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Reply 80
Original post by josh_v
Thats what I did, and I would recommend that you dont do it.

I Got my 30 credits at distinction and then slacked off and got a mixture of grades. However, yo u will be asked your grade breakdown from your Access course when it comes to applying for grad jobs. It will make a difference in the future. Whilst its nice to know you can afford to relax, and one slip up wouldn't stop you getting in to uni, employers will look at your Access grades and make judgements based on them.

Congratulations on the offer though.


Thanks - that's good advice. I'm still going for the March round for Cambridge, so really I need to have all distinctions if I'm to have a chance at that. But it's good to know that even if I do get a merit at this stage, I'm almost definitely going to university! (I'm pretty sure I can get at least merits from here on in).
Original post by Rattie
Didn't you read my post? Being at the top of the class is something I don't enjoy. I know whatever university I ended up at it's unlikely I would end up being "top", but I just want to be somewhere where I am distinctly average.

It's impossible to reconsider now, you do know that, right? If it weren't, I might've swapped out York, which I've gone off a bit, for somewhere like Nottingham or Bristol :biggrin:


If you got in to Derby, you wouldn't be at the top of the class. They/we, work to a high standard...
Reply 82
Original post by john2054
If you got in to Derby, you wouldn't be at the top of the class. They/we, work to a high standard...


That would be why I said "I know whatever university I ended up at it's unlikely I would end up being "top"".
Original post by Rattie
I know it's only been a month since I sent in my UCAS, but I've heard nothing except an email from Birmingham telling me that my application has been passed on to an admissions tutor for "further consideration".

I would feel so much better and could relax into doing my work, if I only had at least ONE offer!

<dying here>

For context, I've applied to Birmingham, Cambridge (March round), Exeter, UCL and York. I'm ******** myself that I've aimed too high, even though my grades and predictions couldn't be better (24 distinctions, 21 predicted distinctions).

Anyone else sitting there thinking, "please - just one - please - just one"?


I thought the Cambridge deadline is October?
Original post by Rattie
That would be why I said "I know whatever university I ended up at it's unlikely I would end up being "top"".


If you are good, then you can hope to achieve this. But the fact is that there are plenty of other good people at university. Actually it is not about being 'top', at university, no one is 'top'.

All you can do is work hard, do the readings, and the research, and hope to get a good degree. Assuming you attend lectures and seminars, and don't flunk off, then there is no reason you can't expect this. And all uk universities adhere to their standards. Just because it may come lower down according to egotistical league tables such as the Guardian (which is itself an egotistical paper), you still have to put the work in.

I went to Derby, i worked hard and i got a good degree. If you go to any university and work hard, you should get this. Agency is a much bigger factor at university level, then it was at school/college. Although i have heard differing opinions on the amount of originality expected at undergraduate level. Basically what i am saying, is don't write off my university, just on the back of what some artificial league table has said about it!
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 85
Original post by Marshall Taylor
I thought the Cambridge deadline is October?


I'm applying in the March admissions round; it's a second round that only the mature colleges participate in - lots of mature students do one-year courses, so the later deadline allows them to get some evidence together for their application.
Reply 86
Original post by john2054
If you are good, then you can hope to achieve this. But the fact is that there are plenty of other good people at university. Actually it is not about being 'top', at university, no one is 'top'.

All you can do is work hard, do the readings, and the research, and hope to get a good degree. Assuming you attend lectures and seminars, and don't flunk off, then there is no reason you can't expect this. And all uk universities adhere to their standards. Just because it may come lower down according to egotistical league tables such as the Guardian (which is itself an egotistical paper), you still have to put the work in.

I went to Derby, i worked hard and i got a good degree. If you go to any university and work hard, you should get this. Agency is a much bigger factor at university level, then it was at school/college. Although i have heard differing opinions on the amount of originality expected at undergraduate level. Basically what i am saying, is don't write off my university, just on the back of what some artificial league table has said about it!


The only context I originally mentioned being "top" of a class in was a very specific one: a school where students were ranked, literally, by their exam results. You appear to have some kind of fixation on the idea that I care about being top of a class. No. As I said, "I want to be at the middle of the pack and that means going somewhere where the entry requirements are high". When I've used "top" in response to one of your posts, I've used inverted commas, and frankly only mention it because you keep bringing it up. Now I know you love Derby (and seem to feel the need to troll random threads with "go to Derby" posts), but Derby is not what I'm looking for. It just isn't. I've visited universities with lower entry requirements and while the staff and facilities seemed great, frankly, the student ambassadors and the prospective students came across as being pretty unimpressive. One student ambassador told me that you didn't really have to bother reading books in the first year because you could just watch the films. Another couple sniggered at me behind my back because I was getting into an animated discussion with a lecturer I'd particularly wanted to meet at that open day about one of his and my own areas of interest. The prospective students at some of the open days asked questions which they could have figured out for themselves with two seconds' googling or five seconds' thought. BTW why bring up league tables - feeling defensive? League tables are ********, I agree :-D
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by Rattie
The only context I originally mentioned being "top" of a class in was a very specific one: a school where students were ranked, literally, by their exam results. You appear to have some kind of fixation on the idea that I care about being top of a class. No. As I said, "I want to be at the middle of the pack and that means going somewhere where the entry requirements are high". When I've used "top" in response to one of your posts, I've used inverted commas, and frankly only mention it because you keep bringing it up. Now I know you love Derby (and seem to feel the need to troll random threads with "go to Derby" posts), but Derby is not what I'm looking for. It just isn't. I've visited universities with lower entry requirements and while the staff and facilities seemed great, frankly, the student ambassadors and the prospective students came across as being pretty unimpressive. One student ambassador told me that you didn't really have to bother reading books on first year because you could just watch the films. Another couple sniggered at me behind my back because I was getting into an animated discussion with a lecturer I'd particularly wanted to meet at that open day about one of his and my own areas of interest. The prospective students at some of the open days asked questions which they could have figured out for themselves with two seconds' googling or five seconds' thought. BTW why bring up league tables - feeling defensive? League tables are ********, I agree :-D


Okay so you've visited some universities which weren't very good. Whoopie do. Derby is a good university, which you haven't visited. And if you did visit it, you may well change your mind about us. I'm not saying that everyone at here is Albert Einstein, and no they're not paying me for saying this.

There are generally at least a handful of mature students, certainly in my classes there were, and these are people who have been around the block, and so don't put education as the sole be all and end all purpose in life, like some of these nineteen/twenty year olds may. But with age comes experience, and the whole reason i have been explaining that for my degree i tried to read, slow read, a book a week. Isn't so i could get to the top of the class. I've never been bothered about getting a first. Just to get my 2.1 was good enough for me.

I was actually nearly put back in psychiatric detention on more than one point on this journey.

Derby has a nice group of educated at dynamic students, a generally smart and motivated academic staff, has an excellent reputation for nursing, and some of the best lecturers in the country. Plus we have a nice city and some top coffee shops. Basically it ticks all of the boxes.

I went to another open day for the masters, not naming any names, and it was like i was going back to school again. With a class full of, doubtlessly better qualified students then me, but when the lecturers asked at the end of the presentation, if there were any questions, i was the only one to put my hand up. And i got some dirty looks for doing so.

If you are going to university to learn, and are prepared to self motivate, and put the hours in, with some support if you get stuck, Derby is a good choice.

If you want to go to a university which is higher up the league table, and the students all bow down to the lecturers, then maybe choose somewhere else.

Come back to me in three years, when you have got your degree, and see how you feel about it then, okay?
Reply 88
Original post by john2054
Okay so you've visited some universities which weren't very good. Whoopie do. Derby is a good university, which you haven't visited. And if you did visit it, you may well change your mind about us. I'm not saying that everyone at here is Albert Einstein, and no they're not paying me for saying this.

There are generally at least a handful of mature students, certainly in my classes there were, and these are people who have been around the block, and so don't put education as the sole be all and end all purpose in life, like some of these nineteen/twenty year olds may. But with age comes experience, and the whole reason i have been explaining that for my degree i tried to read, slow read, a book a week. Isn't so i could get to the top of the class. I've never been bothered about getting a first. Just to get my 2.1 was good enough for me.

I was actually nearly put back in psychiatric detention on more than one point on this journey.

Derby has a nice group of educated at dynamic students, a generally smart and motivated academic staff, has an excellent reputation for nursing, and some of the best lecturers in the country. Plus we have a nice city and some top coffee shops. Basically it ticks all of the boxes.

I went to another open day for the masters, not naming any names, and it was like i was going back to school again. With a class full of, doubtlessly better qualified students then me, but when the lecturers asked at the end of the presentation, if there were any questions, i was the only one to put my hand up. And i got some dirty looks for doing so.

If you are going to university to learn, and are prepared to self motivate, and put the hours in, with some support if you get stuck, Derby is a good choice.

If you want to go to a university which is higher up the league table, and the students all bow down to the lecturers, then maybe choose somewhere else.

Come back to me in three years, when you have got your degree, and see how you feel about it then, okay?


Sure, I'll get back to you in three years to see if you're still incredibly defensive about your university choice :tongue: Glad you enjoyed the coffee shops, at least.
Original post by john2054
Okay so you've visited some universities which weren't very good. Whoopie do. Derby is a good university, which you haven't visited. And if you did visit it, you may well change your mind about us. I'm not saying that everyone at here is Albert Einstein, and no they're not paying me for saying this.

There are generally at least a handful of mature students, certainly in my classes there were, and these are people who have been around the block, and so don't put education as the sole be all and end all purpose in life, like some of these nineteen/twenty year olds may. But with age comes experience, and the whole reason i have been explaining that for my degree i tried to read, slow read, a book a week. Isn't so i could get to the top of the class. I've never been bothered about getting a first. Just to get my 2.1 was good enough for me.

I was actually nearly put back in psychiatric detention on more than one point on this journey.

Derby has a nice group of educated at dynamic students, a generally smart and motivated academic staff, has an excellent reputation for nursing, and some of the best lecturers in the country. Plus we have a nice city and some top coffee shops. Basically it ticks all of the boxes.

I went to another open day for the masters, not naming any names, and it was like i was going back to school again. With a class full of, doubtlessly better qualified students then me, but when the lecturers asked at the end of the presentation, if there were any questions, i was the only one to put my hand up. And i got some dirty looks for doing so.

If you are going to university to learn, and are prepared to self motivate, and put the hours in, with some support if you get stuck, Derby is a good choice.

If you want to go to a university which is higher up the league table, and the students all bow down to the lecturers, then maybe choose somewhere else.

Come back to me in three years, when you have got your degree, and see how you feel about it then, okay?


Now is the time for you to fold your tent and walk away, ok?

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Original post by ageshallnot
Now is the time for you to fold your tent and walk away, ok?

Posted from TSR Mobile


I did one better, i just spent four hours nailing fallout 4. Oh the joys of not being a student anymore!

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