Packing for uni? Here’s what to take (and leave behind)

If you’re getting stressed about what to take to university and what to leave behind, we can help! Here’s our list of items to take with you.

First things first:

1. You can’t take everything. Your new bedroom may be smaller than what you’re used to, with limited storage, so there isn’t room for ALL your things. You can go home (your family will like that) if you forget anything, or they can send it to you, and you’ll be moving back at the start of the summer!
2. If you are travelling to your uni accommodation by public transport, don’t take items you can easily buy once you’ve moved in (e.g. shampoo, notepads, cleaning products). It will add unnecessary weight to your already heavy bag, and limit other items you could include in their place!
3. Check what is provided already. Most accommodation will provide kettles and microwaves but not all will provide irons, for example.
4. 

Uni Essentials

Documents

• Passport/driving license or some form of ID (if you’ve got more than one, perfect – you may need it for setting up a student bank account, for example).
• University admissions letter.
• Student Finance documents.
• Accommodation documents.
• Your course acceptance letter.
• Your bank account details and bank card.
• Passport photos.

Useful but not essential: National Insurance Number, CV, cheque book (if you’ve got one).

 

Electrical Items

• Laptop/computer and charger.
• Head / earphones
• Phone and charger.
• Lamp (if one isn’t provided).
• Hair dryer / other hair styling tools.
• Extension lead(s).

Useful but not essential: TV, Printer, Speakers, Game console (if you’ve got one), Iron.

 

Clothes

• Winter coat.
• Dressing gown (if you have one).
• Slippers.
• Any fancy dress items you have already (always useful in Fresher’s week and most Wednesday nights).
• Interview appropriate clothes (if you hope to get a part time job or summer internship).
• Flip flops.
• Gym clothes (if you’ll be using the gym / joining a sports club).
• Rucksack / other bag you can use for uni.

 

Course Items

• Diary/planner.
• Highlighters
• Post it notes.

Useful but not essential:  Calculator, Stapler, Hole punch, Sellotape, Scissors, Blu tac or pins.

 

Kitchen Items

• 4 Bowls and 4 plates (4 means you can cook for friends and have enough in case you accidentally break one).
• 4 Mugs and 4 glasses.
• Cutlery.
• A saucepan.
• A wok.
• A sharp knife.
• A baking tray.
• Vegetable peeler.
• Plastic tubs.
• Oven gloves.
• Tea towels.
• A tin opener.
• Bottle opener with a corkscrew.

Useful but not essential: A toastie maker, Measuring jug, Whisk, Ladle.

 

Bedroom Items

• 2 sets of sheets, duvet covers, pillow cases.
• Mattress protector.
• Coat hangers.
• Laundry bag or basket.
• Clothes airer.
• Door stop.

 

Bathroom Items

• Towels – 2 bath towels and 2 hand towels.
• Toothbrush (and charger if it’s electric).
• Paracetamol / ibuprofen.
• Any personal medication.
• Contraceptives.
• Plasters.
• Razors.

 

Other useful items

• A sewing kit.
• Playing cards.
• Alarm clock.
• Batteries.

 

What to leave behind

• Pets (unfortunately most university accommodation does not allow pets).
• Your whole DVD collection (Not. Enough. Room.).
• The teddies you’ve had since you were 3 (see above).

I’m in Clearing. ARGHHH!!

What is it?

Clearing is essentially where all universities advertise the places left on their courses. Last year, 64,900 students found a university place via Clearing, so if you are in Clearing, you’re not the only one! Lots of students have found places this way and have had an amazing time at University.

It’s a great opportunity for lots of students, but we realise it’s a scary time! Clearing is for those who are:

• Applying ‘late’ (on or after 1^st July)
• Not holding any offers on results day
• You don’t meet the conditions of your offer (usually qualification related)

When does it open?

Clearing is open now for students who are applying ‘late’, or who are not waiting on results (e.g. you did you’re A levels last year). If you’re waiting for results, you can add your Clearing choice from 3pm on 17^th August.

UCAS is listing all courses available through Clearing now. You may also want to have a look at a University’s website, or the Telegraph (they advertise Clearing vacancies on A level results day too). There are lots of courses available, but some are very unlikely to enter Clearing (e.g. courses like Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Science, Nursing, Social Work, Teaching etc.).

How do I know if I’m in Clearing?

If you’re unsure if you’re in Clearing or not, check UCAS Track – it should say ‘You are in Clearing’ or ‘Clearing has started’. If you have a conditional place at a University, check Track on results day for confirmation (it opens at 7am).

What can I do now?

Do your research to avoid as much stress as possible – if you know you’ll be applying for a Clearing place look at the courses and Universities you’re interested in, visit them if you haven’t already and try to find out as much as you can about the course, accommodation (if you will be living there), the place itself.

What do I do on Results Day?

Your teachers, careers advisers and sometimes local universities are there at your school or college on results day to congratulate, reassure and advise you, if you need it.

If you do find yourself in Clearing unexpectedly, speak to the universities you are interested in. Call them – it’s quicker. There’s no commitment when you call them – you are just making enquiries. If a university offers you a place, they may put a time restraint on their offer. Make sure you respond or keep in contact with them by the deadline they set – you may want to ask if they can extend it so that you can visit the campus, for example.

Once you find the course and University you want to apply to (and they’ve informally offered you a place), you need to add it on UCAS Track. You can do this from 3pm on 17^th August. Once you add a Clearing choice on UCAS it’s final, so only add your choice when you a sure!

Best of luck on results day and fingers crossed you get the grades you’re looking for. If not, applying through Clearing isn’t a bad thing!

How to write a great first CV

We recently published the article ‘Where to Look for Your First Job’, where we discussed having a good CV to give to employers. To really impress employers, you need to include the skills you can offer them, and make it clear how you can transfer these skills to their organisation.

If you see a job advert that includes a person specification (where the organisation states what they’re looking for in applicants), make sure you include what they ask for in your CV. This doesn’t mean lie (if they ask for a minimum of 3 years sales experience and you have none, don’t say that you have!), but it does mean you need to tailor your CV to each organisation you are applying to.

Tailoring your CV takes time unfortunately, but it does mean you will be more successful in your job search. Employers don’t want to see a CV that has been sent to 50 shops, cafes, bars and restaurants, they want to see you’ve done a bit of research on them and have the skills they’re looking for.

A few golden rules:

• Include all work experience. Worked for your aunt last summer? Do you volunteer at Scouts as a leader? Do you help at your dance school on Saturdays? Have you got a part time job in McDonalds? Have you organised an event at college? Do you play any sports / got any hobbies? Whatever you do / have done, include it in your CV.
• Make your CV easy to read by avoiding large paragraphs (use bullet points instead), use an easy to read font (Calibri, Arial or Times New Roman are good).
• Start your bullet points with verbs to describe what you’ve done (e.g. ‘planned’, ‘promoted’, ‘researched’, ‘achieved’, ‘developed’).
• Avoid large blank spaces on your CV – try to add more information or change your formatting (font size, margins, line spacing etc.) to use this space.

The following headings should be included in this order:

Personal Details

This should be short and take up as little space as possible. Your name should be the title of your CV (not ‘CV’ or ‘personal details’), in a large font. Underneath, ideally on one/two lines, include your contact details: address, telephone number, professional email address. sexyandIknowit@gmail.com is not a professional email address – use your name instead!

Age, date of birth, sex, ethnicity, nationality, health and marital status all do not need to be included.

Personal Profile

Consider adding a personal profile to summarise your key skills and experience at the start of your CV. Profiles are good as they provide a short introduction about you, to make the reader want to know more about you. A personal profile should be specific to the job you are applying for, with relevant skills and experience, plus your career aims (if you’re looking for part time work in a shop, you may write “looking for part time retail work to develop my customer service skills). Ideally a personal profile should be a maximum of four lines.

Education

List your most recent education first, going back to GCSEs. Qualifications should be set out in a clear format (see our example CV) and should include the following information:

• Name of school/institution
• Town (if this is not clear from the above name. Add the country if it is overseas.
• Dates you were there (month and year are sufficient, for example: 09/2015 – 07/2017)
• Your qualifications and grades (for example: ‘GCSE English (B)’)

Don’t forget to include what you’re currently doing, even if you have not completed it yet.  If you know your predicted grades, you could include them.

Work Experience/History

Work experience should also start with the most recent first, including paid, voluntary, unpaid or shadowing experience. Information should include:

• Dates you were there (month and year)
• Job title and organisation
• A very brief outline of your responsibilities, achievements and skills gained, plus how these relate to the role you are applying for.

If you’ve had a few jobs, and want to highlight some experience over others, you could split this section into ‘Relevant Work Experience’ and ‘Other Work Experience’.

Additional Headings

Depending on the type of CV you are writing, you may want to include additional heading such as: Additional Skills, Language Skills etc.

IT Skills are important for many job roles, so you may have a section headed ‘IT Skills’, or combine this with any language skills for an ‘IT and Language Skills’ section.

Employers like to find out more about you so you may include an ‘Other Activities and Achievements’ section, to highlight any skills or knowledge gained outside of work or study, e.g. sports, music, societies, hobbies, interests.

References

A CV should end with references as a final heading. Make sure that you ask them first to check that they are willing and available to provide a reference for you.

You can either state ‘References available on request’ or include your referee’s details.

If you would like to use our template, download it here.

Invited to an applicant day? What you need to know.

Once you apply to a university it’s likely you will be invited to an applicant day. If you’ve already been to have a look around on an open day, it gives you a chance to see more of the University, and if it’s your first time visiting you will get a speedy introduction.

Applicant days are good if you are seriously considering that university after you’ve visited once, or if you’ve applied but haven’t managed to visit yet.

Facilities

Facilities will be important to different people. You might want to check out the gym, or you might want to see how the labs at one university measure up to other universities. Whatever your priority, make sure you visit it and are happy with it.

Course ‘ins and outs’

An applicant day usually goes into more detail about your course than an open day, so you can get a good understanding of what you’re letting yourself in for! This is an important element – make sure you’re happy with all of the content for the length of your degree, and if you don’t understand something or don’t know what you’d be doing on a module, ASK.

Information stands

At most universities they will have lots of information stands you can visit. Whilst going to each one may be excessive, have a good look around. You will not get another opportunity to have all services and departments under one roof again. You may want to know how many graduates got jobs after studying your course (careers), if there’s a rowing or rugby club (clubs and societies). Or you may want to know what support is available for disabilities or learning differences. The information stands are there for you, so try to visit them before you go home.

Meet lecturers, current students and other applicants

You will meet the lecturers who teach your course and students on the course at the moment, so ask them any questions – that’s what they’re there for!

Second opinion

You may see things in a different light if you have already visited the university once – an applicant day gives you a chance to revisit the things you didn’t get chance to see, or something you weren’t sure of. The more open and applicant days you go to, you may also start to build up an idea of what’s most important to you, so that you can prioritise these areas.

Make the most of your day, wear comfortable shoes (you’ll probably do a lot of walking around for tours etc.) and hopefully you will see yourself studying there J

The dreaded revision…

With exams looming, we thought we’d write a quick article on revision. By now you’ve hopefully started your revision, and have been going to any revision sessions put on at school or college. If you’re thinking “err… nope, that’s not me!”, read on for 5 simple tips:

1. Healthy body, healthy mind.

Yes, it’s a cliché, but try to limit the amount of rubbish you eat. Fruit, vegetables, slow releasing carbs, oily fish and occasional treats will get you through your revision.

2. Work out what works for you.

Sounds simple, but if you know you do your best revision earlier in the day, try to make time to fit it in. You may learn best by reading information then making notes, or making a recording of the main points and listening to it before you go to sleep. You might remember key facts if they’re on post its around the house. Figure out which ones work for you, and stick to them!

3. Take regular breaks.

Go to the loo, make a drink, walk the dog, annoy your brother or sister. Do anything you like, but try to get up and move around so that you’re away from the room where you’re working.

4. Take time out to relax / switch off.

No one can revise at all hours of the day (and shouldn’t!), so also plan time for relaxing. It could be catching up on your favourite TV show or going out with friends, but use this as a reward for getting through so much of your revision.

5. Do a few past papers, and get family and friends to test you regularly.

Past papers give you an idea of the style and structure of the test, so you’re familiar with it before you get into the exam room. If there’s a family member or friend who can test you on what you’ve been revising, ask them too. It means you can test what you have learnt and which areas you may need to revisit.

Best of luck with your revision and exams – YOU CAN DO THIS!!

 

Where to look for your first job

Firstly, you need to write a good CV. Get someone to have a look at your CV (ideally your school / college careers adviser) as they can help you tailor your CV to the organisations you’re applying to. You will probably end up with multiple CVs – employers want a CV that is specific to them, not a generic one that has been sent to 20 other employers.

 

Once you’ve got a killer CV, take a few approaches to your job hunt:

• Apply for advertised jobs.
• Speculative applications – where you send your CV although the employer may not be advertising vacancies at the moment. Visiting shops, restaurants, cafes, hairdressers etc. smartly dressed with your CV ready is a good approach. Prepare an introduction to say when you first walk in, to ensure you don’t get tongue tied!
• Tell everyone you know you’re looking for work. Everyone has friends, family, colleagues, and neighbours, who all know lots of different people. They may have heard about a job from their network, or think of you if they hear about one (as they will know you are looking for work).

 

Where to look for advertised vacancies:

• Local newspapers
• Individual company websites you’re interested in. Don’t underestimate the power of social media here – lots of smaller employers advertise their vacancies this way.
• monster.co.uk
• indeed.co.uk
• reed.co.uk
• gov.uk/jobsearch

 

If you’re also considering unpaid voluntary work, www.do-it.org is a great website for searching for thousands of volunteering opportunities, in a range of sectors.

 

GOOD LUCK!!

Getting ahead over Easter

Yes, we know you’ll be busy scoffing Crème Eggs and watching back to back films in your PJs, but you can’t do that for two full weeks, can you?

Here’s a few things you could be doing whilst you’re off:

1. A good revision timetable.

A good revision timetable includes everything you already do (e.g. sport, clubs, work, seeing friends) and fits revision around that. Make it realistic (so don’t convince yourself you’ll do 4 hours every night) and stick to it. Little rewards can be useful to keep you motivated!

2. If you’re yet to do your year 12 work experience, Easter is a perfect time to organise it.

Do some research to find organisations you are interested in, then call them to see if they offer work experience. Try to get the contact details of the person who has managed work experience before, and send a follow up email highlighting what you can offer the organisation, attaching your CV.

3. Update your CV.

You may be applying for work experience (above), a job, volunteering or something else. There are lots of websites with CV advice. We recommend Prospects for CV advice and examples.

4. Is your CV a little thin? Are you lacking information to put on it?

If so, try something new. Volunteering for a few hours a week, joining a new sports team or starting a new hobby means you can demonstrate a range of skills and qualities. It also gives you something else to talk about on your uni personal statement, job or apprenticeship applications. do-it.org is a great website to search for thousands of volunteering opportunities.

5. Eat lots of chocolate and have a great time off.

Well, it is the Easter holidays after all!

10 Top Revision Tips

1. Be organised.

Plan what you need to do, how long you’ve got to do it. Try to do this well in advance, instead of cramming all your revision in a few days before your exam. Hey, make a pretty timetable if it helps, but just don’t spend the full day making it pretty!

2. Make notes.

How do you learn best? You might write everything in your own words, make a recording and play it back, stick post-its EVERYWHERE or just read everything multiple times.

If you don’t know how you best learn, write everything into your own words then go through your notes regularly (it should stick in your head more that way). Highlighters are useful for any stationery lovers, to highlight the most important bits of your notes or the parts you’re struggling to remember.

3. Set targets for yourself (and stick to them).

It doesn’t haven’t to be ‘get an A*’ – set small targets every day or every few days to keep motivated.

4. Take regular breaks.

Get a drink / go to the loo. Going out with your friends is a day / night off, not a break!

5. Pick your study space wisely.

A desk is perfect. If you haven’t got one, the dining table might be good, but not if your little brother is playing with play-doh on it. FYI – in front of the TV is never good.

6. Do a few past papers.

Past papers give you an idea of what you can expect in the exam – how it is structured and the kind of language or wording used in the questions. Papers tend to be similar each year, so you know what to expect if you’ve done a few already.

7. Today is tomorrow – don’t put it off.

Don’t leave revision until tomorrow because you will run out of tomorrows. If you haven’t followed number 1 and leave everything until the night before, you will find it VERY difficult to learn everything you need to in one night.

8. Make time to relax, away from revision.

Doing nothing but revision may send you insane, so make sure you still make time for friends, family (if you like them), sports and cinema, i.e. anything you enjoy. It’s all about finding a balance.

9. Stay healthy.

Now is not the time to start a drastic new diet or exercise regime. Pick healthy snacks to keep you going through your revision, and keep up with your normal exercise routine or take gentle exercise to help you relax.

10. Do your best.

Sounds obvious, but you can only do your best. Hopefully that will mean you’ve been revising for a month or so, have done a few past papers and feel a little bit confident about the exam.

The problem with Unconditional offers…

Received and unconditional offer and not sure what to do? Don’t rush! This post may help.

Considering University?

Lots of universities are offering unconditional offers this year. Hopefully this article will tell you what they are, what you need to consider, and if they’re as amazing as everyone thinks…

An unconditional offer from a university means they have offered you a place with no requirements – you don’t have to get specific grades in your exams to go to that university.

If you’ve received one – congratulations. You’ve clearly impressed the university and the offer is a reflection of that. However, it can leave you feeling pressured into accepting it and unsure of what to do. Here are our tips:

• If the offer wasn’t unconditional, would that university still be one of your top choices? If not, seriously consider if you want to put this university as your first choice.
• Do your research in the same way you would with other offers – go to an open day…

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I didn’t get my UCAS application in on time. Am I too late?

Late clocks

The answer you’re looking for is just a yes or no, isn’t it? Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. My overall answer is: not necessarily… But each university is different so you need to check. Let me explain:

UCAS set their deadlines to ensure prospective students get their applications in on time, and their application is given the same consideration whether it was sent on 1^st October or 11:30pm on 15^th January. Most universities consider your application as soon as they get it, so the earlier you apply, the better.  Many universities will accept applications after the UCAS deadline (if they still have spaces on the course), but they have no obligation to do this, which is why the deadline is in place. Some universities and courses are very unlikely to accept late applications (especially those with the earlier October deadline, for example, Oxbridge*, Medicine / Dentistry), so again, please check.

In theory you can apply for September 2016 entry until the end of June 2016, but many places will have been filled by then, so apply as early as possible. If you apply after 30^th June, you will be placed into Clearing (a UCAS process where all unfilled places are advertised, and you apply for one course only). If you enter Clearing, you will also compete with students who receive their A level / level 3 qualification results in August, so you need to be quick in finding a place!

As the 15^th January deadline has only just passed, if you’re not applying to a very competitive course or university, you may find they will still consider you application. However, check with individual universities (and do this before using them as one of your UCAS choices).

Which? University have written a good summary of what to do if you have missed the deadline for different courses:  http://university.which.co.uk/advice/ucas-application/what-to-do-if-you-miss-the-ucas-deadline.

Good luck!

* = I’ve just learnt that Lucy Cavendish College at the University of Cambridge makes offers after the 15^th October deadline, until 1^st March (they call it the ‘March round’). Lucy Cavendish College is for women ages 21 and above, so if this is you, good luck!