University Week: Applying

The first post in my university week series is for all you people out there who are ready to move on to the bright lights of the uni life. I applied to my uni's of choice when I was in my final year of Sixth Form so that's the angle I'll be going from but no matter when in your life you apply the process is pretty much the same. It's that time of year (or at least it it at my old school) when the pressure is on to decide what you're doing with the rest of your life. It can be a scary thought but in the beginning I just trawled through the prospectuses and hoped that something would pop up that I liked the look of, and luckily it did! Here are a few things that I did when I applied to uni, hope it helps!

Browsing Around

Looking for the right university can be hard but fear not, you will eventually find your way! As I said before, if you don't already know what you want to do, something will come up that you have an interest in. My advice is to order so many prospectuses, even if you don't have an interest in going to that uni order one anyway because it may give you some course inspo or you might have a change of heart. The same for open days. I wasn't that bothered about Nottingham Trent and was never going to go and have a look around but my dad said that we needed to go to more than one open day so we went and I instantly fell in love! I'd also say go to a fair few open days. I only went to two but I really should have gone to more to get a broader spectrum of what different places had to offer.

Personal Statement

You will be told that you need to do SO much extra curricular activities and volunteer work to bulk up your personal statement that an entire year of your life must be dedicated to these things. It's not that true. When I had just started Sixth Form they told us that all of year 12 should be focused on doing things to enhance our  statements. Although I do think that it's important I found that most of my personal statement was taken up with hobbies so if anything hobbies should be the thing that you are focusing on. Universities want to see that you're a well rounded person and not just someone that can help small children to read or feed orphaned puppies but someone that has a passion for something. Now if you have a passion for orphaned puppies then go right ahead and focus all your efforts on that but I think that most of us are more passionate about something that we enjoy, which for me is (or was, I've not played it in a while) piano. If you can show that you're a committed and interesting person then that's all that matters.

Picking your fave

This is pretty self explanatory, just choose your favourite. The way I did it was I wrote down with what I liked and what I disliked about the place and the course. This way when I looked back it was easy to compare each place. However I did have a special little feeling that Notts was the place to me so I think that when you know you know.

So, don't stress, pick something you enjoy and good luck (this is the easy part, getting there is a whole lot harder!).