When education, education, education isn't necessarily right
University budgets are being slashed left right and centre, and thousands of students might not get to go to university this year. What a shame. I’ve always been slightly cynical about the university system in this country, especially the fact that it was key government policy to get as many kids into uni as possible, whether or not they were suited to further education. To be fair, this argument has fizzled out a little bit; the money has, after all, run out.
I spent my entire life knowing that I wanted to be an actress. I was going to study acting at my dream university and then go to some posh London drama school. A year into my A-levels, the dream was still the same, but the location had changed: I was going to study in New York. A summer programme in France with an American acting school took me completely out of my comfort zone and made me want to study in a completely different environment.
As I sit here writing this, everything has changed. Unfortunately, for medical reasons I was unable to study acting in New York, so while all my friends were applying to British universities, I was sitting at the back of the room, bored, listening to the seven millionth lecture on how to write the perfect personal statement.
I didn’t want to study at a British uni, I just didn’t, and if I couldn’t study acting, I wasn’t going to just spend three years of my life studying English or History just for the sake of it. To me, this is key. The vast majority of my friends have slogged through courses that they aren’t particularly interested in, just for the sake of having a degree. We were semi-indoctrinated in school that without a degree we would become nothing in life (call me a cynic, but it smacked of government policy every time I heard that line leave someone’s mouth in a sugar-coated tone).
So, while people looked down on me for not following the crowd and just ‘going to uni’, I took two years off to work out exactly what I want to do. I didn’t waste my time, I worked in two jobs in two very highly respected international companies, and I spent a year abroad learning French. At the end of my two years, I had time to work out exactly what I wanted to do.
I suppose this is my point: there will be thousands of kids out there come summer panicking because they don’t have a place, or don’t have the grades, so they will make any old last ditch choice through clearing. Why is it so important to just go for the sake of going? I took two years off, worked out what I really want to do, and am now studying at an international university in London that runs on the American system, which is far better suited to me than any school that is based on the British system.
Here’s my message to anyone who is stressed about university admissions, and it may sound simplistic: Don’t. Don’t feel pressured into studying something you don’t want to, don’t feel forced to go to university straight away, don’t feel like you have to do anything you don’t want to do. Just a little thought. Vive la difference!
(Photo courtesy gr3m @Flickr)
I spent my entire life knowing that I wanted to be an actress. I was going to study acting at my dream university and then go to some posh London drama school. A year into my A-levels, the dream was still the same, but the location had changed: I was going to study in New York. A summer programme in France with an American acting school took me completely out of my comfort zone and made me want to study in a completely different environment.
As I sit here writing this, everything has changed. Unfortunately, for medical reasons I was unable to study acting in New York, so while all my friends were applying to British universities, I was sitting at the back of the room, bored, listening to the seven millionth lecture on how to write the perfect personal statement.
I didn’t want to study at a British uni, I just didn’t, and if I couldn’t study acting, I wasn’t going to just spend three years of my life studying English or History just for the sake of it. To me, this is key. The vast majority of my friends have slogged through courses that they aren’t particularly interested in, just for the sake of having a degree. We were semi-indoctrinated in school that without a degree we would become nothing in life (call me a cynic, but it smacked of government policy every time I heard that line leave someone’s mouth in a sugar-coated tone).
So, while people looked down on me for not following the crowd and just ‘going to uni’, I took two years off to work out exactly what I want to do. I didn’t waste my time, I worked in two jobs in two very highly respected international companies, and I spent a year abroad learning French. At the end of my two years, I had time to work out exactly what I wanted to do.
I suppose this is my point: there will be thousands of kids out there come summer panicking because they don’t have a place, or don’t have the grades, so they will make any old last ditch choice through clearing. Why is it so important to just go for the sake of going? I took two years off, worked out what I really want to do, and am now studying at an international university in London that runs on the American system, which is far better suited to me than any school that is based on the British system.
Here’s my message to anyone who is stressed about university admissions, and it may sound simplistic: Don’t. Don’t feel pressured into studying something you don’t want to, don’t feel forced to go to university straight away, don’t feel like you have to do anything you don’t want to do. Just a little thought. Vive la difference!
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