Hi Everyone,
I am finally getting around to thinking about my year at university and making some posts about it all! I decided to break this up into a series because there is so much to be said about each aspect of the process and experience. I thought I’d start with telling you a little bit about how I went about choosing the subject I wanted to study, and which courses I actually applied for.
Choosing What to Study
For some context, I studied A-Levels in English Literature, English Language and History and applied to five different universities. Each course I applied for came under the division of History and Politics but were different in their own way.
One of the hardest parts for me about starting the process of applying for those universities was the actual attempt to choose what I wanted to do. If you know me, you’ll know I am the most indecisive person in the world so the prospect of trying to pick one subject to focus the rest of my life around scared me silly.
It took a really long time and a lot of talking with different people before I settled on the course I am on now. Originally, I was pretty set on pushing through with music and going to university to study a performance and production course of some kind. However, once I began studying it at A-Level it became clear that music was very much just a hobby for me and studying it took away all the fun.
I spent so much time after this convinced I needed to choose a course that would put me directly onto one career path (eg: Education) but eventually my head of sixth form and my UCAS advisor convinced me that the best thing to do was to probably to combine a subject I am interested in with something that can lead me to a wide range of careers.
This resulted in a very long search through, I think, almost every History and Politics based course in the country before I became pretty set on studying the more international and modern focused ones I applied for.
I wanted a course that covered topics of interest such as intelligence and security as well as offering some new things that would be challenging. I learnt so much from this process and one of the most important things to remember is this the perfect time to do exactly what you want to do, you don’t have to settle for less or for what other people tell you to!
One of the other big parts of searching for the right course comes with visiting the universities too as you get to find out information directly from students and lecturers (something I’ll talk more about in my next uni related post).
About my Course
As a result of the extra year of studying and the long, drawn out search, I found the perfect degree for me and after completing first year I can say I made exactly the right decision.
I am now studying Military and International History with Professional Development.
My course covers everything I want and need it to. The topics focus around modern, international issues with modules on: Europe at War from 1914 to 1945, Conflict and Diplomacy (covering international law and diplomatic relations) and theories about Military and Political Strategy.
It also gives me the opportunity to gain work experience through placements and internships for a year between my second and third year and has allowed me to meet so many incredible people from various job roles and academic studies!
I get so many questions about why on earth I chose to study what I do or what I am going to do after my degree, but I have learnt that you don’t have to have a definite answer or really explain to anyone!
The process of choosing what you want to do should be strictly for you, with the advice of others if you need it, but you should focus on what you want out of a course and its modules and where you aim to be after (whether you know or don’t).
I want to talk more about this in some other posts I’ve got coming up too as it applies to so many aspects of university life but for now that’s it for this post!
Speak soon, Aimee with a Double E.
xxx
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