Resources

Universities and Careers Department

Your main resource should be the Universities and Careers Department! We have a full set of prospectuses, a wealth of information and books, as well as a suite of fast new computers to help you with your research online. You can also come to the department to fill in your UCAS form, where Mrs Rogers is on hand to help.

Most of the information listed below is in the Universities and Careers Library.

The UCAS Website - www.ucas.com

You can’t really do it without this. Not only does it list every course at every institution in the country, but it also has a fabulous search facility by subject, university, or geographical location - it has 1 million hits a month, proving just how good it is.

The ‘Stamford’ test is also on the site which will give you the opportunity to do a quiz and find courses which would suit you.

Once you’ve found a course in which you’re interested, then you can see what you’ll need to get on that particular course, as well as links to the relevant departments at the universities.

Link: www.ucas.com

The HERO Website - www.hero.ac.uk

Use this in conjunction with the UCAS website. It has fantastically informative university profiles, and also provides links to the different faculties and departments. You can see news stories from universities around the country too.

Link: www.hero.ac.uk

Books you MUST use

Heap - Choosing your Degree Course and University

Here’s a good place to start - it runs through subjects and gives a synopsis of what to expect from those subjects at a selection of universities. It’s not designed to give the complete picture, but merely to give a flavour of the different styles of departments.

You can also look up degree subjects by career choice and school subjects, which is handy if you’re not sure which subject to go for at uni.

Heap - Degree Course Offers

OK, so you’ve decided (almost) on your subject. Look in this book to see what you’ll need to get in at most of the institutions offering the course. Once again it can’t hope to cover all subjects and subject combinations at all unis but it does include a good number of them. It also gives information on departments’ views on gap years, number of applicants per place, general advice on the subject and interview tips.

Books that are interesting and useful

Times Good University Guide, Guardian University Guide, Virgin Alternative Guide

Take your pick from these two and use them as ‘league tables’ but beware of judging a course as either good or bad based on the listing. Do your own research - even if it’s not top of the list it may be exactly what you’re looking for and will be the best for your chosen career.

There’s also lots of advice on university life in different locations etc.

Getting into... series

A whole set of books on getting into your particular subject or career area, giving advice on courses, selection criteria etc.

‘Courses’ books

These cover courses by area such as ‘Physical Sciences’ and all that those involve.