Applying for competitive university courses
Now that the summer holidays are nearly upon us, it’s probably worth thinking about your applications for university. They will need to be made next term, a lot of them by mid October, due to Oxbridge, medicine and vet medicine deadlines. Your school/college will have got you thinking about your application already hopefully. This blog is aimed at summarising some of the main points.
Applying for competitive courses can be daunting. This blog will try to offer you some top tips and encouragement for giving competitive university courses a try, because if you don’t apply, someone else will definitely get the place! So what will the admissions tutors be looking for as part of your application for their university course?
Depending on the course, work experience might be an essential, that you have to have. So for instance with medicine, veterinary medicine, physiotherapy and teaching will all want you to have varying amounts of experience that you can discuss during your personal statement and interview. Other competitive courses, for instance Law, having some experience will help develop your statement well. The top tip here is to not just list your experience but to offer some analysis about what you gained from doing it! How has it enhanced your understanding of the job or course? Want more information on this? This UCAS information is useful https://www.ucas.com/undergraduate/applying-university/writing-your-personal-statement/work-experience-and-volunteering.
Reading around the subject is essential, you can’t just assume that your core A level knowledge or reading will be sufficient. If you have an interview, you may well get asked about current issues in the industry or how you would approach ethical issues. So by being aware of what is happening in the subject area/industry will get across your motivation for doing the degree. University of Cambridge have got this to say about it - https://www.cambridge.org/us/education/blog/2020/01/08/encouraging-level-students-read-around-their-subject/.
Think through how your current studies are preparing you for doing an undergraduate degree. You can split this into the academic skills you are developing and the knowledge you are gaining that will help ‘smooth’ the transition from school or college onto a degree.
Admissions tutors are very aware that for the vast majority of students, their degree choice and university studies are a ‘staging post’ to a career. So, if you know how you’d want to use this competitive course to set yourself up for a career, say so! How are you expecting to use the degree in the future? How will studying it prepare you for life after?
Have you got other experience that will help you stand out? For instance university summer schools, sporting achievements, interesting part time jobs or other experiences?
Your school or college will tell you all about writing a really good UCAS statement – this is important! Some universities will read them in a lot more detail than others but crafting a decent statement is really important.
For several courses and some universities, interviews will be an important part of bringing your application ‘to life’. This will give the university and you a really good chance to impress each other and confirm whether a place is right for you.
We hope this blog has been useful. It was originally written for MyFutureChoice.
