Advice

More than 4,000 students began their Ucas personal statement with exactly the same opening line as more than a thousand other students. So much for standing out from the crowd.

Ucas has released the most common opening lines from the 2015 application cycle. Almost all of them featured general assertions about the applicant’s motivation, but the seventh most common phrase was specific to one degree course, used identically by 211 applicants.

Mobile phones have a bad reputation within education, with the words “time wasters” and “distractions” being thrown around more often than a netball in a match. But what if mobile phones were proven to be helpful within education? I’ve found five mobile applications that have been godsends to me at university so far, and they help dispel the myth that mobile phone apps are useful only as procrastination tools.

University can be a big jump from high school, and for many it is an overwhelming change. The close-knit relationship students may have had with subject teachers at school; those many role models, who appeared to focus on your educational career alone, are replaced by a personal tutor who you might see once or twice in a semester unless you make the effort to seek them out yourself.

Whether it’s a demanding upcoming exam, the bachelor’s or master’s thesis that needs to be perfected, or applying to a university; these “little projects” are associated with factors influencing your future and therefore the pressure can lead to anxiety, frustration and sometimes sheer despair. In the end, most of the energy that could have been used for facing the hurdles gets put into destructive action, such as worrying and overthinking. So, what can be done about it?

Bill Aulet, managing director of the MIT Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship, says that entrepreneurship is fundamentally about having control over one’s destiny. The only way to control your destiny is to create it. A cliché, I know, but one that holds true, more so now than ever before. Our modern, global economy and our technological progress mean we are all inextricably interconnected, in the way that we live and in the problems we face.

Working with people from different countries and cultures can benefit students and researchers personally and professionally, by cultivating new perspectives and ideas.

Chemists and collaborators Dr David Michaelis, of Brigham Young University in the United States, and Dr Hiroyuki Miyamura, of the University of Tokyo in Japan, forged a fruitful partnership after meeting in 2010 through the Reaxys Prize Club: a select group of chemistry PhD students nominated for a prestigious prize.

Student vlogger Ryhan Hussain turned his life around to get a place studying medicine at Newcastle University, gained me a few scholarships and grants.”

Watch his top tips below:

Your voice is the most valuable tool you have in communicating effectively. So why do so many students and university teachers not invest much energy in their public speaking skills?

Bangor University student and vlogger Hannah Jukes is bucking that trend, and has already noticed the wide-ranging benefits to her confidence and communication skills.

Have you ever found yourself racking your brains in order to remember a book title or to find a topic for the seminar paper you should have already started?

Applying for medical school is like starting a new relationship. There’s the all-encompassing love, the enthusiasm, the feeling that finally life is slotting into place; and also the terror, the second-guessing yourself, the endless waiting for something dramatic to happen. Suddenly everything you do comes under the microscope – is this good enough to go on my personal statement? How can I spin this to my advantage? Do I know enough about this to mention it and then potentially discuss it at interview?