University Questions
I'm considering going to university in the near future - not next academic year but perhaps the one after that. However I don't know where to start - last year I tried to apply but before I could send any applications off I pulled out as I had nothing to write about on my personal statement. I had nothing going on in my life and I wasn't doing that well in the sixth form.
Since then I did very well in one subject but not so much in the other three subjects. I don't know what my UCAS points would be worth exactly. I still have my old UCAS account but the tariff calculator only works for A-E grades. If someone could help me, I got:
While I am very proud of my grade in psychology I worry that my overall score would be brought down too much by the other results, especially the D. Assuming a Distinction Star is roughly the same as an A* tariff-wise, is 152 a good or bad score? Roughly what sort of universities would that get me in? I assume I'd do a psychology course, but I'm not sure if it's a good thing to do or not. If anyone knows about how useful psychology degrees are I'd be interested to know. I live in Kent, is the University of Kent any good for Psychology? I wouldn't want to go to Canterbury Christchurch university, based on the league table scores.
If I did go to university I would be over 20 when it happens (yes, I do feel very old saying that, I wish I was 8 again
), would this affect student loans and other crucial parts of university? I'm not a very social person and luckily I may be able to afford to live alone, obviously depending on where I'd be going. I wouldn't go to parties (not really interested), and I doubt I'd go to any societies outside of the bare minimum; would that jeopardise my time at university?
Since then I did very well in one subject but not so much in the other three subjects. I don't know what my UCAS points would be worth exactly. I still have my old UCAS account but the tariff calculator only works for A-E grades. If someone could help me, I got:
•
Distinction Star in BTEC Level 3 psychology
•
B in a BTEC EPQ
•
And a C and a D in my other two courses
While I am very proud of my grade in psychology I worry that my overall score would be brought down too much by the other results, especially the D. Assuming a Distinction Star is roughly the same as an A* tariff-wise, is 152 a good or bad score? Roughly what sort of universities would that get me in? I assume I'd do a psychology course, but I'm not sure if it's a good thing to do or not. If anyone knows about how useful psychology degrees are I'd be interested to know. I live in Kent, is the University of Kent any good for Psychology? I wouldn't want to go to Canterbury Christchurch university, based on the league table scores.
If I did go to university I would be over 20 when it happens (yes, I do feel very old saying that, I wish I was 8 again
), would this affect student loans and other crucial parts of university? I'm not a very social person and luckily I may be able to afford to live alone, obviously depending on where I'd be going. I wouldn't go to parties (not really interested), and I doubt I'd go to any societies outside of the bare minimum; would that jeopardise my time at university?
Original post by Doomotron
I'm considering going to university in the near future - not next academic year but perhaps the one after that. However I don't know where to start - last year I tried to apply but before I could send any applications off I pulled out as I had nothing to write about on my personal statement. I had nothing going on in my life and I wasn't doing that well in the sixth form.
Since then I did very well in one subject but not so much in the other three subjects. I don't know what my UCAS points would be worth exactly. I still have my old UCAS account but the tariff calculator only works for A-E grades. If someone could help me, I got:
While I am very proud of my grade in psychology I worry that my overall score would be brought down too much by the other results, especially the D. Assuming a Distinction Star is roughly the same as an A* tariff-wise, is 152 a good or bad score? Roughly what sort of universities would that get me in? I assume I'd do a psychology course, but I'm not sure if it's a good thing to do or not. If anyone knows about how useful psychology degrees are I'd be interested to know. I live in Kent, is the University of Kent any good for Psychology? I wouldn't want to go to Canterbury Christchurch university, based on the league table scores.
If I did go to university I would be over 20 when it happens (yes, I do feel very old saying that, I wish I was 8 again), would this affect student loans and other crucial parts of university? I'm not a very social person and luckily I may be able to afford to live alone, obviously depending on where I'd be going. I wouldn't go to parties (not really interested), and I doubt I'd go to any societies outside of the bare minimum; would that jeopardise my time at university?
Since then I did very well in one subject but not so much in the other three subjects. I don't know what my UCAS points would be worth exactly. I still have my old UCAS account but the tariff calculator only works for A-E grades. If someone could help me, I got:
•
Distinction Star in BTEC Level 3 psychology
•
B in a BTEC EPQ
•
And a C and a D in my other two courses
While I am very proud of my grade in psychology I worry that my overall score would be brought down too much by the other results, especially the D. Assuming a Distinction Star is roughly the same as an A* tariff-wise, is 152 a good or bad score? Roughly what sort of universities would that get me in? I assume I'd do a psychology course, but I'm not sure if it's a good thing to do or not. If anyone knows about how useful psychology degrees are I'd be interested to know. I live in Kent, is the University of Kent any good for Psychology? I wouldn't want to go to Canterbury Christchurch university, based on the league table scores.
If I did go to university I would be over 20 when it happens (yes, I do feel very old saying that, I wish I was 8 again
), would this affect student loans and other crucial parts of university? I'm not a very social person and luckily I may be able to afford to live alone, obviously depending on where I'd be going. I wouldn't go to parties (not really interested), and I doubt I'd go to any societies outside of the bare minimum; would that jeopardise my time at university?Several things to note here;
Firstly, not all universities use the UCAS Tariff. You will need to check on individual university webpages to see what their entry criteria are for the course you are planning to study. This may be in terms of the UCAS Tariff, or it may be in terms of grades for specific qualifications. Note also, they may require you have studied specific subjects before.
Secondly, in terms of what to study - you need to figure this out for yourself, and understand why you want to study that subject and be personally invested in it. Just going "because" tends to not work out too well for most (including if the "because" is "because that's what people do, get a degree and then get a graduate job" - it often isn't going to work out that way if you are just going through the motions!). It's much better to take the time to figure out what you want to do, even if that means you spend some years working before identifying that
If you are struggling with writing a personal statement for a given subject, that can sometimes be telling that you aren't that invested in it! Of course personal statements are often hard to write even if you know you love your subject, so don't immediately take that to mean it's the wrong choice...but do reflect on why you are finding it hard and consider if that may be the case.Following from that, regarding your note about age - this is effectively a non-factor. Firstly, student loans are not influenced by your age whatsoever unless you are over state pension age. That is a long ways off so you can put that aside. In terms of actually being at uni - it's not like school where people are segregated by age. You don't even get all the same people on a given degree doing all the same modules together at the same time, as people will take different options, they may take the same options but in different years (often options are available for e.g. both year 2 and year 3 students, and some might decide only in year 3 they want to take a given option), and some may be on a course with a year in industry, placement year, year abroad etc, and many will have taken gap years etc. Not to mention actual mature students. So there will be a good range of ages on any course, from school leaver age up until retirement age (and sometimes beyond!).
Also, in terms of the social side, pretty much all students at uni between the ages of 18 and 23 are indistinguishable as they are all at the same stage of their life even if their exact ages are slightly different. By and large they have the same perspectives on things, similar experiences, and physically will be similar appearance-wise too...so someone being 20 will fit in exactly the same as someone who is 18 (and someone who is 22 or 23!). In fact, even beyond that age range, the more mature students may quite happily fit in with their younger counterparts and engage in all the same social activities - they don't get ostracised by the younger students (who are mostly desperate for anyone to initiate a social relationship and then cling to it like glue - whereas older students are quite happy to start off those conversations...). The situations where mature students don't engage with the 18-23 year old range students so much will normally be because they choose not to - typically because if they are older (especially late 20s onwards) they often don't feel the need as they have their own friends outside of uni, and often family and so on. So they see the other students more as colleagues they are friendly with, but don't feel the need to be friends with, per se.
If you don't want to engage in partying, going to societies etc that won't really make much difference - it's up to you. The only thing I might say for getting involved in societies is that it can be a good way, if you do more than just turn up and actually take on leadership/committee roles, to develop very useful and relevant transferable skills for when you apply to jobs after you graduate. Being able to talk about e.g. managing a project as a committee member, doing the admin tasks involved in running a society, being a treasurer or whatever, is one way you can leverage your experiences in interview for jobs. So worth engaging in that stuff from the perspective of developing your employability. But you can just as well doggedly pursue placements, internships, and other forms of work experience and get similar transferable skills you can discuss that way. Also worth noting that just going to societies but not being involved in those kinds of leadership and committee roles doesn't count for anything employability wise so that would just be down to your personal interests.
League table rankings are usually not enormously useful metrics when taken at face value. They can be useful for comparing specific aspects of universities (e.g. student satisfaction, staff-student ratio, spend per student etc) but often the methodologies include so many other things that are really rather arbitrary and can and will be manipulated by universities (e.g. the standard entry criteria, which some universities inflate on their webpages but routinely give much lower offers!). So if you do refer to them, take them with a pinch of salt. Also worth noting, employers don't know or care what your university ranking is generally. In fact usually they don't care where (or often, what) you studied at all, as the degree is just a tickbox exercise and once you tick that box, they look at other aspects of your application. This is particularly true for things like allied health professions courses or if you wanted to become a clinical psychologist or similar for example in the case of psychology (in which case the only thing that matters is if it's BPS accredited or not for the psychology side).
Thank you, that was an interesting read? I think I go mixed up between a cover letter and personal statement. I'm not sure what the difference is (assuming there is one) but on the UCAS website I remember needing to write a generic thing about myself that would be shown to all of the universities I would have applied to. It's more than a year ago so my memory is a bit fuzzy. I still don't have much going on in my life, would that affect my chances of getting into university?
@Doomotron
You write a personal statement for university applications. This personal statement should include what you want to study and why, skills and experience related to your chosen subject area and your interests.
Some jobs ask you to write a cover letter and to submit a CV when applying for a job. The cover letter should refer to the job/person specification (the skills needed/ the type of person they are looking for) that comes with the job advertisement.
You should write a few lines for each point on the specification to show why you are the best person for the job. This is done by using examples from work experience/internships/previous jobs/ volunteering or hobbies.
Some jobs ask you to fill in an application form that includes a personal statement. Again, you need to refer to the job/person specification and need to use examples.
Hope that helps,
Oluwatosin – 2nd year student – University of Huddersfield
You write a personal statement for university applications. This personal statement should include what you want to study and why, skills and experience related to your chosen subject area and your interests.
Some jobs ask you to write a cover letter and to submit a CV when applying for a job. The cover letter should refer to the job/person specification (the skills needed/ the type of person they are looking for) that comes with the job advertisement.
You should write a few lines for each point on the specification to show why you are the best person for the job. This is done by using examples from work experience/internships/previous jobs/ volunteering or hobbies.
Some jobs ask you to fill in an application form that includes a personal statement. Again, you need to refer to the job/person specification and need to use examples.
Hope that helps,
Oluwatosin – 2nd year student – University of Huddersfield
Original post by University of Huddersfield
@Doomotron
You write a personal statement for university applications. This personal statement should include what you want to study and why, skills and experience related to your chosen subject area and your interests.
Some jobs ask you to write a cover letter and to submit a CV when applying for a job. The cover letter should refer to the job/person specification (the skills needed/ the type of person they are looking for) that comes with the job advertisement.
You should write a few lines for each point on the specification to show why you are the best person for the job. This is done by using examples from work experience/internships/previous jobs/ volunteering or hobbies.
Some jobs ask you to fill in an application form that includes a personal statement. Again, you need to refer to the job/person specification and need to use examples.
Hope that helps,
Oluwatosin – 2nd year student – University of Huddersfield
You write a personal statement for university applications. This personal statement should include what you want to study and why, skills and experience related to your chosen subject area and your interests.
Some jobs ask you to write a cover letter and to submit a CV when applying for a job. The cover letter should refer to the job/person specification (the skills needed/ the type of person they are looking for) that comes with the job advertisement.
You should write a few lines for each point on the specification to show why you are the best person for the job. This is done by using examples from work experience/internships/previous jobs/ volunteering or hobbies.
Some jobs ask you to fill in an application form that includes a personal statement. Again, you need to refer to the job/person specification and need to use examples.
Hope that helps,
Oluwatosin – 2nd year student – University of Huddersfield
Thank you, that cleared it up.
Original post by Doomotron
I'm considering going to university in the near future - not next academic year but perhaps the one after that. However I don't know where to start - last year I tried to apply but before I could send any applications off I pulled out as I had nothing to write about on my personal statement. I had nothing going on in my life and I wasn't doing that well in the sixth form.
Since then I did very well in one subject but not so much in the other three subjects. I don't know what my UCAS points would be worth exactly. I still have my old UCAS account but the tariff calculator only works for A-E grades. If someone could help me, I got:
While I am very proud of my grade in psychology I worry that my overall score would be brought down too much by the other results, especially the D. Assuming a Distinction Star is roughly the same as an A* tariff-wise, is 152 a good or bad score? Roughly what sort of universities would that get me in? I assume I'd do a psychology course, but I'm not sure if it's a good thing to do or not. If anyone knows about how useful psychology degrees are I'd be interested to know. I live in Kent, is the University of Kent any good for Psychology? I wouldn't want to go to Canterbury Christchurch university, based on the league table scores.
If I did go to university I would be over 20 when it happens (yes, I do feel very old saying that, I wish I was 8 again), would this affect student loans and other crucial parts of university? I'm not a very social person and luckily I may be able to afford to live alone, obviously depending on where I'd be going. I wouldn't go to parties (not really interested), and I doubt I'd go to any societies outside of the bare minimum; would that jeopardise my time at university?
Since then I did very well in one subject but not so much in the other three subjects. I don't know what my UCAS points would be worth exactly. I still have my old UCAS account but the tariff calculator only works for A-E grades. If someone could help me, I got:
•
Distinction Star in BTEC Level 3 psychology
•
B in a BTEC EPQ
•
And a C and a D in my other two courses
While I am very proud of my grade in psychology I worry that my overall score would be brought down too much by the other results, especially the D. Assuming a Distinction Star is roughly the same as an A* tariff-wise, is 152 a good or bad score? Roughly what sort of universities would that get me in? I assume I'd do a psychology course, but I'm not sure if it's a good thing to do or not. If anyone knows about how useful psychology degrees are I'd be interested to know. I live in Kent, is the University of Kent any good for Psychology? I wouldn't want to go to Canterbury Christchurch university, based on the league table scores.
If I did go to university I would be over 20 when it happens (yes, I do feel very old saying that, I wish I was 8 again
), would this affect student loans and other crucial parts of university? I'm not a very social person and luckily I may be able to afford to live alone, obviously depending on where I'd be going. I wouldn't go to parties (not really interested), and I doubt I'd go to any societies outside of the bare minimum; would that jeopardise my time at university?Hi there
Current Cardiff Uni student here!
I understand that this is a lot to think about but firstly, it doesn't hurt to apply. A personal statement can include things like why you are passionate about the subject, and wider reading (I literally talked about how I loved The Economist and their youtube channel) . A lot of it is motivation and ambition, though so experience and wider reading are super helpful. This is mostly about your interest, you've not studied the subject yet.
Do you have any ideas for what you would like to study? I would say try to go to as many open days as possible, visit the University of Kent or even email to ask questions about what they have to offer.
I was actually surprised by the age diversity of my friends at university. 20 is definitely not going to give you too many social issues, but you might enjoy the halls experience and still meet people. It's worth looking into what fewer social options are available - even without clubbing, I've met the majority of my friends through living with them. I was actually ill at the beginning of uni so didn't join any societies and I do regret it! This is also a great way to meet people and get more skills for your CV.
I hope this helps
Jaz - Cardiff Uni Rep
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