Do I need extracurriculars? (1 Viewer)

[woodentable]

Hi everyone, hope you are all doing well!

I'm in Year 11 right now and I have been told by a lot of people that extracurriculars are extremely important, though my sister says that top universities in Sydney, eg. USYD and UNSW don't find extracurriculars important. I have recently done a 5 month exchange program on a scholarship (2022-2023) and I did band and netball during junior years (year 7-8), I got into Area for Athletics once last year and I have recently started Mock Trials. There is an opportunity to be school captain but I don't think it's for me since I am not the leader type so I don't want to sign up but I wanted to know since I don't have many extracurriculars going on right now but I'm not one to dedicate large amounts of time to extracurriculars. Please give me some advice.

Thank you!

 

[ExtremelyBoredUser]

Hi everyone, hope you are all doing well!

I'm in Year 11 right now and I have been told by a lot of people that extracurriculars are extremely important, though my sister says that top universities in Sydney, eg. USYD and UNSW don't find extracurriculars important. I have recently done a 5 month exchange program on a scholarship (2022-2023) and I did band and netball during junior years (year 7-8), I got into Area for Athletics once last year and I have recently started Mock Trials. There is an opportunity to be school captain but I don't think it's for me since I am not the leader type so I don't want to sign up but I wanted to know since I don't have many extracurriculars going on right now but I'm not one to dedicate large amounts of time to extracurriculars. Please give me some advice.

Thank you!

honestly do extracurriculars for the sake of itself and not for uni apps. Don't go into them just in hopes that your chances in a uni will get boosted by early entry schemes or else it'll be a chore and a strain on your study life.

I've done a variety of extra-currics and i'll say that I've found it more helpful cutting down on them during yr 11-12 to have more time to just breathe but there's many people who'll disagree with me and say extra-currics are worth it. Personally I was losing interest in them after being in most of em for a long time so yea.

I would say that just continue any extra-curricular you like and dedicate to one which you have the most aptitude at getting into a leadership role, that looks great on any early entry scheme. Cut out the extra-currics that are simply a burden

If you just study well, its very easy (or for a lack of better word, doable) to just get into UNSW/USYD through academics by the UAC route (DEPENDING ON THE DEGREE but for most its more than doable [most require <95 ATAR]

 

[nsw..wollongong]

also keep in mind that if u rlly rlly wanna do co-curricular stuff for the sake of unis --> school captains can get up to 5 bonus points (for some unis - eg UNSW), same w/ completion of duke of ed.

 

[hscgirl]

school captains can get up to 5 bonus points (for some unis - eg UNSW), same w/ completion of duke of ed.

depending on what woodentable wants to as their degree tho, as that doesn't apply for med (and neither for law i believe)

 

[nsw..wollongong]

depending on what woodentable wants to as their degree tho, as that doesn't apply for med (and neither for law i believe)

yeah but woodentable (on their profile) looks like they wanna do pharmacy. unsw doesn't offer bonus points for:

• Actuarial Studies (including double degrees)
• Actuarial Studies (Co-op)
• Commerce (Co-op)
• Commerce (Co-op) (Honours)
• Double Law
• Information Systems (Co-op) (Honours)
• Medicine
• Vision Science
• Vision Science/Clinical Optometry
• Psychological Science
• Psychology (Honours)

 

[nsw..wollongong]

True but you'll only get max 1-2 points for that, it's much more easier to score a B5/B6 in your subjects and get up to 5 bonus points from there

agreed!

 

[iloveeggs]

hi guys, i was hoping you could give some advice.

i'm about to start year 11 and i've finished bronze duke of ed and started silver last year. my mental health hit a really rough spot and I didn't make much progress. i intend on finishing silver this year but i'm debating doing gold. if i do decide to do it i'll have to keep doing it all throughout the hsc without breaks. i do extracurriculars outside of duke of ed like classical indian music (i am doing a diploma affiliated with a university, not very prestigious but valuable), volunteer in a charity and am a school leader. i've also done work experience at a vet, who have written me a recommendation letter (idk if that's what you call it, they just said really good things about my work ethic and employability lol)

i'm worried that if I drop duke of ed I won't have enough to show in uni applications (i want to do medicine). ik they don't care too much abt awards/extracurriculars for uni applications in general and i'm not looking for adjustment factors but i keep hearing horror stories about people with 98+ atars and relatively competitive ucat results not getting into med and i was thinking maybe it has to do with extracurriculars. also i'm sort of interested in recieving scholarship/awards since it would be useful for the future and maybe extracurriculars will help me do that.

on the other hand, everyone ik is worried about me because they don't think i can handle the pressure because i'm accelerating adv math and taking ext2 math. ext1 or 2 english and sciences. everyone thinks i should drop duke of ed at the moment but im not too sure.

it would be great if you guys could offer any advice. thanks!