Your university choices confidence scorecard

Mar 17

Three TV judges holding up score cards or 2.3, 1.8 and 1.5, each with their head in their hands!

So, you are making your final, firm choice of course. You read websites, chat to teachers, go to open days, and explore social media.

You want to be as confident as you possibly can be about your decision.

But decisions are complex right? And sometimes confidence doesn’t come easy.

So today, we’ll strip back your decision, right down to the essentials.

With this university choice confidence scorecard, we’ll check your confidence level in a number of areas in order to get an overall confidence score. With this score you’ll know whether you are confident enough in your decision, and which areas to look at if you are still unsure.

How does it work?

We are going to look at six aspects of your university choice, and for each, I’ll ask you to score your confidence level on a scale of 1 to 5; 5 being very confident and 1 being not confident at all!

There will then be some bonus points to add.

1. The course

Ultimately, you are going to university to study, and the most important aspect of whether you will enjoy your time at university, and find it worthwhile, is whether the course is a good fit for you.

Before you finalise your choice you should have a good idea of what topics will be covered in the course and what options will be available to choose.

You should know whether it will be a highly academic course, or a more practical, hands-on course. And you’ll want to know how the course will be taught and assessed.

You want to know whether there will be options to study abroad, or to have a year in industry.

You will want to be confident that each of these aspects is right for you; that you will be interested in the majority of the content, and that the way the course is taught and assessed will suit your particular strengths.

So…

On a scale of 1 to 5, how confident are you that you are choosing a course that is right for you?

2. Student lifestyle

Every university will offer a different type of lifestyle. This will be determined by a combination of the size of the institution, its location, its facilities, its surroundings, and of course its students!

Some of the largest universities will have hundreds of clubs and societies, while smaller, specialist institutions may only have a few. Some campus universities have incredible sports facilities right on your doorstep, while at some city-based universities you’ll have to travel quite a distance (if they have them at all!)

At some universities you’ll walk or cycle everywhere you need to go, while at others you’ll rely on public transport to get anywhere.

Some cities will have several universities, and over 100,000 students. Other towns may have just the one, with a couple of thousand students only. Some universities attract students from all across the world. Others have mainly students who live at home.

All these things, and more, will have an impact on your daily life at university.

So…

On a scale of 1 to 5, how confident are you that the university you are choosing offers the right lifestyle for you?

3. Accommodation

Many of you will be heading away from home to go to university, and will find yourself in university or private accommodation for the duration. Most universities offer halls or flats for you for year one, but not all do. Some universities offer accommodation for subsequent years, but the majority don’t.

Meanwhile the location, quality and cost of accommodation varies massively across the country.

Some of you will be looking at a university close to home, and will stay at home. There are clear financial reasons for this, but as you get older, your need for independence will get stronger. You and your parents will need to work towards a new relationship as you become an adult. You may even decide to move out into your own accommodation at some point during your studies.

4. Affordability

Costs of living vary in different parts of the country. Meanwhile the funding you will get from the Government to live on varies by the part of the UK you come from, whether you study in London, and whether you live at home (except in Scotland).

The main factor, however, is your family income, which determines the loans and grants you can get.

Many universities will also offer scholarships and bursaries with varying criteria.

I’ve written before about how important it is to check out living costs at different universities, draft a budget, and have an open and honest conversation with your parents so you know what funding you will have available.

5. Achievable grades

Picking your firm choice should be about choosing your first choice. I have spoken to tens of thousands of students about this over many years, and I will continue to say the same thing:

Your firm choice can be aspirational; it does not need to be a safe choice, and you do not need to be 100% confident that you will achieve the grades to get in.

However, you do need to know that either:

The grades they have asked for are achievable, or
You may not quite achieve the grades they have asked for, but you are confident that you will get in anyway (you can check the historical entry grades to see if this is likely), or
You have an insurance choice that you are 100% confident of getting into, and are 100% happy to go to.

So…

On a scale of 1 to 5, how confident are you that the course you have chosen is achievable for you, or that your insurance offer is achievable and a good option?

6. Career alignment

Students go to university for many different reasons when it comes to building a career - and university courses reflect that. Broadly, they fall into one of three categories:

Professional courses should give direct access into a specific profession, like medicine, teaching or engineering. For these courses, you should be confident that the course will give you everything you need to enter the profession: the education, the professional recognition, and the work experience. And you should be confident that you genuinely want to enter that profession.

Vocational courses should prepare you for an industry or career area, like business, pharmacology or graphic design. For these courses, you want to check that the course really does lead to a career in that area. Do students typically need to do more study after their first degree, or do they need to get experience via internships? What does the university do to support this?

Academic courses don’t lead to a specific career. Instead they lead to subject expertise. There is nothing wrong with that, but you need to know that an academic degree alone is not enough to secure yourself a graduate career. Look closely at how the university supports you in exploring potential careers, gaining work experience, and building the skills that employers need.

So…

On a scale of 1 to 5, how confident are you that the course you have chosen aligns with your career plans (whichever category you are in)?

Bonus points

Finally, for the scorecard, you can have one additional point for each of the following:

You’ve attended a subject talk or taster course for the course you are choosing (in-person or online).
You have visited the city you are going to be living in.
You have been inside some of the accommodation at the university.
You have created a budget for year one at university and have spoken to your parents about how much funding you will receive from them, and from the Government.
You’ve done in-person or virtual work experience relevant to the career you are choosing.

What your scores mean

So… add up all the scores you’ve written down. There is a maximum of 35 points in total.

28-35: It looks like you are pretty confident about your choice, and you have probably done your homework too. Nice work! Do the same exercise for your insurance choice and you are done!

21-28: You are probably reasonably confident in most areas of your decision, but there are some areas where you need to check a bit more detail on your choice. Look at the areas where you scored three or lower, and do a little more research.

14-21: You might have made a good decision, but it doesn’t look like you are confident at all. Check each area again, and do whatever research you need to to bring up that confidence level. Otherwise there is a very real chance you are making the wrong choice.

0-14: Uh-oh! I don’t think you are ready to make this decision at all. Perhaps you are just going along with what your parents, friends or teachers are suggesting. Perhaps you think you don’t have the time, or other things are more important. Whichever it is, you need to pay more attention to this choice, and work out what you really want to do.