Should I apply to university this year?

Hello,

I have decided to apply for university either this year or next year. I'm more leaned towards applying next year at the moment as I want to gain more work experience and be in a better financial position before starting university, plus I would know my A2 grades before I apply. I am a student studying for my A2 levels currently.

I'm thinking maybe a sociology or an education based course. I'm not sure about what I specifically want to do as a career (thinking maybe a teacher at the moment?) or which universities to apply for. I have wrote a big part of my personal statement, but I was wondering whether it would be better for me to apply to university this year, as I don't really have concrete plans what I am going to be doing next year, plus I know that I would get more support from teachers and mentors this year as I would be applying independently next year.

So.... would it be advisable to apply this year or next year? Also, how do you decide which universities to apply for? And what is the admissions fee for UCAs? Sorry, I'm pretty new to all of this!

Any advice about anything to do with applying to university would be greatly appreciated!

Reply 1

Schrödingers Cat

16

Its really up to you whether you apply this year or not, you need think about if you want to take a gap year or go straight into education. I strongly advice you also sort out what your going to be doing if you take a gap year.

My advice is apply this year and you can always defer your entry to next year if you decide to take a gap year. On which universities to apply for how did you do in your AS-Levels? UCAS fee is £23

Hope this helps

Original post by amyyalice

Hello,

I have decided to apply for university either this year or next year. I'm more leaned towards applying next year at the moment as I want to gain more work experience and be in a better financial position before starting university, plus I would know my A2 grades before I apply. I am a student studying for my A2 levels currently.

I'm thinking maybe a sociology or an education based course. I'm not sure about what I specifically want to do as a career (thinking maybe a teacher at the moment?) or which universities to apply for. I have wrote a big part of my personal statement, but I was wondering whether it would be better for me to apply to university this year, as I don't really have concrete plans what I am going to be doing next year, plus I know that I would get more support from teachers and mentors this year as I would be applying independently next year.

So.... would it be advisable to apply this year or next year? Also, how do you decide which universities to apply for? And what is the admissions fee for UCAs? Sorry, I'm pretty new to all of this!

Any advice about anything to do with applying to university would be greatly appreciated!

The one thing i we would advise you to do is think very carefully about your plan for after your degree.

If i can speak to you from a personal point of view, rather than an actual university account i had a similar plan to you, do a social sciences course and then go into secondary education, now i work in digital marketing for the university i graduated from so you can see my plans went awry. The problem with teaching is it's becoming more difficult to get into unless you directly studied the subject you want to teach, this is at secondary level though, primary teaching should have no obstructions, so be careful and keep an eye on any restructuring Gove or his future replacements make to the education sector.

As for choosing which university, you may wish to look at ranking and results done by the Times, Guardian and NSS, along with other factors such as whether you want to move away from home and the city the university is based in. The style of campus and the module options on your course. The admission fees are normally around £17-£20 depending on inflation it's been four years since i applied to university.

Finally i wouldn't be doing my job without hinting a little bit at our courses, our Sociology course is rated in the top 20 in the UK by the Guardian and achieved over 97% satisfaction on the National Student Survey.

If you have any questions i've just polished off a Psychology and Sociology course this year so i can probably give you more information on student experience and course content.

Josh

Reply 3

amyyalice

OP

Original post by Schrödingers Cat

Its really up to you whether you apply this year or not, you need think about if you want to take a gap year or go straight into education. I strongly advice you also sort out what your going to be doing if you take a gap year.

My advice is apply this year and you can always defer your entry to next year if you decide to take a gap year. On which universities to apply for how did you do in your AS-Levels? UCAS fee is £23

Hope this helps

Thank you, that has helped me a lot! I'm thinking maybe I should apply this year now, and defer my entry to next year. I got BBCC in my AS levels as well as an E in an AS which I completed the same time as my GCSE's two years ago. Both B grades were close to A's and I'm resitting one of the AS exams for the C grade. I dropped one of the C grades, so I'm doing three A2 levels. Most universities I have looked at require ABB-BBB, don't think I'll get to BBB though!

Thanks again for the advice!

Thanks again :smile:

Reply 4

Schrödingers Cat

16

Original post by amyyalice

Thank you, that has helped me a lot! I'm thinking maybe I should apply this year now, and defer my entry to next year. I got BBCC in my AS levels as well as an E in an AS which I completed the same time as my GCSE's two years ago. Both B grades were close to A's and I'm resitting one of the AS exams for the C grade. I dropped one of the C grades, so I'm doing three A2 levels. Most universities I have looked at require ABB-BBB, don't think I'll get to BBB though!

Thanks again for the advice!

Thanks again :smile:

No problem, oh ok decent grades and I should've asked what your predicted grades are as this is what unis will base a lot of their decision on, you will need to declare all grades on your UCAS form, including the E in English.

Also you can state that your resiting an exam by leaving a pending grade for that subject to let unis know your resiting that exam.

If you work hard enough you can get BBB easily off though grades and even AAB. I would advice to apply to at least one university with ABB as a hopeful offer. Get your teachers to help you with your personal statement as well as this is quite important for your degree.

Reply 5

amyyalice

OP

Original post by Aston University

The one thing i we would advise you to do is think very carefully about your plan for after your degree...Finally i wouldn't be doing my job without hinting a little bit at our courses, our Sociology course is rated in the top 20 in the UK by the Guardian and achieved over 97% satisfaction on the National Student Survey.If you have any questions i've just polished off a Psychology and Sociology course this year so i can probably give you more information on student experience and course Josh

Thank you for the reply, this has been really helpful! I think I'll definitely apply for a sociology related course now, compared to an education type course as I'm still quite undecided!I'll have a look at the rankings as well! I will most likely move away from home, which will be more expensive, hence why I'm thinking of having a year off to do some paid work before I go!What do you learn about in the sociology side of the course? How is it assessed? And what is university life like, how did you make friends and if you don't mind me asking, what grades did you get in your A levels? Sorry for all the questions and thanks again for the advice!

Reply 6

amyyalice

OP

Original post by Schrödingers Cat

No problem, oh ok decent grades and I should've asked what your predicted grades are as this is what unis will base a lot of their decision on, you will need to declare all grades on your UCAS form, including the E in English. Also you can state that your resiting an exam by leaving a pending grade for that subject to let unis know your resiting that exam. If you work hard enough you can get BBB easily off though grades and even AAB. I would advice to apply to at least one university with ABB as a hopeful offer. Get your teachers to help you with your personal statement as well as this is quite important for your degree.

I think my predicted grades are the same as my actual grades I got this year, either BBC or BBB. Can I mention that the E was taken with my GCSE year? Or doesn't it matter?Will do, thanks for letting me know!Yep, I will work harder this year as last year was madness for me. Really?! Ok thank you very much for the advice, this has been very helpful! :smile:

Reply 7

nerdcake

6

Don't apply to a course unless you're sure it's what you want to spend three years of your life studying, and it's going to lead you to a career you're happy to be in for the rest of your working life. If that means you don't apply till you're 37, at least you haven't wasted your student finance, and you'll have spent some time working so you'll be in a better position financially and possibly have relevant experience. So don't just rush into applying because it's easy to do it right now.

If you do take a gap year, try to get experience relating to your likely course, either in a school or working with children in some other way. You should be able to at least find part time volunteer work alongside an ordinary job if nobody will pay you to work with kids. The point about support from teachers is a valid one. You should probably ask at your school what the procedure is for students who do PQA. But don't worry about it too much. Plenty of people make totally independent applications every year.

If you want to become a teacher, there are two ways. One is to do an undergraduate degree in the subject you want to teach (Or, for primary teaching, just whatever subject you fancy) and then do a PGCE or Schools Direct which takes two years. The other is to do an undergraduate degree which gives you Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). A lot of these are primary teaching qualifications, although there are some which combine secondary teaching with degree level study of a specific subject.

Here is the UCAS page for teacher training information:http://www.ucas.com/how-it-all-works/teacher-training
Here is the list of undergraduate degrees with QTS: http://search.ucas.com/search/providers?CountryCode=&RegionCode=&Lat=&Lng=&Feather=&Vac=1&AvailableIn=2015&Query=QTS&ProviderQuery=&AcpId=&Location=&SubjectCode=

If you want to teach in secondary schools, your undergraduate degree should be in a subject you are planning to teach, so Sociology would not be a brilliant choice as not many schools need Sociology teachers. However, for primary teaching, the content of your undergraduate degree doesn't matter so if Sociology's what you enjoy, go for it! The same argument applies for an Education degree.

When choosing universities, first search UCAS or Whatuni (www.whatuni.com) to find out which institutions offer the course you have chosen. Whatuni is good because you can enter your grades or predictions and filter the unis by grade or points requirement. Now make a list of all the unis. Is there anything specific you want or don't want from your uni? Is it important to you whether or not your uni is in the Russell Group? Do you want to stay close to home, or get as far away from your parents as possible? Do you want a big or small, city or campus university? Also consider the course. If you are particularly interested in one area of your subject, which of the unis have the best modules to suit your tastes? You will find it is pretty easy to narrow down your list fairly quickly.

The UCAS fee is £11 if you are only applying to one choice, and £23 if you are applying to two or more.

(edited 9 years ago)

Original post by amyyalice

Thank you for the reply, this has been really helpful! I think I'll definitely apply for a sociology related course now, compared to an education type course as I'm still quite undecided!I'll have a look at the rankings as well! I will most likely move away from home, which will be more expensive, hence why I'm thinking of having a year off to do some paid work before I go!What do you learn about in the sociology side of the course? How is it assessed? And what is university life like, how did you make friends and if you don't mind me asking, what grades did you get in your A levels? Sorry for all the questions and thanks again for the advice!

During my time studying sociology there were a tonne of modules that covered things from classical social theory your Marx, Durkhiem, Weber ect to touching on more modern stuff. The usual demographic modules come up as well on things that cause inequality and difference in society: class, race, gender and religion.

Further modules also look at government systems concerning society such as Healthcare and Education. Finally in final year you get to do some really niche specialties. Things such as the sociology of sport, music, tattoos, technology ect.

Sociology is normally assessed in two ways either essay writing between 1500-5000 words depending on the module or via exams in January or the summer. I never struggled with it, you just have to get stuck into the reading and make it your own.

University life was fantastic for me i grew immeasurably as a person, the easiest way i found to make friends was joining clubs and societies of people with similar interests, however i was a home student, if you live on campus it will be even easier as you will make friends with your flat automatically.

As for my A levels i achieved a BBB and graduated this summer with a 2:1 so i'm pretty much a B Grade student through and through. Never quite reached the soaring heights of straight A's like some people i know. But i think it's turned out alright for me in the end, much better compared to my friends who didn't go to university or went to other institutions.

Also it's my job to answer your questions, so don't worry about it if you have more. :smile:

Josh

Reply 9

Schrödingers Cat

16

Original post by amyyalice

I think my predicted grades are the same as my actual grades I got this year, either BBC or BBB. Can I mention that the E was taken with my GCSE year? Or doesn't it matter?Will do, thanks for letting me know!Yep, I will work harder this year as last year was madness for me. Really?! Ok thank you very much for the advice, this has been very helpful! :smile:

Interesting, well considering your resitting and you were close to an A in one subject try getting your predicted grades changed by asking your teachers. Yes you should put the date you acheieved your English grade with your other GCSES this is very important as it shows you took on an AS-Level earlier and probably why you got an E?

Well I say go for ABB only if you end up getting predicted ABB or BBB :smile:

Also listen to nerdcake's post on choosing a course.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 10

JLG16

Completely up to you really , When everyone started applying to uni while i was in sixth form i thought that i wanted to go go to uni , Then i released that wasent what i wanted (Because of the money aspect) and took a year out (Its a few months into that year now) and i wish i didnt , Ive done some work experience and started working on my portfolio and personal statement but its been a incredibly boring year so far , Im hoping to finish off my application , Portfolio and personal statement soon and hoping to get a job to help me with money next year.I would say on my experience i wish i went to uni last year but i didnt really have a plan coming in to this gap year so if you sorted out what you wanted to do for that year it may be good for you.

Reply 11

amyyalice

OP

Original post by nerdcake

Don't apply to a course unless you're sure it's what you want to spend three years of your life studying, and it's going to lead you to a career you're happy to be in for the rest of your working life.....

Wow! Thank you so much for the advice, it has really made me think to choose carefully about whatever I end up doing in the end. Also, thanks for the weblink for the whatuni.com, so helpful! This has really helped me so thank you very much!

Original post by Aston University

During my time studying sociology there were a tonne of modules that covered things from classical social theory your Marx, Durkhiem, Weber ect to touching on more modern stuff....

Sounds good! Thanks for the advice and sharing some of your own experiences with university as well! :smile:

Original post by Schrödingers Cat

Interesting, well considering your resitting and you were close to an A in one subject try getting your predicted grades changed by asking your teachers. Yes you should put the date you acheieved your English grade with your other GCSES this is very important as it shows you took on an AS-Level earlier and probably why you got an E? ...

I don't know them as yet. I assume they will stay the same as my AS grades. It was Government and Politics where I got an E, English Literature was one of the B's. Ok, I'll try and find out my predicted grades as I'm only assuming they will stay the same, thank you for the advice :smile:

Original post by JLG16

Completely up to you really...

Thank you for commenting, this has really helped as I do want to have a plan in knowing what I'm going to do next year! However I don't know, so I think I am going to apply this year and defer it to next year if I change my mind and find a good job experience. Thanks for the advice :smile:

Should I apply to university this year?

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