University Series: Choosing Your Course

As the start of A2 year is right around the corner for some, we thought we'd give you some guidance on how we chose our courses for University. Basically as this is your final year in college, it is your most important as you do have a lot of pressure when it comes to Student Finance, UCAS and of course your exams. Don't Panic! You will have a lot of support available to you at your college/sixth form, however it is essential you remain organised and focused throughout this year, in order to get the results you deserve. Anyway enough rambling, lets get into the interesting stuff.

 

Kiana:

 

Course: Criminology & Security Studies

 

Like any normal indecisive human being, it was hard at first selecting my course as their is so much choice and diversity. We did have a full day at the end of AS year where we could research and find out about courses which we were interested in. However at that moment in time I was incredibly unsure and physically did not know where to start. It was only in the summer before my A2 year commenced, when I started narrowing my options down, I wrote down the subjects which I enjoyed the most, which at that time was; Sociology & Anthropology. I later then discovered that I wanted to do something which involved crime, as I enjoy researching this topic as a hobby and also like to keep up-to-date with worldly matters. I wrote 'crime' and 'sociology' as key words on the UCAS course search http://search.ucas.com/, which brought up Criminology. I looked further into this course and decided it suited what I was looking for, although I really wanted to do a Combined Honours. I found out that most University's offer a combined Criminology course, and it was usually partnered with Sociology,. Psychology and Social Policy. These were really interesting subjects to combine with my core, however I still wasn't satisfied. I only truly decided when I chose what University I wanted to study at, it was there and then when I saw the combination of both Criminology and Security Studies, that my heart was settled and content. My advice personally would be to write down the courses which interest you the most, do in-depth research about these, go to University Open Days (they really do help) and hopefully you will be able to select a course that suits you. 

Bekka:

Course: Drama & Theatre studies and English Literature

I'm like Kiana and famously the character of Hamlet the most indecisive human on the earth I decided on a joint honours course. However, first of all I asked myself how far I was willing to move away for university. After talking to family and friends I decided to stay within the north west area. I wanted to be able to travel home whenever I wanted and not have to travel four hours on a train if I did get homesick. Which I did a lot in the first term.  

I then started off looking into courses of my three A-level subjects Fine Art, Drama and English Literature and Language. I simply went on UCAS course finder and typed in the courses and looked at course specifications. I began looking into fine art courses but after searching for drama and seeing there were English and drama options I decided to look into universities that did both courses.  To begin with I didn't even know joint honours courses existed until I searched for it myself. UCAS may seem complicated and weird cause you're new to it but play around with the searches and the site and you'll get more comfortable with it I promise.

I found a few universities within the north west that did my current course and fine art. I looked at open days and booked onto them during September and October I attended 5 open days, which turned out to be my options. An open day guide will be up soon don't worry. I went to my first one and spoke to tutors in art and drama and English and felt instantly drawn towards drama and English literature.  The course material and questions tutors were asking drew me in. Due to this new found interest I researched course specifications on university websites and watched YouTube videos interviewing students doing drama and English literature. Obviously these sell the course but, I was like a kid in a candy store I couldn't wait to open these dusty classics and start reading them and performing them. I looked for courses that involved a lot of theory with drama being a practical subject you need to look at how much theory and practical there is on the course. Last year I had one performance evaluation  which was followed by my tutors asking me questions about our decisions as a group, which was all about theory and two essays. So I chose a theory heavy course. If you're wanting to be an actor and doing all practical drama isn't for you look into acting schools if that's something you want to peruse.

My advice would be willing to ask yourself and others questions. I now go into my old college and help teach drama and English and answer questions about the course and university life in general. So ask tutors parents family and friends whatever. Do your research and you'll find something you love. Just research it first and go to open days! How can you know you can live in a place for 3 years if you've never bloody been! Don't waste £9,000+. Like Kiana said write down you're favourite current courses or things you're interested in. Search it in UCAS and read course specs. Go onto uni websites for more detailed ones. A lil reading never hurts, cause boy let's face it you'll be doing a lot at university anyway. So get ya ass on UCAS!

Hope this helps,
Kiana & Bekka