Student Working

Applying to University - Surviving UCAS

06 March

For most students joining NSFC has some bigger purpose, a lead up to some huge turning point that is yet to come in their life.

And for many, this is university.

Progression is usually most people’s motivation for studying A Levels, and NSFC recognises this and helps in every way it can. From your first few weeks the College dives you straight into the UCAS process.

Every year the college hosts a Higher Education Progression Fair, which gives students the opportunity to talk to a number of representatives from a range of Universities and Apprenticeships. This has been a great opportunity for me during both of my years at NSFC. At AS level, this Fair gives you the opportunity to get to know a few institutes and courses and it helps you get a general idea of the choices you have to make at A2, because in all fairness it’s probably a lot easier to make these decisions in your first year because you have to concentrate on more university pains like your personal statement and student finance in your second.

Which University?

This Fair becomes a bit more serious at A2 as you are in the stages of making your final 5 university choices, so ideally you want to go into it knowing roughly what you want to do and where you want to go. Personally, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do at university within my first year at NSFC, I made a decision to study English Language over the summer, between my AS and A2 years.

When in your second year at NSFC, if you are applying to go to university, it’s time to start the UCAS process. When applying to universities via UCAS (to put it simply it’s a middle man between you, the college and the universities you’re applying to) you have to include 5 university choices.

The College help you all the way through this process; they help you in terms of the actual application process, your personal statement, student finance and the rest of it. I don’t think I would have got this help had I gone elsewhere to study A Levels.

Your Academic Tutor helps you throughout and NSFC also has a Transition and Progression Co-ordinator who has specialist knowledge of the UCAS process.

Personal Statements

Academic Tutors are the College equivalent of high school form tutors.

They are your first port of call for anything you might need help with while you are at College, along with helping you to mould your personal statement.

They’re the ones who know your College profile inside and out. They know what grades you’re achieving in your subjects, they know your attendance, but that’s their job, they need to know everything so that they can support you in every way possible.

And I think that’s something unique to NSFC, they care about every little detail and so they can make sure you’re getting the best out of your time with them.

Matthew

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