University application deadline: How you can plot your roadmap to your dream career with free online tool

• The deadline for students to get their university applications in to UCAS for equal consideration is coming up fast
• A new, free online tool can help students narrow down which universities to apply to, based on their predicted grades and course
• It can even show them what their career options or salaries might look like after they graduate

Narrowing down which universities to apply for based on your grades and future career goals can be tough, but it’s just become a little easier.

There is now only weeks to go until the University and Colleges Admissions Service’s (UCAS) undergraduate application deadline, which lands on Wednesday, 29 January this year. Students planning to start university in September will need to get their application in by 6pm that day. Although people who miss this cut-off can still apply to courses, they will no longer be guaranteed equal consideration.

But applying to and getting accepted into the perfect university isn’t as straightforward as it appears, with prospective students needing to pick five potential universities, clear grade hurdles, entice admissions teams with a compelling personal statement, and make sure their course of study will be the right fit for their future career aspirations. Luckily, education consultancy Dukes Plus has created a free online tool that can not only help university hopefuls create a roadmap to the career of their dreams, but can even help the last cohort of students that will use them with what to write in their personal statement.

The ‘Choose Your Path’ tool allows students to create a personalised report, containing information on their chosen field of study, a list of ‘reach’, ‘secure’, and ‘safety’ university options based on their current or predicted A Level grades, and even careers and graduate salaries matching their requirements.

Dukes Plus says that there are an average of 3,600 online searches each month asking ‘what career is right for me’, which it says have increased by a quarter on this time last year. Its new tool and the reports it creates aim to help students find a specific career goal to focus on - and understand the realities of what it will mean to be successful on that pathway.

“Choosing what career to pursue isn’t always clear as there are so many different paths to go down. Most people won’t know their dream job until later in life, but by then, it can be much harder to start over and change careers,” Director Alison Bissell said. “Even though the choices available to young people can be overwhelming, we always seek to bring clarity and simplicity to the process. We see the journey towards university and onward to early careers as a catalyst for personal growth, in and of itself.”

“We want to help inform young people of the options most suited to their skills and interests and give them a chance to test-drive these careers before they commit time and money to pursue them,” she continued.

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How to use the Dukes Plus ‘Choose Your Path’ tool

You can find the Dukes Plus ‘Choose Your Path’ tool online here. To get started, simply click the blue ‘Choose Your Path’ button.

A questionnaire will pop up on your screen, which you can then fill out. If you select that you are a student, it will ask you for your age, first name, chosen field of study (STEM, the arts, social sciences, or humanities), a subject within that field, your grades or predicted grades, and lastly, a career option you currently find interesting.

To get access to your report, you’ll then need to enter an email address and a UK phone number. And that’s it - your personalised report will then be generated and sent through to you.

Students looking for further support can book a free consultation with Dukes Plus to discuss various transformative career programmes for those aged from 12 to 18 years old. Or if you’d like to know more about the process of completing and submitting your UCAS application, you can check out our handy guide here.