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Six things I’d do if I were choosing a university course right now
OK, so I applied to universities in the 80s.
No league tables, no social media, and in fact no internet at all. Just a very large book in the school careers library with some serious lists in it. And a handful of prospectuses - though even those weren’t quite like the glossy brochures of recent years.
I basically chose on the basis of hearsay, reputation, and following in the footsteps of my siblings.
No disrespect to my siblings, but it was a pretty terrible way to choose a university.
Knowing what I now know, after a 30 year career spent in university marketing and admissions, it’s no surprise that if I had another chance, I’d do things a bit differently.
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So, you’ve found a couple of universities you really like. Perhaps it’s the location, the campus, their approach to teaching? Or maybe it just felt right when you visited.
Now you want to find a couple more that are similar so that you can have a range of different options on your UCAS form.
So what about looking at universities with a similar history?
I know it might sound crazy, but history can tell you a lot about a university; its type of location, its architecture, its approach to teaching, its community feel, even its purpose; its very reason for existing!
Is it OK to apply for two different subjects through UCAS?
It's that time of year when loads of students are finalising their UCAS choices, and a question consistently asked of advisers is “Can I apply for two different subjects?”
Well, as with most things about applying to university, the answer is “it depends…”
But what exactly does it depend on?
10 amazing resources for making better university decisions
There are loads of league tables out there, and plenty of commercially driven so-called university advice sites out there.
But quite frankly, so many of them have lazy journalism, trotting out the same bland advice, or worse still, are filled with so many university promotions or “recommended unis”, that you can’t tell what’s impartial advice and what is paid-for advertising.
It’s tempting to name and shame the worst of these, but instead I thought I’d highlight some of the best, most genuinely useful resources.
10 ways to work out if a university and course is the right fit for you
Choosing a course and a university is a tricky business.
In this back-to-basics article, I suggest ten things that you should definitely be thinking about as you make your choices.
From campus life to teaching style, accommodation, cost of living and careers, we look at the essentials of finding your best fit course.
No regrets: How to choose the right subject to study at university
Nine out of 10 graduates would choose to do an undergraduate degree again if they could, with just one in 10 saying they would choose not to go to university if they had their time again.
Around half of the graduates say they’d choose the same subject.
But… four in 10 say they’d prefer to study a different subject.
This is according to brand new research by the Policy Institute at King’s College London.
That’s 40% of graduates who wish they’d studied something else, and 10% of graduates who wish they hadn’t gone to university at all!
Applying for highly competitive courses
Whether you are brand new to the university application process, or have been working in the education sector for as long as I have, you’ll undoubtedly have heard teachers, advisers and university staff talking about “highly competitive courses”.
It’s a term bandied about with little thought. On one hand teachers use it to make sure students take their applications seriously, and don’t make assumptions about their chances of getting into university. On the other, it is used by universities to make their courses seem more attractive; the more unattainable a course is, the more people want to get into it!
So, as students, applying through UCAS for the first time, how do you know which courses are genuinely “highly competitive”, and if they are, do you really need to do anything different with your application?
Wait… has the UCAS Personal Statement just been scrapped?
Earlier in the summer, just after the schools broke up in England, UCAS made an important announcement about the UCAS Personal Statement.
If you just looked at the headlines, you’d think that the Personal Statement had been banished forever. But in truth the Personal Statement is not being scrapped at all; it’s being reformed and restructured.
And it’s not happening immediately either.
So, what is the truth behind all those misleading headlines?
Top 10 tips for results day and Clearing
For some of you, who have taken IB or BTEC, you’ll already have your results.
But for most students planning to go to university this year, your results day is just around the corner. For students from Scotland, you’ll get your results next Tuesday (6th August), and for A-level students, you’ll get yours the following Thursday (15th August).
This makes NOW an exceptionally good time to start preparing for the day, and having a plan in place in case things don’t go quite as expected.
Summer next steps
We heard from James Clear (author of Atomic Habits) the other week, that “You don't need to have it all figured out. You just need to know your next step”.
As you finish your school year and head into the summer break, you are probably caught right in the middle of a dilemma: On one hand you are tired, you want a break, and you really don’t want to think about school or university. On the other hand, the fact that you aren’t 100% sure about what you are going to do next, and the pressure from parents and teachers to get some decisions made, or some back-up plans in place, is stressing you out.
So, how do you square this dilemma?
Is “Find your passion” really a good way to choose a course?
It’s advice that is as old as the sun: “Find your passion, and you’ll never do another day’s work in your life”.
Or when you are heading off to university “Choose a course that you are passionate about”.
But, most careers advisers nowadays would say that such advice is deeply unhelpful. It creates the expectation that every young person should have found their passion. And since most of you simply haven’t found your passion while still at school, it just creates unnecessary pressure on you. Which in turn just makes you freeze; unsure of how to progress and how to choose what to do next.
However, perhaps there is something to be said for working out ways to explore your potential passions; how to find challenges, industries, and roles that might feel more like you are making a difference, and less like you are doing a job.
So how can you go about exploring what yours might be?
New UCAS historical entry grades data: Just how useful is it?
For the very first time UCAS have introduced information on their website that attempts to show you what grades students actually had when they entered different courses, rather than just showing the university’s published entry grades.
It turns out, you see, that nearly 50% of students get into their course with qualifications below the level of those universities published by the universities.
So when a course says you need AAB to get in, it turns out, you don’t!
This new data is aimed at making this all a bit clearer and more transparent, so that you can make better decisions about which courses to apply to.
BSc, MA, MBChB? I’m so confused!
Whenever I hear a university presentation in a school, I am struck by just how much jargon we use. Listen to any presentation about studying Medicine, and you’ll hear them talk about MBChBs as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
The reality, of course, is that while a select few people know that an MBChB is shorthand for a degree in Medicine, the number of people who know what it actually stands for is vanishingly small.
If you are one of those people, you have no need to read any further. However, if you are currently starting out your search on UCAS and are finding yourself baffled by the weird and wonderful array of degree titles and wonder what they all mean, this article is for you!
Building your super-skills
We all know that university is about gaining knowledge, but it's also about building up skills.
I wrote some months ago about the changing world, and the skills that the World Economic Forum believes will be crucial in the near future (see here).
But are there such things as universal skills; transferable skills that will always be useful, regardless of the economy, AI and changes in the environment?
I think there are, and the closest thing I have found to it is a simple list of ten skills identified a couple of years ago in the careers section of indeed.com.
How (and why) to build slack into your life.
I read a LinkedIn post the other day about building ‘slack’ into our lives, by a growth and performance consultant called Dr Mark Thorley.
In his post he talks about how we, as a society, seem to be all consumed with doing more. We constantly strive to be our best selves whether at work or in our personal lives.
Work hard, play hard, do more, go on better holidays, get a bigger car, spend more, get a bigger house, a bigger mortgage, and a bigger debt on our credit cards.
And what this all really comes down to is that we constantly get stressed simply trying to meet the expectations of others.
And yet, those who seem to be the very most successful at surviving in times of uncertainty, and can thrive when things go wrong, are those who have managed to build a little ‘slack’ into their lives.
Applying for student accommodation
So… you’ve had your university offers, you’re making your final choices, and your mind turns to that most practical of issues: where to live.
Heading to university is one of life’s biggest changes, and it's in no small part because most of you will be heading off to a new location and finding a new home to live in.
You’ll have all heard about halls of residence and student flats, but how does it all work in practice? What are your options and when do you need to apply for them?
If you have any of these sorts of questions on your mind right now, then read on…
Geoff Norcott: “Is university really worth it?”
This week I watched the BBC documentary “Is university really worth it?” by Geoff Norcott, questioning whether he should be encouraging his son to attend university.
It really struck a nerve.
You wouldn’t expect me to be too sympathetic to his views. Geoff Norcott, you see, is that right wing comedian from The Mash Report. I saw him do live stand-up once. He had to follow James Acaster, who did the most devastating takedown of right wing comedy that I’ve ever seen. Awkward.
And yet…
Setting and managing your budget
Last week we looked at the basics of student finance; tuition fees, student loans, and other sources of funding. This week we look at the other side of finance; what will you be spending your money on, and how to manage it.
Just like last week, this is not an exciting subject, but few matters are as important as finance when it comes to your studies and your wellbeing. You’ll know from my previous writing, that I don’t believe that money in itself can bring you happiness. However, a lack of money, or the mismanagement of money, can definitely bring misery. And with the amount of money that you are likely to be living on as a student, this is a major risk.
So… today we talk about financial planning. Firstly, how to work out what you need, how much funding you will receive, and how you will make up the shortfall. And secondly, how to manage your money over the course of the year.
Fees, loans and grants
So… you are nearly there! You are making your final decisions about where to go to university this year, and at the back of your mind is that nagging feeling that there is something still to do.
And it’s something important.
Yep, finance and funding: tuition fees, loans, scholarships, grants and budgets. The stuff that no-one really wants to deal with, but which underpins everything.
So this week and next, we’ll look at financing your time at university.
Resilience and Stoicism: what they are and why they matter
Last month, I wrote all about parental pressure and finding happiness in work.
I then received a lovely reply from another education consultant and adviser. He said that he would add, for the parents out there, that “aside from a decent paying job in an industry you care about, happiness across the lifespan is essentially a by-product of resilience” and that for this “stoic philosophy will do the job”.
He was so spot on with this comment that I just had to follow-up with a quick look at both resilience and stoicism, to further understand them, and why they are so important for your life ahead.