Applying for University

Applying for university can be a stressful time for many of you. If you are currently in year 13 or in your final year in college, then you have probably already applied for university and are making sure you get the grades you need to get in. However, if you are in year 12, your first year of college, or are currently thinking of going to university then you may be coming to the stage where it is time for you to start looking around different universities and applying to those that really take your fancy. As a current first-year student, it wasn't that long ago that I was applying to university myself, so today I thought I would share with you the process of applying to university and try and give you some advice on picking the right university for you (although I am no expert in this department).

The first thing I would recommend you do is to either think about the course or subject area you are interested in studying and google this to find the different universities that offer this course or courses in your subject area and look at the area they are in, whether it's near to your home, and the grades you need to get in. There is an easier way for you to do this, and this is through an app/website called 'whatuni?'. This enables you to search for the course you want to study and it comes up with a whole list of universities that offer this course, as well as ones that are similar and how other students rank that university. It also gives you the ability to filter the type of qualification (foundation or undergraduate), the country, the location, how you study (full time/part time/sandwich/online), your previous qualifications (such as A-Levels), and your preferences (such as if it's in a city, if you will be staying in accommodation, and the types of facilities the university has to offer). This way you can get a better idea of the courses each university offers and know which ones you should go and look around.

Obviously, the next step is for you to start going on open days. If you are the sort of person that might worry about missing some of college in order to go, then don't worry because most open days tend to happen at the weekend as this way all lecturers should be free and you won't have to deal with all of the students who are already at that university, as well as the thousands who are attending the open day. Most universities will get you to apply to an open day, so make sure you check before going, as this is a way for them to see how many people are likely to be attending. You may also be sent an itinerary before the open day, giving you the chance to plan out your day. I would recommend you do this and get there as early as possible as this will allow you to get around as much of the university as you wish. I particularly recommend that you talk to the lecturers or students as they are there to help. They might seem scary but they wouldn't be there if they didn't want to help you, particularly the students, so talk to them as no one can tell you about the course better than they can. And don't be so quick to dismiss a university before you've had a chance to properly look around it. Draw up a list of the pros and cons after each open day and once you've attended all of them, use these to decide your final five (in case you didn't already know, when applying through UCAS you can only apply to up to five universities).

The next thing for you to do is to start your UCAS application. This was the bane of my life, so I recommend that you get it done sooner rather than later. There are many parts to your application, including your personal statement, filling out a number of forms about yourself, and selecting up to five of your chosen universities and the course(s) you've chosen to study. I can't really provide you with help for the filling out forms part as this is mostly ticking boxes or selecting things, as well as giving out your basic information (your name, date of birth, address, etc.), however I can give you help with your personal statement. I am going to do another post in a few weeks where I go into more detail about your personal statement, so, for now, I am just going to give you the basics. As your UCAS application will only allow you to send one personal statement to all five universities, I would recommend that you chose the same course for each university (or at least try and get them as similar as possible). Some universities will allow you to send a different personal statement if you email them and ask them, but these things take a lot of time so I would recommend you choose one course you want to study in advance. You can always change your mind at a later date. Try and relate anything you have done that will make you stand out directly to your course. For example, my course is in childcare, so the majority of things on my personal statement were to do with that, such as any work experience I had done or volunteer work. Having first-hand experience will give you the upper edge. I understand with some courses this may not be entirely possible, and if not I'm probably not the person to be giving you advice on this part, but in this case you should at least say why you want to study the course and give the admissions tutors an idea of where you want to be once you graduate. Don't lie on your personal statement either because you may be asked to go into an interview at some universities (which, thankfully, I didn't have to do) and they will ask you questions about some of the things you have written on your personal statement and they will be able to tell in that interview whether you have lied to them or not. I also recommend during this process that you get multiple people to look at your personal statement, for example, teachers you trust, as they will be able to give you the best advice on things you should change/put in to try and help you stand out more. You need to make the first few words of your statement stand out as if they are the same as what admissions tutors will read on the thousands of other applications, there may be some cases where they won't even bother reading the rest of it and you will be put straight on the no pile. You should also try to get your UCAS application in as soon as possible as once it gets near the closing date, it is, typically, when the majority of people send their forms in. The earlier you send it in, the earlier you will hear back from your chosen universities. You don't want to be the person that is yet to hear from their chosen universities, believe me.

The next part is accepting the offers you get. You can only choose two universities for this, which are your firm and insurance choices. Your firm choice is the university that you definitely want to go to and as long as everything goes to plan, i.e. you get the grades you need to get in, you will be going to this university. However, if you don't get the grades you need then you will be going to your insurance choice. When you first get your offers back, you will either receive conditional or unconditional offers. A conditional offer is where you have a place at that university, as long as you meet the criteria to get in. An unconditional offer is where you are 100% guaranteed a place at that university, no matter whether you get the grades needed. Some universities may also originally offer you a conditional offer but may email you saying you will receive an unconditional offer as long as you make them your firm choice. I suggest that you don't make a university your firm choice just because you have some form of an unconditional offer from them. You need to think this through thoroughly before making your decision as once you have made it and your choices have been sent to these universities there's no going back. You need to make sure that you choose a university that you are 100% happy with going to. Applicant open days tend to occur after people have been sent offers from universities, so if you are unsure of the firm and insurance choices to make then I suggest that you attend these first before making your final decision.

You will then need to apply for student finance. I should also add at this point that this is something you are going to have to do for each year you are at university and isn't something you can just do before you start and that you will get the same money each year you are there. This is another thing I am going to be making a separate post on in the coming weeks. There are two different loans you will need to apply for, which are your tuition fees and your maintenance loan. Your tuition fee will be for however much your university charges you (typically £9250) and will be sent straight to the university, so you don't have to worry about making sure you pay the money because it is done for you. Maintenance loans are a bit more complicated. You don't have to apply for a maintenance loan if you don't feel like you need the money, but if you are in accommodation you will 100% need this. The amount you get can depend on whether you are living at home or in accommodation and whether you are attending a university that is in or outside of London. You can apply for as little or as much as you want, so here I am just going to talk about what I personally got due to my situation in first year. I decided to move away from home, therefore was able to receive a maximum of around £8700, however this amount is also dependent on how much the adults in your household earn (in most cases, your parents). Essentially, if their combined annual income is under £25,000, you will get the maximum amount of however much of your maintenance loan you are entitled to. Essentially, the more they earn, the less you get. You can also apply for extra money if you are entitled to it, such as if you are a young carer, however I don't exactly know how this works so you may have to do some extra research on that. You may also, potentially, be able to get help from your university money-wise, which I also don't know a lot about so you may also need to get in touch with them.

Next, if you are moving away from home then you will need to start thinking about applying for accommodation (if you are planning on staying at home then you can skip this bit). I would recommend that you go and look around as many accommodations as possible when you go on open days, as this is the only way that you can get a real feel for the accommodation as the pictures they put up online (at least in the case of my accommodation) can be seen as 'catfishing'. I can't really give much help when it comes to picking accommodation as, despite being in accommodation myself, I could only pick the one I am in as it is the only one for my campus, as the rest are all for the other campus. However, I do know that at my university you can pick an order of which one you would prefer to be in and they will try and put you in your chosen accommodation, however as there are literally thousands of others applying, you can't always be guaranteed to be in your first choice accommodation. I will just tell you now that paying rent is probably what the majority of your maintenance loan will go on, and some of you may not even be able to cover the whole of your rent on what you get (I think the minimum for anyone living away from home is just over £4000 but I'm not 100%) and speaking on personal experience, 2/3 of my maintenance loan goes on my rent. If you feel you can't afford this and do have the option of being able to stay at home then definitely consider this, but at the same time, at least during first year, being in accommodation is a good way to make new friends, so you could possibly try being in accommodation during first year and then staying at home for the rest of your time at university (which is what I'm planning on doing), but at the end of the day it is totally up to you.

After this, if you don't already have an unconditional offer then all you have to do is sit and wait for your results to see if you have got into your chosen university. On results day, they will send you an email, possibly before you have even received your results, confirming your place and you don't have to do anything else because that place is officially yours, you just have to make sure you enrol when prompted. This is basically just filling out more forms so they can send you your student ID and anything else you may need (or if they need to check something, such as your DBS if you're on a health or education course, you may have to wait until your first week to get your ID and officially enrol). You will also need to start packing if you are moving away from home, which I recommend you start sooner rather than later to make sure you have everything you need. I wrote a list of everything I had to take with me and highlighted them in different colours (e.g. red for need to buy, yellow for got but need to pack, and green for packed) and also went on the internet to see what other students recommended (I may also be doing another post on this in the future).

I think I have covered pretty much everything but knowing me I have probably forgotten at least two key pieces of information. If you think I have forgotten something or have any other questions, or if there is something I couldn't fully answer (such as about picking accommodation) then comment them down below as if there is something you don't fully understand/know, it is highly likely that there is at least one other person who is in the same boat.

Love Beth xx