What extracurriculars can I do for my chemical engineering application?

Chemical engineering sits at the intersection of chemistry, physics, and maths applied to real industrial processes: making fuels, drugs, food, water, materials, and increasingly the technologies of the energy transition. Admissions tutors at top departments (Cambridge, Imperial, UCL, Manchester) primarily judge you on academic performance: the ESAT if you're applying to Cambridge or Imperial, plus A-level grades and interviews everywhere else. Extracurriculars matter as evidence you understand what chemical engineers do, which is a very different thing from pure chemistry.

The strongest chemical engineering personal statements describe one or two things the applicant actually did or investigated, usually a specific process (making biodiesel, distilling ethanol, understanding the Haber process at scale) rather than a general "I love chemistry" pitch. Being able to talk about mass balance, energy balance, or unit operations, even at a basic level, will separate you from other applicants.

With that framing, here's what's worth your time.

Formal programmes worth applying to

1. IChemE Engineering a Sustainable World (free virtual work experience)

The Institution of Chemical Engineers' virtual work experience programme, delivered via Springpod, is aimed at students aged 14 to 18. Six to eight hours of interactive modules covering chemical engineering across four industries: energy, food and drink, water, and healthcare. You also get access to the "IChemE Sprint", a real-world design task set by a working engineer.

Sign up via UCAS or Springpod. Free, self-paced, downloadable certificate at the end.

Why this specifically works for chemical engineering: it gives you sector-specific language (process design, sustainability, thermodynamics, unit operations) that translates directly into the personal statement paragraph tutors want to see. Don't just complete it; use it as a starting point to go read more about one of the case studies (Thames Tideway Tunnel and sustainable aviation fuel are both featured) and write about that in your statement.

2. UK Chemistry Olympiad (UKChO)

For chemical engineering, the UKChO matters almost as much as the BPhO does for physics applicants. Run by the Royal Society of Chemistry, it's a 2-hour written paper sat in schools around the end of January each year. Over 17,000 students take part; roughly 70% earn a Bronze, Silver, or Gold award.

Timing:

• Registration: mid-September to mid-January (schools register, not individuals)
• Round 1: sat in schools, late January
• Round 2: top 30 students invited to a residential at the University of Nottingham in April
• Final selection: 4 UK team members compete at the International Chemistry Olympiad in July

Ask your chemistry teacher in September to register your school. Bronze is a solid line for your application; Gold is a signal admissions tutors at Cambridge and Imperial notice. Past papers with worked mark schemes are free on the RSC's UKChO page.

3. Cambridge Chemistry Challenge (C3L6)

Sat in June of Year 12, C3L6 is designed to stretch Year 12 students significantly beyond the AS-level syllabus. It's a 90-minute paper with two long, multi-part questions where later marks depend on the reasoning built earlier. Your school sits and marks the paper, then submits scores.

Awards range from Copper up to Roentgenium; the top 0.5% of entrants get invited to a fully-funded residential at the University of Cambridge (dates typically in late August or September). This residential is one of the best free things a Y12 chemistry-minded student can get: three days in Cambridge, teaching from the same academics who run C3L6, and it looks strong on an application.

Preparation tip: past papers are free on the C3L6 site. If you can do C3L6 comfortably, you're also well-placed for the UKChO in Year 13 and the chemistry section of the ESAT.

4. Nuffield Research Placements

Chemical engineering fits the Nuffield Research Placement scheme especially well. It puts Year 12 students into 2 to 3-week summer research projects at UK universities, research institutes, or STEM companies. Chemical engineering, biochemistry, biotechnology, and materials departments regularly host placements.

You produce a report and poster; the output makes you eligible for a Gold CREST Award and Big Bang Competition entry, and gives you a specific research experience to talk about at interview.

Two things to know:

• Eligibility is targeted. You must be Year 12 at a UK state school, with priority for students on free school meals, from low-income households (typically <£30k), first in family to university, or in local authority care.
• Applications open late autumn of Year 12 and close early spring. Check the Nuffield Foundation page for exact dates.

5. Headstart / Insight into University summer schools

The Engineering Development Trust runs Headstart courses (now branded "Insight into University") at UK universities including Birmingham, Sheffield, Loughborough, Bath, Leeds, and others. Typically 3 to 5 days, residential or virtual, giving Y12 students a taste of engineering at university level. Chemical engineering strands sit within broader engineering programmes at most host universities.

Not free by default, but bursaries and fully-funded places are widely available for students who need them; check the funding page when you apply.

University events open to anyone

The highest-value / lowest-effort category. Free, mostly no formal application, and they give you something specific to bring up at interview.

Cambridge CEB Open Day: The Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology runs a summer open day (10 to 11 July in 2026) with tours of the Teaching Lab and Makerspace (3D printing, laser cutting), sample lectures on sustainability, energy, and healthcare, plus student ambassadors on hand. Parents welcome.

Cambridge Engineering Summer School: A fully-funded residential for Year 12 state-school students. Taster lectures, practical activities at the Department of Engineering, accommodation, food, and transport all covered. Chemical engineering is part of the wider Cambridge Engineering course, so this covers it too.

UCL Chemical Engineering Summer School: Two-day non-residential summer school for Y12, held at UCL East's Advanced Propulsion Lab in Stratford. Includes a lecture, lab tour, and a chemical engineering design challenge. Applications typically close 30 April.

UCL Biochemical Engineering taster days: Two separate summer taster days, one on biofuels manufacture, one on vaccine manufacture. Practical, with a visit to the UCL Pilot Plant to see process engineering at scale.

Imperial Headstart summer school: A residential engineering course spanning multiple disciplines, delivered by Imperial's Faculty of Engineering. Rigorous, and gives you an accurate feel for what Imperial teaching is like.

Your nearest chemical engineering department. Every UK university with a ChemEng course (Manchester, Sheffield, Bath, Loughborough, Leeds, Nottingham, Strathclyde, Newcastle, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Aston, Surrey) runs some form of outreach. Check their "for schools" or outreach pages, especially for Y12 open days and summer visits.

Why these matter: at interview, "I visited the CEB Makerspace and saw a 3D-printed distillation column, which made me realise how differently pilot-scale reactors are built to lab equipment..." is a paragraph a tutor will read all the way through. Vague statements about "loving chemistry" are not.

Volunteering that strengthens a chemical engineering application

Chemical engineering doesn't have a hospital-shadowing equivalent, so the options here are more diverse but each still connects to the discipline in real ways.

Tutoring maths, chemistry, or physics

Tutoring GCSE students in maths, chemistry, or physics is one of the best things you can do for a science application:

• It forces you to properly understand fundamentals; nothing exposes gaps like trying to explain them
• It's evidence of communication skill, which Cambridge and Imperial interviews both test
• The social impact is real and honest

Options:

• Action Tutoring: Volunteer with disadvantaged pupils, 1 to 3 students at a time. Main scheme is 18+.
• RefuNet: Online subject tutoring for refugees. 18+ with DBS check.
• Refugee Education UK: Mentoring young refugees through the UK education system. Full training provided. 18+.
• Your own school or a local secondary: the easiest under-18 route. Most schools will happily connect a strong Y12/Y13 with a Y10/11 struggling with GCSE chemistry, maths, or physics. Homework clubs at local libraries and community centres work too.

Write about it honestly. "I tutored a Year 10 through GCSE moles and realised I'd been solving them by pattern rather than by properly understanding stoichiometry" is a paragraph a tutor will actually read.

Industrial site visits and process work experience

Chemical engineering is fundamentally an industrial subject, and getting into an actual working plant, even for a day, changes how you talk about it. Options worth chasing:

• Water utilities (Thames Water, Severn Trent, Anglian Water, United Utilities, Yorkshire Water, Scottish Water) all run some form of educational visits or STEM outreach. Their treatment plants are process engineering in the flesh; ask their education or community engagement team.
• STEM Ambassadors: Ask your school to book a STEM Ambassador with a chemical, pharmaceutical, or process background. Many are working chemical engineers who will happily arrange careers talks or site visits.
• Local pharmaceutical, food, or drink manufacturers. GSK, AstraZeneca, Unilever, Nestlé, Mondelez, and Diageo all have outreach programmes; check their careers pages or write to the local site manager.
• Local waste, recycling, or biogas plants often run public open days through their council or a local environmental charity.

Practical route: pick the 3 to 5 nearest industrial process facilities to where you live (water treatment works, food manufacturer, brewery, pharmaceutical site), find their community-engagement page, and email in September asking whether they run Y12/Y13 taster days or site tours. Even a "no" reply demonstrates the initiative admissions tutors talk about; and half the time, someone will point you at a working engineer willing to spend 30 minutes on a call, which is far more useful than another certificate.

Environmental and sustainability volunteering

Chemical engineers now sit at the centre of the energy transition, water security, and decarbonisation. Volunteering with a local sustainability group (Wildlife Trust, Friends of the Earth chapter, community energy project, repair café) is legitimate chemical-engineering-adjacent experience if you can connect what you did back to processes, materials, or resource flow. Don't force it; but if you genuinely care about climate or sustainability, write about it in process-engineering language rather than generic activism language.

Writing about chemical engineering

Writing forces you to understand a process more deeply, and gives admissions tutors something specific to actually read.

Young Scientists Journal: UK-based, peer-reviewed, student-run, for authors aged 12 to 20. Rolling submissions, free. Accepts:

• Original research articles (if you've done a Nuffield placement or independent project)
• Review articles (a survey of a topic, accessible starting point)
• Blog / magazine articles (600 to 1500 words on a topic you care about)

The review or blog route is the realistic starting point for most Y12/Y13 students.

The Chemical Engineer magazine: IChemE's flagship publication. Not aimed primarily at sixth formers, but it's the best free way to learn how working chemical engineers actually write and think about problems. Read a few features on their website, then write your own version of a "how does X work at industrial scale" article for your own blog or your school newsletter.

Education in Chemistry: RSC magazine for chemistry teachers and students. Excellent, accessible articles on process chemistry, industrial applications, and topics that go beyond the A-level syllabus. Free online.

Your school's science newsletter: Or start one. Almost a cheat code for a science application:

• Costs nothing
• You control the content
• Editing a publication is a leadership signal without you having to claim leadership
• You can write about whatever you actually find interesting: the process behind a factory near you, a paper on carbon capture you found, a book you read

A Substack, personal blog, or LinkedIn works too. What matters is that when a tutor googles your name in November, they find something.

One warning: don't write about chemistry or engineering you don't properly understand. Vague articles on "the future of green hydrogen" that recycle press-release tropes are worse than nothing. Pick a specific process: Haber-Bosch, fractional distillation of crude oil, activated-sludge sewage treatment, PEM electrolysis, direct air capture at a specific plant, and go deep on that one process. Draw the flow diagram. Work through one mass or energy balance. Then write about it.

How to write about all this in your personal statement

Don't list all of it. Pick one, maybe two things and go deep. A tutor would rather read:

"Working through a Cambridge Chemistry Challenge question on the Contact process, I got stuck on why the second oxidation step needs a catalyst but the third doesn't. Reading around, I realised the issue was activation energy versus thermodynamic favourability, which..."

than:

"I completed the IChemE virtual work experience, entered the UKChO, tutored GCSE chemistry, attended a UCL summer school, and read The Chemical Engineer."

The former shows a chemical engineer thinking, whereas the latter shows someone who read a UCAS advice article.

The best applications also connect their extras: a Nuffield placement on catalysis led to a question about industrial ammonia synthesis which came up in the IChemE Sprint which then made the applicant curious about green hydrogen. This is what makes a personal statement flow.