Throughout this post there will be questions to reflect on and a few helpful links.
To be straight up honest, I always put off the idea of going to university. I was that child in the school playground who told everyone that I was never going to go because I just didn't feel that it was right for me - yet here I am!
It didn't dawn on me until the last few months of year 12 that I was going to have to start thinking about it. (or maybe I was just procrastinating... Don't do that!).
You're probably thinking: but university isn't the only option.
That's right, but when I tell you that I had no clue what I wanted to do, I really didn't. Therefore, a degree would allow me to explore my options a bit more rather than going into a specialised apprenticeship.
I mean - choosing your career pathway at 17/18!? For many, that's an easy decision, but it's also a very difficult one for many to. So, how do I go about this if I didn't know what I want to study/ do as a career?
Firstly, ask yourself these main questions:
- Looking at my A- Levels - which subjects do I enjoy the most and why?
- How much did I enjoy my work experience? Would I like to do something that's related?
- What are my strengths? (You can always ask your friends and teachers for their opinions to).
- What kind of people do I enjoy working with? Or maybe you don't?
- What am I really interested in?
- What are my hobbies? (Though sometimes it's best to separate hobbies from work)
- Do I roughly know what sort of field I want to go into? It doesn't matter how vague this is. It could be as broad as wanting to work with people / animals/ technology, in some sort of research group, in an office, or maybe you prefer to be active - anything.
- Would you prefer to do a degree related to science, creative arts, humanities or social sciences?
- Rule out what you definitely don't want to do. This will really help to cut it down.
- German is my favourite subject, and it's the one I enjoy the most.
- I'm also really interested in speech and language, and human behaviour fascinates me.
- Despite being sceptical about working with early years children as part of my work experience in a primary school, I absolutely loved every second of it! I have loved working and being around young children ever since.
- My friends have always told me that I would be a good teacher and teachers have told me that I'm good at presentations (despite the fact that I have a mini panic attack before every one!)
- I'm a very reflective and critical thinker. Is there a course which will allow to to build on this?
- Personally, an office job wouldn't be a preference. I like a mix of theory and active participation.
- My hobbies are generally creative arts based: music, drama; creative writing (but this isn't something that I thought I could make a career out of).
- Maths and science isn't my thing (although Psychology at Warwick is quite scientific in some ways and statistics is fundamental to the course, I've grown to enjoy it as part of psychology rather than pure biology/ chemistry and math).
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| Note: There are MANY more than this!!! |
For me, my main points were:
To be honest (again), I had no idea where to go from there. This was all new territory.
What I ended up doing was going into UCAS and typing in 'related' words which then came up with loads of course options. Which? Uni is also a good website to use to.
Alternatively visit some random university websites and search through their undergraduate degrees doing the same thing or by department. Google search engine also works.
Mine weren't to extravagant since I didn't really know what was best:
🗨 German / Linguistics / Language Science
📝 English (ranged from Comparative Studies, English Language, Literature and Creative Writing)
🧠 Psychology (either a developmental or educational related one)
📚 Education Studies / a primary teaching degree with QTS (qualified teacher status)
Yep - It's quite a selection.
If you're in a situation like I was consider this:
Would you like to do a joint honours OR focus on one subject/ course?
Joint honours can mean that both courses have equal weight (x and y), or a major which is worth around 75% and a minor worth around 25% (x with y).
However, there does usually need to be some sort of relation between the two courses (although there are actually quite a few universities which offer a joint honours with Music and Maths!) and not all universities will offer the exact same course. There may be slight variations with the name of courses to.
I choose to do a joint honours to give myself more flexibility, so:
- A teaching degree was ruled out. It was too directed and it didn't give me a backup in case that all went terribly wrong. If I decide I to want to go down that route, a PGCE is always an option.
- English - I wasn't really sure where I would have gone with that. I also didn't take an A- Level in Literature or Language. Creative writing more of a hobby than something I would have wanted to make a career out of.
- Language science grades are high - so in terms of reflecting on my capabilities in an exam context, I didn't want to risk it.
- I also found that it's best to go with a BPS accredited psychology degree so a specific psychology course was ruled out and it would be nice to explore some areas of psychology with I'm not familiar with to.
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- After doing a more in depth search on what a variety of universities offer, and exploring the course content (this needs to interest you, but bare in mind that every uni will have different course content), I came up with 3 options:
- German and Linguistics
- Psychology with Linguistics
- Psychology with Education Studies.
As much as I LOVED studying German, this is the part where you kind of have to really reflect on career options and it's still okay to look at it broadly.
This can take months, which is why teachers encourage you to start exploring early.
See where the course could potentially lead you (some uni websites will have some example of what their alumni are currently doing).
In the end I applied for both Psychology with Linguistics and Psychology with Education Studies courses.
If you decide to do this, ensure that you cover all areas in your personal statement. In my case, this was relatively easy to do considering the relationship between the subjects. This may be more difficult if your choices are less connected, but it's possible! It just takes a little bit more creativity 🎨.
The reason why I went with Psychology with Education Studies in the end is because language is covered as part of the psychology courses which I applied for. I also have the option to specialise in certain areas (from a range of optional modules) in the final year to.
If you are really struggling and are completely unsure, consider taking a gap year to explore your options through work experience and volunteer placements.
Take the opportunity to try things that you are unsure about - sometimes it's the things that you least expect which surprise you the most.
- To conclude:
- Do a LOT of research!! Start this as soon as you can (don't procrastinate!);
- Don't go into something half- hearted;
- Don't let other people sway your decisions (family members are usually the main culprits!!!);
- Do take it at your own pace.
- Remember that this is just my personal experience, and it was all new territory. Nevertheless, hopefully it was the least bit helpful for some of you! If anyone else has some tips pleased share them in the comments below.
Also - UNIVERSITY ISN'T RIGHT FOR EVERYONE!
This post will nicely led into my next post (I will post this a week earlier than usual).
There will be 20 tips and recommendations for those of you who are starting to think about choosing a university and course.
If you have any suggestions/ questions, let me know and I'll be sure to include them.
I think that's more than enough for this post! 👋
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