Tuesday 19 November 2013

Another Story

So I appear to have done the impossible (not really -- I'm just being melodramatic) and I've finally applied to university! My application officially went off quite a few weeks ago, on Friday 4th October. It was a really strange and scary moment, but an exciting one too! After weeks of drafting and redrafting my personal statement, as well as agonising over my university choices, it's really nice to have it finished and out of the way. In the end, I applied to study Economics & Management at Oxford and then pure Economics at UCL, LSE, Bristol & Edinburgh. I honestly love all 5 of my choices and would be extremely happy to attend any one of them, although I have to admit that my joint absolute favourite dream universities would be Oxford & UCL.

Since I first thought about sharing my applying-to-university experience on my little blog, I've actually received some news from my uni choices! I received an offer from Bristol University on Friday 25th October, which was an incredible feeling and such a nice surprise during the half term holidays. To have a uni actively want you to study their course is amazing. Bristol is a beautiful city and a fantastic university, especially for my chosen course of Economics!

However, my uni application process is not over yet! On Wednesday 6th November, I took the TSA admissions test for Oxford. It's basically a 2 hour test comprised of 50 multiple choice questions (problem solving and critical thinking questions) and an essay. Even though I felt as prepared as I could possibly be, it all kind of just went horribly wrong. I completely ran out of time, panicked throughout, found the questions impossible and just let the pressure get the better of me to be honest. My chosen course of Economics & Management is the most competitive course at Oxford, so chances of an interview are slim. I applied to Christ Church college, which only has 3 places for E&M, so I won't be holding my breaths for any good news. I'll most likely find out whether I have an interview in a few weeks (late Nov. - early Dec.)

Despite feeling pretty deflated about everything, I've just tried to push the idea of Oxford out of my head now. To be honest, for a few weeks, the idea of uni had just kind of escaped my mind as I didn't think I'd be hearing anything else for a while. However, last Wednesday, I received an email from UCL!!!!! In this email, they said that they were inviting me to an Open Day and that they intend to give me an offer! Basically, UCL have a policy that all applicants must attend an Open Day/interview day prior to receiving an offer. Luckily, I'm not required to attend an interview and the open day will just be a chance to hear more about the course, ask any questions and get a tour of UCL! That's gonna be happening next week on Wednesday 27th November and I am beyond excited! As I mentioned before, UCL is my joint-favourite university and I feel so incredibly lucky and happy to be expecting an offer from them! I'm also looking forward to having an excuse to roam around London for the day!

On another note, it feels like my life right now is both insanely busy yet boring at the same time. Feeling tired all the time isn't great, but I guess it's good to keep busy now that it feels like the goalposts are finally in sight and uni will be here before I know it -- or so I'm told. My offer for both UCL & Bristol are A*AA, so I'm gonna need to work my socks off in order to achieve that. However, I promise you that my life is not all work and no play. In fact, I did venture into town last week to see the German Market and eat pretzels with my friends, which was a lot of fun! However, I'm now nursing a terrible sore throat and drowning my sorrows in cups of tea, cough sweets and cheese on toast!
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^^^ The German market!!! ^^^
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^^^ Pretzels ^^^
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^^^ I love Birmingham this time of year ^^^

I admit, this will probably be a pretty boring post for most of you, but I just felt like sharing my applying-to-uni experience and give you all an update on how I'm doing! I literally can't wait for uni and I'm so excited for it - September 2014 can't come soon enough!


Hope you're all well!
Chloe. X

P.S. I am obsessed with The Head and the Heart's new album, Let's Be Still. I have had their song 'Another Story' on repeat for the past few weeks. I highly recommend that you check them out.