Written by Francesca Luca
I came on to the undergraduate course from a slightly different route. Having completed my A-Levels in 2017, I spent a year at another university studying Linguistics. I always knew I wanted to be a Speech and Language Therapist, and the course at BCU was always at the back of my mind. I decided in the summer of 2018 that I didn’t want to go back to the university I was studying at and withdrew from my place on the course. I wanted to have a year out to decide what I wanted to do, and as it was late July, I didn’t know if I would be able to apply through clearing for any courses to start in September. Thankfully, my Mum and Dad talked me out of this, and encouraged me to go to the BCU open day to have a look at the course. I loved the sound of the course and BCU was quite convenient to travel to. I asked about clearing and was told it wasn’t too late and I could still apply!
I began to work on my personal statement and gather all the documents I needed to apply. I found this quite a daunting task as when I applied to University the first time around, my A-Level tutors helped me with all of the paperwork. Fortunately, I didn’t have to apply through UCAS and I went through the BCU website (I’m not sure if this is still an option). As soon as I had everything ready, I sent it off, and waited for a phone call to either invite me to an interview or reject my application. I heard back pretty quickly, and I was invited to interview in the middle of August.
I was extremely nervous for my interview. I did not have to interview for any universities the first-time round, so I had no idea what to expect. The university was extremely quiet, and I struggled to find the room to start with. I was the first person to arrive, so I had a bit of time to chat to one of the lecturers on the course about what to expect during the interview process. This calmed my nerves a lot. I was informed there would be three parts to the interview, starting with two analysis tasks and finishing with a face to face interview.
By the time the interview was due to start, two more applicants had arrived. We were spaced out across the room and began the first two analysis tasks. My memory is a bit foggy about what this entailed, but I remember the tasks taking around 45 minutes each. Following this, the face to face interviews began. I was the last person to be interviewed, and I remember having to wait for about half an hour. I felt apprehensive about this part, as I had no idea what they would ask, or how I would answer. I remember I was asked three questions, and one of them was ‘why do I want to be a Speech and Language Therapist?’. I was torn on how to answer this question, as my reason isn’t because I had a personal experience with it, or an SLT helped a loved one and it inspired me. There were two things that had triggered my interest in Speech and Language Therapy: the film ‘The Kings Speech’ and the episode of ‘Educating Yorkshire’ where the teacher helped a student overcome his stammer when public speaking by placing headphones over his ears. I didn’t think this would be a good enough answer, and I didn’t know what my interviewers would react. We laughed about it, and the interviewers were pleased that Speech and Language Therapy was featured in the media and how this had inspired me to want to be a therapist. After my interview finished, I was told I would hear back within two weeks.
I felt my interview went well and felt optimistic about the possibility of starting the course in September. A couple of days later I received an email from the BCU Course Admin team. I was in the middle of doing my weekly food shop at the time and I dropped my basket down so I could read the email properly. I was offered a place on the course! I was so happy and called my parents straight away, shouting down the phone as they were in the car and couldn’t really hear me (I got a few funny looks from the other shoppers in Morrisons). I was so thrilled I was offered a place and couldn’t believe I had heard back so quickly.
I had to fill in quite a few documents for the university and enrol online. Just two weeks later ‘Welcome Week’ began, and I was officially a Speech and Language Therapy Student.
I had such a positive experience applying through clearing, and the staff at BCU were so helpful.
If you are applying through clearing worry not – everything turns out okay!
If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below and I will try my best to answer them!
You can find out more about Clearing here (2020):
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