Choosing Your University

This is Katie’s newest post, on how to pick the university that is right for you. Subscribe to get all of Katie’s posts direct to your inbox as soon as they are released.

In the UK there are over 300 different places you can do your degree. Not all of these are universities; there are also colleges of Higher Education and Further Education colleges that offer higher education courses… all a bit confusing to say the least, so this article will focus solely on universities and choosing the right one for you.

I asked a few friends what they thought, and came up with a list of things to consider (they’re not in order of importance, because that applies differently to each individual):

1. Location: where is the university? How far away is it from you? You might think you want to get as far away from your home town as possible, but train fares can be very expensive. And what if someone in your family gets ill suddenly or you need to get home to attend a wedding? How much will it cost you? And what if you get homesick and just want an afternoon with your mum – will she be willing to drive all that way?

2. The place itself: think about your ideal surroundings. Do you think you would be better off in a bustling city, or would you prefer to be somewhere with lots of green fields and cows? I’ve lived in a small market town all my life, and personally I don’t know if I could cope with seeing big grey buildings all the time. Or is that just me?

3. Job opportunities: if you go to a place with lots of bars and pubs, you’re more likely to secure a bar job. In a smaller place it might be more difficult to find a job, so make sure you factor this in when you’re picking your uni. Do some research about the job opportunities in the area – http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/ is perfect for this.

4. Entry requirements: it might seem obvious, but make sure the entry requirements are right for you. Are you SURE you can get those grades if you work really hard? It’s also worth checking if the uni works on UCAS points or just grades – if you have grade 6, 7 or 8 in an instrument/theory you can get points to put towards getting into uni, and the same applies to lots of other qualifications such as dance, horse riding and BTECs. Look at the UCAS website for full details, and check with the universities you are considering.

5. Accommodation: if you’re not picky about where you’re going to be living then it doesn’t matter as much, but if you want your home comforts you should check out the accommodation the uni has to offer. Some websites have virtual tours, and you can find reviews and ratings of various sites such as http://unistats.direct.gov.uk/ and http://www.whatuni.com/. Some universities guarantee accommodation for first year students, others don’t, so check if you need to be prepared for finding your own.

You can find a list of all the universities and higher education places (in the UK) here: http://www.ucas.ac.uk/students/choosingcourses/choosinguni/instguide/

Choosing Your Course

Katie, our guest year 13 blogger, has written her second blog about her experiences applying to university:

There’s such an enormous array of degrees available these days, ranging from a good old fashioned English Literature course to more unusual things like ‘Peace Studies’ (yes, really).
I remember deciding at the beginning of year seven that I was absolutely definitely going to Oxford to do a Medicine degree and become a brain surgeon… it took me until I started my GCSEs to realise that my maths skills were barely enough to let me be a cashier, let alone a doctor. I’m currently swinging between journalism, English and Music degrees, so as you can see, your choice is bound to change over time.

The first thing to consider, I think, is what you really enjoy. If you’re doing three or four A levels, try to work out which lesson holds your attention the most – which subject really interests you? One of my A level subjects is English Language, and I often find myself coming up with research ideas in my spare time and pondering different theories – which suggests that English would be a good degree for me to do.

Something lots of people consider is what they want to do as a career – if you know exactly what you want to be, choosing your course is a lot simpler. For example, if you want to be a vet, you choose a course in Veterinary Medicine; if you want to build rockets you do Aeronautical Engineering. The only thing left for these people to decide is which uni offers the best course – each one offers slightly different modules and different assessment methods, so these are things to take into consideration.

Another thing to look at is joint honours degrees – if you’re equally passionate about two things and you feel like you simply can’t let one of them go, a joint degree could be a good idea. When you’re choosing, make sure you look in detail at how the degree is balanced, because it’s not always equal. Usually, if a degree is labelled ‘Music and English Language’, there will be an equal amount of Music and English on the course, but not always. If taking two subjects still isn’t enough for you, I would recommend looking this: http://www.hud.ac.uk/courses/00006729/. It’s a degree called ‘Combined Honours’ at Huddersfield, where you’re basically given a big list of subjects and you can combine them in different ways to get the perfect degree.

For the rest of us, who still don’t quite know what we want to do as a career, I would highly recommend watching this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PtJmNjUHDQ (don’t worry, it’s only 3 minutes long) as it helped me a lot when I was making my decision.

Thanks Katie. There are lots of Universities offering combined courses if you are interested in them – have a look on http://www.ucas.com or the University’s website.

Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

Katie (pictured), a current year  13 student, is writing for us giving an insight into her experiences of applying to university. Here is her first blog:

To go or not to go – that is the question. There are so many things to choose from now that sometimes I wished I had no choice and that uni was the only option available – at least that way I could concentrate on studying instead of worrying about what I was going to do.

The main options more or less seem to be: university, college (e.g. Music college/drama school), gap year, an apprenticeship or getting a job. These all seemed quite appealing to me when I read about them online (a gap year seemed like a particularly good idea after seeing pictures of people feeding baby orang-utans and saving the lives of tiny orphans), but somehow this makes it even harder to decide. However, this article will focus on university and how to decide on whether or not to go.

Around the time when you start applying to uni, I’m sure you’ll have people telling you all kinds of things about how “degrees are ten a penny these days” and “it’s not worth the debt, there are no jobs”. Maybe you come from a family where university is the path everyone takes, and nobody has even mentioned other options. For me at least, university seems to be the only topic of conversation on the agenda at the moment – every time I see relatives their first questions are sure to be along the lines of “have you got all your places yet?” and  “Which one are you picking then?”, and my friends aren’t much better.  Because I’m quite indecisive, people often seem keen to give me their own opinions about what to do in September, but really all this does is add more confusion to the mix!

It’s important to get your thoughts straight about university quite early on (I definitely wish I’d done this) so that you don’t create more stress for yourself when everybody else is applying and you still haven’t even put your details into UCAS. A good way to do this is a good old ‘pros and cons’ table – divide a big piece of paper into two and get thinking. It’s good to write down your own thoughts first (consider finance, qualifications you would gain, living away from home etc.) before asking for the opinions of your family and friends – maybe include these in a different colour so that you can remember what you thought and what they said. There are also some great forums on the internet about this sort of thing – a favourite of mine is http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/ where there are forums on everything you could possibly want to know about universities, other options, courses etc. – it’s great!

Just remember, if you start thinking early enough, you’ll have plenty of time to decide what’s right for you.

My opinion: If it was free, I would probably just go to uni without even thinking about it, but because it costs such a lot, it’s very important to make the right choice. In my opinion, if you’re passionate about the subject (or if it’s something like nursing where you need a degree to go into that profession) you should go for it. If you’re lukewarm about a number of subjects, take a year out to read more deeply into them before deciding (that’s what I’m doing). The same applies if you want to be more financially stable, you’re not ready to leave home, or you just fancy a break from textbooks!

Thanks Katie! Keep checking the blog for more of her articles over the next few weeks.