PUT THE BRAKES ON THOSE unconditional offers

We know how tempting it might be given the current situation, to accept any unconditional offers you might be receiving from your university choices. The Government did actually put a temporary ban on universities offering unconditional offers (although this has now been lifted) to try and ensure these weren’t getting given out en-mass when exams were cancelled and floods of panicking students would then be accepting choices that may not be right for them.

And at Push that’s our mission. To make sure the decision you’re making is the right one for you. Not anybody else.

So our advice is to hold off on your decision making, at least for a little while.

You don’t want to rush into something that isn’t right and then spend the next three years regretting your course or university choice. Even though the ban (or moratorium, as it was referred to) on universities offering unconditional offers has been lifted the government has said that they still “expect universities and colleges to act in a way that protects the interests of students and the stability and integrity of the higher education sector as a whole”

So, what can you do to inform your choices before you commit to a decision?​

The first thing you can do is to ensure you’re keeping up to date with the updates regarding learning and university admissions. This is easy enough to do, just make sure you’re checking the government pages regarding the guidance and UCAS’s updates on the admissions process. These are changing weekly, sometimes daily, so make sure you keep looking back every few days to check anything new.

Have another look at the universities you’ve chosen. I say ‘another’ because I’m assuming you researched them before you applied. You can’t actually go to the campuses right now but you can certainly have a look at information about it online. Some universities are even running virtual open days at the moment so you can visit the campus without even leaving your bedroom. Imagine that!

Find as much information about the university and the city as you can. You have so much more free time right now, so there’s no excuse not to. I don’t just mean the obvious questions you might have like ‘How far is the commute from halls to campus?’, ‘What facilities does the student union have?’ and ‘How much is the average pint?’. No I mean things that are very specific to you.

Asking more questions about yourself will make your experience more enjoyable overall. Think of things like; Do you want to be near the coast? Do you hate hills? (Tip: Don’t pick Sheffield), Do you want to be somewhere busy or calmer? What do you want to do for fun while you’re there? I know it seems easier to just pick where to go to university based on where your friends are going, by where the uni is ranked in the tables or where your parents think will sound the best when they tell their friends, but it might not be what’s the right decision for you. So, if you have unconditional offers now, hold off on accepting until you’ve done the right research for your own particular needs.

It’s not just the university you should be basing your decision around though. You have to think about the course, of course (Try saying that quickly). The thing to bear in mind is that each course is different, even if they have the same name at different universities, they’ll have different modules and assessment structures. Finding these more specific details out are the things that can make you love or hate your course so make sure you’re asking these questions. It’s important to go in knowing all you can about the course and university before you commit to a decision.

So our advice is to hold off on rushing into any decisions regarding your unconditional offers. I know it might be tempting in all this uncertainty to have something that you know is fixed for afterwards but rushing into a decision now may be something you regret for years to come. So just take a breath, relax and do your research. You’ve got this.

If you want more advice and tips on living in the Covid age have a look at our daily minute motivations here that are uploaded to our Instagram account and subscribe to our youtube channel advice videos, and our monthly newsletter.

Author

ARON TENNANT is  the Talks and Editorial manager for Push. He is originally from South Yorkshire and has a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Sheffield. He also has an MA in Creative Play and Screenwriting from City, University of London and came runner up in Nickelodeon's international screenwriting competition in 2018. Alongside Push he does screenplay work for independent production companies and is working on his own independent film projects