As I embark on my newest adventure of starting university, I thought that I would write a post on my experience of trying to find the right university for me as a way of trying to give you my first-hand experience with this; as well as telling you a few things that I wish I had done differently, either when it came to looking at university's or the application process.
I first started looking at universities a few months towards the end of year 12. At first it wasn't so much about finding the right university as it was more to do with looking at different courses in an area that I was interested in working in and comparing the content of each course with each university. My original choice (and one of the first courses that I looked at) was a child development course at the University of South Wales. I had never heard of this university before and when I mentioned it to a few of my teacher's they thought I meant a university that was in South Wales, so I guess that they had never heard of it either. This remained a firm favourite and started off with being my first choice for quite some time. However as time went on, I found a few other courses that took my interest (either childhood studies or early childhood studies) and started to find myself preferring them over my original choice.
When I first started thinking about applying for university, my original decision was to choose ones that were far away from home because I knew that I would be too tempted to go home quite a lot if I went to a university that was reasonably close to home. I mainly wanted to go to university in Wales because for some reason I really like it there and the Welsh accent is one of my favourites. I was also looking at going to university in Liverpool and further south in Southampton. But like when it came to choosing a course, the further the process of looking for universities moved on, the more I found myself preferring to go to a university that was a bit closer to home and in an area that was slightly familiar to me. So that's why I decided to choose Birmingham because it's less than an hour away from where I live and I go there at least once a year so I kind of know it, although as it's completely different from my home town (which is very small and Birmingham is the second largest city in the UK) I know I will very easily get lost.
One thing I regret about my university application process was the fact that I didn't actually go and look at many of the universities that I was planning on applying to. This was a really stupid decision as it's a good idea to go and look around as many universities as possible so that you can compare them all and choose the one that appealed to you the most; as well as getting to know who your lecturers are going to be and at least having some idea of where about's your campus is and possibly what your accommodation is like. In my defence I was going to go to a couple of open days, however on the days that were available I was either busy or didn't know how I was going to get there so couldn't go. I get that this is a pretty poor excuse but I guess that I was scared of the unknown as I had no idea what was going to happen and I started feeling quite anxious about the whole thing. I did go to an open day for the university that I am going to at the end of June this year and I'm so glad I went because I was able to get an idea of the area that my campus is based at and got to take a look at where I am going to be staying and I am fairly impressed by both of them. But I would definitely say start looking at universities early (as soon as the first open days begin which is around June - so towards the end of year 12) because this way you can look at them months in advance of you needing to send off your UCAS application and will be able to make a much more informed decision that way.
I think I should make it clear to anyone who is looking at going to university: DO NOT pick a university just because one or a few of your friends are going there. I get that you don't want to be in an unfamiliar place where at first you don't know anyone (because believe me I'm writing this before I've even started university and I feel just like that) but everyone else is going to be feeling exactly the same as you. If you are going somewhere just because one of your friend's is going there then it is possible that you might find that you won't enjoy yourself as much as you would have done if you had gone somewhere that you actually wanted to go to; regardless of whether any of your friends were going there or not. Plus, if you did go somewhere that at least one of your friends was going to then you might find that you are clinging on to each other and don't bother trying to make any friends because you feel that you've already got a friend(s) and don't need anyone else. There are ways that you can make friends or at least get to know the people that you are going to be at university with before you get there as there are plenty of Facebook and WhatsApp groups and group chats, whether this be for your course, accommodation, university, or for a selection of universities that are all in the same city/area.
That's everything I feel that I can give you advice on when it comes to picking universities. At some point I might do a post on the application process and what that entails so let me know in the comments below if you'd like me to do a post based on this. Also please let me know if there are any other topics that you'd like me to do a post about and I will try my hardest to do that for you. And if there is anything that you want to talk to me about, please feel free to email or DM me. My contact details are in the contacts tab at the top of the page.
Thank you very much for reading this post. Good luck to anyone like me who is starting university or who is maybe going into their second or third year (or any other year if your course is longer than three years). Also good luck to anyone who is starting their application process or who has just started sixth form as I know all too well how challenging it gets - but if I can get through it then you can to.
Love Beth xx
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