Have you ever seen one of those memes that has the ‘What I think I do/What my mum thinks I do/what my friends think I do/What I actually do’ pictures? A bit like this one:
(I picked the actor one, because, you know, this is what I used to do in my past life).
Returning to studying after a long break has invited some, er, interesting reactions from peers and non-peers, friends and non-friends, and people who just think that they can make comments on what I’m doing even if I don’t actually know them. The latter is always an interesting one.
Of course, there is lots of ‘Oh, you’re so lucky, I’d love to go back to uni’, alongside the ‘At least you get to be a lazy student again’, and, my personal favourite, ‘What went wrong the first time?’* And yes, in many ways I feel incredibly lucky. I’m getting to retrain for a career that I am certain I want to be in. I get to meet amazing people and use my brain, be stimulated by being in an environment where learning is something everyone is keen to do, and feel like I’m working towards something that will actually make a difference in the future. And it is really, REALLY hard work. Perhaps this is part of what makes it pretty satisfying to be here.
This might also be to do with being a mature student, having to support myself financially by working several part-time jobs alongside studying and sometimes struggling with feeling confident enough about my ability to learn and to do well in my degree. It is also true that luck was not the only reason I got onto the course in the first place; putting together a solid application took time, patience and a lot of figuring out how to make myself stand out from the crowd.
If you’re thinking about applying for university this year, there may be a few things you might want to starting thinking about whilst you’re (hopefully) taking some time off over the Christmas break:
- What do you want to study? UCAS have a really user-friendly search engine to help you filter and find courses of interest to you.
- Have a look at the entry requirements for a course that catches your eye- do they require specific qualifications? Will admissions accept alternative qualifications? It’s always worth calling or emailing admissions to find out about your individual circumstances if you’re not sure; it was by doing this that I found out that doing a biology A level would be a really good idea if I wanted to study SLT.
- Can you get some work or volunteering experience to show you’re keen on your subject? As an applicant, it’s pretty much impossible to get shadowing experience with an SLT in clinic, and this is the same for most health professions, as practitioners have their own students to look after. However, I volunteered with the Stroke Association and Sense, both charities who work with client groups that SLTs might come into contact with. Don’t panic about this, no university expects you to have done training for the job that you’ll be studying for, but showing you’re keen and willing to dedicate your own time to finding out about relevant clients or settings will be really helpful for your application.
- What is it that means you’ll be a great student and a generally brilliant person to have on the course? What have you been doing in the last year aside from studying/working? Don’t miss out these things when you’re writing your statement.
- Go and see the places you’re thinking of applying to. At City, we offer campus tours every week, so you have a chance to see facilities and support services even if you don’t come on a scheduled open day.
It is definitely worth spending time figuring out which area/subject will be right for you, seeing as you’ll be studying it for at least three years….and go with your gut feeling about an institution/course. If it feels right, it probably is.
For BSc2 SLT students, the term appears to have nearly finished. I am looking forward to stuffing my face over Christmas, going skiing for a week in January and generally sleeping a little bit (quite a lot). We have exams coming up soon, but for now, it’s time for a brain break. Make sure you have one, too.
*I’d like to briefly point out that this was a guy I’d met about five minutes before at a Christmas party. Told you the latter was interesting.
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