How to choose a university...

Over the past year I have been going on a lot of university open day, campus tours, taster days etc. and I have found that most of the courses (for psychology) are very similar, the differences tend to be the style they teach and the way you are examined so I think that if you are pretty sure of what subject you want to study and what learning styles you prefer, finding the right university for you is going to be really easy.

When choosing a university to go to, you need to remember that you are going to be studying there for at least 3 years and most likely living there for at least 3 years so you really do have to love it. I think the best and easiest way to get a feel of a university is to visit it. You should see a variety of campus and city universities of different sizes to see if a small or big university will be better for you as well as talking to the staff at the universities from relevant departments.

Once you have decided on a campus or city university, you should find out how many UCAS points you are likely to get. If, for example, you are predicted to get 300 UCAS points then you would want to look at universities that require 260 UCAS points to universities that require 320 UCAS points to make sure you have somewhere to go even if your grades are slightly higher/ lower than expected.

By this point you probably have narrowed down your list quite considerably so the next step is to think about how far away from home you want to go. I personally want to stay within 2/3 hours from my home so that I can go home for weekends if I want to. This is when you want to start going to even more open days and campus tours and taster days at the universities you're looking at to check out their resources and accommodation and maybe even extra curricular activities such as sports teams and clubs that interest you. You should now be in the position to choose your top 5 universities to apply to.

My last tip for you is to apply early! If you apply early then you will get responses back from universities early and you can finish your last year of school without worrying about where you'll be going next year.

Just remember that this whole experience should be fun and exiting, not stressful!