University.

University. 

YES or NO?

This is the question that has been circling around mine and others in my year groups head for the past year. It's a pain in the backside. 

During the last few years at school (11-13) you have to make some of the biggest decisions of your life. Well. They may not be the biggest in the long run, but in the present day they certainly seem like it. 

Year 11 - You have to decide whether you want to go to college for further education or go to sixth form (either in your own school or another). 

Year 12 - You have to think about what type of career you want in the future, and you have to decide what courses you want to look at for apprenticeships and/or uni's. 

Year 13 - You have to finalize the courses at apprenticeships and/or uni and apply. But you also have the dreaded decision. 

Go to uni?

Not go to uni?

That is the question.

Literally. 

As a child I always thought I would go to secondary school, go to sixth form and then go to uni. Well that was my second thought. My first one, well, that's another story. 

But this thought changed when it actually came to making the decision of whether I wanted to go to uni or not.

When your young you don't realize how many courses and uni's there are in the world, until they send things to your house with your name on it - which makes me feel bad since I didn't know they existed but they knew I did. 

I have had a mountain of leaflets, booklets and letters come through my door from different uni's around the world offering different courses and inviting me to their open days. It's so strange. I feel wanted. But then I realize that pretty much everyone I know my age has had the same paperwork come through their doors. Which makes me feel one of many. Which I suppose isn't a bad thing. 

When making decisions I always think back to what my siblings decided to do. Not so I could copy them. Just so I could get some inspiration and some ideas. 

My brother chose to go to uni, after attending his schools sixth form, to do a degree in IT I think. I'm not sure. I just know that he went or I should say goes to uni. He chose a 4 year course. First 2 years at uni, 1 year in industry and the last year back at uni. He's currently on his last year and I think he enjoys it. It has opened him up to different opportunities and skills that makes him who he is today. 

My sister chose to go to college instead of sixth form and do a childcare course. This was over a period of 2 years and after education she found a job at a day nursery through one of her placements. She decided to stick with the job and not go to uni. Every so often she'll think about uni, but whether she goes or not is another thing.

I am currently attending my schools sixth form and hoping to get into uni. I literally sent off my application a few days ago. I followed my thoughts as a young girl of going to uni and I applied. 

As I said before I had always thought about going to uni, but that hasn't always been the case. I went through a stage in my life where I didn't know what I wanted to do. I wanted to music, cause I love performing. But it's such a hard industry to get into and also to get in any of the courses that do music you need a grade in an instrument or singing. I don't have a grade as I never had any singing exams. After wanting to do music I was stuck. I had planned out that I was going to go to uni to do music and then work my way into the industry. But that failed. So I had to think again. I went through a stage where I said to my friend that I just want to be a mother. I want to get married, get a house, start a family and be a stay at home mum. My friend didn't like that idea. She told me, I can be all of that but I can also have a career. If I wanted to get anywhere in life I need to make good decisions. And just being a mother wasn't one of them. Yes I will be a mother in the future, but first I need to get a job. What that job is yet, I'm not sure. 

So after the stage of 'wanting to be a mother' I decided that I wanted to do English at uni. I was set on it. I looked at loads of English courses and went to open days for them. The only reason why I wanted to do an English degree was so I could get into a media career. I still wasn't sure what type of career in media. I just knew I wanted to work in media.

After getting my as level results, I decided that I wanted to keep looking at courses. But delve more into media. I had received better grades in media than I did in English. Which is why I kept looking. Until I found it. The course for me. 

Television Production. 

Yep. That course has got my name written all over it. We went to an open day for it and I fell in love. Well, metaphorically I fell in love. I've applied and hopefully I'll get accepted. I just keep refreshing my emails. 

And that was my deciding on uni story. 

So, are you deciding on uni or not?

My advice to you before you make your decision is to look at all the options that are being offered to you. 

Do you want to take a gap year?

Do you want to do an apprenticeship?

Do you want to go to uni? 

It's completely up to you. Don't let anyone influence your decision. It's your life and you're the one who will be living it. 

 

University. 

YES or NO?

:)