The 18th May is when you’re able to register and start your application to begin your undergraduate degree in 2022 ready to submit it from September 2021.
Now while the actual date you’d be starting seems like a lifetime away - If you could call 16 months a lifetime (and a quick internet search tells me that only some rodents can). It is never too early to start taking a look at two things.
What you want to study and where you want to study it.
The two things are equally as important in your decision-making process so let’s take a look at each and what kind of questions you should be asking yourself as you begin to put together your UCAS application for next year.
What do you want to study?
If you want to pick a starting point, I would suggest starting with this question.
There are thousands of courses that you’re able to choose to study at university. All slightly different to the last, even if they have the same name at two different universities, the content that you’ll study will vary in some aspects so don’t just take a look at the course title and leave it at that. You want to dive deeper into what the course, and its modules, entail.
How do you go about choosing a course to study out of all that is available? Well, I’d suggest asking yourself what you really want from life. Courses are different in that some are extremely focused on getting you into a particular profession, such as medicine or engineering, whereas some of them are designed to equip you with a range of transferable skills that you can apply to several different careers. The Arts and Humanities are examples of courses like this.
So if you have an idea already of what kind of career you want to get out of your degree, you might want to see if there are any of those focused degrees designed to get you into that industry. If there isn’t, research the skills you need for that career. What degrees will allow you to get those skills? Once you start to know that, you can start narrowing down your choices.
If you truly can’t choose one degree then take a look at dual degrees. A lot of universities allow you to combine your degrees to take modules from two different disciplines. You can study Drama while also studying a foreign language or Psychology while also studying English. Look to see if this could be an option for you and importantly what skills you can gain from them and if that fits into your ideas for your future career.
Where do you want to study it?
Once you’ve got an idea of what you want to study and what skills and career progression the course can offer you. You can start researching where you might want to study it.
Once you’ve got a shortlist of universities that offer you the course you’ve chosen, it’s time to start asking yourself if you want to spend (at least) 3 years of your life living there. If you end up somewhere that isn’t right for you, it’s going to be a real struggle to stick it out until the end of your course.
Remember that what is right for one person, isn’t right for another so it wouldn’t be wise to choose somewhere just because a few people you know have chosen it. Ask yourself what you enjoy doing. What are your passions and what do you want to get out of the university experience? A university degree is so much more than the degree you study and you want to make sure you can make the most of it while you’re there. It isn’t just what you enjoy doing in your spare time either, it’s what other wider skills you want to develop while you’re there.
Take a look at what societies the university itself has, do you think any of those could be of interest to you? Look outside of the university as well. What is the city all about? Could you see yourself fitting in there? Is it a sporty city? A musical city? A party city? Think about what you can see yourself doing while you’re at university.
Ask the weirder questions too. Are you going to be cycling a lot while you’re there? Is it a green city with a lot of cycle lanes? Is it hilly? What is the public transport like in the city? Are there a lot of parks there or is it a concrete jungle? Are there many bars/cinemas/libraries/community projects/laser tags/go-karting centres/petting zoos (Delete as appropriate). These are the kind of deeper questions you should be asking to really get the perfect university experience.
You can find this information on open days, virtual open days, and even through live chats with student ambassadors on the university website. Take a look at ways to contact the people who are already there when you’re doing your research.
Once you’ve got the answer to these two questions, you can start getting your UCAS application in a good shape to apply as soon as you can.
Take a look at our guides on choosing a university and university course here and have a look at our handy advice video from our presenter Moj discussing what he wishes he’d known when applying to university here.
Aron Tennant is the Talks and Editorial manager for Push. He is originally from South Yorkshire and has a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Sheffield. He also has a MA degree in Creative Play and Screenwriting from City, University of London and came runner up in Nickelodeon's international screenwriting competition in 2018 and his short film ''Donkey Tooth' was screened at the London Raindance Film Festival in 2018. He is part of the comedy sketch group Next Level sketch, writes articles for JumpcutOnline.com, is IMDB credited and is working on his own independent film, TV and theatre projects.
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