The Application Process #1

Being a UK resident, I am applying to university with the help of the lovely people at UCAS. However, this is not my first attempt at getting into university. Last year, I applied to study English Literature at Bristol, Durham, York (twice), Leeds and Edinburgh and was rejected despite predicted grades of AAB.

I felt like this:

Yet despite my musfortune I soldiered on, sad and confused. Sad, because no one likes rejection. Confused, because whilst some were prestigious halls of higher learning (Bristol and Durham) some were not. Some also made typical offers equal to (York and Leeds) or LOWER (I'm looking at you Edinburgh) than my predicted grades. Yet I was rejected by all.

So, a plan was hatched. I was to complete my A-Levels, get awe-inspiring grades, and telephone all the English departments that had rejected me.

Turns out they still didn't have any space.

So, I am having a GAP year (Apparently you're supposed to type them like that).

GAP years are supposed to make you feel like this:

But I really feel like this:

I never really wanted a GAP year, and now I'm on one, I'm still not that bothered about the whole thing. It's not that travelling around the world doesn't appeal, it's just that I have no desire to pay several thousand pounds to some company so that I live in a mud hut and "help" some third worlders who never wanted my help, all so that I could get some "amazing ethnic jewellry" and have a decent story to tell at freshers week.

So I came up with the following goals for my GAP year:

1) write a blog (this one's going pretty well)

2) write a novel (this one's going okay)

3) get stacked like a Men's Health model (this one's going meh)

4) learn piano (this one is going, albeit frustratingly slowly)

5) get lots of work experience (this one was going well, but now isn't)

6) earn money (this one isn't going badly)

7) actually get into university (I have no idea how this one is going)

Come back soon and find out how things are going...

x

Alex

The Blog Begins!

Good morning/afternoon/evening. My name is Alex and this is my blog that you are reading. The current idea is that I write about my experiences with the British tertiary education system so that future generations can read my words and make important life decisions accordingly.

The one potential snag in this masterplan is that, currently, I am not attending any university anywhere. I am on my GAP year.

Over the next year, I plan on posting sparingly about the application process, before the blog explodesin a fiery blaze of student writing.

I hope you will join me on such an exciting journey.

Enjoy.