Why is visiting a university in person the best thing you can do for yourself to make sure you made the right choice?
When I first started thinking about applying to university, I was certain about two things: I wanted to go to the UK, and I wanted to study physics and philosophy (an actual course pairing you can find surprisingly often in the UK). Since my parents were thankfully very supportive of the idea, the only thing left to choose was exactly which universities I was going to apply to.
At first, I did what most people do when deciding on a university: I compared rankings, watched campus tours on YouTube and tried to get an idea of the differences between them.
And yet, I still couldn’t decide. The courses were all very well put together, the university buildings all looked appealing, and the credentials were great. Some universities I looked at, like Durham, were older and more traditional in style, others were more modern, like York; different, yes, but all promising.
That’s when, at the insistence of my parents, I thankfully had the opportunity to go on a trip to the UK and actually visit the most promising universities. This would end up being the best decision I could have made with regards to my application.
There on the trip, I realised that no YouTube video could do anything but give you a glimpse at what university life would be like in a specific place. And I want to draw attention to that word, place. Me, like many others, had the tendency to separate universities from the cities they were located in, I tended to see them more as concepts than physical buildings located in a city, where I would have to live, eat, go out and make friends. I couldn’t have guessed how much of a difference being there would make; seeing the streets in the city, the university buildings, how the people dress, where they eat and where they live.
I suppose the best word to describe what I’m getting at is the vibe of a place, which you really can’t get without being in that said place. I can say I know of, say, New York. I watched videos about it, know the famous spots in it, how I’ve seen New Yorkers online and have an idea of how they tend to differ from other Americans, but I really can’t say I know New York. I’ve never been there, and there’s only so much the internet can tell me about it. It’s the little things, which are not obvious at first glance, that make up a place.
And this directly applied to my experience too. I’ll compare the two universities that interested me the most: Kings College London, and Durham. I grew up in a big city, so I thought I’d find London more familiar than Durham, which is so small it can barely be called a city, with a population of around fifty thousand. But I didn’t. Only by being there, in Durham, I could find out how much I enjoyed its quietness, its clean air, well-kept streets and buildings or the nature around the city. I liked the vibe of Durham, but not so much that of London; even though that was contrary to my expectations.
That being said, I think it’s fitting that I end this with a call to action. If you have the resources to do so, go and visit the universities and cities you want to apply to. Go there in person and see for yourself whether your choice really fits you as well as you thought it would. Like me, you might end up surprised.
– Matei Marinica –
Durham University