Applying to University!

Hello Everyone, 

In just under a week I will finally be starting university. I say finally because in all honesty, the process of actually getting to university was very long and at times stressful. My college tutors we’re very helpful when it came to the application process however, I sometimes wished I had a simple, step by step guide of what to expect and even some tips that would come in handy when I was going through the application process. This post is basically a few tips that will hopefully make the applying to uni process a little less scary and stressful. 

What Do You Want? 

the first thing i did before I applied for university was thought about what it was I wanted to study and what I want to do for a living. I suppose in a sense I was ‘lucky’ as I’ve always known I wanted to study a journalism based course as I’ve always enjoyed writing and being a journalist/news reporter has always appealed to me so when it came to choosing what course to study my mind had already been made up long before I needed to apply! If you’re not sure what you want to study or what career you want to pursue, think about two things 1. if university is for you and 2. what are your passions? What do you love to do and would you want to dedicate 3 years (maybe 4 depending on your course) learning about it. Remember, just because you study a subject does not necessarily mean you’ll 100% end up in a job similar to the course, for example journalism students don’t always end up becoming journalist when I went to open days all of the course tutors said that at least a couple of ex students have changed career path so don’t worry that you will be stuck in a job you do not enjoy just because you studied a certain subject at university! 

UCAS Course Search 

Once you’ve decided or at least have a rough idea on what it is you want to study you can use UCAS to search for universities that offer your chosen course. UCAS is the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service and is UK’s way of applying to university. However it’s not only the website you use to just apply, you can also use it to find out more about universities in the UK and what courses they have so it’s very important when applying for university, make sure to use all of their tools to help you pick the best university and course for you! 

What Is Important to You?

When trying to chose a university there are many different things to consider but when you’re excited, nervous and confused about the thought of going to university it can be a bit hard to decide what uni is the best for you especially if you’re tied between two or more that you really like a good way to help decided what should be your top choices to to really think about what is important to you when it comes to university. For me, I looked to see what the course covered, how far away the university was away from home and how long it took to get there, if I could drive to the university or if I would have to get a train, if I liked the area and the accommodation and how i felt when I went to open days. All these factors helped me reach the decision and luckily I got into my first choice! You need to consider if moving far away from your home and family is something you would be happy with or if you would prefer to stay somewhere a bit closer to home, you should also think about if you want to go to a university that is big or small universities that are big tend to have a huge amount of students so depending on what type of person you are this could be a good or bad thing or not even phase you at all! The university I am going to is a nice size for me as it is big enough to make friends and get a good ‘university experience’ but it is small enough to still have a ‘family feel’ and I have been told classes are a good size so there will be enough one on one time with tutors which I thought was very important. The cost of the course is another thing to look at however, most courses in the UK tend to all be the same price (about £9,000 per academic year) however this could be different so make sure to check as you will need to know the cost when you apply for a student loan. 

Comparison Websites

There are a number of websites out there that help compare courses and universities one thing to look at is the UCAS League Table where you can see what place universities have ranked both in general and in certain subject areas, I found this very helpful to see how well the universities I wanted to apply to scored and if they have changed places from the year before. There are also websites where students rate their university and courses which is helpful as you get opinions from people who are already there this can be much more helpful and honest than reading some information on some university websites as they mention pros and cons. A good one to look at is Which? University (I will link websites at the end of the post) this site helps you find courses and has opinions on courses and universities from students already there!

Order University Course Prospectuses 

After narrowing down a few universities you should consider ordering a prospectus to see a detailed description and important information about the courses and the university that might not be on the UCAS website. The prospectus should give information such as how long the course is, what you will study, which modules the course covers, how much the course will cost you and job opportunities the degree could get you once you finish the course. Getting a prospectus is easy, you can usually order them from the universities website and you usually get a copy at the open days they are free and a good way to help choose which universities you want to apply for.

Attend Open days

This is very important! You don’t apply for university until the second year of college/ sixth form however, I’m the type of person who has to plan everything and do everything well before it actually needs to be done so I was going to university open days towards the end of my first year at college! Open days are in my opinion the best way to get a feel for universities as you get to see the university, speak to and meet the course leaders and other students. A lot of university open days also give you the opportunity to see the accommodation but this usually depends on if any students are living there at the time and if the accommodation is actually on campus. Open days give you a chance to find out more information about your course and the university in general so you can learn all about Student Unions, local places to go to for nights out and socialising and many other useful bits and pieces of information you might not be able to find out by just looking at the website. When you go to the open days try and speak to the tutors and students and ask the any questions you may have!

Applying 

So once it’s actually time to apply there a few things you should know!
-To apply you will be using UCAS
-You only have 5 choices of university&courses however you do not have to apply to five if you only have a couple of universities you want to go to.
-To apply for 5 universities & courses through UCAS it costs £30 (if I remember correctly) 

-You will need to write a ‘personal statement’ a lot of people struggle with this but if you start a draft before you go to apply it can save you a lot of  time and stress and you won’t worry about getting in by the deadline. A personal statement is a bit like a CV you need to sell yourself so the people reading it will want you to be part of their university. 

Offers/Declines 

After you have applied to your universities you will eventually get offers/declines. This is updated through UCAS track and you will get an email every time your account has an update. The layout is very simple and will tell you which university has given you an update and if your application has been successful or not. Of course, it’s disappointing when one of your choices has declined your application but remember it is not the end of the world you still have other universities. Most universities will offer you a ‘conditional offer’ which means they will give you a place as long as you meet certain entry requirements however some universities offer some people ‘unconditional offers’ which means that there are no entry requirements and you have a place.

Firm, Insurance & Declining Choices 

Once all of your chosen universities have got back to you, you will need to make a firm and insurance choice before your deadline (this will depend on when you applied and when you got all your offers back) you usually have a bit of time to decided so don’t panic if you are still unsure which university to choose. Your firm choice is your first choice and your insurance is kind of like your ‘back up plan’ it basically means if you don’t get into your insurance choice, you will still have a place at your insurance choice. You only get one firm and one insurance choice, you will have to decline any other offers made from the other universities. 

Results day 

This can be different depending on if you done A-levels or a BTEC a lot of the time BTEC courses give you an ‘unofficial’ grade but this is still very accurate so you can usually tell if you have gotten the grades to get into your first university or not (disclaimer- I have been told by my old college tutor that the rules of BTEC’s are changing so this may not be the case anymore). Once you have received your results if you have met the entry requirements your firm choice should change your ‘conditional offer’ to an ‘unconditional offer’ depending on the entry requirements and the rules of the university. You will then be able to confirm your choice and that is pretty much the university application process over! 

Just a small disclaimer, this is just a very basic guide on how to apply and a few tips, if you look on UCAS it will give an even more detailed description, it’s very important to apply correctly so make sure you read all information as I may have missed something out or forgotten something. Good luck! 

Thank you,Becca x 

USEFUL WEBSITES
UCAS- http://www.ucas.com
Which? Uni- http://university.which.co.uk