IDP agent

One of the easiest ways to apply for a university in the UK or any other countries would be the use of overseas education agencies. The agents in those agencies are experienced in the process of application for your position in the universities. Before I approached my agent, IDP, I knew nothing about the UK or even how education there is like. On my first arrival, the agent professionally briefed me on the following:

1. Education timeline (Study period and holidays)

2. Summarised process of application

3. Type of courses available for the Universities in UK

4. Life in the UK

Under education timeline, she explained to me the difference in terms of holidays and how UK Universities plan their exams. She briefly mentioned that exams are normally held after the holidays instead of before the holidays like how it is in Singapore. She then proceeded to explain to me the steps required to complete the application and the datelines which I have to take note for. As I did not know much about the ranking of universities in UK, she whipped out a UK handbook which contains the ranking of courses amongst all the universities in the UK. We then narrowed down to a few of the top-ranking universities for me to do my own research at home before coming to a decision. Curious on how life is like in the UK, she explained to me a brief overview on the people, costing and student environment. I was also able to get comparisons to studying in the US and Australia as she had colleagues who were experienced in those countries.

As the process of applying for the university can be quite lengthy, I suggest getting an agent. Honestly, my agent did a very good job as I had to just provide documents and information that she required for the application and she did most of the work for me. For applications that I have to do by myself, like VISA, she was able to bring me through the process and I managed to get it very smoothly. There wasn’t much need of meeting up as most of the stuff were done online. She only needed to meet me when there was personal information that was needed to fill up and payment to be made. Throughout the application, I only met her twice, the rest communicating via email.

Other than IDP, there are many other agencies that you can use according to your preference and comfort. There were no charges in engaging an agent as they are paid by the University for each successful applicant. The University will not charge you for engaging an agent for the application as well. This may differ for other agencies, but for IDP, this was my case. We wish you all the best for your application and if there are any questions, feel free to approach us @SSSMUK!

Written by: Bing Shin, Events Director