Choosing the right university and course is both thrilling and challenging, demanding thought and planning to align your academic path with personal interests and aspirations. Here are some of the things I did when I started this journey.

Step 1: Deciding What You Want

The first step in my university selection process involved defining my academic and career aspirations. For this, I created two lists/mind maps: one outlining subject interests and the other detailing my 10-year objectives, such as further education and career plans, making sure to highlight what was a definite.

It is then essential to conduct surface-level research to confirm your chosen subject area’s suitability, identify potential overlaps and ensure you have the requirements for your future aspirations, making sure to highlight this on your subject interest list. This made it easier for me to have a clear understanding of what I wanted and needed from my university experience.

Once your goals are established, the UCAS helps you to explore the courses available, enabling you to search and filter for courses and institutions tailored to your preferences. Sometimes this may reveal alternative courses or joint honours options that better suit your aspirations.

Media courses can vary in Media, Television, Film and sometimes Radio. It’s also important to differentiate between courses with ‘Studies’ in the title that are usually more theory based or ‘Production’ which are usually more practical based.

Step 2: Researching and Exploring the University

After identifying courses from UCAS, further researching on university’s websites for details on curriculum and facilities/equipment, teaching methods, extracurriculars. If they seem to be a good fit, I then looked into additional factors, such as finances, location, entry requirements, accommodation to make further choices.

I wanted to explore the universities as a whole, which I first did virtually with virtual open days, virtual tours and Google Maps. I later attended physical open days to immerse myself in the university environment, interact with staff and current students, and explore both the campus and local area.

Step 3: Identifying and Ranking My Top Priorities

I assessed the overall university experience by creating a list of the top 10 factors and ranking them by importance. Using a spreadsheet, I allocated points out of 10 to each course/university based on preference and highlighted the top ones and any high scores. This table helped identify my top choices that best matched my goals and priorities.

Why I Settled on Bournemouth University (BU)

After doing this, I chose BU for Media Production due to its amazing, up-to-date facilities & equipment, strong industry connections, and prospects for additional opportunities such as being part of Nerve Media, a Student Ambassador, PAL Leader and taking part in a series of freelancing projects from the local area. BU also has a large range of Clubs & Societies to get involved in for fun as well as the amenities of the whole city, not just the beach, transport connections, and accessibility further solidified my decision. 3 years later, I can confidently say BU was the right choice.

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Choosing a university course