WHAT IF YOU MAKE A MISTAKE AND END UP AT THE WRONG UNIVERSITY?

If you think you've picked the wrong university, then it is not all over, this happens a lot. You have made a really big decision, potentially the first big decision you've ever had to make by yourself. You have potentially moved really far away from home to study a subject that you've not studied before and you may have made the wrong the decision and you need to know that it's going to be okay.


There are lots of things we can do in this circumstance, the first thing you need to think about is why do you actually think you've made the wrong decision. Is it something that we can fix easily or is it a big thing?


Is it your accommodation that is making you unhappy? Are you a quiet person who has found themselves in a party household with roommates that are up all night, with roommates that steal your food from the fridge and you're just not happy there. Could potentially getting your own place, which wiill obviously be more expensive, but could applying for a switch in accommodation or getting your own place actually make you a lot happier? Would that solve the problem?


Or is the course that you're not quite happy with? The majority of similar courses actually have the same first year. So you can get a slight switch in direction you might have to catch up one more or you might maybe need to add on a language or a year abroad or take one of those options off. Could a slight switch in course correct the problem? Correct the feeling of, I've made a big mistake, I'm not happy here.


But if those aren't the problem and you have made the mistake and you're really not happy at university and you don't want to be there anymore, there are two things you can do.


You can try and transfer universities. This is generally going to work fairly early on in the course, in the first few weeks of the first year if you just want to have a direct transfer. It's probably only going to work if you're going to transfer to similar course that really, you're not going to be too behind catching up all the work that you've missed. In this case, just call up the university you want, see if they've got spaces and if they have, then they will talk you though the process of switch universities.


If you want to switch universities between years, then this is going to be done via UCAS. If you can't find a university transfer or you’re a little bit later down the line and you've realized you're just not happy where you are then you can leave and start again. You can take a gap year. Maybe you'd be better getting a job, going into an apprenticeship, travelling further away from home, or staying closer to home and then you’re going to just apply through UCAS like you did the first time. This time with your grades in hand, so you're likely to be able to target where you apply better. Then you can explain to them, you have this extra experience, you now know exactly what you want to do and why the first course you applied for wasn't right for you.


So if you have made a mistake, if you have gone to the wrong university, ended up in the wrong place, it's okay. Everyone makes mistakes. If we didn't make mistakes, we wouldn't be human. But this is ultimately fixable, you have a lot of options, so please don't worry too much as there are lots and lots of things you can do.