My University Experience, so far... Part 1 - Results Day

The whole 'getting into Uni' experience is a pretty big deal, so I thought as a current second year student I'd do a few posts about how I've found University so far.

This is going to run over about two/three posts (probably three, I ramble) so in this one I'm going to talk about what happened on and after results day and the beginning of first year; in the subsequent posts I'll talk about how I found the end of first year, including house hunting etc, and then finish up with a post about what second year is like so far (as it's nearly finished now, boo!)

I may as well get stuck right in as this could end up being a pretty long post with very few photos (sorry!).

Results day was one of the most nerve-wrecking days of my life, I won't lie, it was absolute hell. I knew for certain that I wasn't going to get into my first choice university (Leicester) as they required AAB and there was no way on this earth that I had got those grades, so I had my heart on Manchester Met (who wanted BBC - B in English). I logged onto UCAS before I went to pick up my results and found that I hadn't got the grades needed, so I sobbed all the way to school. Luckily, my mum works at my school so she was there, along with my teachers to calm me down. I hadn't got the B required in English Literature, I got a C - I literally missed out by 1 mark as my exam had been ridiculously down graded. 

What happened next: I went home and waited for Clearing to open. My teacher rang me and said they were sending my exam paper back to the exam board to be remarked as they felt I was given a ridiculously low mark - which was amazing of them, I am forever grateful to my teachers. Obviously papers very rarely get awarded extra marks, and take a few days to get remarked so I went through all the universities on UCAS that still had spaces open for English Literature.

I rang up Manchester Met, hoping they'd let me on the course I had originally applied for - they didn't. I rang around universities and got offered a place at Bradford and a place at Manchester Met's Crewe campus and managed to get a place for English and Philosophy. (I told you it was a long story - it has barely started!)

I was fine with going to Crewe; I visited the campus and walked around the city. It obviously wouldn't have been my first choice, but I was happy to be going to university; if I had had to stay at home for a year I would have gone mad. I got allocated halls and went on an open day.

This is where it gets interesting. My exam paper was sent back from the exam board - I was awarded a few extra marks meaning I had the B I needed for Manchester Met and the original course I had applied for. I decided to chance an email to the admissions officer for English asking if there was any way I could be allocated a place, as MMU had been my first choice. I was bloody lucky in that I was given a place. I have literally never been so happy in my life! I was seriously ecstatic. Obviously I had to ring Crewe, cancel my accommodation etc, which was so much hassle. I also rang UCAS to make sure I was definitely registered at Manchester Met. They told me I was. I proceeded to book accommodation and was lucky in that there was one en-suite room available in halls a 10 minute bus ride from University. 

When September came round and I had everything packed, I went to halls, unpacked and got to know my flat mates. Everything was fine until I went into Uni. I wasn't down on any registers. I spoke to the head of first year and told her about my situation. She was extremely understanding and spoke to the admissions officer. I still had my place. 

That first introductory week at uni was a nightmare; I wasn't down on any registers so had to be shoe-horned into classes and tutor groups. Once term properly started, everything was fine. It was great in fact.

I'm going to leave this post there; I was going to talk about Fresher's week and a few other things, but I'll leave that for another post as this is ridiculously long. 

My experience is obviously extremely rare, and I was extremely lucky to be given a place at the university I truly wanted to go to.

Me with two of my flat mate (the two girls) on a night out. Not the most flattering photo of me, I know.

Thanks for reading x

P.s. Let me know what you'd like in the next part - about halls, Fresher's etc!