So you've decided you want a degree in the geosciences, excellent choice! But what happens now? Welcome to my list of what books to read, essay competitions to enter, courses to go on and videos to watch in order to give you some experience and to build up your personal statement:
Photo taken on Girls Into Geoscience 2019 in Torbay. Here you can see some slickensides on the surface of a fault.
Books
I recommend doing some reading around the subject. Not only does it look good on your personal statement and will give you something to talk about at interviews but it will also give you an idea of what parts of the subject interest you and provide you with a basic background knowledge before university. If you need any ideas check out my post of 10 Geoscience (ish) book recommendations: https://www.letschalkaboutit.blog/post/10-geoscience-ish-book-recommendations
Essay Competitions
These look great and can also be fun! Essay competitions are a great way of showing a genuine interest in your subject and give you an opportunity to explore an area you don't get to at A-Level or in school. You don't have to win the competition to mention it in your personal statement, simply the process of research and writing will give you plenty to talk about. Here are a few essay competitions that could have Earth Science based entires. Be sure to check entry dates before you start writing!
The Oxford Scientist Schools' Science Writing Competition: https://oxsci.org/schools/
Immerse Education Essay Competition: https://www.immerse.education/essay-competition/
Peterhouse College, Cambridge, Kelvin Science Prize: https://www.pet.cam.ac.uk/essay-competition
Young Science Writer of the Year Award: https://www.absw.org.uk/pages/young-science-writer-award *2023 competition has not yet been announced but keep a look out
There are many more out there if you give it a quick google!
Courses
Not everyone has the time or money to go on external courses but if you are lucky enough to do so they can be a really fun experience as well as giving you an opportunity to experience uni life.
I attended the Girls Into Geoscience two day course at Plymouth University in 2019 and it was an incredible experience that not only gave me an opportunity to do a bit of field work and help me decide that I wanted to study geology but also was a great topic to talk about in my Oxford interview.
GiG website: https://girlsintogeoscience.wordpress.com/
Twitter (as website is not updated very often): https://mobile.twitter.com/girlsingeosci
I have also attended some courses run by the Smallpiece Trust. These are mainly aimed at physics and engineering but great for anyone considering going into STEM and were great fun!
Smallpiece Trust website: https://www.smallpeicetrust.org.uk/
Other
There are so many other things to do to build up your personal statement and develop and interest in the subject you want to study such as watching videos/movies (BBC has a lot of good ones), listening to podcasts (I recommend the Geology Flannelcast), looking at news sites and visiting museums. The year before I applied to university I became a junior member of the Geological Society of London which gave me access to their monthly magazine The Geoscientist which was a great way to keep up to date with what was going in in the world of geology. Another way of having something unique to discuss at interview is doing a geology related EPQ - especially if you aren't studying the subject at A-Level! For my EPQ I researched and wrote a dissertation with the title 'Have we entered the Anthropocene?', this topic was incredibly interesting and relevant to research but also provided me with some basic background into geologic time which was a tremendous help in my first year at uni.
Geology Flannelcast podcast: https://www.geologyflannelcast.com/
BGS Podcasts Rock the Mic: https://soundcloud.com/rockthemikepod (also on apple podcasts and spotify)
Geological Society of London: https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/
British Geological Society: https://www.bgs.ac.uk/
Geology Documentaries list: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls096795740/ (there are loads more out there than just on this list!)
London Natural History Museum: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/
Cambridge Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences: http://www.sedgwickmuseum.org/
Oxford Natural History Museum: https://www.oumnh.ox.ac.uk/
There are so many good natural history museums so look for one in your local area!
Talking to my friends, everyone did different things for their personal statements and there is no one size fits all method. Try to engage in activities you genuinely enjoy so it does feel like more homework. If you don' like reading books, don't do it, if you find museums really dull, don't go to them. You want your personal statement to come across as you having a genuine passion and enjoyment of the subject, you aren't going to get that if everything you've done you have found boring. Remember: doing all this stuff is supposed to show you how much you will enjoy this course at uni, not just to show the universities why they want you!
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