You've Applied for University, What's Next?

Application season is difficult. If you applied to the UK and Ireland, you had the good fortune of having to submit one application that is used for all 5 UCAS universities. If you applied in other countries, like America or Spain, you may have had the misfortune of submitting a tailored application for each university (an impressive feat!). Either way, it has been a long and stressful journey, and on top of these tasks you had to keep up with your academic work and personal life. So now take a day or two (or a full week – you deserve it!) to rest. Take a breather. Walk outside, take in the fresh air, enjoy. And get your brain and motivation ready for step 2… 

Now that you submitted your application you sadly need to go back to “normal” life. One where you constantly stress about the calculus exam you have in a weeks time, and the English essay you have to submit by Wednesday. To get into your dream course you have to make sure you get your predicted or better (we love an overachiever). This doesn’t in any way mean you should stress more than normal. Think of it instead as the race has started. You picked your bullseye. Now you just gotta aim for that prize. 

But luckily for you, there are other, more interesting and fun things you can do now that your application is submitted. 

This is the time for you to find out more about what you’re committing the next 3-6 years of your lives to. Learn more about the campus, the societies, the classes you’ll have. Start to get a feel about what your daily life will be like. A lot of universities have student representatives you can talk to and ask questions. LinkedIn is also an amazing tool to use to find more students doing your course and get some very honest opinions on (just in case not everyone loves everything as much as the student representatives).

Overall, learning more about the university and course you’ve applied to is just the thing that can make you feel even more excited for the future to come, or help you realize that maybe you want to change your mind. This is especially important for when your offers start coming in and you need to make a decision on which to accept.

If you’re lucky enough to be living at home, then congrats, this is one stress you won’t need to add to your plate. The first key thing to note is this is in no way, shape, or form meant to incite panic about where you will live in the coming year. It is also not a warning that you should start placing down payments on apartments or dorms in various different cities. What I do strongly recommend is for you to start considering, for the different universities you may have applied to where will you want to live? Does your university have dorms? What are the key dates you might need to note down in your calendar to apply for accommodation? Do you want to look at private accommodations? Often the UK is relatively easy as most universities have dorms. Other places like the Netherlands may be more complicated as university accommodation isn’t as common, so here looking for apartments or private accommodation sooner may be essential. If you know university dorms aren’t for you, you can even look into websites like SpareRoom to start chatting and talking to potential future flatmates.   

Often you don’t think about what it will be like to move away from home until it has actually happened. You might be saying goodbye to your friends and family, to your daily routines, maybe to your home town or country. And then you realize, now that you live alone you have to do everything by yourself. Congrats, you’re a young adult. And with the new freedom, comes great responsibility. You now need to shop, cook, clean, and budget by yourself. Don’t worry, this isn’t as scary as it sounds. You may even feel comfortable doing all those things by yourself right now – that’s great! If you don’t that’s also okay. Each person takes their own time getting acclimated.

But to help get the wheels in motion ask for help and learn now, whilst you’restill at home. For some it can be to learn how to iron your clothes. For others it can be asking their parents to teach them how to cook pasta. Do whatever you feel like you need to do, to make the first 30 days of university smooth, easy, and fun! And equally important start thinking about what you’ll want to pack! Regardless of whether you’re moving to a different city or a different country, packing can be annoying, stressful and boring. So starting to think about what you want to take and what you’ll buy there can help you feel one step ahead. 

There are so many things you can do now that you’ve submitted your undergrad applications, here I only outlined five of them. The reason I only picked five is because the takeaway message I want you to take from this is do not start stressing. You have months to plan and prep. Enjoy the process and good luck with your offers!