Anyone applied to the Access to Southampton scheme?

I did! I'm on the programme at the moment.

Anything specific you wanted to know?

It's been really useful! The summer school I did last summer was really fun - we did one day of general uni related stuff, followed by some evening activities in our subject groups, then stayed overnight in the halls. I got to know my mentor really well and everyone in my group was lovely - there were about 20ish of us I think.

The second day was based in Psychology (which is what I've applied to study). We had a lecture and did some seminar type stuff, plus we had an overview of what it's like to study Psychology at Southampton. The lecturer also went into details about what the assignment was about, which really helped when I was writing it at home. The summer school gave me chance to find out more about the course and learn some new stuff we haven't done loads of at A Level.

The assignment we had to do was a 1500 word (I think) mini research project. From what I remember, most people on the scheme were doing a 1500 word essay for their assignment. although I think the Engineering people were doing something Maths related for their task. I found the assignment quite hard, as it was quite different to anything I'd done before but I got a decent mark. It was really useful to get an idea of what a first year assignment might be like.

After I got my feedback back from my assignment, we were given a mentor and I had the same girl who was with us at the summer school. She has been emailing us about Psychology related things, and also about things like personal statements, moving away from home, budgeting, that kind of thing. That has been really helpful too. It's all been really good so far and pretty chilled tbh, not too intense.

Oh, and because I've done the scheme I've got a slightly lower admissions offer for my course

Later this week we've got a day where we go to the Uni and do some workshops. Things like research skills and time management. I'm looking forward to going back and seeing the campus again, and hopefully some of the people I met at the summer school.

Hope that helps I'd definitely recommend people to do it - no-one else at my school knew anything about it!

Thank you very much! This was very helpful, especially because I'm applying to do the Psychology course as well!

Just one question- when you were applying for it, you know the eligibility section that your referee had to fill, what did they write? This part:
'Please provide details of why you believe the applicant to be eligible for the scheme. If the applicant has experienced disruption in their personal, social ordomestic life (criteria iv), please provide a brief description of these circumstances and how they have impacted on the applicant’s studies.'

Did your referee talk about disruption in your personal, social life etc? Because my referee doesn't know much- he just knows some brief things, so I don't know if I'll be accepted because my application won't be strong enough.

Is it necessary for the referee to talk about disruption in personal, social life etc?

I didn't meet that criteria, so I'm not sure tbh...I'd suggest giving the co-ordinator a call and asking - she's really nice and has always been happy to my answer my questions on the phone/email.

I do know that it is quite competitive for Psychology though - obviously it's a popular subject! So I'd guess the more info the better?

Ohh okay, so it's not necessary for the referee to talk about that if that criteria box isn't ticked? So what did they write for that eligibility section then?

Sorry- I'm asking too many questions...

I'll email them anyway

No worries

My school had to confirm that I was the first member of my family to go to Uni, that I receive the bursary and that the school exam results weren't so good, so they just needed to write that in that section I think. If I remember rightly, there was a separate part where they had to say about my attitude/motivation etc, and I think they had to include my predicted grades in the second bit too.

Hope that helps