My hypothetical gap year and applying to Oxbridge

Ooh, OK. Your choices are like mine and my friend's combined
Did you visit Birm and Sussex? If so, what were your thoughts on the unis themselves, and the courses they offered?
Also: why did you decide thatpsychology wasn't for you? It must have been very difficult pulling out of a uni that you loved and be faced with such uncertainty. I'm not meaning to make you feel bad btw; it was obvs the right thing to do and I think you're really brave!
I agree with the advice

I was a little silly with my application, tbh. I applied with a 'UCL or nothing' attitude, and never really intended to take up any other offers. I therefore didn't visit Birmingham or Sussex. Saying that, at the time I would say I preferred Sussex to Birmingham primarily because the course content appealed to me more (they have a Psychology course with a minor in CogNeuro, which I applied for originally before transferring my application to Medical Neuroscience). I do have a friend studying straight Psych at Sussex now, first year, who is enjoying it a lot.

And thank you lol (most people would use the word foolish instead of brave I think :P). It's quite difficult to pinpoint my reasons looking back now. I think ultimately I felt like I'd got what I wanted out of psychology. My original interests were in research, and once my interest in psychology itself began to dwindle I saw no reason to study psychology if I wasn't interested in the field itself anymore post-degree. The little social psychology and related aspects I'd read up on in my own time alongside that which was part of the A Level course just bored the hell out of me, and I realised I wanted to study something more purely biology-based. I still love reading articles about research in psychology etc., and I would love to do a little bit of psychology if my uni course allows it in the future, but ultimately that's the end of psychology and me.

Wow good thing you did get into UCL, then!
Worryingly, I can see myself going down the same route as you re. falling out of love with Psych, which is extra pressure for me because ofc this is the last year before the fees rise. The usual ultimate goal of a psych degree is to become a researcher or practising psychologist. To do that, you needs to do lots of WEx and researchy stuff. I don't know if the prospect of doing that really *excites* me, since I'm more creative- and people-minded (and during WEx I was facing a computer at all times ) Even if the outcome is rewarding, would it have been worth it?
But my alternative would be completely different to yours (English lit). I'm really scared

It's extremely difficult, and not something to take lightly. I think the whole UCAS app process is extremely rushed, and (to some extent) people feel pressurised to make life-changing decisions (because at the end of the day, they are) without really the right experience and judgement to be able to make such decisions. A lot of people I know applied to uni for the hell of it, for degrees they 'kind of liked the idea of', without giving it all much thought.

In my experience what you are doing is good, because you are looking at the long-term and evaluating whether ultimately this is where you see yourself heading. I had quite a lot of abuse (if you can call it that) about turning down those offers and going down a different route, but it's ultimately your life and your degree. You are the one who is going to write CVs and apply for post-grad jobs. You have some great Psych offers already, now you just need to weigh up Psych vs English lit. (benefits of course content - would you enjoy studying x+y+z for 3 years, post-degree options) Would you be satisfied with having english as just a part-time hobby/interest (IDK if you're interested in writing etc. but if you are you can look at societies and clubs at uni, and your uni course may even let you take a module in another discipline s/a english lit., these are all things to consider), or vice versa with Psych?

Good luck with whatever you decide to do, and let us know how it goes.

I will take on board the advice, thankyou.
I'm sure it will be extremely rewarding! Can I ask how your school has links to such a programme?
It was very brave of you to withdraw your application, I'd probably be umming and ahhing about it, and keep postponing. Out of interest, did you apply to Warw again this cycle?
Hoping StAs are kind to me, I'd love to do the course there, only parents are definitely not happy about me gallivanting off to Scotland. But even they can't deny it could potentially be the best opportunity available to me.

Ermm, I'm not sure how it started in all honesty, but it's almost a sister-school situation. We'd been fundraising for them in previous years and then last year they started this with gap year people going out there. It is a fairly unique thing I would imagine, although there's no reason why it couldn't work with other schools.

I was indeed umming and ahhing a fair while. I ended up taking a fairly (very) in depth look at the specific details of the Oxford course before deciding to go for it! I did apply to Warwick again and they have actually given me an offer. I'd been anticipating they might reject me for pissing them about before, but evidently that wasn't the biggest concern on their mind!

[Been up at Oxf interviews this week, hence the delay]

Well done on Warwick. And if you hadn't taken that risk, you would have kicked yourself afterwards forevermore... so good on you How did your interviews at Oxford go?

Thanks. I got rejected by Oxford My history interview went well I think but French was fairly abysmal, I wasn't too surprised to get rejected after that. But still, I'd hoped already having 3 A*s in the bag might've helped me out but oh well. Part of me feels if I had gone for straight History I might've got in, but that's for another day. I'm looking at Durham now, partly being the usual residing place of Oxford rejects it seems! Have you heard any more yet?

Shameless bump.

I think you speak quickly and sorry, but I don't like the plan.

This thread seems a tad preemptive, but I just thought I'd plan ahead for once.

Th

Thankss

? Bit pedantic...

That was 4 weeks ago, you (and even I) have no idea whether I 'bumped' 24 mins after the last post, or 24 hours. Everyone knows threads like these fall off the wagon if you don't update it from time to time, besides clearly I was pretty desperate for lots of advice at that time - and still am I might add.

Also, no point saying you "don't like the plan" and just leaving it at that! Would you care to say what it is you don't like? The whole thing, parts of it, or just what such a plan would entail?

Just don't get too hung up on Oxbridge. Sounds like a plan though, all the best!

I didn't mean by the bump. Just the content of the post. It's not necessarily a bad thing. Heh..

I don't like the whole thing. I think that you should have a list of things in which you're interested in, forget about Oxford or Cambridge for the moment and then just focus on those. Any essentials you put down and anything extraneous you omit. Otherwise, you'll spend a year learning nothing and doing a lot.

Oh, well, that was quite misleading!

I think you've been a bit harsh on my plan This is a list of things I'm interested in. The reason it's so long and full of "extraneous" stuff is because it is early days, and I can't commit to a gap year itself, let alone the little individual things within it! I wasn't planning to reapply solely for Oxbridge (despite the title and all) but wanted to see if you guys thought I could; now I know that's all irrelevant as it comes down to me, my preferences and what I achieve in my exams. I disagree about the 'learning nothing but doing a lot'-- as long as I'm doing something, I'll surely be learning from it...? One of my biggest fear is doing nothing with my life (as I have been this Christmas holiday!! ) so I'm trying to ask as much of myself as possible here *just in case*

Still, any comments are very much appreciated

i smell