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Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Oh, the trouble of uni applications!
Having failed to get into any of my chosen universities / art schools, I'm basically stuck with an institute in the middle of nowhere or a course with appeal but extortionate fees which realistically I won't be able to afford. The final choice is to progress to year 3 (HND) of a college course here in my town which admittedly would get me somewhere nice for 2005 but I hate where I'm living, need the independance and basically a fresh start before I go insane.
I don't know what to do, it's getting me so upset to the degree that I'm losing sleep and not being able to meet current course deadlines to my potential. I always wanted my uni experience to be at a respectable city with endless activities and a huge student population and fate has decided otherwise.
I turn 20 in November and I'm already behind my old school mates who are finishing their first years in respectable places. I know that shouldn't matter, but you can't help but feel a little bit left out.
It should be noted that I am a good student with respectable grades with lecturers who believe I have great potential. The only problem is the art route is a far more difficult one to go down than the academic.
Having failed to get into any of my chosen universities / art schools, I'm basically stuck with an institute in the middle of nowhere or a course with appeal but extortionate fees which realistically I won't be able to afford. The final choice is to progress to year 3 (HND) of a college course here in my town which admittedly would get me somewhere nice for 2005 but I hate where I'm living, need the independance and basically a fresh start before I go insane.
I don't know what to do, it's getting me so upset to the degree that I'm losing sleep and not being able to meet current course deadlines to my potential. I always wanted my uni experience to be at a respectable city with endless activities and a huge student population and fate has decided otherwise.
I turn 20 in November and I'm already behind my old school mates who are finishing their first years in respectable places. I know that shouldn't matter, but you can't help but feel a little bit left out.
It should be noted that I am a good student with respectable grades with lecturers who believe I have great potential. The only problem is the art route is a far more difficult one to go down than the academic.
Post edited by JustV on
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Comments
Don't settle just for what you can get- you'll start off on a bad foot and it'll be difficult to pick yourself back up again. Do you have any idea why you didn't get into your chosen institutions? This may sound radical and perhaps naive because I'm not familiar with the process of applying to study art, but is there any way, say, that you can improve on your skills/portfolio and apply next year?
In the meantime you could get valuable work experience and paid work... just a suggestion!
Chat to your teachers about your options and how low you're feeling right now because it's vital that you get your priorities sorted and concentrate on your work now- then you can focus more on your further studies later. If your health is suffering over this then get down to the docs straight away.
Also, clearing really isn't as bad as it sounds so do bear it in mind. I changed my mind about what course and what university I wanted to go to the summer after A-levels so I went through clearing and ended up doing an amazing course at a brill university.
Anyway, try not to get too stressed... sometimes these things just happen for a reason!
Take care and good luck.
K x
I could do a third year at college, HND, which can grant third year entry to various polytechnics (and a few decent places if you look hard). In that time I could also go to evening classes (like last year) to build a better portfolio but I'm not sure if I could handle another year here. 2003 was when I vowed to work my arse off to leave for uni and I did, I'm very pleased with my portfolio as are the lecturers. It's my rejected institution's loss in the long-run. The amount of free time I had was minimal though; a full-time college course coupled with three evening classes and a job giving full-time hours (plus a gym membership
In my case, I put the first year studies course in Edinburgh College of Art as a first choice and got invited for an interview. With 900 applicants fighting for 160 places, I was prepared for being rejected. I was.
This then got passed onto my second institution, Northumbria, who when I phoned up to enquire about second choice applicants was told "I'd be considered". It took them three months to automatically rejected me. No interview, no chance, no nothing. I feel this is a wasted slot (not to mention time) for some institutes I now know would have interviewed me second choice. They were very unhelpful on the phone too.
My third is Nottingham Trent which I'm not that keen on anymore because of it's distance from home. I'd at least like to stay up North for the next year or so as I'm going to be an uncle
I suppose I could stay another year here (I really wanted to go to Northumbria and could perhaps work towards that
Where did you go through clearing? I'm glad it worked out for you.
My situation was that in my first year, I did AS media, AS sociology, AS design and maths GCSE. I didn't like design so dropped it for english combined and then for english language and then i dropped that completley. And so I was left with 2 AS's and a GCSE. In my AS media exam, I missed half of the exam paper - because stupidly (and I don't know how), I didn't turn the paper over. This left me with a U. In my second year, I carried on sociology to A-level along with my maths gcse again, media studies (again) and general studies. About 2 months into the media course, the head of subject found out I was on the course and subsequently threw me off because she didn't want me bringing their grades down for the next year. There weren't many people that would take me on to do another subject, and as I'd got an A in religious studies gcse, I took that up at AS level. Only I really hated it, didn't go to lessons and found it very hard and not at all what I expected. So, I got another U. I finished sociology a-level and got a B and with 1 a-level (plus general studies), this wasn't enough to get into uni. Plus, I didn't know what I wanted to do. So I came back for a 3rd year and took up AVCE health and social care and AS art.
I'm not very good at cutting a long story short, sorry.
I know how you feel...already being '1 year behind' so so speak, I just want to go to uni - however I know there's no point in going unless I'm going where I want to go and doing what I want to do and I don't know what I want to do anymore so... (:
Just out of curiosity which uni is this?
lucifer devil, that's such an unfortunate situation. I'd get your head down for next September because I doubt you'd want to delay uni for another year.
But at university you will probably end up mixing with a whole bunch of people who've done other stuff first. I am a first year and I'm 20 but I'm certainly not one of the oldest. Lots of people take Gap years/ time out/ change their plans/ re-do sixth form/ work for a bit etc before starting uni.
haha yeh, i certainly don't! at the moment i'm thinking i'd like to go this september, but i know it's for all the wrong reasons. so in the meanwhile i'm going to use the time to get some work experience and try and save some money.