Choosing a Course

Selecting the best possible course for you is a key decision to make, and often a challenging one. There can be intense competition for the most popular courses, and later for graduate jobs. Do you want to follow a course offering a clear career path or does your interest lie in one of the more traditional academic subjects? There are tens of thousands of courses, and the same title of course will not be taught in the same way, or cover the same material, at every university offering it.

If you have access to Course Discover, as you read through the following pages, take a moment to download The Students' Choice booklet from UCAS Course Discover. Use this booklet to keep a record of your ideas and research - this will help you in the decision making process.

So how do you go about choosing a course?

For a few people, choosing a course is simple: they have always wanted to be a brain surgeon or have always had a passion for geography, mountains and glaciers. For most, however, there is a bewildering variety of courses, many of which involve subjects that are not taught in schools or colleges. Somehow you have to narrow down the thousands of courses to just a few. What should you take into account?

Ten courses you didn't know you could do

• BA Adventure recreation
• BA Animation
• BA Hausa and Arabic
• BA Special effects
• BSc Dairy herd management
• BA Packaging design
• BA Playwork
• BSc Police studies and citizenship
• BSc Disaster management
• BA Viking studies

Available for entry in 2011-12, UCAS website.

Next page: Which Subject?