Picking which universities to apply to is a daunting task, you need to make the right choice for you. Three years is a long time to be living somewhere and studying a subject you hate.
Make sure to do a lot of research - check out the university’s website, read student reviews, watch YouTube videos. If you can, go to open days. They’re a great way to get a feel for the university, you can visit the campus and speak to students and lecturers and find out more information than you could in a brochure.
These are the 5 main elements you need to consider when picking a university.
1: The Course Itself
This is the most important thing to consider. You’re going to be spending at least three years of your life studying the subject at university, you need to make sure you’re interested in it.
- Research the course in detail, look at the specific modules and required reading. What types of optional modules can you take?
- Consider how many contact hours you’ll have a week. Do you work better in taught classes or better working independently? Humanities subjects have far less contact time than Science subjects, but most of the work will be done independently with a lot of required reading.
- The assessment style is important, consider if you do better in coursework or in final exams? Essay-based subjects such as English will have lots of coursework throughout the year, but hardly any final exams.
- Can you study abroad/do a placement year? Where can you go on your year abroad?
- What are the entry requirements/admission rate?
- Think about if the course will set you up for a specific career afterwards (e.g. veterinary sets you up to be a vet). Don’t worry if you don’t have a specific career in mind lots of graduates pursue a career unrelated to their degree. Studying at university enables you to develop transferrable skills which can be applied to whatever your chosen career.
- What have graduates from the course gone on to do? Find out their employment/further education statistics.
- Has the course been accredited? Courses in psychology, accounting, and drama are often accredited to ensure you’re ready to work after you graduate.
2: What the university is like
- Would you prefer a small more compact uni with less students? Or would you prefer a large uni with thousands and thousands of students?
- Would you prefer a city or campus uni? Campus unis like the University of Leeds have halls, lecture theatres, shops, and the student union all in one place. You can walk to everything. The result is often a close-nit student bubble. A city campus like the University of Manchester is the opposite, buildings and halls are spread out across the city. You’ll have to travel across the city, the result is you’ll get to see more of the city and meet more people who aren’t students.
- Is there a college system? Older universities like Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham operate under a collegiate system. The university is divided up into different colleges depending on your field of study with teaching and accommodation takes place there. Colleges run their own clubs and societies and have their own unique environments and atmospheres.
- What are the clubs and societies like? Lots of universities have a RAG charity club which hold events like a Jailbreak where you have around 36 hours to get as far away from the university as possible – without spending any money. Students have ended up all around the world - a team from Bristol ended up in Qatar in 2019! See if the university has clubs you’d be interested in joining, if they don’t have your club you could always start one!
- What are the facilities like? Consider how many shared facilities like libraries and computer labs the university has and how modern they are. Is the library open 24 hours a day?
- What’s student accommodation like? Is a space guaranteed for first year students?
- What bursaries and scholarships are available?
3: Location, location, location
You’re not just going to be studying! You need to look at living costs, city culture, and weather, to name a few.
- Do you want to live far from home? Living far away from home can be great for independence but can make it hard and more expensive to come home for birthdays and occasions. Do you want to live at home and commute to university?
- Do you want to live in a big city like Manchester, with the hustle and bustle of city life with endless activities and things to do, but with extremely high rent? Or would you rather live in a quieter town by the sea like Aberystwyth which is cheaper and a lot smaller?
- What do you want to do in spare time? Do you want to live somewhere like Sheffield with easy access to the Peak District National Park for hiking? Or do you want to live somewhere like London where you could visit a different pub every day throughout your entire degree and not even visit half of them?
- How expensive is rent for second and third year students in the local town?
4: Statistics
Looking at university rankings is a great way to start narrowing down universities. The Guardian and The Times release rankings each year which look at elements such as student satisfaction, job statistics, and teaching standards.
- Student satisfaction is the most important statistic to look at. This looks at how satisfied students are with the quality of teaching, support they received, and opportunities in personal and professional development.
- Make sure you look at subject specific rankings, just because the university is scored highly overall doesn’t mean they’ll have a high score for your subject. For example, Ulster University is 1st in the UK for optometry, but is 54th for Business & Management (The Complete University Guide 2020 League Table).
- There are lots of unofficial university rankings, from I Saw It First’s Nightlife Index to The Tab’s Greggs Index (cities with the highest Greggs to student ratio), there’s a ranking for everything you’re interested in.
5: Personal preference
At the end of the day picking the university is up to you. While your parents can have your best interests at heart, you’re the one who’s going to be spending three years (minimum) there! You need to make sure you can picture yourself being happy there. Don’t ignore a gut feeling!
Find the perfect course for you here
