Cafe Uni

When you apply for university, they may offer you a conditional offer to be a student there.

As previously mentioned on this blog, this means that they are offering you a place to be a student at their university, on the course you applied for, provided that you fulfil certain conditions.

These will be related to your grades so, for example, they might ask that you get three B grades at A level. It is then up to you to accept this conditional offer.

But what happens if you accept it, and then your grades aren’t as good as were expected and you don’t meet the conditions of the offer? Can you still do your chosen course at the university?

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When you are a graduate and have finished university, it can be a daunting time.

You face the prospect of looking for a job, you may feel unsettled in the course you chose to do, and be at a crossroads about where to go and what to do next.

You may even be thinking about which town, city or even country you should live in. Many people return home after university, to the town where they are from or where their parents live.

I decided not to do this because the town I am from is very small and there are not very good job opportunities. However, if there are job opportunities in the place you are from, then this can be a good option, as it will give you a bit of time out and a place to base yourself in while you consider your next move. Read the rest of this entry »

Around this time in the university year, students start thinking about moving in to a new home for the new university term in September.

It might seem like a long time ago, but, I remember, when I was at university, everyone organised their houses just after Christmas. I don’t know if we were just very organised, but it seemed like, if you wanted a good house for not a huge amount of money, then you have to start looking around now.

And if you’ve decided who you’re going to live with, and even picked the location, then you might be thinking about viewing houses soon. But what are the things you have to consider and look out for when you go to see the houses?

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Deciding who to live with at university can be one of the most important decisions you make as a student.

Your choice of housemate can have such an effect on your university life, and go from making it brilliant to bad, or vice versa.

If you are on campus or in university housing, then you will probably not have a choice about who you live with in the beginning but, as you enter your second year, you will usually be given the option of moving out into private accommodation.

You may not even get the choice, and the policy could be that you have to move out into private accommodation. This will be the time that you must decide who to live with in your house.

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So, you’ve put in the hard work, finished your course and graduated. The long slog is over and now it’s time to start looking for a job.

But what happens if you then decide that you don’t actually want to work in the field that you studied in?
Don’t panic – all is not lost. Your degree doesn’t have to have gone to waste, as there are lots of ways you can work this to your advantage.

Firstly, it is useful if you decide what field it is that you DO want to work in. You don’t have to know the exact job, but the right direction would be a good step. I studied for a law degree and, after graduating, knew I didn’t want to be a lawyer.

I had to decide whether I wanted to still stay in the legal industry doing a different job, or whether I wanted to move away from law entirely – and this is what I finally decided, before I took the step towards journalism. Read the rest of this entry »

Starting university is an exciting time, when you are meeting new people and beginning a new course.

It may be a subject you haven’t studied before, or it could me something you know a lot about. But however much you already know about your course, a lot of students find that they run in to problems when beginning their university course.

It may not be that the course is too ‘hard’ for you, it could be as straightforward as simply having to get your head around a new subject. So if you are struggling with your new university course, don’t struggle in silence; there are lots of options for where to turn to for help. Read the rest of this entry »

The last blog post talked a little about whether students should live in private housing or university accommodation.

Now I want to go into more detail about the pros and cons of living on campus or off campus. It’s an important decision, because it could determine so much other the course of your university life: the friends you make, how much you like the city you’re studying in and even your overall happiness.

So firstly, campus living will almost always be ‘easier’ in that you don’t have to sort out your own utilities and bills, you will be living with students and you will be able to easily walk to your course classes or the library. If they’re not a walking distance, universities will probably put on buses free of charge.

It will also be easier to get involved with campus activities, so you will feel a sense of attachment and should fit in more easily and quickly than if you live off campus. Read the rest of this entry »

Just as choosing a university course can be difficult, so can choosing where you want to go to university.

However, it can be useful to think about certain things when deciding, to help you narrow down your options and make your mind up. Once you have a few options, consider talking to graduates or alumni about their experiences at that university.

Perhaps the first thing to consider, is if you want to live at home still, or live away from home. If you want to live at home, then you will have to look at universities that are not too far away, and easily reachable each day. If you want to move out, then this opens up your options even more for where you can study your course.

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Choosing which course to study at university can be a difficult decision.

If you’ve always wanted to do a particular job, such as be a doctor, then this is clearly an easier decision, as you will enter the field of medicine. But if, at the age of 17 or 18, you still don’t know ‘what you want to be when you get older’, then there are several things you should think about, when making your decision.

Most people will have a particular field in which their strengths lie. For example, you may be better at the arts, or the sciences, so this helps to narrow down your options. It’s ok to not know exactly which subject you excel it yet; most university courses are designed to be a bit more flexible so you can choose the modules that best suit your interests and method of working.

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