The University Journey|The Application

So, on the 29th of November I finally sent my UCAS application off to my chosen universities!

This has been a very long and frustrating process, with rushing to meet deadlines, last minute changes and waiting… lots and lots of waiting. Here are the five universities I decided to apply to (to study psychology) :

> The University of Durham

> The University of Southampton

> The University of Lancaster

> The University of Loughborough

> The University of Warwick

As I write this it is December 3rd and I am yet to receive any offers, but all of the universities have received my application. Applying to university seems almost surreal and I think that may be because it is done online. It may just be me but something about doing things through an external website like UCAS seems to detach me from the reality of what I am doing. The actual process of applying was fairly easy but there were some aspects that were more time consuming and difficult, for anyone that has applied through UCAS you’ll probably know that I am talking about the personal statement.

Personal statement, even the word still fills me with dread. This has been a stressor in my life since about June/July of this year and now it is finally done and I hope that it is enough to get me where I want to go. When we were first introduced to Personal statements it was a HUGE thing that you had to perfect or else you would not get into University, or at least that’s how I perceived it. When I gave in my first draft it was just under the character count and was littered with gaps where I didn’t know what to write and was in summary pretty crap. Over the summer I did nothing on my personal statement and then in September I began to stress about it again.                                                                                                                                                                                                  My final personal statement I am relatively happy with, I think it is one of those things that could always be changed but I am so glad it is done.

The most frustrating thing about the whole application has to be the time that everything takes. It took two weeks for the school to send of my UCAS application after I had finished my personal statement. This was mainly due to my tutor being on maternity leave and so my reference had to be written by someone else. I was very happy with my reference, the teachers were all very nice to me.

Now is just the waiting game…
Are you applying to university this year?