Sunday 20 June 2010

University Questions

  • What University do you want to go/are you studying at/did you go to?
  • Why your chosen University?
  • Do you want to move away from home/did you move away from home?
  • Why?
  • What course do you want to study/are you studying/did you study?

And if there are any other bits of information you want to add in you can :)
I'm just curious and need ideas!

x

14 comments:

  1. York St John - English Literature and Language Joint Honours. & yes everybody pulls an "ergh" face when they hear what im about to give the rest of my life to.. Or at very least 3/4 years

    I chose YSJ because it is geared for students, friendly, I love york, only an hour train ride away from home, 365 pubs, bars and clubs ;) and sensible grade requirements.

    I am moving away from home, my boyfriend (of almost 3 years when i move in Sep)family, etc and this has influenced my decision to only move an hour away.

    :) Andddd I Move 17th September which is the day after my Birthday. Saddddd! But excited to go to.

    xx

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  2. & I've just seen on your twitter considering taking 4 subjects. Seriously, I would not considering doing this. Universities (Even top ones) only require 3, and yes its more work however the coursework and revision will kill you. I've done 3 and an A-level in a year, and people who I know did 4 dropped it when coursework deadlines and revision came round.

    The jump from AS-A2 is actually massive and unless you're considering medicine or oxbridge I wouldn't bother with it. You can get more than enough points with just A2 grades, and then if you add in the one AS you dropped.

    All advice we were given, and from sittig this year having exams at the minute, I'd say juts from September revise what you've done in the lesson and concentrate on the 3 working really really hard and your points will be more than enough :)

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  3. Laura : Thank you! I thought I wouldn't be able to get enough points but I think I can get B's which is plenty. Plus Biology is reaaaly hard, we've started A2 already and at the moment it's all chemistry so I might drop it.
    I want to do English at Uni but not sure whether to move away, I don't want to move away on my own because I'm a baby so as long as one person I know does.. plus apparently it will cost a lot to move away. I'm in two minds!
    x

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  4. I think if you can afford it, the best decision is to move away from home, even if its not too far. I went to a University 2 hours away by train from home, and I was in a long-distance relationship with my boyfriend for 4 years (he's now my husband, so we survived!)

    I deliberately moved somewhere that I didn't know anyone, so that it would force me to make friends. People I know that went where their friends were going, some of them had an awkward time settling in as there was no real incentive to make new friends.

    I'm quite shy so it was really hard going somewhere completely new on my own, but I'm so glad that I did. I ended up moving back to my home city to work, but moving away for uni was absolutely the right thing to do for me. Although it sounds cliched, when you first start everyone really is in the same boat and will be trying to make friends too.

    And its a few years since I was applying and I know some entry requirements have probably got tougher, but I agree with the poster above that you probably don't need to do 4 A2 subjects. Much better to get 3 good grades than spread yourself too thinly and risk getting 4 not-so-good grades.

    Oh, and definitely visit any universities you're thinking of going to, and just see if you can imagine yourself there. That's what swung it for me in the end, they all seemed so similar on paper but had a different atmosphere when you got there. I'm from a city so I knew I wanted to be at a city university, I don't think I could have moved to a little campus based place. But if you're from a smaller/more rural area you'd need to consider which to go for.

    I studied History, which has absolutely nothing to do with the job I'm now doing (Accountancy). I chose History because I enjoyed it, and wasn't really sure what job I wanted to do so thought it would keep my options open. Unless you're really clear about what job you want to do I'd definitely recommend just studying something you enjoy and are good at, because most jobs don't require you to have done a specific degree.

    Wow, this was a long comment, hope it helps a little.

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  5. Yeah I agree above, its easier to move alone as you have to make friends, and that one person isn't following you/ you arn't following them.

    You can totally start afresh.

    My adivce is go to LOADS of open days and look into totally new courses e.g journalism and media or english and creative arts. Read around alot as there are hundreds of courses and you don't have to stick to what subjects you do now.

    Also you will find combined courses at "met unis" will offer lower points but still amazing courses so you will seriously be fine!!

    And all my friends have dropped biology you're probably better off concentrating and getting 3 high B's/A's rather than being sketchy on 4 subjects.

    Just email me if you'd like any advice on English courses etc as i have done SO much research finding the right course for me.

    laurajaye_xox@hotmail.co.uk

    xxx

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  6. & factor in finance and grants - tbh just find somewhere, you have 5 choices and then another 2 to make final - you also have loaaads of time :)

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  7. Thank you soooo much, both of you :)
    One more question, if you don't reply on here I'll email you Laura :)
    But if I took say English with Media/English and Media
    Are they two different degrees? Like would I have a Media degree and an English or are they combined? and are they taught in the same lecturs, or would I have to go to two separate ones?
    I'm not sure if that makes sense? :S haha
    x

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  8. If you took English with Media, it would be a combined degree, you wouldn't have 2 separate ones. All degrees are made up of a number of credits, you take different modules each year to make up those credits, so if you did a combined degree you would just take a different mix of modules from if you did just English - i.e. some modules would have lectures etc. from the English department, and some from Media. Hope that makes sense. x

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  9. ooh ok :D Thank you! I'll stop bugging you now haha, but you've helped a lot so thank you :)
    x

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  10. Oh one more thing!
    Ok, you know there are optional modules? How many can you pick? 1? 2? how ever many you like?
    x

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  11. Sorry to butt in!
    At my University, Nottingham Trent we have 120 credits per year to fulfill with different modules.
    I'm studying Media and Linguistics (combined honours) so i split my credits 60 - 60.

    I then pick my modules to fulfill my 60 credits.
    E.g. For linguistics for last year i picked -
    20 credits - Sociolinguistics
    20 credits - Animal Language
    20 Credits - Discourse Analysis

    For Media i picked -
    40 Credits - Theories and Culture (CORE Module - so its worth more Credits)
    20 - Analysing Popular Music.

    Although for your Uni it might be a little different but i think thats the main jist of it! Hope i cleared that up for you?

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  12. I want to go to Surrey University in september and I chose it because it's quite near home, and also had the best graduate employment rate of ANY UK university (including the top ones...). 98% of people get employed within 6 months of graduating. Also, the entry is ABB which is achieveable I feel, but after this year, it's rising to AAB so shows that the uni is getting better. It's also one of the top 20 - 30 unis in the country so yep :)

    At first I didn't want to move away from home, but now I do, and I just see it as a challenge! I'd love to prove to myself more than anyone that I can be independent and it's easier to make friends if you live on campus (i'm told by EVERYONE) If you're paying that much to go, you may aswell get the full experience!

    Finally,
    I want to study Business Management because I don't really know what I want to do in life, so I wanted to do something broad which would increase my employability to any business!!

    Hope this helps you :) xx

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  13. Hi Louise - just thought I would give you a different spin on things. Please don't feel pressured to go to ubiversity because everyone else is and because it seems like the done thing. I didn't know what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go. I didn't have a dream to be a vet or a lawyer or whatever, whereas if I had that would have dictated my higher education path.

    Someone once told me that unless you have a particular vocation, you should just pick a degree in something you enjoy and that for most general office type jobs, a degree is a degree regardless of what it's in. I took that advice and picked a drama and theatre arts degree. My Mum didn't want me to get into lost of debt, so I picked a uni I could commute to.

    Choosing a uni and course based on distance was a big mistake for me. I didn't research the uni properly (Goldsmiths) and I really didn't like the place, the people or the course. I wasn't prepared for how different the degree would be from my a-levels and I really didn't like it. I found it hard to make friends because everyone else had settled with people they were living with.

    By the first half term I had decided I wanted to leave. It was a huge decision for me, but one I still stand by. I knew I could always reapply the following year if I wanted, but I never did. I went off and got into work, after spending a few months doing crappy sales jobs I went tempting. I ended up falling into a job which really suited my natural skills and allowed me to progress quickly and carve out a real career. I used the story of me dropping out of university as a scenario in my interview as I felt it was one of the bravest decisions I ever had to make.

    Seven years later the 19 year old who started out in the filing room has been on the company fast track program (usually reserved for graduates only!), sat professional qualifications passing with distinction, and is now an Operations manager to a team of 25 people looking after our most important client.

    Sorry for the show-off sounding tale, but I just want you to know that going to uni is not the be all and end all and you shouldn't feel like the odd one out if you son't know what you want to do or even end up deciding it's not for you. One thing I will add though is that I think the friends you can make at uni can be friends for life and I regret not having that part of the experience.

    BTW I agree that 4 A-levels is a killer. I dropped by fourth and was much happier with the three (Drama, Media and Politics) and the nice free periods in between :)

    Hope this helps in some way!

    Gem xx

    my blog - realfourteen

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  14. I just found your blog and enjoyed reading it, you have a really nice writing style :)

    I did three A-Levels, English Lit, Media and Psychology and i think that doing three is fine, a lot of my friends did 4 and really struggled plus it wasn't really neccessary. I got an A and two B's and could pretty much choose any university because i didn't pick a subject that needed impossibly high marks.

    I go to Southampton Solent University and i've just finished my first year, i originally come from Bristol so i did move out and into halls which was great and not nearly as hetic as everyone makes out, a few weeks in and everyone calms down (or runs out of money haha!)

    I decided to move from home because i wanted the full experience and to do something new, venture out on my own as it were. Southampton is great, the Uni is right in the centre of town so everything is within walking distance - something i miss at home because i live quite far from town.

    I study Criminology and i love it, it's a very intersting subject and everyone i meet says "Oh wow, how cool/interesting" and it really is, the downside is i always get people telling me about their encounters with serial killers or asking if i've met any (i dunno where on earth i'd have met one, i'm only 19 for a start...)...i think they think thats all criminology is but it's a mix of psychology/sociology/law/politics and we actually very rarely talk about serial killers!!

    Stacey xx

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