First Week of Final Term..

Hi everyone, as you may have guessed from the title of this post.. it's basically one of my 'week overviews'.

It's been all go this week on assignments, I handed my second to last essay in yesterday which was my 3,000 word Research Proposal for my dissertation. It took me a long time that's for certain. Over Easter my aims were to do both of the essays I have due in, one for this week and one for next. I did the one for next week which was 2,000 words for my Comparative Education unit all about Japan's history and current education system. I managed this essay in about two days which was impressive for me because I thought this would be the one I'd find the hardest, turns out I was wrong. I did this essay first purely for the reason I thought I'd find it a struggle and would take me a long time, I thought I would find my Research Proposal easier as its on a topic I'm interested in.

However, it turns out the Research Proposal took me a lot longer, I think because the structure of the assignment was very different to a normal university style essay and I was overall more worried about getting a good grade in this one in particular. Having said this, I managed to finish it in time and it's finally submitted and awaiting feedback and a grade. The Japan essay I found a breeze, I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but hey ho its done and dusted and just needs to be handed in now.

It's so interesting to learn and research about other countries education systems, everyone does it so differently and I'd highly recommend doing some research even if you aren't doing a particular assignment just to get your knowledge up about different countries.

As for un-uni related things this week, it's been an expensive one. I've booked a holiday to Rome with my cousin, bought a new laptop that isn't arriving for another four to six weeks (depressing) and a few holiday clothing bits. It's less than two months untill my summer holidays start (as in go on a plane, abroad) and I'm healthy eating and gymming crazily at the moment. I've got a running programme that finishes in two weeks when I'll be up to five k and a resistance training app which finishes the week before I go to Turkey! This may not be interesting to some of you but I'm really into fitness at the moment and I'm feeling really good about myself (for once)!

So, yeah that's an overview... I've got a more chilled week next week with a night out back at uni, a poster presentation to complete and my Comparative Education essay due which I need to read over and add a conclusion too.

Look out for another update like this one next week!

Until next time,

M.

Decisions, Decisions...It's too difficult!

I had a think about what I should write a blog post about this week and I decided a post about how I made my early decisions about university and what spurred me on to make the choices I did. I hope this post interests you all and gives you an idea of the reasons I chose the University of Bedfordshire.

One of the hardest decisions before I even knew if I had got into uni was what universities to put down as my firm and insurance choices.I picked both the University of Bedfordshire and another university just as close to where I live as Bedford is(about 40 minutes). I made this decision because at the time I did not feel ready to leave home, I am still unsure on whether this was the right choice for me but it's the one I chose so I've got to live with it. I'm still unsure because I don't know whether living here and paying as much money as I am to live here is actually more beneficial for me than if I were living at home..to be honest I would probably be much better off if I was still living at home. However, I'm not and I am very glad I decided to take the plunge and move away from home because now I've learnt that it's not for me for the full three years and it has helped me realise that I would actually thoroughly prefer to live at home for the remainder of my studies. I am not slating moving away from home at all, I just think that I've 'got the t-shirt' and in my opinion it's not worth missing home as much as I do. I am so glad I've had the experience though and I wouldn't change my decision of moving here, I would just change the people I was put with in the first place.

If I were choosing a university again I wouldn't change the University of Bedfordshire as a uni as it is fantastic and I love studying here. I might perhaps consider changing the location to somewhere a bit more lively, so a city uni, however this would be such a tossing and turning decision because I don't know if I would be ready to move to a big city on my own. I think my home sickness would kick in and I could feel worse than I did just 40 minutes down the road..
Thinking about it, I have definitely made the right decision for me in allowing myself to live the university lifestyle for a year, finding out it's not entirely for me and having the option to move back home and still carry on my studies. I think if you're like me and are not sure about staying close to home or moving away you should consider universities that will allow you the opportunity to start off living there for your first year and then if it's right for you carry on living wherever that may be or if not, move home and commute to university whenever you have lectures or seminars.At the end of the day most universities cut contact time even further as you progress through your course so you may not even have to travel to uni everyday which would be a bonus for anyone who decides to live at home.

Think carefully and for yourself. Don't pick a university just because someone else is, do what's right for you.