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took a gap year for mental health reasons

i struggled immensely with bulimia and psychosis in year 13, so i gave myself a year break to recollect myself. i'm now doing substantially better, but the issue is, outside of supercuricculars (reading, watching documentaries, studying maths in my spare time, chess etc) i've done no travelling, no working (only because my mum wouldn't let me, that's a whole different topic), no volunteering and, well yeah. i wish to take another gap year as i'm not 100% firm on my choices for university, don't feel any sort of excitement or passion for my course and want to apply for oxbridge. (cambridge specifically). i feel like this will disadvantage me greatly and there's no point in me taking another gap year.. besides cambridge i wish to apply for warwick, UCL, maaaaybe LSE and manchester. i've of course already acquired my grades at an A*AB (i'm applying for a FY at cambridge since i'm eligible) but still, any advice for someone like me? it feels ridiculous that i've spent my gap year like this but i truly needed a break above everything else and it's not like i've been deliberately avoiding work. don't have any excuses for the non-existing volunteering i guess, and well for the travelling i just simply do not have money.

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Original post
by ghala_exe
i struggled immensely with bulimia and psychosis in year 13, so i gave myself a year break to recollect myself. i'm now doing substantially better, but the issue is, outside of supercuricculars (reading, watching documentaries, studying maths in my spare time, chess etc) i've done no travelling, no working (only because my mum wouldn't let me, that's a whole different topic), no volunteering and, well yeah. i wish to take another gap year as i'm not 100% firm on my choices for university, don't feel any sort of excitement or passion for my course and want to apply for oxbridge. (cambridge specifically). i feel like this will disadvantage me greatly and there's no point in me taking another gap year.. besides cambridge i wish to apply for warwick, UCL, maaaaybe LSE and manchester. i've of course already acquired my grades at an A*AB (i'm applying for a FY at cambridge since i'm eligible) but still, any advice for someone like me? it feels ridiculous that i've spent my gap year like this but i truly needed a break above everything else and it's not like i've been deliberately avoiding work. don't have any excuses for the non-existing volunteering i guess, and well for the travelling i just simply do not have money.

Hi! While I haven’t experienced this personally, a close friend of mine did. He took two gap years. The first year, he did very little. In the second year, he ended up getting a job and volunteering. He received places at the Uni of York and Uni of Edinburgh respectively, both two highly ranked Russell Groups.

The truth is, Russell Groups (including Oxbridge) like nerds and people who are passionate about their subjects. Sure, being a well rounded individual is great. But they’re looking for people who will engage with the content and have ideas. I did my undergrad at uni of York, am studying my masters at uni of Leeds, and had an interview at Cambridge and offers at Warwick. My personal statement was very nerdy. I spoke about things that I’d studied in class and then what I’d read/watched to deepen my understanding. My extracurriculars/jobs/volunteering were one sentence at the end.

You absolutely can go to university - and a great one too. A lot more people take breaks and gap years than you’ll realise. My best advice is to try to read some books/articles on things that interest you about the courses - JSTOR is a free academic journal online. You can also watch documentaries but you need to be actively thinking about the topics and making links to other things. Try to reignite that passion if you can. Sign up to open days, watch online lectures, try to immerse yourself. Which courses are you looking at?

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