Before University and Applying – Kieran’s Story

When it comes to my student life story, it’s probably good to start at the very beginning. And by the beginning, I mean A levels. Whilst I was doing my GCSE’s, I had to decide which route I wanted to go down when I attended college. For me, A levels seemed like the right choice. It would allow me to study some of the subjects I’d had a long term interest in, as well look at potential career plans.

When it comes to A levels or BTEC’s, make sure you’re choosing something you have a passion in. This is exactly what I did and it’s why I studied Politics, Law, Business and Sociology. By choosing these particular courses I was able to do things I enjoyed whilst also planning for my future career. Luckily for me, everything went really well and it meant that I had a lot of confidence when it came to applying for places at University. But that wasn’t to say I didn’t have a lot of worries and fears in the period between applying for university.

As much as I was sure I wanted to go to University, I wasn’t really sure where I wanted to go. I’d not really done any research before the end of my second year of A levels, and getting advice from family was pretty tough as they’d never been to university before. In times like that, you would often hope that there’s someone you can ask to get their opinion. And as much as things like league tables and newspaper articles might be able to give you some information, it’s not as good as getting truthful experiences from other people.

Luckily for me, my law tutor approached me about it and asked me what I was looking for in terms of things such as the setting of the uni, the potential size of the classes etc. Again, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking for but I did know I didn’t want to get lost in the crowd of a large university. With that in mind, I decided to ask for her honest opinion on where best to apply. That’s when she told me about Worcester. She explained that they were starting a  new law course and that they’d employed lecturers from London to teach the degree. At first, I was quite unsure about what to do. Part of me was really happy about it since I always liked a challenge and saw it as a chance to make a small piece of history. However, the other part of me was really nervous to even think about the possibility of being the FIRST cohort at a university. What if I did terribly? Would that ruin the reputation of the degree before it even began? What if it was so small that I would feel alone?

All of these things were things I talked at length with my tutor about. She encouraged me to a least take a look at the campus and see what it was like. So, I took her advice and went to one of the open days where I was able to meet Bill who was the Head of Law at the University. After having a nice chat with him about where he wanted the law course to go, I was sure that I wanted to be a part of it. That isn’t to say I still wasn’t nervous, because I most certainly was. But I knew that Bill was interested in making the experience worthwhile, in terms of both the degree and also our experience of university. He assured me that every student would always have the full support of the lecturers and, that if we needed further help, they’d be sure to point us in the right direction.

Just to be sure I explored the campus thoroughly and made sure I could see myself at the university for a whole 3 years. I also made sure I kept in contact with Bill so that I knew the place was going to be on offer once my A level results were out. And thankfully for me, once results day came I had the confirmation that I’d been offered a place at the University of Worcester to study Law. It was a huge relief. I’d built up so much excitement that my nerves about university soon turned to nerves about maybe not even making it there in the first place. The wait between that first open day and results day felt like an age, so the amount of pressure that was off my back once I got those grades is indescribable.