When you're seventeen or eighteen years old, if you've decided you'd like to attend university then choosing the right one for you is probably going to be the biggest and most important decision you'll make in your life so far. For me at least, my university experience has not only defined the end of my teenage years, but it's also set me on track for the rest of my twenties too. Every experience that I've had at university has shaped me into who I am now, and who I want to be in the future - I guess it can be a pretty daunting choice to make.
When I first started out looking at different unis way back in year 12, I was so incredibly overwhelmed by the amount of choice there was that I didn't even know where to begin! There's a whole range of things worth considering when choosing a university. I thought I'd run through the factors that were most important for me when making my choice, in the hope that it may help you too. When my mum and I went to visit all the different unis I'd applied to, we were so super organised that we made a chart of all these different categories and rated each uni from grades A*-C. Obviously some of the factors are more important than others, and I'll discuss that in the breakdown of each, but that method really helped me to get a better idea of which places were best for me. In case you're wondering, I applied to Kent, Loughborough, Royal Holloway, Warwick, and Exeter - which is where I ended up.
Course
The most important factor for me was the course. While uni is about way more than just what you're studying, this is essentially what your £9,000 is going towards - and what you'll be walking away with in the form of a degree - so it's pretty important to get this one right.
The course can be a difficult to choose in itself, but it was important for me to study something that I knew I would really enjoy, and that would sustain my interest for the three years of the degree. I've always loved both English and Drama, and they're both subjects that I've excelled in from a young age, so I was finding it really tough to choose between the two before I discovered that it was possible to take a combined honours course with both of them!
Once I had that decision down, I searched through different subject-specific league tables to see which universities had both their English and Drama departments in the top 10-15, which really helped me to narrow down my choices. Once I had a list of, say, ten different universities, I went to each different website and looked at the course breakdowns to see which ones I was most interested in studying, as well as which departments I liked the look of. University websites are really great in that they give you a lot of information, and if you have any questions it's always possible to email to find out more.
Location
The second most important thing for me when choosing a university was its location, by which I mean the surrounding city. This is somewhere you're going to be living for three or even four years of your life, so it's crucial that you feel comfortable in the area and can see yourself enjoying spending time there. For me, having lived in Guernsey for the majority of my life before coming to university, the thought of moving to a massive city felt quite daunting, and it was for that reason that I avoided cities like Leeds, Manchester or Birmingham, despite the fact that they have great universities and courses. Smaller cities like Exeter, Kent and Warwick really appealed to me, and I could see myself feeling comfortable walking home at night, for example. I have lots of friends, however, who felt strongly about moving into a bigger city and were excited about the chance to explore somewhere completely different, so it's really just a case of personal preference. If you do get the opportunity to visit the universities you've applied to, I'd really recommend spending an afternoon looking around the town to get a feel for it, as it may just swing your choice. Some places just feel right.
Campus
I knew that I wanted to go to a campus-based university, where all of your lectures take place on one site, as opposed to a city-based one where buildings are spread out across the town. I liked the idea of uni being a central hub where I could meet up with friends and feel like part of a community. This eliminated quite a few unis quite easily, so it's definitely worth considering earlier on if you would prefer one or the other. Once I'd made that decision, it was really just a case of visiting the different campuses and looking at photos to see which one I liked the best. Exeter has a beautiful campus, full of greenery (with the biggest tree to student ratio of all universities in the UK!) and amazing facilities. I could definitely see myself living and working there, which was a hugely important factor for me.
Distance
Something else worth considering is the amount of distance you'll have to travel to university. If you're keen to go home in reading weeks or for long weekends, for example, it may be more appealing to choose somewhere that's closer by and with good transport links. Or, you might feel the exact opposite and be excited by the chance to move as far away as possible and explore somewhere completely new!
This was less of an issue for me, as my family live in Dubai so it was always going to be an eight hour flight, no matter where I chose to go in England. In fact, distance probably turned out to be the factor that I paid least attention to - Exeter was by far the worst journey out of all of the unis I looked at, with an eight hour flight to London followed by a four hour train journey, but I still picked it!
Accommodation
This one wasn't a massive factor, but definitely something that I thought about - accommodation. Most unis have a wide range of accommodation so it's not something to over-worry about, but I knew that I wanted to live on campus in my first year to make it easier to settle in and find my way around, so I made sure to check that the unis I was applying to offered that. I also decided that I would prefer to live in catered accommodation, where you have meals provided for you in dining halls in my first year. This way, I wouldn't have to worry about adjusting to shopping and cooking for myself as well alongside everything else that was going on - I would just be able to relax and enjoy meals while being forced to socialise with my new flatmates! Whatever you choose, accommodation is worth looking into before applying to make sure there's somewhere that you'd feel comfortable living. Most uni websites are really great and have lots of photos of the rooms they have available, and some even have videos and virtual tours so you can look around yourself!
League tables
While this was in no way the most important factor in my decision, and I would always prioritise things like the quality of the course or how comfortable I felt in the city, I did consider the position of the universities in the league tables. Exeter, for example, is a Russell Group uni, which is something that did appeal to me, with both the English and Drama departments in the top 10 in the country. If you're really stuck between two places, and have the grades for both, looking at the league tables and where your chosen subjects rank in each place could possibly be the deciding factor.
