Model United Nations

Hey guys!

Sorry, I’m not really sure which category this post would go in, so I took a guess lol.
I have reached a point where I have realised I have no extracurriculars. Like none. I’m joining a new school for sixth form in September and am thinking of joining the choir there and also mun. However I have no experience whatsoever with formal debating. The mini debates we very very occasionally have in classes like history I always quite enjoy, so that makes me think I’d like mun but I’m not sure. Either way, this means I have until September to improve my political knowledge (please recommend me good resources to do this) and also learn about everything mun related ie the amount and type of work that needs to be done outside of school, the format of said work, terminology, layout of conferences etc and anything else that any mun-ers on here might think is useful.
Also if I were to join in September I would be 16, and 17 in a month. Is this too old to join?? I know people who have been doing it since yr7…

Anyway, I’ve been getting kind of stressed about this lately, so any advice would be brilliant and I would love you forever!!
Thank youuuuuu

UK universities don't really care a great deal about random extracurriculars. They just want to see what you've done specifically related to the course you're applying to - such as wider reading (essential for all courses) or specifically relevant activities to the course you're applying to (e.g. perhaps essay competitions for essay based courses, science fair participation for science courses, hackathons/robotics competitions for CS courses, music grades for a music degree etc). That said also the specific activity itself is not the important part, what they want to see is how that activity led you to explore your interests in the subject area you're going to do a degree in and they want to see you analytically discuss that and reflect on it.
You don't need to have any general extracurriculars for applying to UK unis. Random clubs, sporting achievements (for non-sport degrees), music grades (for non-music courses), DofE, etc, are of much more limited relevance and hence interest to admissions tutors and generally it's suggested applicants not spend more than one or maybe two sentences max on these type of things (and you can write a very good personal statement with no reference to that).
If your aim is maths and philosophy at uni then the relevant things to do in preparation for that is to engage in maths to a high level including beyond the curriculum (particularly, reading around about maths beyond school level as degree level maths is very different to school maths), reading about philosophy and thinking about philosophy analytically, and perhaps maths competitions, essay competitions, or other things related to that may also be of relevance (although I would stress they don't expect students to do such competitions or similar).
Of course, equally not everything in your life needs to be (or should be) geared towards applying to uni. If MUN is something you're interested in generally and that you think would be enjoyable personally then by all means do it. I don't think you should do that purely for the sake of writing about it on your PS to apply to uni, because honestly it's not even something you necessarily should write about in a personal statement for maths and philosophy (or indeed, most courses; I could maybe see an argument for it for some politics/international relations type courses or a couple other niche things perhaps but I wouldn't do it at the expense of wider reading anyway).

Thank you for your reply! 🙂 It’s helpful to know that they don’t care about anything not to do with your subject on your ps, so ty! I’m getting started on wider reading already, I do the UKMT every year, and I’m thinking of doing a couple of essay competitions in the next year, so hopefully that base is covered. However, would the skills developed in mun not be desirable for philosophy?? Either way, my main reason for this post was in fact for my own enjoyment, more than for my ps - I have a friend who does mun and loves it, and I think joining would be good for me as well, just as a hobby and something enjoyable and interesting in its own right.