{"id":127,"date":"2020-11-12T12:28:59","date_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/university-insiders.wp.worc.ac.uk\/?p=127"},"modified":"2024-07-03T12:05:32","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T12:05:32","slug":"my-rather-chaotic-journey-to-higher-education-caseys-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/university-insiders.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/2020\/11\/12\/my-rather-chaotic-journey-to-higher-education-caseys-story\/","title":{"rendered":"My (rather chaotic) journey to Higher Education – Casey’s Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hey everyone, Casey here! I thought I would share with you all my journey of how I got to higher education. Everyone\u2019s journey is very different, so hopefully sharing my experience can put a few people at ease!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I finished my GCSE’s, I went on to do A-Levels at a sixth form college in a different town from where I lived. I really enjoyed studying somewhere completely new. It meant I only knew one or two people at my college, but I quickly made new friends!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had always loved Maths and Physics in school as I really enjoyed working with numbers. So, I decided to study Maths, Physics, Electronics, and Computing. A few weeks into my studies, I decided to drop Maths as I didn\u2019t enjoy it like I had at GCSE. Instead, I replaced that subject with Graphic Design \u2013 which I later discovered would have been the best decision I made throughout my entire education! Graphic Design very quickly became my favourite subject and I spent all my free periods in the graphics studio doing work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My exams in my first year didn\u2019t go so well as I was struggling with running out of time. As a result of this, I failed Physics. I had to drop that for the second year. I decided to speak to my college about my issues with running out of time and that it was probably because I am a slow reader and often jumble up my words when I\u2019m stressed. My tutor was very supportive and found out that I was actually entitled to extra time! Moral of the story here is that if you need some extra help, definitely ask for it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had always planned to go to university, despite my grades not being ideal – no one in my family had ever been to university before, so I was really excited to be the first person to go! At the start of my second year at college, I began writing my personal statement and decided what it was that I wanted to study. I loved Graphic Design, but I also really enjoyed the sciency subjects I was still studying. I eventually found a course that nicely combined the creative side of me with the Maths and Science side of me, and that course was Architecture! From this point onwards, I went to loads of open days and applied to unis all over the country \u2013 I was starting to get really excited about my future education now!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
An open day at University of Brighton, where I was inspired by the skyline…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, my mock exams rolled around, and I didn\u2019t do very well again. This was when I started to realise exams really weren\u2019t for me. I found this really disheartening and started to give up a little bit. I hadn\u2019t expected my A-Levels to be so difficult and perhaps looking back, I just hadn\u2019t chosen the correct subjects for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To top all of this off, I started receiving rejections from the universities I had applied to, because my grades just weren\u2019t up to their standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About a week before the UCAS deadline, I decided to change my mind on what course I wanted to do. I wasn\u2019t good at the exam side of things so something as academic as Architecture maybe wasn\u2019t going to be right for me. I had a bit of a rethink about what I enjoyed and what I was good at – and that was Graphic Design! So, from this point forward I decided to look at different universities who offered graphics courses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A page from my college workbook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s how I found the university that I graduated from. I saw that they had an open day coming up soon so, on an impulse, I decided to go. I looked at their graphic design facilities and really liked them. I also liked the fact that the class sizes for my year were around 20 students which sounded perfect to me. Whilst looking around the university, I discovered that they offered an Illustration course as well \u2013 I had no idea you could get a degree in Illustration alone! I fell in love with that course that day and so decided I wanted to do a Joint Honours degree, where 50% of my course would be Illustration, and 50% would be Graphic Design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Experimenting with different styles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I spoke to the course leaders on the open day and mentioned that my personal statement was for the wrong course and explained my kind of hectic journey so far. I think that, if anything, this made me stand out more, as a week later I was back at the uni for an interview! This all happened over the Easter holidays and was a bit of a whirlwind for me. At my interview, the lecturers seemed to like the portfolio I prepared, as a few weeks later they gave me a conditional offer! However, I was still hesitant to get my hopes up because I didn\u2019t think I would meet the grades required for the conditions of my offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Results day eventually came around and it wasn\u2019t great news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had failed electronics in my second year, so only actually ended up with 2 A levels \u2013 one of them was an E grade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point, I was terrified to log into my UCAS account as I thought it could only be bad news. However, when I did eventually log in I couldn\u2019t believe what I saw! My offer had been changed from conditional to unconditional and I got into my first choice university!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I learnt from this rather chaotic journey is don\u2019t panic! I had my fair share of hiccups throughout my journey to higher education, but at the end of it, I got to study my dream course at the perfect university for me! Also, don\u2019t give up. I know I definitely wanted to at many points during my 2 years at college, but if I had then I wouldn\u2019t be where I am today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I\u2019m thrilled to be where I am now!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Casey x<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
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Our Latest Blog<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey everyone, Casey here! I thought I would share with you all my journey of how I got to higher education. Everyone\u2019s journey is very different, so hopefully sharing my experience can put a few people at ease! When I finished my GCSE’s, I went on to do A-Levels at a sixth form college in a different town from where I lived. I really enjoyed studying somewhere completely new. It meant I only knew one or two people at my college, but I quickly made new friends! I had always loved Maths and Physics in school as I really enjoyed working with numbers. So, I decided to study Maths, Physics, Electronics, and Computing. A few weeks into my studies, I decided to drop Maths as I didn\u2019t enjoy it like I had at GCSE. Instead, I replaced that subject with Graphic Design \u2013 which I later discovered would have been the best decision I made throughout my entire education! Graphic Design very quickly became my favourite subject and I spent all my free periods in the graphics studio doing work. My exams in my first year didn\u2019t go so well as I was struggling with running out of time. As a result of this, I failed Physics. I had to drop that for the second year. I decided to speak to my college about my issues with running out of time and that it was probably because I am a slow reader and often jumble up my words when I\u2019m stressed. My tutor was very supportive and found out that I was actually entitled to extra time! Moral of the story here is that if you need some extra help, definitely ask for it! I had always planned to go to university, despite my grades not being ideal – no one in my family had ever been to university before, so I was really excited to be the first person to go! At the start of my second year at college, I began writing my personal statement and decided what it was that I wanted to study. I loved Graphic Design, but I also really enjoyed the sciency subjects I was still studying. I eventually found a course that nicely combined the creative side of me with the Maths and Science side of me, and that course was Architecture! From this point onwards, I went to loads of open days and applied to unis all over the country \u2013 I was starting to get really excited about my future education now! However, my mock exams rolled around, and I didn\u2019t do very well again. This was when I started to realise exams really weren\u2019t for me. I found this really disheartening and started to give up a little bit. I hadn\u2019t expected my A-Levels to be so difficult and perhaps looking back, I just hadn\u2019t chosen the correct subjects for me. To top all of this off, I started receiving rejections from the universities I had applied to, because my grades just weren\u2019t up to their standards. About a week before the UCAS deadline, I decided to change my mind on what course I wanted to do. I wasn\u2019t good at the exam side of things so something as academic as Architecture maybe wasn\u2019t going to be right for me. I had a bit of a rethink about what I enjoyed and what I was good at – and that was Graphic Design! So, from this point forward I decided to look at different universities who offered graphics courses. And that\u2019s how I found the university that I graduated from. I saw that they had an open day coming up soon so, on an impulse, I decided to go. I looked at their graphic design facilities and really liked them. I also liked the fact that the class sizes for my year were around 20 students which sounded perfect to me. Whilst looking around the university, I discovered that they offered an Illustration course as well \u2013 I had no idea you could get a degree in Illustration alone! I fell in love with that course that day and so decided I wanted to do a Joint Honours degree, where 50% of my course would be Illustration, and 50% would be Graphic Design. I spoke to the course leaders on the open day and mentioned that my personal statement was for the wrong course and explained my kind of hectic journey so far. I think that, if anything, this made me stand out more, as a week later I was back at the uni for an interview! This all happened over the Easter holidays and was a bit of a whirlwind for me. At my interview, the lecturers seemed to like the portfolio I prepared, as a few weeks later they gave me a conditional offer! However, I was still hesitant to get my hopes up because I didn\u2019t think I would meet the grades required for the conditions of my offer. Results day eventually came around and it wasn\u2019t great news. I had failed electronics in my second year, so only actually ended up with 2 A levels \u2013 one of them was an E grade. At this point, I was terrified to log into my UCAS account as I thought it could only be bad news. However, when I did eventually log in I couldn\u2019t believe what I saw! My offer had been changed from conditional to unconditional and I got into my first choice university! What I learnt from this rather chaotic journey is don\u2019t panic! I had my fair share of hiccups throughout my journey to higher education, but at the end of it, I got to study my dream course at the perfect university for me! Also, don\u2019t give up. I know I definitely wanted to at many points during my 2 years at college, but if I had then I wouldn\u2019t be where I am today. And I\u2019m thrilled to be where I am now! Casey x<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[13,14,11,85,71,29,83,84,69,15,10,82,8,53,70,9],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-journey-stories","category-student-life-stories","tag-aimhigherplus","tag-aimhigherwestmidlands","tag-alevels","tag-choatic","tag-college","tag-gcse","tag-graphicdesign","tag-illustration","tag-officeforstudents","tag-ofsuniconnect","tag-sixthform","tag-studentjourney","tag-studentlife","tag-uni-2","tag-uniconnectprogramme","tag-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/university-insiders.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/university-insiders.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/university-insiders.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/university-insiders.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/university-insiders.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/university-insiders.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1772,"href":"https:\/\/university-insiders.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions\/1772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/university-insiders.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/university-insiders.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/university-insiders.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/university-insiders.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}