Open Days

Hi everyone, hope you are all well and have had a good week!

This weeks post is going to be all about university open days, the benefits, my experience of open days, tips about where you can find out about selecting a university and all that fun stuff!

Going to as many open days as possible is going to give you the absolute best variety of universities to choose from, I think it is absolutely vital that you visit your potential university before putting it as one of your choices and heading off in September. There would be nothing worse than turning up to a uni that you're going to be living at for 3 to 4 years and finding it's nothing like the pictures because everything is different and pictures can lie, or even realising that it's not everything you wanted in a university you just chose it because you were rushing and didn't visit any open days. There are no negatives to going to several open days, only positives. You need to see your potential university for a number of reasons:

• You have to live there for 3 years
• You are paying a lot of money to attend university 
• It needs to suit all of your needs e.g. close to home/far from home
• It could look completely different to the pictures
• Just because your friends like it doesn't mean you will, do not take someone else's opinion
• You need to work out the halls you want to move into as there are different options. 
• Is there any part time work you could sign up for
• Does it have all the facilities you require for both leisure and studies e.g. a gym for leisure and enough computers for studying 
• Are the lecturers people you could see yourself getting along with
• Does the course offer everything you want it to 

The list is endless really, but there's a few vital things that you need to consider. 

My experience of looking round universities is quite minimal. I was very unsure of what I wanted the one thing I knew was that I wasn't ready to be miles and miles away from home I wanted to be close enough that I could commute for my second year if I wanted but I needed to be far enough away to experience freshers properly and living in halls of residence. I picked Bedfordshire and another university however I didn't actually look around the other one I picked which was why I was so happy when I found out I had got into Bedford. I was so unsure of the other university as I had seen Bedford and it fitted every one of my needs and I didn't want to go to an unknown university and have regretted my decision. I think this is why I believe open days are absolutely necessary I should have visited the other university to make sure it was right to put down as one of my options but I didn't which was a mistake because I'd have been so nervous if I hadn't gotten into Bedfordshire.

Tips on where you can find out more about university selection and open are available on UCAS or even the universities websites themselves. My advice would be to scour these websites and find the ones that seems like they would suit you the best, then apply for some open days and get a real feel for the universities, your choices could change dramatically when you actually visit the universities themselves. 

Just please do not apply for anything before seeing and looking round it. Make sure everything suits you before making any drastic decisions. 

The University of Bedfordshire offers open days throughout the year and this is what they include on the day: 

An open day includes the following activities

• Welcome talk and introduction to the University of Bedfordshire
• Course session with academics from the course you're interested in
• Tours of our campus facilities and student accommodation
• Talks on topics including: student finance, application and personal statements and student life
• Opportunities to speak to academics, support services and current students

Thanks for reading, I hope this was helpful. 

Until next time, 

M

University Open Days

Hi everyone!

Hope you're all well and enjoying the Easter break, I definitely am!

I thought I would talk about open days in this post as I'm sure some if not all of you are well on your way into visiting universities and finding the ones that you like best, but if not then this post can offer you some advice about choosing a university and what to look for when researching your potential choices.

Visiting a uni is the best way to find
out more

Open days really are the BEST way of getting a genuine feel for a university, the only way you'll ever know what a university is going to be like is by walking round and looking in every nook and cranny there is possible whilst you're there. Bedford was the only university I visited, partly because I had a Saturday job at the time and couldn't afford not to take time off as most of the open days were on Saturdays when I was looking and partly because I didn't have much choice when it came to university as I wanted to stay relatively close to home so that I could have the option to commute if needs be. Don't get me wrong I could have looked at a couple more but I just didn't and luckily for me it worked out ok, however if I were choosing a university far from home I would 100 percent only put it as one of my choices if I'd seen it.

Living away from home for three or four years may not seem like much at time because you're still doing a-levels and its a 'long time coming' but really it is only round the corner and before you know it you could be being shipped off to a part of the country you really no nothing about. So, my first piece of advice is VISIT UNIVERSITIES no matter what you think of their websites of brochures, everything is different in person and I would advise all of you to visit as many as you can because you never know, one you weren't so keen on from the pictures might actually be everything you want and more, so basically I'm using the cliche 'don't judge a book by its cover'.

One thing that made me feel more sure about Bedford than my other choices was because I'd seen it, I knew the distance it was from home which is perfect, I knew where I'd be studying down to the exact rooms almost, I'd visited the town centre and I'd even looked at potential job opportunities, everything about it felt right and that really is only down to the fact that I was familiar with the town and everything in it, not familiar enough to miss out on the initial exploring when you arrive but just enough to feel extra comfortable with my choice of university.

Here's a link to the universities open day page of their website in case any of you want to have a look and come along to one.

And take a look on YouTube to watch some videos all about their open days:

I study at the Bedford campus

If you really cannot gain access to a particular university you are interested in and really think it would be great for one of your choices I would consider scouring their website, google and any online forums for reviews of everything from the accommodation you are applying for to the best place for a cooked breakfast. It might be an idea to contact the university direct and ask for any extra information or even if they can help you in any way to learn any more information if you don't ask you don't get and all that.

I hope this post helps you on the path to finding your university and offers advice in the ways to do so.

Hope you have a good week, I'll speak to you next Friday when my Easter break will nearly be up :-(

Until next week,

M

Making choices!

Hi everyone!

Seeing as it's the time of the year that A-Level students are sitting their all-important exams that decide whether you'll be getting into your favourite uni, your second choice or going through clearing (preferably not this option), I thought I would dedicate this blog post to narrowing down my UCAS choices front five to just two...and as you who have already done so know this is extremely difficult for a person like myself who picked several courses at the same university.



I say it's hard to make a decision if you're someone like myself, however, at least I was one hundred percent sure on the university I wanted to go to rather than having to choose between unis, yet, I had to choose between courses. I knew from about the end of year 12 which is the first year of sixth form, that I wanted to take the teaching route for my career, and therefore this meant that I had to apply for universities on UCAS, because let's face it there's a degree for everything nowadays, in fact it's more common to have a degree than to not in this era! So I went to look at some universities close to home because I knew I wanted to be closer rather than miles away from home. I ended up loving the university of Bedfordshire's Bedford campus which is where all teaching courses take place and I also liked the look of Northampton, but not as much as Bedford. So, I went ahead and applied for two courses at the university of Northampton and three at the university of Bedfordshire. When it came to deciding on my final two choices I was STUCK. I had applied for the course 'Education Studies' at both Bedford and Northampton but I had also applied for Early Years and the Young Child in Education at Bedfordshire as well, which weren't the courses I wanted to do. I had to decide on the course or the university and eventually I decided on the course and put Bedfordshire as my first choice and Northampton for my insurance, both for the course I was most interested in: 'Education Studies'.

I am SO glad I decided to pick the course over the university itself because at the end of the day the course is what we are all there for. Even though, I got my first choice I would have been happy studying the same course at a different university as I knew it was the right degree for me and I've definitely made the right decision because I LOVE my course!

Of course you've got to like the university you're going to be studying at otherwise your experience will not be great, you should pick universities and courses to suit you and you alone, it's not anyone else's decision but yours. My main piece of advice would be to go to LOTS of open days even to universities you're not overly keen on; you shouldn't judge a book by its cover and you may well have a completely different view of that university once you have seen it for yourself. Oh, and don't pick a uni just because your friend is, you can stay in touch with that friend and, trust me, you'll meet plenty new ones!

Trust your instinct and go for the course and university that you are completely sold on, good luck in your exams!!