In a digital age, you can access information 24/7 but when you’re applying to university or you’re at university this can be overwhelming.
Choose your Sources
One way of focusing on one source of information is decide what is most relevant and important to you and who can provide the most reliable information you need. Regarding anything to do with university undergraduate applications, this should be UCAS and therefore, spending hours searching elsewhere wont benefit you. They have clear processes, deadlines and timelines which are easy to follow and wont deviate from what has been published so as you get t each milestone, you can wait for the next according to their processes.
Social Media
You are in control of what you follow and subscribe to and you can literally change this at the click of a button. If there are accounts you follow that don’t make you feel good, that confuse you or create feelings of anxiety, these need to be deleted from your feed. It is easy to waste hours scrolling and whilst you may enjoy down-time in this way, you can curate the information you absorb. The most common pitfall is using social media as a source of information when actually most of it is opinion in the guise of fact. If you can adjust your brain into accepting it is entertainment and therefore fiction, this can help you disregard it as a source of information.
Forums
Whilst forums have a place and can be a fantastic source of opinion, there comes a point where you should stop finding out what everyone else thinks and form your own decision. Anything that feels unclear or confusing to you should prompt you to ask questions direct to the source such as about student accommodation. Everyone is different and therefore everyone feels differently about certain subjects and so the only way to get comfortable is to find out for yourself. Misunderstandings can be best addressed by having a face-to-face conversation or a phone call rather than clicking link after link and getting more and more confused and worried.
Finally, get out there and experience things for yourself – there is only so much information you can find and only so prepared you can be before you have to let go and do the thing you have been researching so hard for. Not knowing absolutely everything in advance can sometimes give you little pleasant surprises along the way but if information is your thing, be in control of where you find it.
By Sarah Canning
