trenyce (Student Rep)

Reply 5

Muttley79

20

Original post

by marina correa

I'm new to the UK system (a foreigner studying in a boarding school) and was told by my peers that summer camps are really, really great. However, after searching, I got the impression that personal statements should focus on wider reading and personal perspectives instead.

Depends what the camp is - some are super curricular like UKMT ones.

Reply 6

melancollege

Universities Forum Helper

18

Original post

by marina correa

I'm new to the UK system (a foreigner studying in a boarding school) and was told by my peers that summer camps are really, really great. However, after searching, I got the impression that personal statements should focus on wider reading and personal perspectives instead.

In general, if you have to pay a lot of money for them, then they are there to make a profit and are not really worth it for you as a student. They may be good for a personal statement and accessing wider information, but for several thousand pounds and several weeks of your time, you could find things that are much better. I think many of these camps prey on international students' lack of familiarity with the system and make it seem like they are really helpful (or worse, essential), when, in reality, spending that much money on your supercurriculars would never be an expectation or even much benefit, given how that is not an option for most applicants. Of course, for some of the students on these course, money is not really an obstacle, but you can still likely find a better use for your money.

Note for anyone else reading: there are summer courses that are primarily for widening participation and these are absolutely worth it, though these would likely not be accessible to OP given their academic background and residency status. There are also a few academic ones that are useful (I went twice to the JACT Classical Greek summer school and it was absolutely useful for those applying to Classics), but these are generally not profit-seeking and do offer bursaries and / or support.

Do universities actually care about summer camps?

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