Applying for the course

Morning everyone :)

Three years ago, I was eagerly awaiting my response from the university as to whether I would be offered an interview, so thought this would be a good subject to discuss in today's blog.

For me as mentioned previously, I was living away from home with a lot of my family living in the Luton area. My Gran had been in hospital and I decided at the age of 25 at the time that it was a good time to apply. I only applied to the University of Bedfordshire as I wanted to not only be nearer to family, but also did not want to leave university with further debt. Maybe if I had applied when I was leaving college I may have wanted to experience the whole' student living', but it would just not have suited me now. I also loved the fact that there was a spare study room at my mum's, so I would have the peace and quiet to study when I needed to. I also was very eager to apply then as I would be joining the last year of diploma intake. I had the GCSE grades required but as I had completed an AVCE in college I did not have enough points to get onto the degree course. If I had left applying another year I would have needed to take a year's access course to get onto the degree course. Saying that, as my grades were high enough at the end of Year 2 I was able to transfer over to the degree for this the final year which is a bonus!

I received an offer of interview at the end of January 2011 and was both relieved and ecstatic. I had put all my eggs in one basket and had no back up plan as to what I would do if I was not offered an interview. When it came to the interview day I was rather nervous. I was sat in the large reception/learning resources area at Butterfield Campus with a large number of other applicants-some with a mum or dad, some alone. There was a feeling of nervous tension over the room. We were required to bring various documents with us to prove things like grades, ID etc and the time there finished with an interview. I was interviewed by two people-I think one academic and one from the community (service user I think but I can't remember as it all was a bit of a blur!). I had attended a number of interviews previously in my life and felt prepared with questions such as, 'name a situation when...'. If you have not had much interview experience it is worth hunting the web for sites/forums sharing information. I used a website called the student room which I found useful, as there were a number of forum threads involving people applying for various courses and discussing experiences including the interview process.

Then came the long wait. After a few months  of constantly refreshing the Ucas page, an unconditional offer popped through. I was so so happy! Following this, I gave my work two months notice and started planning on my move back home.

I was fortunate to move back in with family and actually find it successful. After so much time living away I assumed that I would hate being back, but it has instead improved the relationship between us all. What you will find in either the interview stage or first week at uni will be that there is such a wide mixture of people in the class. People straight out of college either living at home or have moved away for the first time in their life and living in student accommodation. Single parents, parents who live with a partner etc who have children from 6months to grown up. Parents who are supporting their own child going to university while supporting themselves. Inbetweeners like me who have worked and returned to study but have no dependants. That is probably the main thing I enjoy about my class. There will be at least one person who is in a similar situation as yourself. Also, learn from others. Everyone will have their own techniques in approaching study, and you will be required to do group work and work with everybody's individual strengths.

Just before Christmas I was sat in the learning resources centre at Butterfield waiting to meet my personal lecturer and found myself observing the large group of applicants waiting for their interviews. The room was quieter than I had ever heard it, and it did remind me of the wait I experienced three years ago. I ended up speaking to one of the mum's and realised how much I have grown in terms of randomly starting up a conversation with a stranger. If you do feeling confident on the day of your interview, say hi or smile at the person sat opposite you. I wish I had just as a distraction and realise everyone else is in the same anxious, nervous boat as you and hey, it will speed the wait!

Well that is it for today from me! I was only in Uni two days this week and it is nice being back but know that in 12weeks that will be it for the class!

For anyone out there waiting to hear back from the university, good luck!

Em x