Hi! I'm Cameron.
Before you read all my ramblings, you should know this is basically just a vent of frustration so I can get back to being focussed and driven to my goals. I'm not sure it'll actually go anywhere, but perhaps some discussion will be fun. Feel free to vent yourselves or contribute whatever you like.
I'm a 25 year old with massive regrets about my educational past - and thoroughly believe that universally pushing teenagers to decide on their career & academic path, for the rest of their lives, is an awful mistake of the education system (granted, though, I also don't have a universal solution). Life experience really does give one the perspective and drive that so many teenagers lack, to perform to their best in an area right for them.
Right when you're a hormonal mess, being pulled in one direction by your sudden feelings of "adulthood" and "responsibility" (ha-ha), another by your awkward and messy social life, and thinking about trying to make some money to survive, you're also being told that if you don't achieve XYZ in your stress-filled, bigged-up A-Level courses, your life will be over and you're a failure. In my case, that involved being a straight-A student, and being told that if I wasn't applying for Oxbridge I'd be wasting my time. I had no interest in Oxbridge, but that wasn't important. Ultimately, I ended up feeling like just a number for my school to show off with, and I'd just be a dissapointment to them. I stopped caring, and what was AAA became BCD. I recognise my part in this too, now, but the resentment at least somewhat remains.
Fast forward nearly 7 years or so, and here I am, with huge regrets and desperately wanting to rectify that. I found a remote online BSc in my desired subject area, and hastily signed up to right the wrongs of my past.
Suffice to say, the course is not scratching that itch, and again, I am just a number - although more of a cash-cow than a marketing point this time round. The course does not deliver quality or care. So, I set out to fully commit. I made the best of it, and am averaging 90%+ in my first year modules. But I want to go somewhere where I feel more involved, like there's value to all parties and where my interests and aspirations can thrive. I applied via UCAS, making my situation clear, not expecting much for this year given I only have 5 first year modules under my belt.
To my surprise, I received the offer for the course I desperately wanted to attend - but with one glaring issue: the offer contained conditions which, through UCAS and my own comms with the univeristy, should have been clear that I could not possibly meet.
This impossibility was not because I don't deem myself capable, but because the condition relied on results I wouldn't have until December - 3 months after the September intake. I have been averaging 90% in the 5 modules I've sat, with 3 remaining. Those three will not be complete and marked until December, and the condition was that I achieve completion of my current Year 1 modules with an average of 60%.
Year 1 content at least somewhat consists of things I've studied before, or which I already have knowledge of through work experience. There have been challenges which I've fought through, and I'm proud of my 90% average. Actually, if it were at all possible to complete year 1 before the Sept intake (it isn't), I have no doubt I'd far surpass the 60% average required. For me to not meet the condition, I'd have to go from 90%+ avg. to failing a module. Possible, sure - but I know my ability, and I know just how unlikely that is.
So, I contacted admissions. Explained my situation, and pointed out that it was all clear in my application and prior comms. The response? Try again next year, and please let us withdraw the offer.
I am devastated, and thoroughly upset. An immediate rejection would've been better, but to have that carrot dangled over me to be pulled away just sucks. I'm tired of being beaten down by education, especially with the drive I now have for it.
I will recover, and am determined to roll with the punches. I just hope that next year, with the modules completed and (probably) an additional Access to HE qualification behind me, I will have more weight to throw behind the application -- as well as more debt, and 1 less year of my life left. I'll do it, and I'll go where I want to go and achieve what I want to achieve. The rest of the world can treat me as a number, but I am steadfast in believing in myself and doing what I want to do for me, and no-one else.
Tl;Dr: Non-standard applications are a rollercoaster, wrought with hope and let-downs. Education systems are imperfect and annoying, to say the least. There's probably no good solutions. The best thing you can do is to focus on your wants and desires and just do what you need to do to get there, for your future self, and for no other person, company, or instutution. You get one life, stop making it everyone else's.
Thanks for attending this rant. Good luck, and all the best, to all of you.
- Cameron, suffering with aspirations