How to choose your university

If there are countless good options, how do I know which is perfect for me?

You want to think about what's important to you -

1. What course? -> times uni rankings for that course, modules you like, coursework vs exam based etc
2. Location - distance from home, ease of travel, ease of getting to places you want to go (London, nights out, visiting family)
3. City Vs campus uni
4. Uni reputation - party uni? Intense uni? Lots of old traditions?
5. Your options given your grades
6. Whether you want a year abroad, year in industry etc
7. Funding opportunities by the uni - how many bursaries do they give out, etc
8. Work opportunities
9. Student course reviews and retention rate.

Essentially, the course is the most important thing. That's what you'll be doing most of the time so it needs to be a good fit in terms of modules and examination methods. Otherwise, choose which if the other categories are important for you and whether there are any other categories that are important for you. For me, I didn't want a campus uni for example, and I wanted a degree with lots of module options to choose between.

Reply 2

Celina_65student

OP

3

Thanks for your time in writing this response - How can you narrow down your ultimate course if you have multiple in mind?

Reply 3

tiredgiraff

11

Original post by CelinaAmarouch£

Thanks for your time in writing this response - How can you narrow down your ultimate course if you have multiple in mind?

1. What do you like about each subject? Are the things you likes things that would mean you'd enjoy the degree (e.g. finding topics interesting, enjoying researching the subject, enjoying the practicals, enjoying improving at the essays etc) or things that are context based (liking your teacher, liking the people in your class etc)?

2. What are you good at? You shouldn't necessarily just study what you're best at, but if you like a subject and are good at it it might be a prod in a particular direction.

3. Do you have future goals? If so, which subjects could help you get there?

4. Are there combined degrees? Loads of combined degrees exist - my sister found one for music and psychology and my friend does maths with French.

5. Which unis offer each subject? This is more if an element to consider than a super important factor most of the time.

6. In your heart of hearts, which are you pulled most towards? Sometimes we're split because we feel like we should do something because we wanted to do it for a long time in the past, because other people want us to do it or because we think it's a practical option, but in fact we really want to do something else. Which calls out most to you?

In the end, the best thing to do is to find courses for both (and combined options) that look good, and then read lots about them to see what calls out most to you. You can even watch uni vlogs for some subjects, or unofficial prospectuses written by students etc

Reply 4

Celina_65student

OP

3

Original post by tiredgiraff

1. What do you like about each subject? Are the things you likes things that would mean you'd enjoy the degree (e.g. finding topics interesting, enjoying researching the subject, enjoying the practicals, enjoying improving at the essays etc) or things that are context based (liking your teacher, liking the people in your class etc)?

2. What are you good at? You shouldn't necessarily just study what you're best at, but if you like a subject and are good at it it might be a prod in a particular direction.

3. Do you have future goals? If so, which subjects could help you get there?

4. Are there combined degrees? Loads of combined degrees exist - my sister found one for music and psychology and my friend does maths with French.

5. Which unis offer each subject? This is more if an element to consider than a super important factor most of the time.

6. In your heart of hearts, which are you pulled most towards? Sometimes we're split because we feel like we should do something because we wanted to do it for a long time in the past, because other people want us to do it or because we think it's a practical option, but in fact we really want to do something else. Which calls out most to you?

In the end, the best thing to do is to find courses for both (and combined options) that look good, and then read lots about them to see what calls out most to you. You can even watch uni vlogs for some subjects, or unofficial prospectuses written by students etc