Thinking about going to university and have no idea what uni to pick? Fair enough, there are many people that don’t have the first idea either, and tend to choose the ones that look the prettiest or the ones that their parents have heard of. Bad move – universities are like fruit. Or books. Or, well, most things – there’s a lot more to them than what you can see on the outside. It’s an awful analogy, but you will see what we mean.

One way to break through the minefield is the university ranking tables published in newspapers like The Times or The Guardian. Comparing numbers may seem a slightly clinical method of choosing your university, but it pays to know some of the facts hidden behind the shiny exteriors. So, without any ado (and hopefully with no more bad analogies involving fruit), here’s a guide to the ranking system and how it’s all worked out.

University rankings are a very convenient way of pitting two or more universities against each other with pure empirical data

The Ranking Process

Universities are ranked slightly differently depending on what system is used, but generally the same categories are measured. We’ll go over all of them in some detail, but first, here they all are. In no particular order:

• Student Satisfaction
• Staff/Student Ratio
• Expenditure Per Student
• Entry Requirements
• Research Quality
• Students’ Career Prospects
• Number of International Students

So, a fair few things are measured. But how useful are they all, exactly? For example, a certain university might have an enormous amount of foreign undergraduates, but this doesn’t necessarily make it a good university, last year the Telegraph reported that many universities offer foreign students lower entry requirements than their UK counterparts. Obviously, therefore, these rankings have to be taken with a pinch of salt. We’ll talk more about that later.

So, lets talk about each of the categories in a little more detail…

Student Satisfaction

Make this one of the first rankings you look for if you are concerned with your learning experience at university, as scores are derived from a measure of students’ satisfaction at the level of teaching they receive. Treat it similarly to an online review on your favourite web-based retailer, there may be a few negative reviews but if the overwhelming majority are happy with the service they receive, then the university will rank well here.

Staff/Student Ratio

Generally, the more staff there are for a given number of students, the better equipped the university is to provide a student value for their money. Basic stuff. Again, though, this ranking isn’t fool-proof: it might be a bit of a stretch of the imagination, but what if one university had a particularly huge quota of cleaning staff for some reason? Perhaps the students keep dropping fruit everywhere, or something (sorry). Or maybe there was a particularly low intake of students which skewed the rankings in the universities favour.

Ultimately though, this ranking is a good indicator of the level of access to staff you can expect, though it is not a guarantee of the standard of teaching you will receive.

Expenditure Per Student

See above, but better. The theory behind this ranking is that a greater spend per student indicates the presence of greater learning resources. Bear in mind that financial investment at universities can be spent on a variety of things that might not necessarily directly improve your learning experience. Some rankings take this into consideration by splitting expenditure rankings into academic (think library resources, computers) and facilities (sports, careers, student union etc.) categories. Nevertheless, this is one of the best and most clean-cut ways of comparing how universities are going to look after you.

Entry Requirements

The entry requirement rankings operate under the premise that a better performing university accepts applicants with higher grades than the applicants of a university that is not performing so well.

These rankings are not in themselves a perfect way of measuring how successful a university is – a better method would probably be to take into account the grades that students achieve upon leaving university, which would mean slightly encroaching on graduate career prospects, more of that later. The entry requirements may change year on year for many courses and subjects, so the maths behind this ranking can be very complex.

Generally you’d assume that a university demanding better grades would be likely to provide a higher standard of teaching, and there’s not much arguing with that. You might suppose that a poor performing university might suddenly raise its entry requirements to raise its rankings in an attempt to attract students with higher grades, but weightings do exist to attempt to avoid this scenario.

Research Quality

Research quality should in general be seen as a good indicator of the proficiency of a university. The higher the quality of research produced, the better support available for your work, which should in turn help take your work onto higher levels of quality.

Do be wary that, although you would expect any university to produce high quality research, there may be a chance that a greater percentage of resources are diverted to research and students are neglected as a result. Besides, “research quality” can become a little ambiguous once you get past the tiny fraction of breakthroughs that make it to the public eye. And occasionally the ones that do get through to the news aren’t exactly the most inspiring – one of the BBC’s top stories in 2007 was the scientific perfection of the bacon sandwich. Whilst we think this is an immensely worthwhile cause, it’s not exactly an enormous breakthrough as far as science is concerned.

Students’ Career Prospects

Now we believe that this is an excellent measurement and probably explains why final grades aren’t measured alongside entry requirements. This ranking will generally look at the number of students that go on to full-time employment or full time education when they graduate. A number of factors can influence this ranking – such as the type of job that recent graduates go into. Higher level jobs are favoured over lower level jobs, and rates of pay are usually taken into account.

You can’t go too wrong with this one; after all one of the main reasons a lot of us go to university for is to, hopefully, find a good job when we graduate. Admittedly, there can be some bias when it comes to identifying what a ‘good job’ is composed of – job satisfaction can be far more important than a pay cheque to a lot of people. If you find it reassuring to know how likely you are to find employment when you graduate, this is the ranking to look for.

Number of International Students

On the surface this ranking may not seem like an obvious indicator of a university’s quality, but the same principles as the entry requirement rankings hold true – if the university has a strong reputation, more students from around the world will want to attend. Although this ranking isn’t a foolproof indicator of quality, you may assume that higher international student percentages point to forward thinking on the university’s behalf and may also point to the university possessing strong international links, which could lead to exciting study abroad possibilities.

The Pinch Of Salt

University rankings are a very convenient way of pitting two or more universities against each other with pure empirical data, but the differences between ranking systems and the narrow scope of some rankings make it necessary to keep a pinch of salt at hand.

Rankings tend to make good headlines for universities, but for the perfectionists amongst you they can mean potentially ruling out perfectly viable options.

We suggest digging a little deeper when you are choosing your university. When looking at rankings, try to find the subject-specific ranking table of the course you’re interested in, you might find some universities perform particularly well in certain subject areas and may offer strong paths to industry in certain sectors.

Don’t discount other methods of assessing your choices such as attending open days, contacting university alumni and plain-old finding the right course for you. At Coursefindr, we’ve got you covered when it comes to searching your options.

On a list of “things students most need”, we’re pretty sure that the Internet would sit comfortably at second place, just after money and just before television. Student living involves a lot of Internetting and a lot of bad television (often at the same time), so we’ve written an article explaining everything you may (or may not, as it turns out) need to do to get these essentials sorted when you move into a new place. Our first piece of advice is don’t delay! The longer you’re waiting around for the Internet or TV the more bored you’ll get. Besides, the time may come (horror of horrors) when you’ll have to do some work and the Internet will certainly come in handy then. So, off we go.

First Things First

If you are moving into halls you will most definitely have Internet access in your room so you shouldn’t have to worry about that. However, you may require a TV license, more on this later.

Whilst the uni won’t allow you to whack a satellite dish on the wall, your landlord may

If you will be moving into a shared house then you have more options. Whilst the uni won’t allow you to whack a satellite dish on the wall, your landlord may, and in some instances might already have one.

You may also be lucky enough to move into accommodation where everything will be managed for you – TV and Internet access may already be set-up. Just ask about it before you sign any contracts.

If you (and your house mates) need to sort out your own TV and Internet package, then don’t worry, we are here to help. Even if you will be living in halls you should find this guide useful, and if you choose to share a house in your 2nd year then reading this guide now will make you look like a mega-responsible adult when the time comes to move in.

I Need a License to Watch TV?

If you are moving out of the family home for the first time you may be surprised to hear that you require a TV license in order to watch TV. Your parent’s will have taken care of this (hopefully) behind the scenes, so you can be forgiven for not knowing. If you did know, then you can smugly pat yourself on the back.

So do you need a TV license to watch TV? Yes, and no.

There are many misconceptions regarding the TV license, and we are here to clarify when you do and when you don’t require a TV license.

You don’t require a TV license:

• to own a TV.
• to watch DVDs.
• to listen to the radio.
• to watch on demand services like Netflix.

You do require a TV license:

• to watch TV as it is being broadcast and for BBC IPlayer.

That means if you will be watching most catch up and on demand services, then you don’t need a TV license. Excellent, that’s £145.50 we’ve saved you. However if you will be watching TV as it is broadcast, for sporting events or to get your X-Factor fix, then you will need a TV license. If you get Sky you will need a TV license.

You can pay for your TV license in one go or spread the cost. Find out more from the TV Licensing website.

TV Packages

The cheapest option is obviously Freeview. If you have a “dumb” TV all you need to do is plug it into an aerial socket. Unless you have an old “dumb” TV that doesn’t support Freeview, then you’ll need to get a set-top box, you’re probably familiar with this.

There has been a big change over the last couple of years, and there are now more options than ever for TV on demand. This is good news if you are living in halls and want Sky because it means by using an internet connection you can still watch Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead using Sky’s NOWTV. But remember, you need a pretty good Internet connection for all these fancy on demand services.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that your internet provider may also offer TV packages. Virgin Media offer cable broadband and TV packages and BT have TV options that can be added to their Internet packages. Remember to shop around and grab a bargain.

Internet Packages

There are loads of ISPs (Internet Service Providers), and most are much of a muchness. This can make picking one extremely confusing. Again, don’t worry, we are here to help. Basically you need to ask yourself (and your house mates) 2 questions: How fast do you want it, and how much data do you think you will download?

Standard broadband with a download limit may be enough if you will only be browsing and doing the usual stuff, even if there are a few of you in your house. However, if you are heavy users and will be downloading software/music and streaming video then you will probably be better off with fibre optic. Remember, if you do go down the capped broadband route, which is usually the cheapest, you will be charged for going over your download limit.

Our advice is to figure out how you intend to use your Internet connection, then just pick the provider that can give you what you need for the cheapest price.

Be Realistic!

Chances are, you don’t need the best (read: most expensive) deal out there when it comes to your Internet and TV. Sky and Virgin Media are all very well, but they cost much more than a standard (free) Freeview package, which should have enough on to entertain most – there are still around 50 channels and it’s free! Don’t let us stop you from getting the enormous Sky package you’re used to at home, but the time may come (about midway through the second semester, in our experience) when you’re going to be wanting that money back.

Another point to consider is that a lot of the things you can watch on the television can be just as easily watched over the Internet with things like BBC iPlayer or Netflix or slightly more clandestine television websites; not that we know anything about that, of course. Chances are that the only reason you’ll really need a television is for the mind-numbing background programmes that can occasionally be quite nice to stare at uncomprehendingly at three in the morning after a heavy night, or at three in the afternoon after a heavy night (we absolutely recommend Dave for this type of viewing). Our point is, think twice about how much you actually watch stuff through the television aerial. Our guess is it’ll be less than you think.

Getting The Best Deal

The three main providers in the UK for these kind of bundled TV & Internet deals are Virgin, Sky and BT. Each are more or less equivalent and offer a bunch of different deals. The important thing, though, is that there are three of them and they will all be trying to get you into their contract. Which means – and this is always the fun bit – you can play them off against one-another. Make like a spoilt brat and give them lines like: “well, Virgin said they’d give me double that download limit and everything else for the same price”.  Do this for a couple of rounds and see who’s cracked first and offered you the best deal. Capitalism and a competitive market at its finest.

Oh, and if you do go for this trick (it works great for phone contracts, too, by the way), you should try to keep some facts to hand so you give the impression of knowing what you’re on about. Otherwise you always run the risk of not being treated seriously and therefore not getting the best deal you can.

As you can see there are a lot of options here, and it can get very pricey. Our final advice to you is to try and live with the cheapest and most basic option and we have 3 things that are worth remembering:

1. You can use the Internet at uni.
2. How much time do you expect to spend in front of the TV when there are loads of pubs and bars around tempting you in with cheap drinks!
3. Pubs show sporting events!

This is always an immensely fun process. A personal statement for university is, more likely than not, the most significant 500 words you will have ever written (so far). It can’t just be well spelt. It has to be good. Really good. Think of a personal statement as a letter you’re sending to the love of your life that you haven’t met yet. Don’t write it like that, of course; we just mean you should treat it with the same level of respect and importance. This is your one chance to get across who you are, what you’re like, and add a personal spin to what would otherwise just be a list of statistics.

Here’s our ultimate guide into the wonderful world of writing a personal statement for your university choices – what to include, what not to include, and, most importantly, how to include what you should include and how to leave out what you should leave out. See? We’re having fun already.

You

Remember, a personal statement should be personal. It’s about you, and it’s your one big chance to get across what’s great about you. Sell yourself as a person, not just as a student. Don’t underestimate how much a university cares about which people they bring into the fold and who they leave out. Your personal statement will have a direct and very important effect on your chances of getting into university; remember that.

So, what bits about you are good and what aren’t so good? Number of Jagerbombs you can down on a Friday night is probably a bad move (unless you’re feeling pretty risqué)

So, what bits about you are good and what aren’t so good? Number of Jagerbombs you can down on a Friday night is probably a bad move (unless you’re feeling pretty risqué). Number of jobs? Better, but still not perfect. Number of jobs and how they relate to your university degree? Yeah, that’s good. But a personal twist is also nice. Besides, there’s only so far you can relate some jobs to your subject – working with bleach whilst cleaning a shop floor isn’t really that relevant to a chemistry degree, we’re sorry to tell you.

So, what kind of personal twist can you throw in there to make that pretty good application perfect? Well, frankly, that is up to you. But think of something a little interesting – not something you are even necessarily proud of – just something that would make someone want to meet you. That’s the most important thing really; trying to get across you’re the kind of person that would be interesting enough not just to get by at university, but flourish there. That’s what a personal statement’s all about and that’s what you should, at all costs, aim for.

And don’t for a second complain that you don’t have anything interesting to say. In the words of Great Britain’s favourite two-hearted alien, “in 900 years of time and space, I’ve never met anybody who wasn’t important”. We know “important” isn’t quite “interesting”, but frankly it’s close enough and Doctor Who is topical at the moment, so we’re going for it. Besides, it’s a good example of the kind of drivel you probably shouldn’t put in your personal statement. “Likes Doctor Who” isn’t the greatest bullet point of all time.

But we’re getting past our point. Point is, you’re pretty cool. Honestly, you are. You’ve won TIME magazine’s person of the year 2006 award (seriously – look it up). You’ve managed to survive on a giant rock hurtling around a ball of fire at 67,000 miles per hour for at least 18 years. You’re the product of thousands and thousands of years of successful sex, and you’ve managed to get over that fact. Trust us, you’re pretty cool. So, take that into account when you write your personal statement and really, really be as interesting as everyone but you knows you can be. We’re sorry if we’re getting a little over-dramatic, but this really is immensely important. Onto the next big point.

Experience

Getting across what experience you have in life and work is almost – and it’s a very close call – as important as getting across a sense of yourself. Work experience in any form is always a great thing to put in your personal statement. Even if it has nothing to do with the field you’re interested in and is the most mediocre job in the world. That’s really beside the point. Of course, experience in an area that’s relevant is worth more than anything else, but that doesn’t mean that any other experience doesn’t tell the person reading your personal statement a lot already.

And it really does – it’ll tell whoever’s reading that, minimum, you’re employable to at least some degree. Which genuinely is worth more than you think. It also shows that you’re committed and driven enough to actually go and get a job. Which again, stands for more than you’d think. Finally, it shows the person reading that you are capable of learning skills and following instructions well enough to not be fired, or at least to not have been fired yet. Seriously, any experience at all is always a good thing, even if it doesn’t feel that way at the time.

And if you don’t have much experience, we highly suggest you find yourself some. Even if it involves a hobby of yours, it’ll still be immensely helpful to your chances. We know someone who put on their personal statement that they sold their watercolours at a car boot sale. Another had collected damaged guitars, repaired them, and sold them. Even if it has nothing – seriously, nothing at all – to do with your degree, getting a job is still a really good idea. Besides, you could use the money, couldn’t you? Everybody could do with an extra bit of cash every now and again, particularly as university approaches and you’ll be needing as much as you can possibly lay your hands on.

If you can’t find work anywhere, for whatever reason, then volunteer somewhere, even if it is just for the summer. Presumably you’re reading this article because somebody just told you that you need to write a personal statement and the deadline is fast approaching (fair enough). That means, we realise, you won’t have much time to find a job if you don’t have one already and don’t have much work experience. In this case, try to apply for a position over the summer, and mention in your statement that you’re about to get a lot of experience doing [blank]. Again, it’ll be worth a lot more than you think and volunteer work is very, very easy to get. People quite like having unpaid employees, it turns out.

When volunteering in a job, as opposed to working there, it’s best to reach for the stars first if you have time. Even the big companies in your area will be very keen to take on anyone who’ll work for free, and should be quite keen to have you even if you don’t have much experience in the role. You could be stacking boxes for GlaxoSmithKline or you could be wiping down the surfaces in a kitchen or you could just be standing behind the counter looking pretty at a music-tech shop. Point is, there’s a lot that looks a lot better on paper than it feels like at the time, and you should go for the jobs that at least look relevant before downgrading to your local charity shop.

However, this is only if you have the time to be pro-active and apply for positions at these places and expect a response before you should be sending your statement in. If you don’t have any time, then the charity shop, we’re afraid, will have to do. Sorry, but strike whilst the iron is hot – it may have been hot some time ago. Note: there is NOTHING wrong with charity shops. We love them and support our local – staff uniforms at Coursefindr are provided by a well-known charity shop that supports more mature citizens.

Extra-Curricular Stuff

Outside work and your studies there is presumably a lot of stuff you do in-between. When talking about these (and talk about them you absolutely should – this is about you, remember) make sure to be as dramatic as possible and choose from the best bits – watching films doesn’t cut much ice. Ice-skating does. Particularly when you make sure to identify how social it has made you and how good at meeting new people (bla bla bla) you are because of it.

That’s the important thing – making sure to sell whatever you’ve done outside of education and work in the right way. Sports make you social. Music makes you multifaceted. Reading makes you informed. It might sound like blatant lies and over-complicated misinformation, but it genuinely will help your chances. Nobody has worked out just yet whether or not anyone actually believes this or this is just an opportunity to show off your skills at seeing the best in a situation. Either way, writing about your extracurricular activities in the most positive way possible will look good. Trust us.

But – and this is a big, juicy, important but – try not to go too overboard. One sentence should be enough; something along the lines of “I played as part of my school rugby team for five years, and socialising with my teammates has made me a much more social person – as well as being great fun!” will be long enough to get your point across and not milk it (as well as saving some space to show off about everything else you can talk about).

Structure

How you structure your personal statement is another very important thing to consider – no matter what stuff you put in, it has to look good, and the first step in making it look good is having an excellent, easy to read structure that will make the whole thing flow well and seamlessly fit together. The easier a personal statement is to read, the more fun your reader will have and the more chance you’ll have to get across what makes you special and why you should be considered for your course.

The first step in making it look good is having an excellent, easy to read structure that will make the whole thing flow well and seamlessly fit together

The first thing everyone should start with is their introduction. Keep it simple, concise, to the point, and if you want to be a little humorous make sure it’s light and not too radical. Also, whatever you do, don’t put in a quote from somewhere, no matter how good or relevant you think it is. As Yoda put it – “nobody likes an unnecessary quote”. OK, he didn’t say that. But he should have.

Next up is the all-important relevant work experience – remember to make any work experience as relevant as possible; if you can’t or it seems like too much of a stretch to make whatever work experience you have relevant, you should still mention it but maybe a little later in your statement. An introduction and then something entirely irrelevant will damage your structure more than help it.

Then comes your chance to shine and begin talking about yourself, whilst keeping it relevant to your course – talk about aspects of your current or past courses you enjoy, and don’t be tempted to talk about the bits you’re not so keen on! You’d be surprised how many personal statements get just a little bit too chatty and mention how they don’t enjoy this or that part of the course all that much – nobody wants to hear about that and they won’t be as impressed with your honesty as they will be disappointed in your lack of enthusiasm.

Move on from your personal preferences in your course to your personal life – talk about your hobbies and non-relevant extra-curricular activities. Remember to make them look as good as possible; what makes playing sport or playing guitar a positive thing as far as university is concerned? Give examples (if you can) of how these activities have affected or influenced your academic life. Don’t go overboard, though – a course of antibiotics saving your life when you were a child didn’t give you lifelong aspirations to study pharmacology, and we all know it – go easy on the sob story, keep it light, and above all else make it as relevant as possible.

Finally, conclude with a finishing sentence or two on how much you hope the university considers you and how you’re looking forward to studying [blank] professionally. It doesn’t have to be intently formal, but if in doubt, try to make it more formal than informal. Remember, this is an official document, so yes it should be personal; but that doesn’t mean it should be chatty.

Another excellent way to conclude is to briefly talk about what you want to do after university – this will show you have some idea of what you want to do with your life, which everybody – including the people reading your statement – will be impressed by. If you choose to go down this road, make sure to be specific; you’ll just be wasting words if you’re vague about your future prospects.

Remember that above all else, the entire statement should read well. Everything else should come in second place – as such, you don’t have to stick to our structure if you feel that the statement would look a lot better if some things were moved around or re-prioritised. At best the above is a basic guideline to how most personal statements should look – when you’ve finished your draft, have a look-see and see if anything should be moved around or nipped and tucked.

The structure of your entire personal statement should also depend hugely on what course you’re thinking about taking – a course like English, for example, should have a very specialised personal statement and should have more of a focus on what books or plays you’ve read and how they’ve inspired you. A personal statement for a degree in mathematics should have less focus on this and more focus on relevant work experience (even if it is just working on a till) and the modules enjoyed within your pre-university course. Again though, this all depends on personal experience – maybe you’re hoping to study English and have experience working for your school newsletter. It all depends on the individual – that’s kind of the point.

Lying

Now, we all know you shouldn’t lie on your personal statement, and we absolutely stick to that advice. Just in case, we’ll tell you again: don’t lie on your personal statement. OK? Good. Now, we know some of you may well ignore our advice anyway, so here’s some advice for the idiots that won’t take it the first time around.

Don’t lie on anything that is checkable. Ever. That means no fake jobs, no extra qualifications, and no awards or medals that you don’t actually have. It goes without saying that all of this will be checked, you’ll be caught out, and you’ll have your name dragged through the mud. Not just for lying, but for lying and being stupid enough to be caught out on something that will doubtless be painfully obvious.

Now then, what you could lie about – you shouldn’t, and we don’t suggest it at all. Seriously, it’s a bad idea – are things like hobbies and activities outside the world of paperwork and documentation. So by all means tell your prospective future professor that you can play the guitar or that you can speak fluent French, but we don’t suggest it and it’s probably not worth the risk. Surtout quand vous êtes interrogé par un professeur qui parle effectivement la langue. Besides, do you really feel that bad about your extracurricular activities that you have to lie about them? That’s not good, man. Not good at all.

Some General Advice

Finally, we have some advice that all prospective students really should receive before writing their personal statement on what to avoid and what to jump right into the middle of – there’s a lot of awful personal statements out there, and many of them could be made much, much better with just a few gentle pointers in the right direction.

The best way for anyone to think about their personal statement is as a date – this is your chance to get across who you are in the best possible light and holding back the bad/weird/“interesting”/political parts of you that occasionally rise to the surface – focus on the good bits and be yourself but only the bits of yourself that will make a good first impression. And just like a date, it’s fine to be nervous! You should be nervous; it’s an important document and you should be worrying about it. If you’re not, you should really start caring more.

Another excellent piece of advice to remember as far as personal statements go is that less is more. Your personal statement shouldn’t waffle on for several sentences about your subscription to Private Eye or how you excelled in chess club. It should bulge with all the things you’ve done, plan to do, and what you’re like as a person. Writing a personal statement like this takes a lot of work – it’s best to write something about twice the size of the character limit, and then cut back ruthlessly until you’ve got something truly stuffed full of good things about yourself.

What will help in this aim of really stuffing your personal statement is the avoidance of flowery, delicate, overly complicated language. Even English applicants should think twice before shoving long words in there just because they think it’ll impress someone – it won’t; no professor is going to be impressed with your clunky sentence about your gargantuan wealth of penetrating experience in experimental literature. Don’t bother.

Some of you will be applying for two separate courses at different universities. This is fine, but the more different the two courses are, the harder and harder your personal statement will be to write. If you’re thinking about applying to two completely unrelated courses, try to reconsider – for one thing, it’ll make your personal statement a lot harder to write, and for another, it’s best to be passionate about a course before you start it.

Finally, make sure to get as many people as possible – including yourself – to check, double-check, and triple-check your personal statement. It doesn’t matter how impressive your grades are, how inspired you are, and how many hours of relevant work experience you have if there’s a glaring typo in paragraph three that will doubtless annoy the reader. You need to be very, very, very confident and happy with your personal statement when you send it off, so make sure to pick it apart ruthlessly and listen to all the advice you’re given. Good luck and have fun with it!

So, the gloves are off, the fists are up, and lets see what happens. The issue with university rankings is that they’re often at odds with a university’s reputation in a certain field. So, which one should a prospective undergraduate choose when navigating the minefield that is university competition? Short answer: both. Now for the long answer.

The thing is, universities tend to have a certain character about them that is only developed over time. Cambridge and Oxford are long established universities that have a lot going for them, but if you put a Cambridge student in a drinking competition with one from the Queen’s University Belfast, we know who we’d put our money on. Sadly, though, drinking capabilities aren’t recognised on the UK’s university grading scale. Our point is that some universities are really good at one thing, and awful at others. This means their general reputation could be low whilst their flagship department tends to go unnoticed. Unless (clever you) people start reading articles like this one.

Let us give you a more specific example. Picture Hull. Not nice, is it? Hull University is a little better, but not many people generally expect it to be that high up the university rankings. In fact, it’s pretty good; but their chemistry department in particular is nice and high up the rankings – much higher than their other departments. Turns out that Hull’s chemistry department invented liquid crystal technology (such as the screen you’re reading this on), made a lot of money off of it, and re-invested the money back into the department.

As such, the big chemical companies take an interest in Hull students more than they really – on paper – should. It’s an interesting little phenomenon, and it just shows how important it is to properly research your university before you go. This reputation stuff works both ways, too: Oxford and Cambridge graduates in fields like medicine don’t necessarily get the attention from employers they might expect, due to the stigma of Oxbridge working on the purely academic side of things – employers think (we’re honestly not sure if they’re right or not) that they don’t like getting their students’ hands dirty. That may well be fair enough.

As much as reputation among employers matters, the university rankings matter a whole lot, too. Most of the time a university will be well ranked because its departments are good, and vice-versa. The reputation stuff is more of an exception to the rule than the rule, and you should bare that in mind when you’re weighing up your options. Oxford and Cambridge students do well because they have good degrees. Hull isn’t ranked as the best university in the world because it isn’t, and basically everything more-or-less makes sense. Generally the ranking system works, but sometimes you need to dig a little deeper to see what’s underneath the surface. As such, we’d recommend taking a bit of time to speak to people who work in your future field to find out which universities are respected for the subject area.

So, we’re more or less back to the short answer: both matter. Aren’t you glad you read the whole thing, though?

Interviewing for a place at university will, probably, be the most important interview as far as your professional life is concerned, and it’s very important to get your tone and style right, and to make sure that your interviewer knows you’re the right person for them. This really is very important. There’s a saving grace on all of these interviews that should cheer you up a little bit, however: remember that the university needs students in exactly the same way you need a university.

First and foremost a university is a business, and they need students to make money – tuition fees are what keep these institutions going, and whilst they can pick and choose to some extent, they need the students to choose the university first – you aren’t powerless in all of this, you choose the universities before they choose you. Remember that as we go over the interview stuff – it’ll help inspire some confidence.

So, here is our guide to exactly what’s required for a university interview – from body language to course details to that all-important question you need to ask at the end. This is important, and you’re obviously very lucky that we’re here to help. What would you do without us, eh?

Preparation

The best way to do the best you can in any interview is to prepare for it thoroughly. And no, that doesn’t mean asking a mate to shout a few questions at you in the pub a couple of days before (we’ve all done it, it’s a bad idea). It means genuine, intelligent and organised preparation – this is important, and you should treat it like it is.

The best way to do the best you can in any interview is to prepare for it thoroughly. And no, that doesn’t mean asking a mate to shout a few questions at you in the pub a couple of days before

There should be someone at your college or sixth form who will be able to do a few mock interviews with you, but if not then ask your parents or your most serious friend to help you out with a few questions – there’s nothing quite like live practise to help you seem confident and presentable in a real interview situation. We’ve put together a few example interview questions that should help you out in the next section, but remember that your interviewer could ask you anything at all, so practise answering some fake questions that you haven’t seen before, too – every little helps.

Another really good idea during interview preparations is to run a few of your own mock interviews in the role of interviewer – swap with somebody else who’s in a similar situation. By sitting on the other side of the table, you should be able to get a good feel of what a good interview is like and what you should be doing to look and sound better and more confident. Confidence, just in case somebody else hasn’t told you already, is key.

Make sure to research the place you’re applying to thoroughly – find out what the department’s good at, and what research has been conducted recently. You don’t need to be an expert – just well informed enough to seem curious. This can tie in with your own questions to ask at the interview, which we’ll go into in more detail a little bit later.

Appearance

Now, this may seem like an obvious one but make sure you look good, but professional. A cravat might be a bit much, but a suit is definitely what you should go for. Of course, double check this on the actual application – if it says just wear whatever you’re comfortable in then you might want to reconsider, but often a suit or smart dress will impress even when it’s not called for.

Shower, clip your nails, trim your nose hair and generally make sure that you look at your best for the interview. They may seem like little things, but you’d be surprised how much even subtle appearances make a huge difference to the interview process. No-one admits it, but that’s why everyone at the office here ended up with this job.

Some Example Interview Questions

Here’s a few example questions that might – might – come up in the interview process. Practise them, get a decent answer for each of them, but try to be as off-the-cuff as possible – it won’t look good if you’ve just memorised some answers. Also, and we know we’ve already said this but it is important, make sure to practise answering questions you haven’t seen before – it’s not easy but the more you practise the better you’ll get. Practise, practise, practise.

• Why did you apply for this course? This is a big one – construct a better response than just ‘because it fitted my grades’ or ‘I like [your subject]’. Get across that you’re passionate and committed to a career in this area, and you really, really, really want to do well. It’s important you show how much this matters to do – no-one is unimpressed with passion.
• What topics and themes do you enjoy the most and why? Much the same. Again, try to be a little original and throw a bit of a curve ball if you can – something a little off-beat with the actual subject. Studying English? You’re interested in literature, but also in the way language has developed culturally; for example.
• What have you read on the subject? Basically, what extra stuff have you had a look at? It could really be anything, but this yet is another chance to get across your passion for the subject. Make sure to read something, and read it well – your interviewer may have read it, too.
• What are your strengths and weaknesses? Do NOT say you’re a perfectionist. It’s irritating, cliché, and oddly imperfect to say in an interview. Be honest, but try to make your weakness sound like a strength without being too obvious about it. There’s a few tricks here, but we’ll leave it to you to work out the best response.
• Where do you see yourself five/ten/fifteen years from now? The correct answer is basically ‘an employed graduate with a good degree’ mix that up in some better language and it’ll go OK.

Your Question

At the end of the interview, you will almost certainly get a chance to ask some of your own questions about the course and the university in general. This is still part of the interview, and another great chance to get across your passion and interest in the course. Choosing the right set of questions to ask is just another part of the interview process, and your interviewers will be waiting for some clever ones. So, you better think of some. Fortunately, we’ve got a few ourselves.

At the end of the interview, you will almost certainly get a chance to ask some of your own questions about the course and the university in general

A good line of inquiry worth considering is asking about the recent advances at the department. This doesn’t mean just ask about what they’ve done recently – you should know that already – ask more specific questions like what applications their recent research might have on the future, or what equipment was used and will you get a chance to use it (this is particularly relevant for the scientific types of courses).

Also try to ask a question about the general structure of the course – how many hours are you in class for per week, for example, or when is the department open to undergraduates. Getting across a general curiosity for the course is one of the best ways to show enthusiasm, and will show that you’ve really thought about your place within the university.

If you’re feeling particularly confident, then you could ask your interviewer if they had any problems with your application. This will give them a chance to confront anything they’re not comfortable with, and will give you a chance to refute it or explain yourself. It’s a great way to get a little bit of extra credit and to kill any doubts your interviewer might have there and then.

Some Coursefindr Tips

We’ve got some titbits of advice to give out. Generally they’re generic, self-explanatory and an utter waste of space, but you should read them anyway just in case you haven’t thought of them yet. We’re joking – this is all actually very good advice. Take it.

• If you’re not confident, fake it. It’s very, very important to give the impression of confidence, and if you’re not a confident person then just pretend to be for a little bit (guess what? It’s the same thing).
• Make eye contact and shake hands as you come in – don’t be a bruiser and squash the hand, though – that happens much more often than you might think, and it’s not impressive – it just makes you look like a meat head.
• Have fun with it! It’ll be obvious whether or not you’re enjoying your day, and the happier you are, the friendlier you’ll be – enjoy your day and have some fun and everything else will come to you much easier. That goes for life, too.
• If you don’t understand or can’t answer a question, don’t try to BS your way around it – politely tell them so for whatever reason. If nothing else, your interviewer will respect your honesty.

We’ve all got social media accounts. Some of us like to over indulge a bit more than we should do but typically there’s nothing wrong with this. Sharing what you had for breakfast, sharing what you had for lunch, sharing what you had for dinner and sharing just how many drinks you managed to force down last Thursday night. We’re sure your friends love reading such updates!

The problem is though, social media accounts are often visible by anybody and everybody. So when it comes to applying to university or applying for that job, guess who could potentially see those comments that you made about your friend in a bikini? You guessed it: Your future university or employer.

Though it’s worrying that you might be judged on aspects of your social life that you may prefer to remain private, using social media introduces an element of openness to your activities. Universities and employers may argue that if you are going to represent them, they would prefer to make sure that the publicly visible side of you suits the values they represent.

With no immediate resolution to this morally challenging scenario, what you need to do, is clean up your social media accounts. That’s what this article is going to help you with.

What would your mum think of your latest Facebook updates? What would your dad think of that latest tweet? And would you find yourself on the end of an RKO from your university or employers of the future?

Facebook

Facebook is the biggest Social Media service of them all. You might think that it’s quite private. You are only friends with the people you know and only they can see what you post, so you may think. However a quick search on Google for your name may bring up your account and depending on your privacy settings, a potential employer or future university would be able to see what you’ve posted and what you’ve been tagged in.

So as far as Facebook goes you’ve got two choices. The first option is to go through your entire Facebook history, look at each comment that you’ve posted, each photo you’ve uploaded and everything you’ve ever been tagged in and delete or remove any tags if you feel that they are incriminating to you and your potential future employment. This is quite time consuming though and ridiculously boring (depending upon your social media lifestyle). Instead, what we suggest here at Coursefindr is to change your privacy settings.

To do this head up to the Settings button in the top right hand corner of Facebook and go down to ‘Privacy Settings’.

From there, there are several options that you can adjust to change the privacy levels on your account. For example, you may feel that your photos aren’t actually that bad, you don’t have anything that you’re embarrassed by and there’s nothing that a future employer or university would worry about. If this is the case, you may choose to leave the photos open so they can actually have a look around your private life. In a roundabout way it might actually help your application. They’d get to see you as a human being with no worrying traits.

If however there are photos of you enjoying a fight with locals in Benidorm, dancing with minimal clothes in Thailand or just having one too many pints down the local pub, you may wish to adjust the privacy settings so only your friends can see them. Of course this means that your friends will still be able to see those photos, which is no good if they are in the admissions office at the university or they are your potential new employer. In which case you’ve got no option but to go through and delete everything, or find a job where your friend won’t be your boss.

Twitter

Twitter is the Social Network on which we all love to post our random and hilarious thoughts and opinions. Limited to just 140 characters, this means sometimes we get straight to the point and at this stage your intended message can sometimes be taken out of context. It’s also very easy for anybody to see your Twitter accounts – they’re normally completely public. So if you’ve posted a rather damning review of One Direction’s latest appearance on the X-Factor, that could be seen by everybody, which is great if your new employer also hates One Direction, not so great if they’re a Directioner.

So how do you clean up your act on Twitter?

Well again there are two options. You can either go through each tweet that you’ve sent and delete the ones that may not show you in the best light. Time consuming, boring.

We suggest this way instead: If you’re prone to posting inappropriate comments on Twitter (we’re not here to judge, just advise on how to cover up your account), then tweak your settings to hide your ill-advised rants from the wider world.

In the settings on Twitter you can make your profile ‘Private’. What this means is only your followers can see what you post. So that’s great for all your friends and it’s great for you because your future employer won’t be able to go snooping around.

Instagram

These days owned by Facebook, Instagram is the social network of choice for highly-filtered mobile phone snaps of food, holidays and jovial behaviour. As with Facebook and Twitter, the pictures you post may be publicly visible and you may wish to alter this so that only your approved followers have the pleasure of seeing them.

This is as simple as tapping the relevant icon next to your profile picture to edit your profile. From there, turn on the ‘Posts are private’ setting and you are good to go without fear of being judged by your university or future employer on your poor taste in food or lack of photography skills.

In summary, clearing up your social media act needn’t be a time consuming process. In fact nine times out of ten all you need to do is hit the ‘Settings’ button and change the privacy rules on your account.

Of course what might be easier is to take a look at yourself and reconsider what you’re posting when you’re posting it in the first place. What would your mum think of your latest Facebook updates? What would your dad think of that latest tweet? And would you find yourself on the end of an RKO from your university or employers of the future for your recent holiday Instagram?