University #7 - How I Decided?

I feel like I haven't spoken about university for a while now, but I've realised that I haven't really told you how I came to my decision of choosing my university and course etc. 

If you didn't know I am going to Birmingham City University to study Marketing; which is a four-year course including a placement. Choosing your course and where your going to study/live is so important that you chose the right one so these are my tips.

Chose something you're passionate about - This is the most important piece of advice I can give someone when choosing a course to study, you are going to be studying this for a minimum of 3 years, so pick something you have an interest in. You can think about your future career, and what sort, of course, could benefit this. However, if you still don't know consider a gap year so you can really think about whether university is right for you, and what you are hoping to study.

Narrowing it down - If you've seen my other university blog posts (here), then you would have seen that I spoke about where to start in terms of where to start with university. But narrowing your potential universities down is essential because it's not feasible to go to multiple open days across the country. Narrow it down to about 5-7 I would say I think all together I only visited 5.

Comparisons - Having to weigh the pros and cons of every part of the university is vital! Some open days I visited I found the course amazing, but the accommodation let it down etc. This is where another one of my comparison tables comes into play, I created this one with a lot of different headers to be able to compare every part of the university; theirs a picture at the beginning of the post! The headings I had was:

University, Course, Location, Accommodation, The University, Positives, Negatives and Rating. 

I say to chose headings that suit you and what you're looking for, but these are a great overall range. I went into a lot of detail talking about the course, and what is had to offer for example a placement year etc. The accommodations that I visited and liked, the university grounds and surrounding area. After every section, I gave a rating out of 10 about each heading, then at the end done an overall rating on the university as a whole; it turns out there was on two which I wasn't so keen on!

Once you have visited all the universities, it's easier to jog your memory and to compare different elements of the uni's; overall you will realise which one stood out the most to you. 

When you know, you know! - This saying is spoken about a lot in terms of wedding dresses etc, but it's so true! When you know what university is for you, you get butterflies and just a buzz of excitement! I knew BCU was for me because I couldn't fault anything about it, but felt as if once I came home I didn't stop talking about how nice the accommodation was, how helpful the staff were and just how lovely everything is! This is how I knew.

Future opportunities - At the end of the day, you're going to university to further your education and increase your opportunities in the future. This is why when you're looking at the place you're wanting to study think about jobs, placements and opporuntiies this is because if you need to get a job their's more chances of you getting a better one in a city versus a small town. Birmingham was right for me because it's a city, which has so many large businesses, head offices and places of work. 

I will have another university blog post coming soon, updating you on everything else!

Shelby x