The final post!

Hi guys! Hope you're having a great weekend!

This is my final post on this blog, and I'm quite sad because it has come around far too fast. It doesn't seem long ago that I was nervously awaiting my interview hoping to be hired as a student blogger, and now 33 posts later this is my final post!

For my final post I would like to reflect on my university life now that it is over (or at least over until I hopefully get onto a masters course). I came to university at the end of September 2011, extremely excited and nervous. I hadn't gotten into university halls, which made me all the more nervous about opportunities to meet new people and how my university experience would be. But I got on well with my flat mates in the accommodation we were renting and I soon made friends that will be my lifelong friends forever. In the past three years I have made some great friends, managed to pass assessments and exams and write a dissertation! Almost two weeks ago, I graduated from university with a 2.1 degree, what I had been aiming for since I had started university. Up to date, writing a dissertation and graduating are two of my biggest achievements. 

So to summarise, university has been a wonderful experience where I have gained lifelong friends, incredible experiences, new skills and opportunities and of course a good degree that has greatly improved my job prospects. So for now I am working in my summer job and trying to gain volunteering experience to help me move into a Psychology job in the future. I have an interview in a couple of weeks to volunteer with victim support and so things are looking hopeful!

Good luck and thank you to everyone who had been reading my blog posts. I hope that for anyone who is going to university in September that it has been of some help to prepare you for university. Good luck in collecting your results from exams and final assessments and getting your unconditional offers through!

All the best of luck for the future!

Best wishes,

Robyn

Graduation!

Hello! Hope you are all having a great weekend!

On Monday 21st of July I graduated! After three years of hard work and late nights, I finally have a degree to my name! I was within the graduation that started at 5.30pm and so we were a late afternoon group. I arrived at Luton with my parents around midday and after signing in with the hotel that they were staying in, we had a last trip around Luton town centre before catching one of the buses that were running from campus to campus at around 3pm.

We arrived at Putteridge Bury campus at around quarter past three, leaving around an hour and a half before we had to be seated for graduation. Putteridge Bury campus is a beautiful campus and I was so happy that I got to graduate there. After registering and getting my rented gown, my parents took many, many photos. I then bumped into some of my friends, all in their gowns and very excited about graduating. It was nice to get the opportunity to show my parents the friends that I had made over the past three years who they had heard so much about but in most cases had never had the opportunity to meet.

The graduation ceremony itself was wonderful. Luckily it was in an outdoor marquee, which was brilliant because it would have been unbearably hot indoors on such a sunny day. As much as everyone who I spoke to was worrying about tripping up the stairs to the stage, nobody I saw tripped or fell out of the almost 300 people that were graduating that day. The guest of honour, Professor Frederick Toates, is a professor of Psychology who gave a wonderful enlightening speech concluding the formal ceremony.

Following the formal ceremony, I spent more time with my uni friends taking lots of photos and appreciating the time with them. Graduation was a wonderful day and a wonderful chance to spend time with some of my best friends who now live far away.

Congratulations and well done to everyone who has recently graduated! Good luck to everyone who is going to uni this year and are currently still in the process of getting offers confirmed, I promise university will be the time of your life!

See you next week for one last post!
Robyn

One more day

Hello! Hope you are all having a lovely weekend! 

Only one more day left until graduation! I am so excited!! I can't wait to see my university friends again and to be able to celebrate our success together. Everytime me and my friends would see a graduation going on at the Luton campus, we would proudly tell each other some day it would be us. I can't believe tomorrow I will graduate with my degree after three years of hard work, it has come around so fast!

Graduation will be the mark of ending my university and student life (at least for now, I'm hoping to eventually go into a masters when I have the funds) and also closing an end on my time in Luton. Luton has been my home for the majority of the past three years, and will always be a place I am very fond of. I have made some great friends, some great memories and I'm very sad to be saying goodbye to it. It also means that my student card will be running out very very soon and I won't be able to get discount in lots of shops too which I'm also sad about. 

I am just about prepared for graduation now, I have my outfit sorted and now just need to pack my bag ready for a busy day tomorrow. Graduation tomorrow starts at 5.30 but the people graduating will have to be seated and registered by 5. After the graduation ceremony, we are provided with refreshments and are given time to socialise with family and friends. Following in the evening I am meeting up with friends again, and so it will be a busy and fun day. I'm hoping that we get the chance to throw our hats up in the air like they do on television, I think I'm most excited about that! 

Good luck to everyone who is currently applying for uni wherever you are in your UCAS application. And good luck to my fellow university of bedfordhire students graduating tomorrow! See you then!

See you next week, 

Robyn

Recieving my degree classification and 8 days until graduation

Hello, hope you are all having a great weekend!

This week one major thing has happened, I have received my classification for my degree! Well done to all my uni friends that have also received their classification this week too. After three years of hard work and dedication, I am now definitely graduating university with a second class upper division psychology degree! For a few weeks now we have been given our provisional grades but it was not until Monday that we received the grades we will be graduating with and then later a letter in the mail to confirm our grades on paper.

Filling out psychology jobs and being able to put a confirmed grade down onto the application forms is certainly a great feeling, and it makes all those years of hard work worth it. Getting a 2.1 means I now have the classification that will allow me to go on to further study in psychology which I plan to be able to fund in the next couple of years. It also means that I can apply for jobs such as assistant psychologist, so I am very happy with my classification.

There is now just over one week until graduation! I have my gown hired and photography booked, the only thing left to do is to sort out a graduation dress! Next Week's blog post will be all about preparing for graduation and how much I am looking forward to seeing my amazing uni friends again (and hoping that I don't cry saying goodbye to them). Good luck in whatever stages you are at in your UCAS application and also in any results you are soon to receive! See you soon!

Robyn

Things I wish I had known before starting university

Hello! Hope you're having a great weekend!

I have finished university and have been living back at home for quite a few weeks now, and have been thinking about what I wish I had known before starting university now that I have completed it. There are two main things that I wish I had known before starting university in regards to a psychology career; volunteering is essential and things might not go as planned, but that is okay.

Volunteering is essential
I am now starting to look for jobs within the field of psychology, and its only now that I'm realising how important volunteering is and am starting to wish I had done more volunteer work sooner. I am currently filling out application forms in the hope of getting onto a course to become a trainee psychological wellbeing practitioner, and whilst I will have the degree I need, the only problem is the lack of volunteering that I have. In an application form that I am filling out, it is desired to have at least one year of volunteering within mental health (which I do not have). I now know that I could have been volunteering with the Samaritans for years and have all the volunteering experience that I need within mental health. Its never too early to start thinking about volunteering and to look around at what is best suited to what you wish to do in the future.

Things might not go as planned, but that is okay
Before starting university, I had my career path all planned out. I was going to go to university to study psychology and do some volunteering alongside and then soon after get onto the doctorate course for clinical psychology. However, I did not fully understand how competitive the doctorate course for clinical psychology may be and how quickly time can pass by without realising you have not managed to get the volunteering you had been planning to do. As my course progressed, I realised that my career plan would not be as smooth and simple as I had hoped, and that it would take more years of work than I had first thought. Currently my plan is to get a full time job (preferably the trainee psychological wellbeing practitioner) and save up money for a masters degree in either health psychology or neuropsychology and eventually after several years have the relevant work experience, volunteering experience and higher qualifications to apply for the doctorate of clinical psychology course, but my plans often change. Rather than having definite career plans and being disappointed if they do not go the way first planned, its okay for career plans to shape, change and adapt as you continue through your course and learn more about what you wish to do.

Hope this has been of some help! Good luck to anyone finding out any university results soon and college assessment results, see you next week!

Robyn

Almost Three Weeks To Graduation!

Hello! Hope you are all having a great weekend!

It is approximately three weeks and one day until graduation! I am so excited! I am now in the stages of sorting out hiring my graduation gown and sorting out my plans of what I will be wearing on graduation.

I have decided to hire my gown rather than buy it, but am currently in the stages of deciding what photography package I would like (and what my parents would like). I never knew there could be so many choices for photography packages! However, like many people I know, my thoughts are now mainly on what to wear for graduation! The dress code is academic wear and so now I have the fun job of buying a new outfit for graduation.

Although I studied at the main Luton campus, I am going to graduate at Putteridge Bury campus which I am very excited about! I visited the campus during a conference at the end of my second university year, and loved the look of the campus. I am also very excited to see my university friends again! I am really looking forward to spending time with them at graduation and celebrating all the hard work that we have put in throughout university (and am going to try not to cry when saying goodbye to them).

Good luck to everyone with their UCAS applications! I know in the next few weeks my sister will find out whether she has got into university with her diploma so good luck to anyone getting results in the next few weeks which will impact your UCAS application!

See you next week!
Robyn

What am I going to do after uni?!

Hello again! Hope you are having a great weekend!

This week has been pretty much the same as the last, mainly focusing on doing lots of work and catching up with friends. I also saw my younger sister's presentation for finishing college this week. It was a very proud moment to see how well she has done in the past two years and now in September like many of you reading this will be is going to start university in September!

Aside from work and seeing my sister finish college, my mind has been focused on my dream future career and the steps I need to take to get started into a career in Psychology. I have now finished my Psychology degree, and it terrifies me. There is nothing I would love more than to be able to go back to university in September and start studying Psychology again with all the friends I have made at university. However this is not the case, and I need to begin to look into how I plan to get a job and career in Psychology.

Currently, I am looking into getting volunteer work within Psychology that will improve my chances of a good job and will show my commitment to the subject. During my time in Luton I was volunteering at Headway in Bedford. It is a wonderful charity and I thoroughly enjoyed volunteering there and so am trying to get similar volunteering closer to my hometown. I am also trying to get volunteer work more closely related to mental health although this is a lot more difficult to find. I have also been looking into potential jobs within psychology in which only a degree is needed. I would love to do postgraduate study on the future and plan to save up with my earnings from a job. I still need to look more in depth into my future plans, but now I have lots of free time to decided what future path is right for me!

Congratulations to everyone who has finished exams/ final assessments! Good luck to everyone that is sitting final exams! I know the time between exams-university is a very nervous time, but you can only do your best so enjoy the rest of your summer! 

See you next week!
Robyn