University Choices

[DaVeyWaVey]

I already know what I want to do, Journalism...but I might combine it with something...not sure though. My teachers said they want us to start this summer, and apply by October.

[Abbie]

Yeah I think I'll have to look on UCAS cos I really have no idea, although the only thing im certain on is I want to travel in a gap year otherwise I'll never do it and I will be very dissapointed in myself

[Abigail]

Just a question..
You know when you go uni.. how many courses/subjects do you do?

I am interested in doing Economics.. does that split into several things or is it one thing you learn? Or do you choose more than that.. If so how many?

Thanks!

You can study it on its own or you can do a joint honours with something else. Basically, you choose one subject as a major and one as a minor or you can do equal weightings. The major course has more work and weighting and the minor has less.

Not all universities offer joint honours so you will have to look around.

Oxbridge is very competitive so unless you're predicted mainly As and are on target to get them I wouldn't bother applying. If you apply to Oxbridge you can only apply for four courses instead of five I think. Or is that medicine/denistry/vetrinary? I read it the other day on UCAS.

Just as an overview of the whole system in case you don't know, you pick five choices from any university and course type/subject unless you're applying for Route A/Route B art and design in which case you have fewer choices. Send your UCAS off and you will get replies from the universities offering you a place or not. If you get a place it could be conditional (meet the points) or unconditional (a place no matter what results you get). Once you have all your replies you choose a firm choice (one that you want to go to and can meet the requirements) and an insurance choice to fall back on if you don't.

[.:SpIcYsPy:.]

I went on the Cambridge side.. and I am so confused with all these new things (only looked into this last night and today!)

It says for Economics..
Admissions tests See admissions tests and written work

I clicked on the link and it shows this:

http://www.cam.ac.uk/admissions/unde...ics/tests.html

I'm just completely lost now.. I am planning to go to my school's 6th form college..
I don't know if it's got anything to do with this

Thanks x

[Abigail]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Oxbridge have entrance tests to test your reading, writing and maths skills. It depends on what college you apply for as Oxbridge is split into lots of different colleges.

[Abbie]

Okay I have no idea about UCAS about from its a pain the ass

[Abigail]

Indeed it it. The easy part is putting exam results, work experience and previous jobs in. The hard bit it the personal statement. My advice is start working on it now then you can get the whole thing sent off as soon as possible after the opening date.

[.:SpIcYsPy:.]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Oxbridge have entrance tests to test your reading, writing and maths skills. It depends on what college you apply for as Oxbridge is split into lots of different colleges.

Ohhhh I see.. So is there a whole seperate college for Economics and every other subject? How do you know which college to go to?

(Thanks for your help btw it's really helping! x)

[DaVeyWaVey]

I already have an idea on what to write on my personal statement - part of a budding journalists group, work for the newsletter, had a work placement at a local newspaper, and i'm going to mention different short stories and poems i got published in books - i suppose that's a start.

[Abigail]

Yeah, I started by brainstorming ideas. I couldn't get started so I divided it up into four sections, why I wanted to do the course, extracurricular activities and hobbies, what I hoped to achieve after uni jobwise and something else and just wrote words down.

I'm not sure if there are seperate colleges for each faculty, I haven't really looked into it as I didn't apply. I know that there are seperate sex colleges and co-ed (both sexes).

You just apply to the university as you would any other and they sort the right college out for you. You should send off for a prospectus.

I don't know if you have looked at any prospectuses. Some universities are spread across two or three sites. Canterbury has three seperate sites and in the course section bit there is a campus code for each course to say which campus that course is on.