Reflection on my university application

I remember the application process being very tedious. I didn’t think about what I wanted to do after sixth form until late in my final year. I started the application process on time although, from what I can remember, it took a long time to register. One of the annoying things about the process was not knowing  how many UCAS points I would get. Predicting my grades was rather difficult especially because some are exam based.

I started looking at universities based on how many UCAS points I guessed I would get and shortlisted 5 universities. I could only visit a few local ones because I didn’t drive and had a job in my last year at sixth form. I researched online before visiting my final choices. For my industry it’s heavily based on portfolio work so I looked up people who had graduated from my selected universities to check what their standards where. This gave me an idea of what I would be able to achieve after finishing that exact course. This helped narrow my decisions down, as well as reading the university course briefs. It’s rather ironic that the more research you do on what university you want to visit, the less time you have to revise for you exams and do coursework to achieve the UCAS points you need!

If I could give any tips it would be to visit the institutes yourself. For some people it might be difficult to choose a degree area and course. I cannot give advice on this topic because I’ve always known what I’ve wanted to do since I was young. Although I did have my personal preferences in software and operating systems. I’ve already written a blog post on applying to universities available here.

A simple search for show reels and showcase work for a university does give you a good overview of the tasks involved for the course. So if you can’t personally attend all open days, maybe consider attending the virtual open days. Some universities even use a virtual tour which seems to be filled with info about the course. You need to know as much as possible about a course before attending university, as it is a life changing decision.