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Introduction
Choosing a university is one of the most important decisions you will make in your life and one that many students find incredibly difficult.
With a multitude of locations, courses and cultures available and of course the merits of a vast range of regions available, many believe this decision is quite an unfair one to expect from teenagers.
Many will be attracted to the bright lights rather than the ideal course. Some may follow friends and others will choose the best course without assessing the location where they will spend the next three years residing in, which has its own pitfalls and limitations.
This is clearly a decision that can be somewhat of a minefield, which is why we have put together this official Collegiate guide to picking a university.
Thankfully, we have student accommodation all around the country and beyond and have therefore spoken to thousands of students about choosing a uni over the years. Read on to find our top tips for choosing your firm university course.
Picking a University for 2018/19
To give you a helping hand picking a university, we have gone through all our top tips for choosing your firm uni choice and nailed down our final three. This should give you all the important information you need to make an informed decision on what could go on to shape the rest of your academic life and of course, beyond.
Compare Your Courses Effectively
Gone are the days when students had to sift through endless brochures and prospectuses in order to find all the information they need about the best institutions and courses. Of course, these are still available but the wonder of the internet has meant that you can now search through all of this information online in a fraction of the time.
Therefore, you have the opportunity to leave no stone unturned when searching for the course that best suits you and when it comes to picking your uni, the course is of course paramount. You need to pick a subject or perhaps subjects that you will not only enjoy but that you are going to succeed in. Your grades up until now and conversations with your tutors and careers advisors will help to inform that.
We suggest that you start to use some of the incredible resources available online right away as there is such a wealth of information for you to peruse. Choosing the right course is firm at the top of this guide, as this will of course influence the career you end up embarking on when you graduate.
Research The Locations Thoroughly
When choosing a university, you are also picking what part of the UK or perhaps Europe that you will reside in for the majority of the next three years, perhaps longer. You therefore need to do thorough research into these regions in order to ensure that you will be happy there.
You may be more comfortable in an urban environment, or perhaps you have grown up in the city and you are keen to explore a more rural part of the world for your studies. Either way, you should speak to former alumni, look online and on the aforementioned resources to check that you aren’t going to choose a university you will end up disliking.
The same course could easily be available in somewhere far more appropriate, so don’t hesitate to start looking into this right away.
Check Your Prospective Uni’s Rankings
All this said and done, one of the key reasons you should be choosing a university is its performance and ability to provide you with the degree qualification you deserve.
You will of course need to achieve the A-Level grades and perhaps supplementary achievements required to get into the university in question, but this does work both ways and you are more than welcome to ask to interview tutors and lecturers.
The university rankings are published regularly, and these are a great indicator of the results they achieve. Be aware however that newer institutions and smaller ones could be further down this list for a number of reasons, so don’t use this information on its own.
As we have mentioned, happiness and your course are incredibly important but the calibre of the university you are applying to should not be overlooked. You are also more likely to surround yourself with fellow intellectuals with similar goals and interests at a better university, so this is something you should certainly bear in mind when choosing your firm university selection.
So, location, a killer course and quality of university make the cut as our top three tops for picking a uni but as we have discussed there will be all sort of other criterion and every individual is of course different.
We will be publishing guides like this throughout the academic year to help you make academic decisions, so make sure to check back in. Remember that it’s never too early to start doing your research and your Sixth Form or college will be able to help you as well, you are not alone. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.
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