Advice

Choosing a topic for your dissertation is one of the toughest decisions that you will make while at university.

You want to find a topic that you find interesting, one that will enable you to do well and demonstrate your academic strengths and will also impress a prospective employer with your interests and abilities. And, of course, you want to avoid a topic that will lead you down a blind alley or paint you into a corner.

The SATs and the ACTs are the two different tests that students are required to take for admittance to a US university. 

All colleges require students to take either the SAT or the ACT and submit their scores to their prospective universities. There is no advantage of taking one test over another, so it is important to choose the test that is best for you, whether you are a domestic US student or an international student. 

It’s hard to keep your money in check as a student – there are so many new experiences to have and you want to make the most of them. This can seem impossible on a student budget. Luckily, there are some tips and tools to help you keep on top of your finances, so you can focus making new friends and finding your classes.

Be the boss

Rolling green hills and majestic natural beauty await those who come to New Zealand to study. The “home” of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth has quickly established a unique reputation and allure for young people looking to experience a different lifestyle while studying for the future.

Essay mills – companies that connect paying students to freelance shadow authors – are in the news again. The current debate is about banning them by law. A legal ban, however, could simply nudge these companies abroad, or even just turn into websites that allow students to advertise for authors directly and anonymously; or even international peer-to-peer networks. Essay mills do seem curiously old-fashioned, reminiscent of a time when information was an expensive commodity. 

You may not know many people who have studied in Australia, but its 43 universities are in fact some of the most popular in the world for international students.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, since Melbourne and Sydney are two of the best cities for students, and there are other idyllic locations with world-leading universities elsewhere on the island. The education system and application process is different from other Anglophone countries, so we’ve collected the information that you’ll need each step of the way.

As you put the final touches to your university packing, the fear can begin to settle in. Will I be the dumbest person in my seminars? Will I make any friends? Will I be able to keep up with the workload?

But fear not. These are things that almost every new university student will experience at some point. And it is important to know that you aren't the only person feeling scared and apprehensive about going to university. 

My advice for anyone writing a thesis is to identify what the examiners are looking for, and then give them what they want. While this is good guidance, to be really helpful it needs to be elaborated on, so I did some research. First, I carried out a systematic review of the literature on thesis examinations to confirm what examiners look for as they consider a thesis.

Explore the rankings

No matter how much you already know about university options in the UK, you can learn even more detail about individual universities and how they compare with each other by using the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the subject rankings.

I was lucky to have as good a graduate school experience as one could have. I had a wonderful adviser, attended an excellent programme, and was fortunate to have received financial support from my university.

Yet, even under the best of circumstances, graduate school is demanding and stressful. Like many other graduate students, I postponed many major milestones of early adult life – children, homeownership and saving for retirement – to pursue a career in research.