Proactive Y10s book an appointment BEFORE year 11 starts
Going to university is the traditional way to get a degree, and it's still seen as a rite of passage in becoming an adult. Students choose to go to university for a number of reasons - the chance to study a subject they enjoy in great depth and be taught by some of the best minds in that subject. They also go for the chance to be independent, to live away from home for the first time perhaps. Social life is a large part of the university experience and all universities offer clubs and societies in anything from drama to surfing to debating, and almost anything else you can imagine. There will be something to interest you as well as the chance to make life-long friends.
University is there for anyone who wants to go. It's not just for wealthy families or students who get all A grades. We need more well-rounded graduates from every part of society. At Lord Grey, you may be eligible for a contextual offer - make sure you find out about these.
You have to pay for your university education. At the time of writing, almost all universities charge £9250 per year for the lessons. This means a standard three year degree will cost you almost £30,000. You are not expected to pay this yourself upfront. You can apply for a student loan, which goes directly to the university. Once you have finished your degree, you become liable for paying the loan back. If you earn under £2214 a month (approx £26,500 a year)*, you do not have to repay anything. However, one point of getting a degree is to increase your earning potential, so eventually, you should be earning more than this. When your income is above the minimum amount, your loan repayments are 9% of the amount over the minimum and are taken from your monthly pay at the same time as tax and National Insurance. If your income drops below the minimum again, the repayments stop.
For example:
Your annual income is £28,800 and you are paid a regular monthly wage. This means that each month your income is £2,400 (£28,800 divided by 12). This is over the monthly threshold of £2,214. Your income is £186 over the threshold (£2,400 minus £2,214). You will pay back £16 (9% of £186) each month.
On top of paying for the teaching, you have to live. If you move away from home, there will be rent, bills, travel, food to pay for. University text books are expensive, and the famous social life isn't cheap. You can apply for a maintenance loan to help with these costs. These are based on your household income, and your parents/carers may have to top it up. It is repaid in a similar way to the student loan. It should be enough to cover your basic expenses, but students aren't rich and almost all students also have a part-time job. Get used to travelling by bus or bike and eating cheap meals!
Student loans do not count against your credit score, which means having these debts will not count against you applying for a mortgage or other loan. Thirty years after finishing your degree, any remaining loan is wiped off. You won't be paying for your degree in your eighties!
There are many grants, scholarships, and bursaries available. If you have a long term health condition, you may be eligible for additional support from a Disabled Students' Allowance. If you have been living in care, you may be eligible for additional funds. The Propel website can tell you more about this. (You may get a security warning about this link, but it is a bonafide site.) If you are studying a healthcare subject, take a look at the NHS website to see if you can receive additional funds. Also look for funding from many other sources - the Vegetarian Society sometimes gives a couple of hundred pounds for example. It might not make much of a dent in the loans, but it will buy a few text books.
*The minimum income and other details are updated every April. These figures are correct for 2020.
More information is available on www.gov.uk/student-finance and www.slc.co.uk.
Which university you choose is a personal choice. The course is the first thing you need to be sure about. Don't choose a subject just because you fancy living in the city where the course is offered. You will be studying at depth for at least three years, and paying a lot of money for it. It has to the the right course for you. Check the course content and the options you can choose, is there a path through the course that interests you?
Secondly, you need to be happy with the place you are going to live for the next three years. Some universities are based on campuses (everything from the bar to the library, lecture rooms and residences, all on one site) others are spread across a city, with lectures in different places, and residences and social areas in different places again. Which sort of life will suit you best? What is the accommodation like? Do you have to share a bathroom? Is the library well stocked? Is there good careers and pastoral support? Don't choose somewhere you are going to feel unhappy.
Once you have these two aspects decided, you need to find which is the best university offering the course that you want to do. Aim high, but remember to factor in the social and emotional aspects of studying there.
Discover Uni is a great site that shows you what previous students have said about the university and the course that you are considering.
You should use your Unifrog account to make a shortlist of the universities and courses that you are considering.
You will hear people talking about Russell Group universities. These are the supposed best 24 universities in the UK. They are world renowned for their research and teaching. Their reputation means they can ask for higher A level grades than other universities, and a degree from a Russell Group university does hold a certain cachet to some employers. Because people are drawn to success, Russell Group unis tend to attract the best staff and more funding than others.
However, they are not the be-all-and-end-all of university. The Russell Group is a self-selecting group that was only established in 1994. Some excellent universities have declined to join the group. There are also other university groupings such as the University Alliance for professional and technical focused universities, and the Million+ group for public policy centred universities.
Ultimately, the most important aspect to choosing your university is to maximise the best university for you with the best course for you taught in a way that will help you flourish and somewhere you will be happy to live. You won't do as well in a top university if you are miserable as you might do being happy in a mid-level one.
The deadline for your application will depend upon the course your are applying for, so check carefully. If your completed application – including all your personal details and your academic reference – is submitted by the deadline, it is guaranteed to be considered. Some universities offer places as and when applications come in, others wait until after the deadline, so it pays to get your application in as early as you can.
For most courses and universities, the UCAS deadline is mid January each year. Within Lord Grey, we have an internal deadline ahead of the UCAS one. This gives us time to read your application, check details, suggest changes, and attach the reference. Check with your academic mentor when this date is.
All applications received after 30th June are entered into Clearing – find out more about Clearing.
Read UCAS's application timeline guidance.
Any course at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and most courses in medicine, veterinary medicine/science, and dentistry have a deadline in mid-October. You can add choices with a different deadline later, but don’t forget you can only have five choices in total.
Some course providers require additional admissions tests to be taken alongside the UCAS application, and these may have a deadline as well - possibly as early as August of the year before you start the degree. Find out more about these tests.
Even before you start year 13, you should be preparing for your university application. The summer holiday at the end of year 12 is your last chance to get experience and evidence to back up your personal statement. So, in year 12, find out as much as you can about the courses you are thinking of applying to and start reading some of the course texts. Sign up for summer schools and taster lectures, and certainly visit open days.
As soon as you start year 13, you will need to begin your university application. Students who are applying to Oxbridge, for medicine, dentistry, or veterinary science will have just over a month to complete their application as well as sit the admissions tests. Other students have longer, but it is still a good idea to get your application in as soon as you can.
At the end of year 12, there will be a workshop on applying through UCAS, during which you will be guided into setting up your UCAS account.
The full information you need is on the UCAS site here.
UCAS has put this into a flowchart to make it clearer.
If there is one thing that causes more stress than anything else when applying to university, it's the personal statement. Everyone struggles to get the right balance of confidence and humility, to sound enthusiastic without being OTT, and to draw in examples that will support their application, all in 4000 characters and with a killer opening line.
Luckily, there is a lot of help around. Mr Hoggard and Ms Green have seen more personal statements than they've had hot dinners, and every year, their advice and experience help scores of LG students to university. Your 6th form academic mentor will also be a useful adviser. UCAS has a lot of information that you should follow, and in Unifrog, you can pull all your skills, competencies, and experience together into one supporting statement.
Explain why you have chosen that subject and what you want to go on to do.
Give examples of any work experience, summer schools, additional courses to back up your interest.
Show you know what the course will involve and mention aspects of the course that particularly appeal to you.
Tell them about any hobbies, positions of responsibility, sports etc.
Avoid cliches - do not say you are passionate about . . .
Avoid hyperbole - don't claim that you'll die if you can't study geography
Be different - but not weird. Don't talk about how cutting up your dead pets sparked an interest in surgery.
Draw together examples to support your application. How can you show critical thinking? Creativity? Ability to understand complicated ideas?
For every example you use, think ABC. A - what was the action you took? B - what was the benefit you gained? C - how can you relate it to the course?
Draft and redraft again and again.
Proofread! Proofread it again. Ask someone else to proofread it as well.
Please note that this information may change in light of Covid and Brexit, and we will update you as further information comes in.
If you’re thinking about studying abroad there are lots of things you’ll need to research such as admissions, fees, scholarships and so on. Note that many of the best universities in Europe now run degrees and postgraduate courses in English. The following websites are all worth researching:
topuniversities.com The most reliable tables of world rankings
studylink.com Information on costs, start dates & visa requirements
europa.eu This is the new European Youth Portal for information on courses in Europe
study-europe.co.uk Information on courses in Europe
astarfuture.co.uk A more general website concerned with studying abroad
degreesahead.co.uk Provides information on applying worldwide
studyinholland.co.uk Comprehensive advice for studying in Holland
eunicas.co.uk Privately run European University Central Application Support Service
campusfrance.org Lists many business courses, some in English
The British Council For information on the EU’s Erasmus scheme
If you think you may want to study in the US you should access the Fulbright Commission. Another good website is astarfuture.co.uk which includes detailed sections on:
the different types of American Universities
the application process
admissions tests such as the SAT, SAT Subject Test, and the ACT
a useful glossary to explain US University jargon
Also look at The Sutton Trust US Programme which gives bright state school students a taste of life at an American university.