University Interviews

Today I had my very first interview for a university place. This interview was for Plymouth University. I live in Cardiff so I had to travel, apparently the most cost effective way to travel was via train, turns out if either of my parents had wanted to, driving me there was significantly cheaper SO I had to go by train on my own. I have never travelled on my own this far away from home, yes I have travelled to Italy on a coach without my family, but it was on a school trip. This was an entirely different experience for me, a scary experience to say the least. It had never occurred to me that when travelling by train, the trains are labelled with the terminal stop rather than the individual stops. Unfortunately I only realised this once I was on the platform, confused as to why the due train was for Portsmouth. I left the platform thinking I had to wrong one, panicked because I needed to get the correct train at this time or otherwise I would be late for my interview. It wouldn’t make the best first impression, if I was late by hours. I frantically found someone who worked at the station to explain my predicament only to find that it was indeed the correct train and I had nearly missed it. I rushed back to the platform to find the train was delayed, ten minutes later it was cancelled and all passengers were transferred to a replacement train because there was NO DRIVER?! Not that I wasn’t freaking out enough, I now had to make a train change with a straight fare ticket. Thankfully for me when I was changing trains the attendants were more than helpful and the ticket man didn’t seem to check my ticket at all. The journey from Bristol to Plymouth is beautiful; I wish I had taken pictures as we were going past the coast because it was literally picture perfect. I would take the pictures now because I’m on the train home, but its winter and its dark now. NOT GOOD! I occupied the long journey watching the movie GARFIELD! It never gets old. I was in the quiet section of the train at the time so I had my headphones plugged in. I did have to refrain from laughing at various points in the film because the carriage was filled with business personnel and opposite me was a very middle class pregnant woman. I didn’t want to annoy anyone, but I think I did. NEVERMIND! (I THINK IM ON THE WRONG TRAIN! That would be horrific. I thought that all the way to Plymouth as well, hopefully I am. On the right train that is) ANYWAY! I somehow got to Plymouth an hour before schedule, its unknown to me how that actually happened, but it did. YAY FOR GOOD LUCK! I ventured out of the train station and got into a taxi on route to the Art College. Opposite the College is a shopping centre so I went in and treated myself to a hot chocolate. This was SO nice because it was bitter cold outside and I am not the biggest fan of cold weather. I left with plenty of time to return to the College for my interview. I checked myself in and took a seat with around 30 other young people awaiting their interviews. I however was one of the only people without company from either a friend or adult/guardian. AWKWARD! I felt like a complete loner. Eventually the candidates for Graphic Design were called and we went into the department for Graphics. By this point my nerves were nearing getting the better of me. My interview was scheduled for 2PM. It was 2PM, so I assumed I was going for my interview right there right then. But NOOOOOOO everyone was taken on a tour of the facilities by a current student called Ben. Ben was a very excitable individual and temporarily calmed my nerves due to him being utterly amusing. However this was short lived. Before I knew it I was sitting in tense silence as all of the candidates were awaiting their interviews. The candidates for illustration were priority students (apparently). When they finally started interviewing the Graphics candidates they proceeded in order of who had to travel the furthest to get home. That right there meant I didn’t have to wait long. Walking into the interview room was a very surreal experience. I felt like I had committed an unspeakable crime and I was about to get interrogated in the harshest way. Just a bit of an overreaction on my part. I was interviewed by two males, only slightly intimidating. They had already looked through my portfolio and they were concerned about it. CONCERNED?! Brilliant. My art teachers in my current place of education suggested to me what to bring, I thought I’d be fine if that’s what they said I needed. Clearly not. Another thing that didn’t help was a few days prior to this interview I had to hand in my work for this year for marking, so I didn’t have that with me either. This whole fiasco threw me, right at the start of the interview. What the hell was I going to do now? They started expressing their concerns about how “limited” my work is, For me this was heart breaking. My only interest for the future is an art based career because it is the only thing I have been successful at during my educational career. I expressed my intention to complete a foundation art course prior to taking the degree course because I am entered for September 2013. WELL this changed the entire tone of the interview. They thought I was applying for this September! I don’t understand how they thought this because all of this information I gave to them via UCAS when applying in the first place. But there we go, can’t rely on anyone these days, especially with important things ironically. They said they would contact me within the next week or fortnight with an offer, so hopefully this entire disaster of a day was worth it and I get an offer. Getting into university in the current climate is an extremely tense time for students because the amount of pressure put on them to succeed, not only well but exceptionally well does not help. I can say that to you now, it was one of my most stressful days in my life to date and it was only the first interview. I don’t really have a contingency plan if this whole idea of university falls through, but that is something I will have to deal with when it comes to it. That is something I do not want to even comprehend especially not for the next few months at least. And then the most nerve racking thing is giving the full report to the parents when I get home when all I want to do is go straight to bed. I had work last night until 11PM, consequently I had around five hours sleep and I have college first thing tomorrow morning. Oh the joys of life!