what to think about if you're in y13: uni, employment or gap year

If your plan for next year is university then you’re already submitted your application, right? If not, then get a move on. The UCAS deadline (January 15th) may be the official cut-off, but a lot of places will have been filled already. We know how fab you are, but that doesn’t mean the unis are holding a space specially for you. Get your application in before the end of this month.

You may have already decided that uni isn’t the right path for you in 2020, but you’ll give it a go in 2021. If that’s the case, don’t let your gap year go by in the blink of an eye leaving you feeling unfulfilled and still not ready for uni. Use it to your advantage.
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Here are a few ideas to get started.

Make a plan — Whether you’re hoping, in true Inbetweeners gap year fashion, to go travelling, or you want to use the year to get a bit of work experience, it’s more likely to go to plan if you've got a plan. Just the basics. For example, if you’re travelling an hour-by-hour itinerary is going too far, but things like connecting flights, accommodation and insurance should be on your list of need-to-knows. According to the organisers of the Annual Gap Year Safety Conference, one in three gap year trips are cut short by accidents or crimes. Having a plan in place doesn’t guarantee you won’t have any bumps, but it may mean they don't send you off the road.

Don’t follow the crowd — Everyone else might be working turning their part-time job in the chippy into full-time or skydiving on the East coast of Australia, but that doesn’t mean you should too. A gap year is one of the few chances you’ll get in life to do your things your way. So find yourself a box and start thinking outside it. Make the right decision for you.

The world is your oyster (or other mollusc of choice), but before you start making comprehensive plans to travel to the Galapagos to become one with nature think hard about what you’ll be getting out of the experience. Everyone here at Push encourages you to do your own exploring off the beaten track, but as a starting place you can find out more about gap years and what they can mean by looking at some of the most popular gap year sites here, here and here.

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