Hey everyone,
The personal statement thread got me thinking. Who's planning if so:

What do you want to study?
Any idea of where you want to go?
Are personal statements driving you mad?

For me, I want to study History, don't know definitely yet, but like Durham, York and Sheffield. I don't know how low I should be looking, the above I think are AAA, AAB and AAB - is that too risky incase something goes distasterously wrong or should I be looking at BBB unis too? I decided I didn't want to apply for Cambridge as I would put myself under too much pressure. I find the personal statement really hard - especially trying to find original things!

Nicki

I want to study a course called Bioveterinary Science. It's like Vet Med without the clinical stuff I think, and it's only 3 years. I would love to study music too so I think I'll apply for it somewhere as only a handful of places do the Biovet course.
I'll be applying to Liverpool as they are one of 3 places that do the course, and probably some other places if I go for music. I want to stay close to home.

Stupid personal statement

Hi Joy

Does Biovet science qualify you for a particular career?

Not really no, you can probably go into any animal/science based career, whether it be lab research, field work, maybe conservation or something, depending on the modules you take within the course. I myself might probably take modules like any equine (horse) topics and I'm thinking about going into nutrition so would take related modules.

Only 3 unis do it that I know of - Liverpool, Bristol and Harper Adams

See Liverpool's course here.

I love Durham. Might be doing my PhD there next year. Distance learning though.... but at least I'd get to do about 4 times a year to see my supervisor.

Looks interesting! Good luck with the application!


Hi Emma C. I guess it'd be a bit of a commute from Cornwall to Durham each day! What will your PhD be on?

What do you want to study? Music

Any idea of where you want to go? Hmm, Durham most of all, closely followed by York, then Edinburgh or Glasgow, and I think my other choices will be Newcastle and Sheffield.

Are personal statements driving you mad? In a word, yes!

Oh, it's all so stressful...but at least I have the exams I need for all universities except Durham who want Advanced Highers as well as Highers. And there's the whole grade 8 thing too - argh...

Wooooo, so many people want to go to Durham: good taste, chaps and chappeses

I could end up being at the same university as you BF

[quote name='Emma C' post='382996' date='Aug 25 2006, 09:42 PM']
I love Durham. Might be doing my PhD there next year. Distance learning though.... but at least I'd get to do about 4 times a year to see my supervisor.
[/quote]
Hi Emma C. I guess it'd be a bit of a commute from Cornwall to Durham each day! What will your PhD be on?
[/quote]

Yes, a long way! Pity I can't do it fill time. I'm still in the early stages, but it will be on theology and opera, how we experience and express the human and divine.

What a boring thread. I want to hear tales of people aching to study at Skelmersdale Polytechnic, Cheam College of Higher Education and Wolverhampon University

I suppose I should apply to De Montfort University really

Do not besmirch De Montford. I have lectured there in my time (Milton Keynes campus)

Can't help with CCHE, but ahem years ago I went to Cheam Junior Girls' and Infants' School (which for all I know might now be Cheam College of Higher Education).

I saw that blue plaque when I drove past: "Deborah woz ere.. 1976-1983"....

That would be good! Especially as everyone I know from school is going to a Scottish uni...

I don't know what course to do. I'm a year behind you lot. Comp Sci seems a bit too 'maths-y' for me....

Wash your mouth out Oddballs. CompSci is a noble discipline, and maths is not a major part of it - or at least it shouldn't be if you choose your uni carefully. You know where I think you should go.... (and if you're good I can put in a good word with the head of department...)

*washes out mouth*

Mother wants me to go there too...might look into it a bit more. Are other similar subjects then, say Computer Systems Engineering frowned upon by employers?

Systems Engineering might come across too hardwarey, but then again that might be your interest.

Software Engineering is a good one to have (perhaps CompSci + Sw Eng) although most pure CompSci courses will teach Sw Eng to a greater or lesser extent

Your mother knows what she is talking about.

I'll just see how things go I suppose....

Mum likes S.ton because it's close to home....

It's also the DBs (canine testicula) for that raft of subjects. You could do little better. I wonder what the grades are these days? I got BCC offer into a class of 32. These days it's probably 150 or so...

They want ABB for ComSci + full A level in Maths....

I had Maths, Further Maths and Music....

ABB eh? How times change. Evidence of dumbing down or just an extremely popular course? (4 times the intake notwithstanding...)

Location is just one of the many things to consider. I ended up about 55 miles from the parental home, which was far enough away that I could be independent, but close enough that I could get home (or be rescued!) in an emergency.

Looks like a good course, if one can get on it...

http://www.soton.ac.uk/study/undergraduate...ngineering.html

Go for it Oddballs. Let me know if I need to drop a note to the Head of School....

Certainly will!

Right, think it's time for bed

Ey up - sorry for intruding, being a graduate and all....

Aim high. Then have an insurance offer that you'll be happy at, that you are pretty certain you can manage to get. Good on you for not bowing to pressure to look at Cambridge - there are loads of other good unis out there.

Applying to Durham, Bristol, Warwick, Nottingham, Birmingham and Royal Holloway.
Some to do Classics, some to do Music, Birmingham to do both.
Already finished my personal statement. *Grins manically* Just to be infuriating!

Then I'm applying to music college as well, haven't done my personal statement for CUKAS yet though. *Sigh*

Oddball, you must go to S.ton - then we three (you, me and mrb) can form an exclusive S.ton Forums Brotherhood.


This is true indeed.

What do you want to study? Civil Engineering (but somewhere with a shared first year so I can change to mechanical if I want)

Any idea of where you want to go? Exeter will probably be my top choice, then Durham, Bath and not decided on the others yet. I thought I'd rather not apply for Oxbridge - too much pressure - although I'm on the verge of reconsidering.

Are personal statements driving you mad? Nope, mine's finished!! Had to have it done by the end of last term (it drove me mad for a week or two then though!).

I don't understand. What pressure? It's imaginary, it is.

Most parents or even independent school heads/teachers will NOT apply any pressure on their kids HOWEVER BRIGHT to go for the so-called "greats" like Cambridge / Oxford/ UoLondon / Durham / Warwick / Birmingham / Bristol? Why then do so many young people besmirch Cambridge, etc? Could this be ignorance or envy?

The strange fact was, when I was working in the City, the bankers, analysts, lawyers and accountants did not ask me which uni I went at all! They were more interested in my old school. Etonians seemed a good joke in those days.

The only ones interested in which univ you went were the City interviewers. I had the audacity to ask some senior partners why. One said - Just to make sure it was a red brick, not a polytechnic, you know. We want people who have good grades consistently all the way from O Levels upwards. Maybe it's more to do with networking as well since it's not hard to strike up a rapport with another who went to the same school as you did.

So at the end of the day, the constructive point is - It really does not matter THAT much which univ you go as long as you LIKE the place/people/course/standard/environment THERE and could AFFORD it. No need to worry provided you have done the homework and visited the place. Unless you want to do something very academic like law in a former "polytechnic" AND YET insist on having a financial analyst's or legal career in the City of London.

I apologise for interrupting, Nicki. I am sorry. It's just that there has been so much said in the past about Cambridge, Oxford, etc, that they are boring, elitist and those things simply aren't true! Why!? My relatives have graduated not very long ago from them and they hail from a poverty-stricken estate where they had to miss school on days when their teachers were seriously injured by their own classmates against whom the police did nothing! *sigh*

I think I'd have to aim for an AAB university then *goodness* or at the lowest ABB. I did visit Cambridge (Emmanuel college) and was never really quite taken with it at the time. I just know myself too well I think


You know, that really is infuriating!



Well...I know in my case, people sort of assume I'd be applying to Cambridge

Yes, it must be annoying how people often assume things! Including parents, and family members, the very ones who have our interests at heart. It's good though that you aware of "that" now so at least you will live up to your own expectations, not others. It's harder to please others so they say. Be yourself, I'd say.

OK, for instance, at my sixth form the brighter students were rounded up and told to apply to Oxbridge, various trips in the school minibus were organised, mock admission interviews provided etc.

Enough of a stink was made when neither AP nor me did, on the grounds that we'd considered it but didn't like the places, but relatively that was nothing.... Someone applied to Cambridge and was given an offer which he deemed unrealistic; as such, he wanted to drop Further Maths to give him time to concentrate on his other A-levels, put one of the London universities as his first choice and somewhere else as his second. As soon as this got out, he was sent to the headmaster who told him he had to put Cambridge as his first choice, and was not allowed to drop further maths. Thankfully, his dad was a govenor who managed to kick up a fuss about it and in the end he was allowed to do what he wanted. For a while there, though, he was within a gnats wing of leaving over the whole thing.

Crikey! Our school does nothing like that, but there seems to be an unsaid expectation that if you get over a certain number of A* at GCSE and a number of As at AS then you should apply. The number of people I talk about university too and they ask whether I am applying to Oxbridge. For me, I put myself under so much pressure, to cover so much work in 8 weeks, I would literally make myself fail, even though the colleges and town is lovely.

Yeah, but I have to write 2 personal statements so feel my pain!!



Oxbridge pressure is a fair bit! We have about 40 people go every year from our sixth form. I went along to the meetings about it (before I realised I didn't want to put that much work in!) and SO many people turned up. I think it was 200+ people considering it?

It's a lot of work though, considering your UCAS form has to be in much earlier so you need to make your decisions quicker. Your personal statement gets scrutinised to a ridiculous level by staff. One of our English teachers has a second formal position as Oxbridge Admissions tutor type person who goes through the whole process with every applicant from college. You have to go to meetings with her, discuss your personal statement, your options, your grades. Then once you've applied, you have to attend mock interviews. I think it's an awful lot of pressure...

And my school does nothing of the above, so would it really be worth it?
I know it would offer me top quality education but so would lots of other places, and the term are 8 weeks long, so wouldn't that mean you're basically at home for half the year!?

It's not always imaginary, Tess - I know that if I had got a place at Cambridge there would have been pressure from certain teachers and certains members of my family to accept it, even though having been there and having looked in detail at the course I knew it wasn't for me. I was relieved when I didn't get a place, and not at all surprised: nothing against Cambridge per se, or any implication that it was snobby or whatever. I just knew it wasn't for me. I'm glad I applied and went for interview, because I think I would always have wondered "what if?", but that experience was enough to convince me that it would not have suited me.


That's appalling.


Yes, even 10 week terms can seem very short! Friend of mine is at Oxford, and although she loves it, she finds it really intense.


Actually I think those were the only two advantages for me

My UCAS form was completed in double quick time and in early - one less thing to worry about - and I was forced to make decisions on where to apply rather than dither for months.

And my mock interview with the head was a grilling but also a positive experience and he was really encouraging afterward, which was great in terms of making me feel more confident about the whole uni process, and also good prep for both the interviews that I went to.

I am going to try and send my form off as if it was going to Oxbridge, i.e by October

Sounds like a good plan. Best to get it out of the way and avoid a last-minute panic

Tomorrow is my university day, where I plan to do most of the UCAS form, research unis, and work on my personal statement.

That's awful! I'd have no hesitation reporting that school if it were my kid! However, I suspect this is highly unusual. On the other hand you can't complain to the council if it were not a local state school but rather, an independent school.

That's terrible!

There often is pressure - there were very few people at our school likely to get *any* A grades at A' level. It was suggested we should be looking at Oxbridge for the good of the school. The one lad who did apply there was traumatised by his interview, having not been prepared for it at all!

you are so organised...

I'm looking to apply for

1. Biology
2. Zoology

at

1. Liverpool
2. Manchester
3. Liverpool John Moores

OR!

Recorder at

1. The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
2. Birmingham Conservatoire
3. Royal Northern College of Music (if they will consider a recorder applicant)

I lied. According to my plan , my university day is Monday. I have loads of work to do, so need to plan.

I'm applying to do Physics. My first choice is definitely definitely Oxford, second would be Imperial. Haven't though much about the others, probably Warwick, Bath, another London Uni and maybe Durham. Considering how few people apply for Physics, I'd be disappointed not to get into Oxford but see how it goes.

And I have done absolutely nowt towards UCAS

<plug>Durham was rated No. 1 in the country for Physics a couple of years ago .</plug>