Starting university can be a thrilling and extremely rewarding experience, but it also can be somewhat challenging and even overwhelming for many especially if you are not sure what to expect.

Fortunately for our Year 13 students, a group of our alumnae of 2021 were on hand to share their experiences of university life - offering their valuable insights and advice at our annual Alumnae Tips for University forum last week. We are so grateful to them for giving up their time especially with it being so close to the start of their new university year.

Our panel of alumnae, all of whom had just completed their first year of university, represented a variety of courses and universities:

• Sofia Kover Wolf – Birmingham, Computer Science with Digital Technology Partnership (PwC)
• Imogen Rafferty – Exeter, Classics with study abroad
• Tatiana Squire – Durham, Anthropology and Sociology
• Tara Williams – Oxford, German

All four panellists were brilliant at offering advice and clearly enjoyed sharing their personal insights of their first year at university, describing everything from lectures, tutorials and course work to student life and what living away from home for the first time is really like. Our Year 13 students will be certain to benefit from our panellists’ practical tips which included making time to look after yourself and to eat healthily, getting a planner and how to be well-organised in order to balance workload with all the clubs, social activities and opportunities on offer.

Perhaps the biggest take away of the evening - and one that Imogen, Sofia, Tara and Tatiana were all in agreement on - was about managing expectations. Their advice was that above all else, you should not expect to find your core group of best friends nor should you expect to feel entirely settled on Day One. All four were also keen to stress that it is important to remember that it all takes time; that everyone will be in the same position and more than likely will have the same anxieties and concerns as you.

Our Year 13 students also received useful tips from our panellists about the university application and interview process itself. One particular pearl of wisdom was to carefully read through your personal statement again before your interview and to remind yourself of what you had written. This is to ensure that you are able to answer the interviewer’s follow up questions or to elaborate on any of the details you included in your statement. Another essential tip was to make sure you don’t put something in your statement just because you think it sounds good - unless you can back it up!

The evening also included an animated and interesting Q and A session with many of our Year 13 students eager to ask our panellists a wide range of questions from whether the pros and cons of a campus university vs a non-campus university to specific questions for Tatiana who is studying Anthropology about the preferred A-Level subjects for course applicants. A very good point raised was that there is plenty of help and support available but you need to be proactive about finding it.

At the end of the session, Mrs Orr, our Alumnae and Community Liaison Officer, reminded the Year 13s that through our network of alumnae we have access to many former students who between them can offer advice on almost any university and course including many other 2021 leavers who would have liked to join us on Friday but couldn’t – all they have to do is ask!

Thank you again to our wonderful panellists for sharing their stories and first-hand experiences. We hope this evening has left our Year 13 students more prepared and reassured as well as feeling more excited and positive about this next chapter in their academic lives. We cannot wait to hear from you all and to perhaps see some of you next year when you have completed your first year of university and return to dispense your advice to our new Year 13s!