Your confidence scorecard, clarity from Martin Lewis, and possibly the most complicated art school in the UK
😊 Welcome
You’ll know that I don’t shy away from the fact that choosing and applying to university can be complicated. That’s just the nature of things sometimes.
But today we have two ways to make your life a little less complicated.
Firstly for those making their firm UCAS choices, we have a confidence scorecard. It won’t tell you which choice is best for you, but it will tell you whether you should be confident in the decision you are about to make!
Secondly, Martin Lewis brings much needed simplicity and clarity to the insane complexity of student finance and student loans.
Finally, we look at a fantastic art school in London. Or is it six art schools? Well… it’s complicated!
✍️ Your university choices confidence scorecard
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.
💡 Did you know?
You’ll know from last week that Student Finance England opened for applications last week.
But did you know that according to the Student Money Survey 2024, 45% of students don’t understand their student loan agreement.
In fairness, it is complicated, we all know that. So do yourselves a favour and check out the videos from Martin Lewis of Money Saving Expert. He’s just about the only person who seems to be able to make sense of student finance!
Student finance & financial education videos
📸 Snapshot: University of the Arts London (UAL)
Became a university in: 2003
Student population: 23,625 (2022/23)
Location: Six campuses located across greater London
Subject areas: A huge range of courses across design and related creative industries, including design, fashion, film, architecture, business, communication, creative computing, culture, fine art, journalism, performance, photography and textiles.
Admissions: UCAS points 120-136, portfolio assessment. Many courses state that most students enter via a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design.
UAL is one of the more complicated universities in the UK, made up, as it is, from six historically separate colleges, and a further four specialist institutes. It was formed through a merger of the separate colleges back in the 80’s and was granted university status in 2003.
The colleges include: Camberwell College of Arts, Central Saint Martins, Chelsea College of Arts, London College of Communication, London College of Fashion and Wimbledon College of Arts. Each of these date back to the late 1800s, so are established and reputable.
The campuses are spread right across London, from London College of Fashion located in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford in the east, right across to Wimbledon College of Arts all the way across in …well… Wimbledon!
That's all for this week. Thanks for reading!
Jonathan
