Accepting my offer

Accepting a university offer is a big occasion for anyone. In this blog, I will discuss my experience of accepting my offer and some advice I would give to students receiving their own university offers. 

My decision 

When applying to universities, I wanted a university that would offer me support in my education as well as wellbeing. I also wanted a campus that offered lots of facilities but didn’t feel overwhelming. This is what drew me to apply to YSJ. 

I was fortunate enough to receive an unconditional offer from YSJ to study Creative Writing and English Literature. After falling in love with the campus and university atmosphere I experienced coming on an open day, I had no doubts about accepting my offer.  

YSJ compared to other offers 

The main aspect that made me gravitate to YSJ was the campus. YSJ campus is way smaller compared to other universities I received offers from. This made YSJ have more of a welcoming community. Experiencing the campus on an open day really helped me envision myself at YSJ. If I didn’t attend an open day, I don’t think I would have been so quick in accepting my offer. 

Emotions 

While accepting my offer was overall an exciting moment, happiness wasn’t the only emotion I was feeling. Accepting my offer made me realise that university was soon. This realisation brought me nervousness along with the excitement for this new chapter. It’s normal to have a mixture of feelings, so reaching out to family and friends really helped me and is something I highly encourage. 

Advice  

Before accepting any offers, I had to ask myself some questions. These questions made me stop and think about each offer and helped me decide which one to accept.  

1) How far away is it from home, do I want to stay local or move to a new city? 

2) Do I imagine myself at this university? 

3) Do I like what the course is offering? 

4) What support does the university offer? (Accessibility and Wellbeing for example) 

These questions made me really scrutinous about selecting any offer. If anyone is struggling, I suggest you read and answer these questions to help you determine what offer you should accept and most importantly what offer is most suitable for you and what will benefit you the most. These questions really helped me in selecting my offer. 

Personal reflection and final thoughts 

Looking back, I’m so happy that I took the time to thoroughly review every university I received an offer from. Being critical really helped me find the university offer best suitable for me.  

Some further advice I can give is to explore your values and priorities in selecting an offer from a university that is right for you. It’s ok to be unsure and take days, even weeks to accept any offer. I’m so happy I accepted my offer to YSJ. I couldn’t be happier at a university with a tight-knit community with amazing support available to me. 

Jessica Mitchell

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