Key Trends for Successful University Applications: Spring Edition

One area in which an early start at this period is of great advantage is in course choice. Not only can choosing your course early get you in the right headspace going forward, but it also gives you plenty of time to sort out arrangements and get started on your supercurricular development. This may be more urgent for some subjects than others - for example, if you decide you are applying for medicine then getting work experience in a hospital or surgery could be essential for your application - but in general, the more time you have to plump up your Personal Statement with relevant and interesting supercurriculars the better.

Even for those who have decided upon their course, it’s not time to rest on your laurels! Getting ahead of the game and engaging in wider reading and research at this point, even if it’s a little bit at a time, will make a huge difference to the amount of content you can engage with as well as how you acquire the relevant skills to engage with said content. They say Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither are the foundations of your wider knowledge or skills of analysis! Taking the time now to start compiling materials, reading interesting sources, and engaging in supercurriculars, the more time your brain will have to collate the information and skills you’re learning and synthesise them into a cohesive whole ahead of the application itself.

If you’re struggling for time or are daunted by the prospect of working on your application at the same time as mocks or exams (and we totally get it - multitasking can be tough!), why not sign up for one of our Private Consultation sessions? A Private Consultation involves sitting down with one of our Oxbridge-graduate senior consultants to assess your current level, recommend next steps, and address any questions you have about the application process.

We regularly work with students with very busy timetables and so are very sensitive to the competing demands of schoolwork and application preparation, as well as the toll this can take! Our senior consultants and mentors are perfectly equipped, both with professional and personal experience, to help you balance tasks appropriately and get the most out of your time!