Choosing the Right University for You

Choosing the Right University for You

You might know exactly which university you want to attend, and you've known this for a long time. You might've had your heart set on the one university, or it might be the one all your friends go to or are going to, or it may simply be the closest one. Whatever your reasons, you want to make sure that you're going to the 'best' university you can go to.

When I say 'best' that doesn't always mean the most famous university or the one with the best teaching facilities - it means the university that appeals to you the most! Of course, you want to go to a good university with high standards of teaching and good facilities, but there are loads of other factors to consider when studying at uni. In this blogpost, I will mention some tips on choosing the 'best' university for you, and different websites and resources that are available to you.

1. Find all the universities that offer your course

First things first, you need to find universities that offer the course/degree you want. There around 154 registered universities that offer degrees in the UK, so this could end up being a very long task. My advice would be to use the What Uni? website. This website allows you to find all the universities that offer the course you want, and similar courses. There's no point looking at a university, loving the location and their facilities, only to find out they don't offer the course you want. Of course, if there's a university you have your heart set on and are willing to change the course you want slightly, you could always choose that instead. Ideally, however, you want to make sure the university you're looking at has the course you want, before imagining yourself walking through it's campus. 

2. Detailed research

Now that you've found all the universities that offer the course or courses you'd like to do, you need to do some digging. You need to look at the course content, the entry requirements, what other students say about the course and all the relevant information that will influence your decision in choosing a university. The first place you should look are the university's websites themselves, but again, you can use What Uni? or the UCAS website. You don't have to love everything about the university, but make sure you like the majority of what you see - you could potentially be spending 3 years of your life there!

3. Shortlisting

You've looked at the course content and all the universities information, and you might have eliminated some straight off the bat. However, you might be looking at a list of over 50 universities or even more if it's a subject such as English or Maths. My advice would be to reduce that list until you have maybe 10 or 15 universities you might like to apply for. If you're 100% certain that you don't want to travel far from your hometown, you can get rid of the furthest universities. If the university doesn't have very good ratings from other students or the cost of living in the area is too expensive, you can tick it off. On the other hand, instead of making a list by eliminating the universities, you could do one where you list the best universities or your favourites. It's really up to you, but just remember, if you apply through UCAS (which most people do when applying for university in the UK), you're only allowed 5 choices, meaning a maximum of 5 different universities.

4. Pros and cons

If you're finding it hard to take any universities off the list, I'd suggest making a list of pros and cons for each university. Things to consider could be:

• Do I like the course content?
• Would I make the entry requirements?
• Do I like the location? Can I afford to live there? Is it safe?
• Are there any extracurricular activities or societies there you like?
• What have other students said?
• What are their teacher ratings?
• Where do they rank in the league table? (you can go to the What Uni? website for this info.)

This is a good way of getting to the universities you like the most.

5. Open days!

Of course, this might be a bit hard this year, due to COVID, but if the universities aren't offering in person open days, there are sure to be online and virtual ones available. I believe open days are so important, because it gives you so much more information than just looking at the university online. By going to open days, virtually or in person, you can see exactly how the university is laid out.

Around a week before making my final choices for universities, I hadn't been to a single open day. This was probably because the universities were too far for me to go there for just one day, or I simply didn't have the time or effort to go. I'd more or less made up my mind about the university I wanted to go to, so I didn't feel like there was any point visiting it or any others. My friend convinced me to go to an open day for a university I hadn't even considered but she really wanted to go there. We went - and it was great! I loved the university so much that I actually did research and found the course I wanted to do there and made it the first choice of my 5 choices. This is the uni I'm at now - the one I hadn't even considered prior to the open day! This is why it's so important to get a feel for the university before you make any definite (and usually irreversible) decisions.

Go and research - now!

If you've been able to do all or most of these steps, hopefully you now have an idea of the universities you'd like to go to. If you still have no clue, I'd recommend speaking to a careers advisor or going onto the What Uni? website and compare the different universities. I know how hard it is trying to find the university that's right for you - that's why my advice is to start looking as early as possible! Think of everything the university has to offer, such as extracurriculars, study abroad opportunities and their facilities/course content and see if it's something you'd enjoy. I'd also advise you to look at not just the university, but other factors, such as living costs in the area, different accommodations and the location. These are all very important factors!

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