Lifestyle: 5 tips for applying to uni.

I have recently just finished my UCAS application to apply to university and I thought I'd share with you 5 things I have learnt whilst doing this that my be useful for other people who are doing the same thing.

  

What I've applied to do.
I thought I would start by saying what courses I've applied to where, to make the answers a bit more relevant.

1. Criminology at Sussex University 

2. Policing and Criminal Investigation at Staffordshire University

3. Criminal Investigation with Police Studies at De Montfort University

4. Policing and Criminal Investigation at the University of Central Lancashire

5. Criminology, Policing and Investigation at Birmingham City University

1. Find a course you fall in love with.
I wasn't originally planning to do criminology related studies at university; I was going to do straight Law - yet I was lucky I had a couple of tasters of Law at summer schools and discovered it wasn't for me. Then, I looked a some criminology courses and released I was so much more passionate and excited about it than I was about Law. I would highly recommend exploring every option you think you may be in the slightest bit interested in, and make sure you are fully involved with wanting to do that course before you apply.

  

2. Enhance yourself.
Get involved with as much as you can in year 11 and 12 that you can put on your application. I have completed NCS, summer schools, uni visits, public speaking competitions and more. All these activities will not only give you so many opportunities to meet people from all over the country who share similar interests; but also look great on you UCAS form as you will have loads of evidence of your skills to put in your personal statement!

3 Visit Universities.
I was convinced I was going to study in London until I spent a couple of days looking at universities in London and realised living in the centre of a big city all the time wasn't for me. There a such huge differences between campus and city sites, universities up north and down south - every one is unique so you'll never know if you like it until you see it!

4. Ask for help with your Personal Statement.
I struggle with writing things short and tend to blab on a bit - so being limited to 4000 characters was a huge challenge for me. However, what I found most useful was going through it over and over again with my tutor to get someone else to pick out what was good and necessary, and what wasn't. It is so difficult to critique your own work, and it is so useful to get a second opinion. I had mine looked at by my college tutor 4 times, and it was worth it to get it to the standard I wanted it to be!

5. Study the right subjects. 
The most important thing to do if you know what you want to do at Uni when you start college is to make sure you study any necessary subjects in the entry requirements for the course you want to do. For example, for Criminology you have to study an essay subject at A level and have a GCSE grade B minimum in English Lit or Lang. If you don't chose the right subjects for you, then you could end up either not being able to do the course you want, or having to do an extra college or sixth form year. 

I hope you enjoyed this and it was useful for all of you heading off to uni hopefully next year (or those who are preparing ahead of time!) - if you are applying to uni, let me know in the comments what you're applying for and where you want to go!