If you’re trying to choose the perfect university you’ve probably already spent hours trawling the internet looking at courses and trying to figure out the best location. But have you ever wondered about the pitfalls you should avoid? After all, this decision will shape the rest of your life.

In case you are thinking do I even need help from a consultancy, why I can’t I apply directly to a university? That’s a very good question. Below are few key reasons why one must go through a consultancy,

   1) Can help you by giving impartial advice on which are the best universities for the course you want to purse higher education in and also locations within your budget.

   2) For freshers or students who are uncertain about which course to pick, certified counsellors can help you pick the right course.

   3) Universities receive 1000’s of application for each course from across the world, in case of international student applications, majority of the universities rely on trusted consultancies to perform the initial screening.

Below are the few tips that can help you to pick a consultancy that works for you,

   1) Are they suggesting university names before counselling or even reviewing your documents? – This is a behaviour usually demonstrated by consultancies who work for handful of universities and their objective most likely will be to push as many students as they can to these universities without considering what is actually best for the student.

   2) Total number of universities that particular agency represents or can help you secure admission from? – Lesser the number of universities, more they work in favour of universities.

   3) Good consultancies never charge for helping with application process and securing an admission – Universities pay pretty good commission to consultancies for every successful application. If they are charging you, that means either they don’t have relationship with the university or they are just taking advantage of you, neither is good.

It’s easy to rely on league tables and judge a university simply by its position in the charts. But there are so many table - which one is right? Also remember that subjects are ranked individually in some league tables. So, it’s well worth looking at subject-level rankings too.

But it is far better to look at the university as a whole considering course, location, part time jobs availability, accommodation, cost of living, clubs, societies, academic support, facilities and night life.

You are going to be spending at least 1 year at the university, so don’t forget to look at all the other amazing stuff your university could offer you. League tables are a useful starting point when faced with so much choice at the beginning of your journey but any final decisions really need to be based on your own research, your own personal ranking.

One sure-fire way to NOT getting into the university you want is to make stuff up on your personal statement or have someone else write it. It should be about you, why you are right for the course and how does it align it with your long-term goals. It’s a good idea to get someone else to read through your statement when you are happy with it, and ask for feedback, but write it yourself.

Don’t say things like you have read a certain book or done a particular course if you haven’t. If you get called for interview and asked about it, at best it will be embarrassing, at worst you risk not getting the place you want.

Yes, you may be going to a university to study engineering or law but if you love badminton or cricket or horse riding, don’t pick a campus where you can’t do those things! As well as finding somewhere that offers academic excellence in your chosen subject make sure you can indulge your passions too. It’s important to be happy wherever you decide to study.