Top Tips for Applying to Universities or Colleges

1. Research Rankings

Find out which Universities are ranked best for your chosen course; you can Google “best universities for XYZ in England/USA/Canada” and get a good idea of which ones are highly ranked. You can also visit unistats.ac.uk to compare official data on undergraduate courses at each university in the UK, and see what jobs and salaries graduates can expect after completing the course. Top Universities lists courses which are available in the USA, UK and Australia. Pay Scale does the equivalent for North America but also ranks colleges by salary potential.

2. Campus Preference

Decide whether you prefer a campus university, where all the facilities and accommodation are in one location, or a city university, where you have the upside of a more diverse social and cultural life, but will be split across locations and accommodation options.

3. Location

What location works best for you? Do you need to be near an international airport? Or on a direct flight path home? Whilst the quality of the course and University should be key factors, there will also be practical considerations to take into account.

4. Take a Tour

Try and do a tour (online or in person) of at least a couple of your favourite universities before applying; they can often feel quite different in reality to the prospectus.

5. Be Unique

Make your personal statement as unique as possible; take a look at YouTube videos by college lecturers to gain insights into exactly what they are looking for.