Right, so it’s your last year of High School, and all of you have been squeezed into a room and pestered by guidance staff to PICK YOUR FUTURE NOOOOOOOOOW! Sound familiar? I remember it well. So, you’re sitting there thinking, ‘What about Uni? get a degree, then a job, and see from there.’ But applying, finding the money, finding a subject to study, and more importantly somewhere to do it, are a few things going through your mind, as that folder tucked away titled ‘UNIVERSITY.’ opens. Sounds like quite a daunting process. It’s really not. Take it from me, I did last year.
First off- you want to go to University, you want to get out of the nest, take flight, get as far away from your parents and their constant ‘do this! No, you’re not going out dressed like that! Have you done your homework?!’ hounding in the mornings when you come stairs in your school uniform with a hair out of place… But, how do you start going about this? First port of call- Careers Officers. These are awesome people, find out in school how to get in contact with them, get an appointment, and pour your heart out to them. Tell them what makes you tick, what you enjoyed studying at school, what you’d like to study beyond school. Even if you’ve not a clue, I’m sure they can get you sorted out. They can get you information on anything from courses and what grades you’ll need, what universities do the subject of your choice and can give you advice on what you could do with that degree. They can also give you advice on applications, open days and answer any questions you may have. I got myself a meeting with our school careers advisor/officer and she was able to give me lots of advice. At the time I was torn between studying engineering or physics, and she was able to get me endless amounts of information on each and various open days, prospectuses to read etc, to help me decide. Which brings me to the next part…
Open days.
So, you’ve decided on a subject and you’ve picked all the universities that do that course that are just far enough away that your parents won’t drop into visit and embarrass you. (just kidding) What you want to do now, is get prospectuses for these uni’s, you can usually order a copy online from them direct (for free, of course) but you might find that your school will already have a good few copies of their own, so if you find time during your ‘study periods’ have a flick through them. If they are still ticking boxes for you, have a look at going on open days. They are great excuses to skive off a day of school, and are they best way to find out what it would be like to go there. You can read a book, but that’s second to none to actually experiencing it for yourself. So, when you get up there, between going ‘ooooh’ and ‘ahhhh’ ask questions! By the end of the day, you want to have a clear ‘ya-eh’ or ‘nay’ in your mind. But, if you are still dithering when you get home, you can still contact people at the university. Email the lecture of the course, and they’ll more than happy to help.
