How do you choose the right university, or the right degree? The whole process can seem daunting. What should you focus on? How do you weigh up the different elements involved? So much seems to be at stake.
Students and their families often focus overwhelmingly on only some of the crucial aspects of choosing the right university, often missing other equally important, but less obvious, issues. So here I offer a few suggestions and tips about how best to think about choosing a university and a degree. Of course, each person’s situation is unique, but I hope I can provide some general guidance.
1. Keep Things in Perspective
Your life won’t be ruined if you don’t get into the university or degree of your absolute first choice. In fact, I think sometimes it’s positively healthy that you don’t. It forces you to think about what is really important to you, at least in terms of your education.
But even better, in Australia, we are fortunate to have an extraordinary range of high-quality universities in just about every part of the country. Many are in the top 1% of universities worldwide. That is truly amazing when you factor in that Australia accounts for only around 0.3% of the world’s population.
