Firstly, I would like to mention that everyone's experience at university is different, obviously depending on what course they do, what uni they go to and who they are as a person. I think that it is an incredible personal achievement getting accepted into university that is often overlooked by many people, as it is not only a huge step in their life but also a journey that often involves their family and friends around them too.
I've decided to sub-categorise some important topics that I want to chat so that I ensure I try and cover as much as possible, but allows you guys to jumps to certain topics in case I bore you all.
Work Load:
Going from school to university is undeniably a huge jump, from moving away from home to making new friends, let alone the increase in independent learning to the significant increase in workload. As a bit of background knowledge for you all, I live in Kent and decided to go to University in Bournemouth at the Arts University Bournemouth (AUB). I decided to go straight out of school after studying my A-levels at 6th form at my secondary school, where I was 18 at the time of starting university. On my first day, I'm not going to lie but I was very nervous as literally had no idea what to expect. All I knew is that I was about to walk into a studio along with 60-odd other people and listen to a short brief that was supposed to prepare us for the upcoming 3 years. After a day of introductory talks, we were straight in there with the beginning of two projects running simultaneously at the same time. Throughout my entire 3 years at university, we were constantly working on two projects at the same time, run by 2 different leaders and both with completely different ways of working as well both projects being completely different to one another. These projects lasted a term at a time which roughly was about a 3 month period. My timetable meant that w were scheduled in uni everyday with one day off in 1st and 2nd year, which in addition were long uni days - 9am-5pm. To me, at first I wasn't too shocked by the timetable as was very similar to school for me, but in comparison to flatmates and my friends at other unis who were doing different courses having 2 hours in uni on one day was classed as a long day for them!!! Come final year we were doing 14+ hour days at uni- having to get to uni at 7am as soon as the studios opened to ensure you got a table you liked (that sounds stupid in itself but i'll explain after) and leaving uni when the studios closed and we would literally be kicked out by security and 9pm. Occasionally we would go over to the neighbouring university to use their library so we could continue doing sketchbook work till midnight when that closed.
*tables.... so everyday we were allocated a studio to work in and often there were not enough tables per student - to have one each. And in addition every night you stored your work under the tables (often many boxes and bags worth of stuff) so the agg - some may call it lazy, but the agg of having to "relocate every day and move all your stuff wasn't worth it. In addition, in our studios, friendship groups form and you obviously wanted to be on a table near your mates so the results were waking up early to essentially claim your table.*
Stress:
Work only increased as the years went on which as a result stress levels increased too. The amount of work constantly required is definitely a struggle at times due to quick turnarounds and tutors forever asking/suggesting for new ideas/designs/research. I fully believe that if you choose to do a creative course then yes the workload is a lot to deal with at times, however the result at the end is worth it 10 times over, and the more effort you put in the more you will get out of it. Being truthful it is incredibly tricky at times to keep cool with the amount of work you have to do, and I'm not gonna lie and say I dealt with it fine cause come 3rd year I was having daily breakdowns along with my mates but you just know by that point that the end in sight and you just have to get on with it. It even got to the point of making a cry chart just to keep some light on the fact that we were so stressed, we had to laugh cause the real fact is if we didn't laugh we would just carry on crying hahaha. Keeping focused and setting up a good routine for yourself definitely helps.
Friends:
Some of my best friends now are the ones that I met at university. I was incredibly lucky that when I moved into halls, I lived with 7 other girls and at first worry there was gonna be a lot of bitchiness but thank god there wasn't. We all clicked instantly and got on very well. My coursemates are also incredible. Meeting them on the first day of uni and staying together for as long as I can imagine, these girls honestly made my uni experience and the laughs we had at uni were some of my favourite memories to date. Having a great friendship group around you truly made my uni experience and massively helped through difficult times, knowing that they are there to listen and support you know matter what.
Post-Graduating:
After graduating 4 months ago now, well, not much has changed in my life. With the 'promises' that as soon as we leave we will be invited to numerous interviews and will most likely get our foot in the industry in the hope that we all swiftly move to London and live together. Oh, how we were wrong. To date, I have applied for approximately 60 jobs in the fashion industry, and have not received a single phone call or email regarding the job about a single one. Yes, I have received the standard apologetic email about not being successful but not being a slight bit successful in one is truly disheartening. And not only me but the majority of my friends too. Thankfully I have a part-time job at the moment, however, I would like to work in London soon. In addition, fashion pay is not appealing. Little do they mention at uni that you will work for free or low-pay in the industry. Many brands offer "jobs" - aka an internship where you cut out fabric all day, scan piles of paper, and go fabric sourcing for unpaid or if you're lucky you'll get lunch pay. In addition, if you're not living in London then London rent or transport is needed and how are you meant to fund that. Hence why I'm probably not receiving jobs due to being too poor to work for free yet 'under experienced' to get the job, ugh. Anyway thankfully, for the time being, I still have the motivation to eventually work in the industry, as for now, I want to work on building this blog to discuss topics like this as well as trends and brands.
If this was of any help or you have a question to ask, comment below!
Bron
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