What you can do to prepare for the university application process over summer! 

You can browse a range of subjects and courses here: Explore | UCAS. Some things to think about when picking what you want to study are: 

What are my interests both inside and outside school?  

Think to yourself what interests and what subjects you like? Are there any hobbies you have that you may consider studying, like art for example? 

I studied Chemistry because it was my favourite A Level and I was interested in how chemistry can be utilised to tackle global issues like climate change.  

Am I really interested in this subject?  

You need to be able to study the subject for a minimum of 3 years so make sure you’re interested in it. If you find you start your course and you don’t like it, normally it’s possible to change courses within the first few weeks. 

Reading around the subject can help you gain an understanding of the sorts of things you’ll be learning about, and this is also useful when it comes to writing your personal statement as it demonstrates your interest. I recommend doing this to see if you’re interested in studying the subject and the topics that will be covered at degree level. 

Where can this degree take me after university?  

A degree is versatile, and it gives you so many transferrable skills and opens routes into many sectors. Remember to research them as there are a few exceptions like medicine where you need to have studied it to become a doctor. 

Although I studied Chemistry, I knew it offered many career paths such as careers in finance, science, business, and education, for example. In my final year I discovered a newfound interest in education from my bachelor’s project and have since worked in educational outreach. I have used knowledge from my project in educational research and used many transferrable skills, from my degree, such as time-management, data analysis and presentation skills in my internship.  

A personal statement is an important written piece, which supports your university application! It’s your opportunity to demonstrate your skills, abilities and experiences and explain why you’d be an asset to the university. This can be really overwhelming to write but I’ll share my top tips in how to write it from my own experience.  

My top tips would be to… 

Not leave it till the last minute and start drafting over the summer: 

I recommend starting it over the summer between Year 12 and 13 and have a draft ready to go by September. My teachers advised us to do this, and it massively helped me as I had to do a lot of editing. Some courses require your application to be in as early as October, so this is even more important as you only have a month or two when you get back to school to write them! The early deadline is for any course at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, or for most courses in medicine, veterinary medicine/science, and dentistry. You can add the rest of your choices by January (when the majority of course deadlines are but don’t forget you can only have five choices in total and in this case, you won’t be able to change your personal statement!   

Make a rough plan on what you’re going to write about: 

Planning is key to writing a personal statement. I recommend thinking about the structure of your personal statement and writing rough sub-headings, so you know what to write about in each paragraph and can just go through and fill it in. Some questions to consider and discuss are: 

• Why have you chosen this course?
• What excites you about the subject?
• How is your previous or current study relevant to the course? 
• Have you got any work experience that might help you? 
• What achievements are you proud of? 
• What skills do you have that make you perfect for the course and to study at university? 
• What plans and ambitions do you have for your future career? 

Don’t overthink it and write concisely! 

I found the opening to the personal statement to be the hardest and I knew it needed to stand out to keep the admissions tutor wanting to read on.  

Keep it relevant and to the point – don’t waffle. It’s got to be between 1,000 – 4,000 characters or 47 lines – whichever comes first. Think about your choice of wording – the word passionate is often overused; don’t tell someone about your passion for a subject, show it through your achievements and experiences. 

It’s always good to connect the beginning of a statement to the end, as it reinforces what you said at the start. The ending should be memorable and emphasise the great points already made.   

Final hints and tips… 

I suggest writing it in Microsoft Word and copy and pasting it into your application later, as the UCAS portal doesn’t have a spell check.  When submitting your application, hit save regularly to avoid losing your work. Remember to proof-read your work before submitting it. 

For more advice when writing your personal statement, check out this: How To Write Your Undergraduate Personal Statement | Undergraduate | UCAS 

You can pick 5 course options when submitting your application. So once you know what you want to study you can start selecting your top 5. Things to consider include: 

Do you like the university? 

You need to consider whether you’d prefer a campus university or city university.  

• Campus: where everything is self-contained and in close proximity, giving a community feel. These are normally based close to or on edge of cities. 

• City: have their buildings dotted around the city so requires walking between buildings, but this offers a more immersive cultural and vibrant city feel. 

I went to the University of York because I preferred a campus university, as I could walk to lectures in 5 mins. When I attended the open day, I loved how green the campus was and how easy it was to get into the city centre. I also thought the brand-new labs were much better than the facilities offered at other universities.  

Some universities, Loughborough for example, are known for sport and it’s a big part of the curriculum. Some universities have a college system, like York. I really enjoyed that because they offered college sport which was more chilled out than the university teams. It also gave a nice sense of belonging having a college system as well as a bit of fun. 

Do you like the city? 

Remember you’ll be living in the city for a few years! Consider where it’s located and how close to home you want to be.  

I picked York as it was a small city compared to Birmingham or Manchester etc., which was important to me, but it still had a lot going on. It was also very pretty and had a lot of nature surrounding it which appealed to me.  

What option modules do they offer? 

All universities offer different option modules for the same course. For example, in History you will do similar core content, but certain universities may have modules specialising in different time periods or topics.  

Applications of chemistry were important to me, specifically specialising in environmental issues such as climate change. York specialised in Atmospheric and Environmental Chemistry; which was what I was interested in studying, so this was a major reason why I picked York. 

What are the entry requirements? 

Have you done the correct A Levels and have the potential to achieve the required grades? Speak to your school careers advisor if you’re unsure about your grades or the qualifications you may need. Some courses require additional entry requirements/qualifications, e.g., the UCAT or BMAT, are used as an admissions test for medical schools, and can differ depending on which university you apply to.