I HAVE NO CHANCE!! (Essay competitions and feeling salty about private schools)

I have been looking into different essay competitions to boost my personal statement (when I come to write it) - and they have literally all been won by people who go to really prestigious private schools??? As someone who has always attended a state school - a comprehensive one at that - I feel I’m a serious disadvantage. It’s not that private school students are necessarily more talented, it’s just that their schools have the time and money to invest in them…my school has always focused on the lower achieving students to make sure they get their 4s in English and Maths etc. I know the point of entering isn’t to win (and I don’t expect to) but there isn’t a level playing field.

I have been looking into different essay competitions to boost my personal statement (when I come to write it) - and they have literally all been won by people who go to really prestigious private schools??? As someone who has always attended a state school - a comprehensive one at that - I feel I’m a serious disadvantage. It’s not that private school students are necessarily more talented, it’s just that their schools have the time and money to invest in them…my school has always focused on the lower achieving students to make sure they get their 4s in English and Maths etc. I know the point of entering isn’t to win (and I don’t expect to) but there isn’t a level playing field.

Hi, I didn't attend a private school, and although I didn't win, I did reasonably in North Eastern University's essay competition. Later in the year, I did st endnund halls video essay competition, which only state school students can enter !

Oooo what is a video essay? X

I have been looking into different essay competitions to boost my personal statement (when I come to write it) - and they have literally all been won by people who go to really prestigious private schools??? As someone who has always attended a state school - a comprehensive one at that - I feel I’m a serious disadvantage. It’s not that private school students are necessarily more talented, it’s just that their schools have the time and money to invest in them…my school has always focused on the lower achieving students to make sure they get their 4s in English and Maths etc. I know the point of entering isn’t to win (and I don’t expect to) but there isn’t a level playing field.

Just as an aside, you don't really need a competition to boost your PS. They tend to soak up a lot of time and aren't especially impressive to admissions staff.

With any experience, whether it's a text you read, lecture you watched, MOOC you completed, it's what you took away from the experience and being able to reflect on it critically that will catch the eye. Saying "I entered/won X" is meaningless by itself.

The value of the experience isn't in winning the competition (a nice bonus I suppose if you do manage that) - it's in engaging in writing an extended piece of academic work, using your own research skills, that is beyond the scope of the A-level syllabus which allows you to delve much deeper and into and broadly across your subject matter. That's what you want to be showing off.

As above there are other ways to do this though, so it's neither expected nor required for students to enter into an essay competition - and equally even if you did win, if you just wrote "I won this competition" then it doesn't really say much of anything. It is simply a platform from which you can do wider reading and research, then leverage this into analytical writing, and then get some level of feedback from it (even if it's just "did not place in final 10 submissions" or something) which you can then feed back into your approach next time you do similar tasks (for example, at uni...for your course).

By way of example, an EPQ is a similar prospect - the EPQ itself is not the valuable bit and unis don't really care whether you have those three letters on your application or not. It's the process involved in writing/producing the EPQ and then how you communicate your reflections, analysis and evaluations of that experience and the things you read etc throughout it.


PRSOM

The value of the experience isn't in winning the competition (a nice bonus I suppose if you do manage that) - it's in engaging in writing an extended piece of academic work, using your own research skills, that is beyond the scope of the A-level syllabus which allows you to delve much deeper and into and broadly across your subject matter. That's what you want to be showing off.
As above there are other ways to do this though, so it's neither expected nor required for students to enter into an essay competition - and equally even if you did win, if you just wrote "I won this competition" then it doesn't really say much of anything. It is simply a platform from which you can do wider reading and research, then leverage this into analytical writing, and then get some level of feedback from it (even if it's just "did not place in final 10 submissions" or something) which you can then feed back into your approach next time you do similar tasks (for example, at uni...for your course).
By way of example, an EPQ is a similar prospect - the EPQ itself is not the valuable bit and unis don't really care whether you have those three letters on your application or not. It's the process involved in writing/producing the EPQ and then how you communicate your reflections, analysis and evaluations of that experience and the things you read etc throughout it.
PRSOM

I think you are reading into the 'private school' thing a bit much to be honest and you need to let it go or it's going to sour your view on things a fair bit.
You can't be envious of where someone went to school: people largely have no control over this and I know or have worked with people who attended private school and hated it completely.

There are many essay competitions / university insight events / work experiences that private school students aren’t eligible to take part in. If it’s so much of an issue for you that private school students win, do those ones instead.

Sorry if I have offended you in some way…? I’m well aware that private schools are not always better. In fact, my mum went to a private school (her mum taught there), hated it, teachers were pretty awful - despite it being quite prestigious - and came out with average grades.
It’s just that pupils at private schools sometimes have opportunities that state schools do not offer (because they don’t have the funding to). For example, in the realms of public speaking and essay competitions…essay competitions that do not exclude private schools are usually won by students from private schools!! I wouldn’t say that I am envious 🙂 very happy for people to attend private schools, it’s a free country.

I have been looking into different essay competitions to boost my personal statement (when I come to write it) - and they have literally all been won by people who go to really prestigious private schools??? As someone who has always attended a state school - a comprehensive one at that - I feel I’m a serious disadvantage. It’s not that private school students are necessarily more talented, it’s just that their schools have the time and money to invest in them…my school has always focused on the lower achieving students to make sure they get their 4s in English and Maths etc. I know the point of entering isn’t to win (and I don’t expect to) but there isn’t a level playing field.

I have been looking into different essay competitions to boost my personal statement (when I come to write it) - and they have literally all been won by people who go to really prestigious private schools??? As someone who has always attended a state school - a comprehensive one at that - I feel I’m a serious disadvantage. It’s not that private school students are necessarily more talented, it’s just that their schools have the time and money to invest in them…my school has always focused on the lower achieving students to make sure they get their 4s in English and Maths etc. I know the point of entering isn’t to win (and I don’t expect to) but there isn’t a level playing field.