*whatkatiedidnext* (Offline)

Took forever! Amazed I now have an offer from somewhere I look forward to going to.

The interview was rather weird, you essentially answer a question and they write it down... just dictating my answers. Rather odd because you don't get any clues to whether you're going in the right direction.

Was very impressed with the facilities, the campus, the style of the course, and even more so, the awesome mock court room lol.

York joining the Russell Group has almost solidified York as my first choice. I have one decision remaining; Queen Mary. I'm hoping for an offer, if it's achievable for the sake of convenience (being at least 2 hours closer to where I live) I may take Queen Mary. But I fear I won't get an offer, so York is likely to be where I'm headed. Queen Mary and York both becoming RG universities is a great thing. I think within a few years York will be among the top ranking RG universities. It already constantly ranks in the top 10, not dropping below top 15. Far better than QM.

Leeds v. York is going to be a hard one. I think the focus is the style of course, the convenience of getting to Leeds against travelling to York. Then there's Leeds being a longstanding RG uni, but not ranking particularly well against York ranking well and now becoming a RG uni.

At least we've both done well!

Finally got an offer from York the other day. Took a while, but it was worth the wait!

Do you think you know where you want to go now? I'm still waiting on Queen Mary to make that decision.

Adam

Mind you, he's annoyed me previously. I told him simply about how prejudice firms can be towards a person from not-so-great universities. He was not willing to accept this. Going on to say he wants to avoid applying to the "posh" colleges. Pretty childish in my opinion. Meh, if he wants to struggle getting a job there we go. It was only friendly advice. I did say their are often exceptions to the rule, however, if you can go to Queen Mary instead of the University of East London, you should do that. Even a law firm would question why you didn't choose the better considering one is one of the worst law schools and the other one of the best, and both within a 5 minutes bus ride of each other. He was unwilling to accept this. Never mind.

I have a reply from Louise. It says simply that if I am successful, I could be invited up for an interview on March 7th. An invite could be expected 2 weeks before this date. This puts me at ease a little. Hopefully they come through with an invite

Adam

Yeah! I'm sure many enjoy the feeling of us, crazy applicants. I haven't seen much help with the QM stuff, I do know however from previous correspondence and other students in my class that applications are held until around march to be assessed. Which, is rather annoying.

Yeah, I don't look much into the legal stuff on here anymore. You are right, it is filled with sixth formers informing the world that to be a lawyer you'll need to have 10 A*'s at GCSE, 5 A*'s at A level, a first from Oxbridge (let's not even push it to the LSE and Durham, come onnnn lol) and to have cured cancer whilst achieving world peace. Slight exaggeration, I know, but it really is only "slight".

So far on my course, nobody has responses. Except those who applied to Oxbridge, which most have rejections, I know of no offers for interviews/places. Since everybody else left it to the last minute, their applications have only been in for a few weeks. This is what sickens me, I, who made the effort to get my application done much early, am penalised. My application will be held back with their's.

I am not this negative too, rather cheery instead haha. This woman is particularly annoying. I also have found a dislike for this other man. It's long to explain why, but here goes, short as possible.

I made a group on facebook for everyone to talk to eachother about the course

I was warned by the course tutor that talking about essays would not be allowed and seen as collusion/plagiarism.

Yesterday somebody asked about the essay

I politely told them this is not the place to talk about the essay, gave and explanation etc.

This guy posts later in the evening, just a youtube video for people's interest. Nothing to do with the essay, but writes in the title, "I don't think this is collusion".

How petty can you be?

I caved in. I've emailed Louise Prendergast. Here's hoping I get a nice reply!

I am indeed hoping that they all have some obscure policy for mature students. I do think it's a little weird to be treated differently, but there we go. As long as it results in offer, I'm down lol.

3 weeks for interview notice is quite short, but at least that is reassuring to me. I think I'm gonna do as you say and email Louise and ask about the general policy for interviewing mature candidates. At least that way, hopefully, I won't become a hassle to them.

Ouch, swearing at a lecturer. Wow. Maybe uni isn't for her? :|

Well, you say you bet Birkbeck isn't like that, it isn't quite, but we do have a new person in our class that so far from voiced opinions, over half of the class hates her. She comes across of arrogant and condescending, even towards my tutor who is a barrister! She frequently asks my tutor to repeat things when clearly she just hasn't been listening. She also had an argument with the tutor during the break last week over her essay. She wants it marked by him, but my tutor won't mark it because she has only just moved to this class. He feels it is much better that her previous tutor mark her essay because she has known her much longer. The biggest reason is because she started this essay whilst in the other class and he could mark it unfairly considering the material that was talked about in class. What my tutor says could be quite different to the other tutors. (Please pardon the poor grammar, I'm tired for reasons I don't know).

Thanks for your help and advice! I hope Leeds get a move on for you, however, you've certainly got a good'n in the bag with York.

Adam

Hi Katie,

Well, put simply, I'm just getting rather frustrated with the length of time York and QM are taking to get back to me. I have had an update from Sussex since last week, they've asked me to submit some examples of my assessed essays, which I've done and hopefully an offer will materialise. Especially since their accepted score from my course is 60% and so far I'm hitting 70% and above.

My favourites are QM and York. I have now convinced myself that I will put myself through this bloody UCAS thing again if I don't get into one of them.

I've done a fair bit of chasing up with emails. I emailed them both in December, which they both replied saying I'm still being considered. Then I also followed up with another email in the late part of January explaining to them that I have received marks for my first assessed assignments which is a distinction (QM wants a distinction, York says they only require a merit [60%]). Then I restated my prediction and told them that if they want to get any more information contact my tutor. Both replied saying thanks and they've added this information to my application which will be assessed in the "near" future.

I may call up this week. Is a call seen as something annoying? Or maybe it's seen as something with more pursuance given the difference in effort compared to an email lol.

I'm reluctant to accept the Lancaster offer, I will only accept it if I get a much poorer score. Given that my offer is to only get a pass at 50%, something rather easy. Plus, I'm not convinced Lancaster can be compare to QM or York in any way in law, the reputation just isn't there for Lancaster, it seems. Anyway, if things don't fair well, there is always clearing, or even worse, UCAS next year.

Adam

I really feel, for the good and the bad reasons, I've matured a lot in the past few years and I'm hoping that I won't be penalised for my past. I've had to put my A levels down, so that makes me feel rather apprehensive about getting any offer, though, Lancaster proved me wrong on that with their offer and I just hope that is the standard practice. I think if I had to reapply next year, with my grade, I'd probably omit my A levels. Whether it is wrong or not, I don't think it's beneficial to my application given that my GCSEs are bad enough!

Anyway, next weekend I hit the mid-way point of my course and it seems to be going well do far. Let's just hope it ends on the same note!

Any news from your end (UCAS, Access)?

Sorry for the late reply. I've been pretty busy. I spent the weekend away in Gloucestershire with my brothers and sister as well as visiting my aunt and uncle in Watford on the way home.

I'm also pretty darn busy getting this essay finished for Monday, nearly done now. I've hit the word limit and it's now time to do the tweaking.

From what you've said, it seems like you were never really sure of what you wanted as a career, did something for the sake of it and then with time, found what you truly wanted to do. I am the same, except with worse grades :P. Apart from the mishaps at college and school, I've never been sure of what I wanted to do, so without a goal, I saw no reason at that age push myself to get those great grades. Never mind, what is done is done.

Still nothing from York, QM and Sussex. I am really getting quite worried. I think, as long as I get an achievable offer from York I'll be 110% happy. A friend on my course is doing the course for an insight into law because he's training as a police constable at the moment, but he want to York and studies chemistry beforehand. He said York is a lovely place with an excellent all round reputation. He said that if I don't get in, he should never have been deserved to go. Made me feel like I'm doing something right!

Sorry! (perhaps not as short and sweet as I'd hoped)