The problem with Unconditional offers…

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; find out more about the course etc.
• You’re there for 3 (or more) years so it’s important you like it.
• Speak to other people. Advisers at your sixth form or college can help you consider this offer from every aspect. Book an appointment to speak to them.
• Usually there is no rush to reply to your offers, but you do have a deadline UCAS sets that you need to meet. Usually this deadline is more than enough time. Each university will hold your place until the deadline (deadlines vary depending on when you received all your offers – check UCAS). Don’t miss it – if you do all your offers will automatically be declined.

If you have got an unconditional offer, it’s a walk in the park until September, right? Wrong. Your A level grades are still important and may have implications on your future:

• Although you’re probably not giving it a lot of thought at the moment, your career may depend on how many UCAS points you got at college. Lots of employers ask for a good degree and a certain amount of UCAS points (up to 320, from 3 A levels) as a minimum. These employers recruit thousands of graduates each year, and their opportunities are seen as some of the best in the UK.
• If you decide university isn’t for you, you might consider a higher apprenticeship instead. Higher apprenticeships are for A level students with good grades – employers want the ‘best’ students (the ones with good grades).

It’s worth remembering:

• If they can, most universities will accept you if you’re slightly under your offer anyway (e.g. instead of AAB you got ABB).
• If you accept an unconditional offer, you can’t enter Adjustment if you do better than expected.
• You will have to enter Clearing if you change your mind after you accept an Unconditional offer.

Our advice:

Some universities are only offering students unconditional offers if they choose that university as their Firm (i.e. first) choice. Don’t feel pressured to do this. Take your time and make a decision regardless of the conditions (or lack of). You could choose them as your Insurance choice, then you know you have a safety net if you don’t get your Firm choice.

Also, don’t be swayed by any incentives offered – is an iPad/ laptop / cash / bedding / gym membership really worth 3 long years at a university you don’t like?

If you haven’t made a decision on your offers yet, make sure you’re happy with whichever university you choose, and don’t rush it.

Best of luck.

10 REASONS YOUR PERSONAL STATEMENT DIDN’T SECURE YOU AN OFFER

Writing your personal statement is hard. We know! If you’re struggling to write one you’re happy with, here’s 10 top tips from an admissions tutor’s perspective:

     1.   Simply saying that you are ‘passionate and enthusiastic’ about your subject doesn’t mean it’s true.

Your passion and enthusiasm should come out of what you’re writing – back your statements up with examples and your passion and enthusiasm should shine through.

     2.   You say you want to enter the Nursing profession, but you have no experience of it.

How do you know you want to do it if you have not had any work experience in a related area? Doing voluntary experience also shows your commitment to that profession/course. Get some experience before applying for Medicine, Nursing, Veterinary Surgery, Teaching, Law, Midwifery, Social Work, Fashion (plus many others), as you are unlikely to receive an offer without it. Work experience can benefit any application, regardless of your subject as it shows your initiative and shows you are committed to that subject. Get some work experience organised – the earlier you start the better and if you start it now, you can put it in your personal statement. I’m not interested in work experience you are planning – they want to know about the work experience you’re doing at the moment.

PS. You’re not an expert in teaching just because you’ve been taught at school and sixth form or college for 7 years – teaching is very different from the front of the classroom.

     3.   The majority of your statement wasn’t relevant to the course you are applying for.

If you’re applying for Music but you’ve talked in detail about Maths, it doesn’t support your application, it confuses it. I want to know you’re living and breathing Music. Keep information that’s unrelated to your course to a minimum-around 10% of your total statement.

     4.   You made a joke that wasn’t funny.

I don’t share your sense of humour, so avoid them.

     5.   You mentioned the University of Edinburgh in your statement. I’m not from the University of Edinburgh.

If you mention one university, you make it clear my University is not your favourite. Why would I offer you a place on my course when I know I’m not the university you really want to go to?

     6.   Your personal statement is short.

You haven’t explained why you want to do this course or told me enough about you. This is your chance to show me what’s great about you – don’t undersell yourself!

     7.   You’ve got spelling and grammatical errors in your statement.

This looks sloppy, rushed and unprepared. Use the spell checker on your computer and get someone to proof read it for you – spell checkers don’t pick up every mistake.

     8.   Your personal statement tells me nothing about you other than your A level subjects and predicted grades.

I already know your predicted grades. This is your only opportunity to tell me more about you, so don’t use up characters in your personal statement to repeat something I can see elsewhere in your application.

     9.   You copied large sections of your personal statement from a website.

UCAS scans all personal statements to check previous statements and those available online haven’t been copied. Your application was flagged up, so I was notified along with all of your other university choices. If your personal statement isn’t original, will your university work be?

     10.  You have applied to 5 completely different courses at our university.

Universities can only see the courses you have applied for at their university, so in this case I can see all of your course choices. This looks like you can’t make up your mind on which course to study, or are picking my university because of the University or city, rather than my course. Whilst we’re flattered that you really want to come here, you’re indecision has made it hard to include all your course options in one personal statement (it’s vague and unspecific), so I’m not going to offer you a place.

10 REASONS YOUR PERSONAL STATEMENT DIDN’T GET YOU AN OFFER

Don’t know where to start with your personal statement? Have you been putting it off because you’re not sure how or what to write? These ten points in the eyes of an admissions tutor should help.

 

1. Simply saying that you are ‘passionate and enthusiastic’ about your subject doesn’t mean it’s true.

Your passion and enthusiasm should come out of what you’re writing – back these statements up with examples.

2. You say you want to enter the Nursing profession, but you have no experience of it.

How do you know you want to do it if you have not had any work experience in a related area? Doing voluntary experience also shows your commitment to that profession/course. Get some experience before applying for Medicine, Nursing, Veterinary Surgery, Teaching, Law, Midwifery, Fashion, as you are unlikely to receive an offer without it. Work experience can benefit any application, regardless of your subject as it shows your initiative and shows you are committed to that subject.The summer holidays are a perfect time to get some work experience organised – the earlier you start the better.

PS.  You’re not an expert in teaching just because you’ve been taught at school and sixth form or college for 7 years – teaching is very different from the front of the classroom.

   3.   The majority of your statement wasn’t relevant to the course you are applying for.

If you’re applying for Music but you’ve talked in detail about Maths, it doesn’t support your application, it confuses it. I want to know you’re living and breathing Music. Keep information that’s unrelated to your course to a minimum-around 10% of your total statement.

4. You made a joke that wasn’t funny.

I don’t share your sense of humour (or I don’t have one at all), so avoid them.

5. You mentioned the University of Edinburgh in your statement. I’m not from the University of Edinburgh.

If you mention one university, you make it clear my University is not your favourite. Why would I offer you a place on my course when I know I’m not the university you really want to go to?

6. Your personal statement is too short.

You haven’t explained why you want to do this course or told me enough about you. This is your chance to show me what’s great about you – don’t undersell yourself!

7. You’ve got spelling and grammatical errors in your statement.

This looks sloppy, rushed and unprepared. Use the spell checker on your computer and get someone to proof read it for you – spell checkers don’t pick up every mistake.

8. Your personal statement tells me nothing about you other than your A level subjects and predicted grades.

I already know your predicted grades from elsewhere in your application. This is your only opportunity to tell me more about you, so don’t include information that the admissions tutor can see on another section of your application.

9. You copied large sections of your personal statement from a website.

UCAS scans all personal statements to check previous statements and those available online haven’t been copied. Your application was flagged, so I was notified along with all of your other university choices. If your personal statement isn’t original, will your university work be?

10.  You have applied to 5 completely different courses at our university.

Universities can only see the courses you have applied for at their university, so in this case I can see all of your applications. This looks like you can’t make up your mind on which course to study, or are picking my university because of the University/city, rather than my course. Whilst we’re flattered that you really want to come here, you’re indecision has made it hard to include all your course options in one personal statement (it is vague and unspecific), so I’m not going to offer you a place.

INTERVIEW TIPS

Have you got a university interview coming up? Then read these top tips:

Wear something comfortable and smart or smart/casual.

Wear something you feel confident in and is appropriate. A shirt and trousers for men and trousers and shirt/skirt and shirt/dress for women is fine. Avoid anything that reveals too much skin or is very casual (e.g. ripped jeans/tracksuit).

Re-read your personal statement.

What have you included that they may ask you more about? Be prepared to talk about anything you’ve written about.

Read everything you have been sent by the university and revisit the course pages on the university website.

That way the course details will be fresh in your mind, and you may think of questions you would like to ask the interviewer.

Prepare answers to common questions.

Common questions may include the ones on the next page. Why have you picked that course specifically? The tutor wants to see your enthusiasm for the subject.

Plan in advance.

How will you get there? Do you need to stay overnight? Make sure you know exactly where you are going and allow yourself plenty of time to get there. Being late or getting lost will not calm your nerves!

What are you doing at the moment?

They know you are studying, but what do you do as well as your studies? Think about transferable skills (e.g. a part-time job). What are you doing on top of your studies that can show them you’re interested in this subject? If you’re applying for music for example, are you a member of an orchestra / choir / band? Learning new instruments? Taking exams or entering competitions? Going to regular performances and keeping up to date with new music genres?

The interviewer is a person, just like you.

They’re not looking to catch you out; they just want to know you’re passionate about the course and will succeed at it. It’s also an opportunity for you to find out more about the university, so you can decide you can see yourself studying there.

Think about your body language.

You’re nervous, so you may show nervous mannerisms. Be aware of them – they can occasionally give off negative messages you’re not aware of. Walk confidently, make eye contact and smile – even if you don’t feel confident, you’ll look it!

Don’t panic!

If you can’t answer a question, just ask the interviewer to repeat it. If you’re struggling for an answer then answer it as best as you can and move on. Don’t get hung up on it – focus on answering the next question.

Give STAR answers.

If it is appropriate, you could use the STAR technique to answer questions:

S ituation

T ask

A ction

R esult

In a job interview, we recommend using STAR to make sure you’ve answered questions fully when describing a specific situation – the same can be applied when answering competency based questions, e.g. can you give an example of a time when…

Think of some questions to ask.

This will show your enthusiasm and eagerness to learn more. One or two questions will be enough, but make sure you can’t find the answer elsewhere (e.g. in the information they’ve sent you or on the university’s website).

Following these tips will hopefully make you more confident in your interview.

Best of luck!

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.

Points to consider when visiting a university open day

What are you looking for on a university open day? If you can fit all your stuff in your new bedroom and ask a few questions about your course?

There’s more to one than meets the eye. You need to be prepared for an open day. You will get a feel for the campus – if you like it or not, so it’s important to see as much of it as possible. You may be offered a tour around the city if it’s an unfamiliar place to you, a chance to speak to current students studying your course and much more.

Don’t think you need to go to an open day? What if you get there and realise it isn’t as you expected or you don’t like it? Too late.

For each university open day, you may want to think about:

• Subject choice – option to do a combination / other modules?
• How are you assessed? Exams/assignments?
• Is a sandwich / industrial year offered?
• How many teaching hours will you have per week?
• Are you assigned a personal tutor you can see on a regular basis?
• Are you guaranteed accommodation in your first year?
• What are the facilities like in the accommodation (e.g. shops, bathroom, internet connection etc)
• What are the travel links like (locally and to get home)?
• How many graduates are in graduate jobs?
• Are there opportunities to do an internship / placement?
• What support is available for people with disabilities?

 

The University of Hull Careers Service have produced a useful checklist to use when visiting universities with these points and more – take a look at it here: http://www2.hull.ac.uk/student/pdf/Open%20days-%20checklist.pdf

The Facts About Fees

Watch this video if you’re going to university and will need to take out a student loan (that’s almost everyone, right?).

Yes it’s a cartoon but they explain the details well. Definitely worth a watch!

Welcome to our brand new blog!

Welcome to our brand new blog! It’s for those thinking about going to university, but also parents of those applying to university or people who are involved in the application process (e.g. careers advisers, heads of sixth forms, guidance workers etc).

Over the next few weeks, Katie will be writing blogs about her experiences of applying to university, to hopefully help you through the process. Katie is a year 13 student who has applied to start university in September. She is mid-way through her exams, coursework and everything else expected in your A2 year, but has kindly agreed to write blogs to help students through the process, giving advice on the way!

We hope you enjoy the blogs and I’ll be including the ocassional update myself 🙂

Amy