You may, or may not know that I am aiming to go to university in 2015. I thought I would document the whole journey on this here blog, i’m sure some of you will have advice for me, and I’ll also be able to provide advice for someone who has yet to start the journey. I’ve seen a number of posts which give tips and advice once you’ve started uni, but I think the whole journey is a little scary!
I started my course in September 2013. I’m doing an Access to Higher Education course which isn’t the usual way to get to university. In the first couple of weeks of the course we spent time in class looking on UCAS to find the courses we were interested in, and also to see if our chosen universities accepted the Access to HE qualification.
I want to study Theology and was lucky enough to find that all of the universities I want to study at accept the Access to HE qualification, however they didn’t all say so on UCAS. A number of universities stated that they needed to be contacted directly, sometimes it can depends on the units you are studying. I sent all of my chosen universities an email, saying that I was interested in studying Theology with them for 2015 entry, and that I am currently studying an Access to HE course, and if they would accept the course as an alternative entry route.
If you are studying A Levels it is much easier to find the entry requirements, UCAS have a points tariff which universities use, and they will often ask for 360 UCAS points rather than stating the exact grades required. Some universities do choose to ask for ABB along with stating the points tariff.
One of the big benefits of taking a look at UCAS from the beginning of my course is that I was able to discover the entry requirements for all the universities I would possibly like to study at. I have then taken the highest entry requirements and that’s the minimum I want to get out of my course. I think it’s really good to have a target to aim for from the beginning,
It’s very easy to block out the thoughts of university when starting a course, I know I did when I started 6th form straight from school. Even if you’re not sure what degree you want to study, it’s a great opportunity to take a look at the universities which take your fancy and to see what sort of entry requirements they ask for a number of different courses, just to give yourself something to aim for.
As I said this is the beginning of a series documenting my journey, and so you can expect to see plenty more posts. I would love to know if you’ve got any advice from having already been there and done that, I’m a complete newbie after all!