The Power of Four Thousand

Hi again!

Call me the queen of procrastination, but blogging seems much more appealing than that coursework I should be writing at the moment! 

Today I want to talk about my experience of applying to uni (so far, anyway!).

It all kicked off back in summer, when college began to mention the dreaded personal statement (PS). I have many friends in the year above, so I had already heard about how stressful it is to get 4000 characters and I wanted to put off writing it as long as possible. But in all honesty, with exams just finished and the whole summer ahead of me, I quickly dismissed the idea of actually starting it. After all, who would rather write a PS than make the most of the sunshine that we rarely get up north!

The one thing that I had actually done well in advance was order prospectuses. I had tonnes - in fact, under my bed was Mount Prospectus, giving Everest a run for its money.

But despite having so many, I wasn't really doing much with them. I read them, marked the pages of "my" course, but then they would go and join the collection under the bed.

The original Mount Prospectus, on one of the rare occasions it saw the light of day. It kept growing after this photo was taken.

So I decided it was about time we went to see some universities. I had no idea what to expect, but I just kept booking them. It was Lancaster, Northumbria, Liverpool Hope, Salford, Bangor, York St John, Chester, Lancaster (again), Hope (again) and Staffordshire. On some occasions, it would be a whole family day out, but most of the time it was just my Mum and I. We went prepared: with plenty of food, drink and our Meghan Trainor CD so we could have a little dance in the car on the journey! We also took my little black book where I made notes about every uni. I think it is so important to talk about the visit with your parents or whoever you go with, as sometimes you may have preconceived ideas about somewhere that your parents may not have. They may also notice things that you might not necessarily see - for example, at one university I visited there were several spelling mistakes on the English presentation. This sent alarm bells ringing for me. After every uni visit, I would make a list of positive and negatives about each one, so that when I had to decide my top five, I would be able to make a more informed decision.

When we went back to college in September, the application process got underway immediately. Early applicants had to be done by 15th October, and I was determined to get mine sent off as soon as possible. As quickly as I could, I had filled in the application. My final choices were Liverpool Hope, York St John, Lancaster, Chester and Bangor - all for English Literature and Creative Writing. My PS was written, checked by four people, and redrafted four times before I was happy with it (and everyone else as well). Luckily for me, I had it completed by 16th October so my tutor had time to help me with it without her attention being pulled in too many other directions. A few days later, it was officially sent and I just had to wait for offers.

Unbelievably, an hour after my UCAS receipt I had an offer from Chester! A week later, Lancaster also sent me an offer. The following week, I had offers from both Liverpool Hope and Bangor within twelve hours of each other!

During this time, I developed a little habit. Or maybe an addiction?! "My name is Anna, and I am an obsessive Track checker"! So one lunch, when my friend had to check her application, I automatically logged in as well. I got such a surprise! An unconditional from YSJ! I think my friend thought I was going crazy because I made her check that my eyes weren't deceiving me!

The beautiful York Minster

So that brings us to now... College have advised that I don't reply to my offers straight away, but I think I'll reply pretty soon. I'm really excited for the applicant days coming up in the new year so I can visit my unis again!

Liverpool Hope

That's all from me for now, but I'll be back soon. I hope you've enjoyed this post and feel free to leave a comment if you have any feedback.

Anna x