I’m at that stage in life where you move on from sixth form and college, onto the next stage. This means researching my options, writing a personal statement and visiting universities. But not many people my age actually know what they want to do as a career, and so the aforementioned activities can become quite stressful, and difficult to complete.
This weekend I went to a university open day, and it was really good. By far the best university I have visited. However, this was the second time I’ve visited this university purely because one: I couldn’t do all of what I had wanted too the first time, and second: I really liked the university.
When you’re at an open day, there are key activities that you need to do, for example you need to go to your chosen course talk, or information stand, you need to go on a campus, and accommodation tour to get a feel for the university as a whole, and you need to see the facilities and activities they have to offer - especially if you have a main hobby!
The thing is, timings clash. Your course talk may clash with the student life talk, and you might run out of time to see accommodation and everything can become quite stressful. I remember the first university I looked round, and at this point I didn’t know what I wanted to study, so I had four course talks to go to. In the end I had to sacrifice three because I didn't have time to get between the buildings to go to the talks and do everything else in between. That day was quite hectic, especially since it was a university that my family had never looked round before.
It was hard to determine what activities were the most important because I didn’t know specifically what I wanted to look at; especially with the courses, so we received lots of information that day. One of the stands we went to, Forensic Science, helped me a lot because the professor there gave me advice to help determine which course I wanted. Unfortunately, my dream course isn’t at this university, but it was still helpful!
All open days are designed to help us potential students, by providing lots of information from lively, friendly students and staff. Plus, you can get lots of freebies! The information you can get from an open day, is invaluable because you can get a feel for the university, and receive lots of information from people, who are actually working or studying there. This allows you to ask any question you have and potentially make contacts for the future!
I know that this point in life is quite daunting, especially when you know people who have their life sorted out (not me!), and despite it being stressful, visiting universities is incredibly helpful because it can help you make up your mind. And so, it is okay if you don’t know what you want to do, but there are steps out there that can help you decide!
Until next time ……
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