Re:A-Levels: The Model is not the Student
by LatteLazy on Monday August 17, 2020 @10:03AM
(#24187298)
Yeah, to be honest I think I got the better end of the deal actually. Exeter gave me a lot of opportunities academically and the space to get my social abilities together. My friend did like you. There is something strangely inhumane about uni admissions: we over booked accommodation at Exeter by 10% (literally had people sleeping in the common rooms) because the administration said at least 10% would leave before the 6 month mark (homesick mostly). They were not wrong.
It's too much to hope for but... I actually think part of the answer is forcing everyone to wait a year to go to uni. Then they can get themselves together a bit more. They can get being 18 out of their systems. They can apply to what they want, not what mum and dad say. Forcing people to do national service would give people the experience of living away from home before they have to go and fail a degree over it or get a year in and realise they want to be somewhere else doing something else.
Not sure I'm down with the national service part, but in general I agree - a year to think about yourself and your life, maybe do something useful/productive, and a university application process based on grades you already have, would do a lot of people a lot of good.
Imperial figures in my story too. I was predicted very highly, either 4 As or 3A+B, I already had an A at Mathematics under my belt, taken a year early. I approached Cambridge and Imperial. The Imperial open day was first and they offered at 2Cs, because they knew I was interested in Cambridge and figured that if I got a high offer from there I'd keep them as a backup.
The Cambridge interview day went badly. I came away feeling like I'd just been a complete dumbass, missed some really obvious stuff because I was stressed, and no offer was made. So I had Imperial on offer at 2Cs and no backup. And indeed I went there.
And that's when I discovered London nightlife, drugs, sex and dropping out. Failed the first year of my engineering course miserably and ended up studying CompSci at Southampton a year later. Which has turned out great, so no complaints :)
(I'm also lucky enough that there was nothing to pay for either course. I was in the last year through the system when there were no fees, what's happened on that front since is pretty awful, IMHO)