Foundation with no qualifications?

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Yes, it does. It's included as year 0 of your course for funding purposes.

I debated writing it as "if it qualifies for funding..." and thought I'd get swiftly told that it wouldn't. I clearly made the wrong choice!

Reply 21

jimmy_looks_2ice

Original post by andiewithanie

Jimmy - It does qualify for the same level of support (& debt!). There were a couple of reasons I decided to do a foundation year after my access course rather than go straight into year one. The first of which was my intention to use it to better prepare for a Cambridge application. The second was because I was a little unsure of just what it was I wanted to study. Having been out of education for so long (you could even make the argument I was never really in education), my interests hadn't really solidified. I knew I didn't want to study psychology or sociology (the subjects I'd initially chosen on my access course), but I wasn't completely sure that English (the subject I'd dropped them for) was the right choice either. Doing a foundation year enabled me to do some phil, anth and classics aong with lit, and as a result my interests have really begun to take shape.

Don't get me wrong - access courses are incredible, but some of us need a little extra help :wink:

*Sorry, prolonging the OT discussion here*

Interesting to read your angle on it. I also knew after a few months of Soc & Psych on Access that I didn't want to study them any further. Actually, a lot of what you said does also apply to me (I went into more detail here - end of page 1 - which I won't repeat). I may well have benefited from doing a foundation course (and thus having more time to decide), but in the end I've chosen differently. I could write a novella on my deliberations about whether to apply to Oxbridge for Lit. Ultimately, I decided (to put it in very simplistic terms) that while I'd really enjoy discussing the merits of Joseph Conrad v Charles Dickens, I really wanted to be in a place where people discussed the merits of David Fincher v Michael Mann with equal vigour - and I wasn't sure if I'd get that at Oxbridge (so I'm going elsewhere to do Film + Lit). Maybe it's the right decision, maybe it wasn't -- who knows?

Hope it goes well for you if you decide to apply to Cambridge, btw.

Reply 22

andiewithanie

I know you can look at film (& art, etc). but I suspect it's more canon based.

I have very mixed opinions on the Cambridge thing. I don't want to pretend I'm not disappointed that it turns out I'm not Cambridge material, because I am and I would have loved to go there, but I'm also pretty ok with how things have turned out.

Film and comp lit sounds like a great choice, fwiw, and it's very much in line with my interests.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 23

jimmy_looks_2ice

I got caught up in the idea of wanting to prove I was Oxbridge material, but then I realised there's a danger of wanting to go there primarily for the brand name and I felt that's not a good enough reason on its own.

I really enjoyed Lit Studies on my Access course, but I do grapple sometimes with the fundamental nature of the subject. It seems that how stories and plots are developed is a secondary consideration (at least that's what I've found so far). I know it would be madness studying Lit without that involving examination of the language used in the material, but there's only so much merit in analysing metaphors, as far as I'm concerned. The really hard part is understanding how the stories work (and don't work). The best writers in the world continuously struggle with that challenge, so that suggests to me that it's a challenging enough endeavour for Lit students. Perhaps I'm expecting too much or not understanding the subject's pedagogical aims.

The Mary Poppins essay you wrote sounds like it would be an intriguing read :smile:

Foundation with no qualifications?

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