University applications guide: course choice
Choosing the right course is the first decision you should make when you start your university application journey.
Well-known for the quality of education and breadth of opportunity they provide to graduates, UK universities constitute just under 25% of the top 100 QS world-ranked universities. As a result, applications to study at many UK universities are competitive due to the wide variety of excellent candidates who apply from the world over.
To support students applying to UK universities, we are publishing a series of articles on the preparation and work required during the application and admissions process in order to secure a university place. In this article, we discuss choosing the university course (or courses) that you want to apply for.
Begin by considering your prime motivation for studying a course at university: Do you love the course subject and want to increase your knowledge in it further? Or do you want to take the first steps on a particular career path using this course? How do you want to develop your skills for the future? Finally, what do you enjoy doing and reading about most? To understand the future career opportunities that the course will open up to you, check which kinds of university studies are most often required by which professions. This can be done by checking different job websites and graduate career options online.
The next stage is to conduct extensive research - this decision will affect your life for years to come so it is worth ensuring you are confident with your choice. UCAS provides two excellent tools which can be used for this purpose. The first is an exhaustive list of courses with general breakdowns for each available here. The second is a search tool for all courses and their respective UK universities available here. UCAS allows you 5 choices for your courses with any UK university, however, if you are applying for medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine or veterinary science then please be aware that you can only apply for a maximum of four courses.
You should choose similar courses as the same personal statement will be sent to all 5 of your course choices via UCAS. For example, choosing to apply for English literature and philosophy; English literature and sociology via UCAS is feasible as there is sufficient overlap for you to write a personal statement demonstrating your interests in both courses. However, choosing to apply for a course in Physics and a course in English Literature would be unwise as there is a wide disparity between the subjects; you can’t write a personal statement that effectively demonstrates your interests in both courses.
Once you have a firmer idea of which course you want to study, you will also need to decide on the university to study it at. Frequently these decisions are made in tandem as not every UK university will offer every course. Therefore it is worth checking early which universities offer the courses you are interested in to avoid disappointment.
Once you have a firmer idea of both, you should read the university course page in detail. They will have a plethora of information regarding the modules studied and what students gain from the course. They will frequently also have feedback from students who took the same course - if you desire more information, you can always ask the university admissions office any further questions you have. You will need to choose courses whose entry conditions you can satisfy with your school subjects and grades you can realistically achieve in your time frame. It is often worthwhile to research similar courses at the same universities to check if any would be better suited to your interests or have different entry requirements to be aware of.