mean things you were told when you decided you wanted to go to uni

I decided uni was for me when I was 15 and my relatives told me how much they loved it when I told the careers advisor she said "you have no chance of going to uni you won't even get in to collage. (I have degree now)

one of my relatives also told me i don't expect you to pass your first year like a week before I went.

Have you ever been told anything like this?

This is familiar. Even back in the days of non-repayable grants, there was still a "Parental Contribution" which reduced the amount of the grant and which your parents were expected to stump up. Every time I phoned home, I got an inventory of all the things that hadn't been able to do or buy because I was off partying with posh people at uni.

The recurring theme was that "We can't afford a family holiday!" Which was a laugh because we'd had four family holidays in the previous twenty years, and my father had hated them so much that he swore he'd never do it again after the last one, which had been five years before I went to uni.

The really galling thing is that their contribution had been calculated at £900 a year by SF and my parents actually gave me £200 a year. Even back then, given the amount my parents earned between them, this really wasn't a huge overhead (Dad was a senior rank in his organisation and Mum essentially worked a good full-time job for pocket money because she didn't pay any bills). They decided that £300 a term was too much, so I should have £200 a term. The first term of each year, they gave me nothing and I funded myself with whatever I'd earned from jobs over the summer. They gave me £200 for the second term (very very grudgingly). The third term's money was whatever they got as a tax refund, by filling in a form where they claimed they were giving me £900 a year. I topped that up with whatever I earned from working through Easter holidays. I wouldn't have minded the budget approach and having to partly support myself - I think that was a useful thing to have done. But what really grates is that I was made to fill so damn guilty for costing them £200 a year. It still gets brought up during family arguments to this day!

translational oncology

?!?!

What's the Serbo-Croat for chemotherapy?

Me: "I will to go to the LSE"
Mum and others: "First get the grades, you need the be at the top of your class and it won't be easy, then see if it'll be LSE or something else"
Me: "No. I will be at the top of my class because I want to go to the LSE."
Mum and others: "Take exams one by one, see what happens, then make your decision so you won't risk disappointment."
Me: "No. I will take exams by storm with LSE in mind and I will make it."

I got in LSE and it's been the best thing I ever did in my life.

Believe in yourself and your goals as long as they're within the realm of broader possibility. Nobody else will do it for you.

That dialogue reminds me of this:

Posted from TSR Mobile

That dialogue reminds me of this:

Posted from TSR Mobile

"Why the f*** is a black guy doing Maths at uni? Stop trying to be white". The kind of responses I got from some of my friend's friend, and a few distant relatives.

I've found it more worse when no-one expected anything from me at my previous sixth form, and looked surprised whenever I got higher than a C during tests and such.

The one on the left reminds me of someone in particular...

This is horrible, kkboyk. It should go without saying that your race shouldn't affect your academic choices in the slightest. It reminds me of the initial resistance that Neil DeGrasse Tyson faced when he wanted to be an astrophysicist. Obviously, he did great.

Do you find that the racism you faced spur you to work even harder to prove them wrong?

Hints? Does it rhyme with sucrose?

Posted from TSR Mobile

You are clearly very studious with your poetry.

Nope it didn't motivate me whatsoever, since I'm the type of person that ignores any provocations and insults.