on studying (part 1)

As you may have read from an early blog post, I left the army in 2014 and decided to pursue an academic career. I have another post to write on my time in the army so I won't go into details now however there was a need for a definite shift from what I did (Tactical Communications) to what I wanted to do. At school I did a GCSE in Geology and loved it, after all who really can not be impressed by how dynamic our own planet is. You can go for a walk in the countryside, the beach, a mountainous and appreciate the beauty of what you see around you but can probably not appreciate how it came to be there. I found this all very fascinating and since completing that GCSE have also held a deep background interest in all of the Earth Sciences.

I should write something on Geology from my perspective before I talk about studying in general. Most people hear the word and say rocks but in fact it is so much more, in fact although the degree is called Geology, a more accurate description used in the academic world now is Earth Science (but I will stick with Geology for traditional purposes). Rocks is in my opinion a small part in what is a very vast subject that includes all the main staples of science - Biology, Chemistry and Physics - but also compliments humanity subjects such as geography and to an extent, history (I once read a book about how myths and legends of various cultures throughout human history have been influenced by the local geology - e.g. the volcano Mt Vesuvius in Greek mythology). Geology brings it all together and finds out why.

So I was set on what theme I wanted to do, now I just needed to find a university that would take me along with my poor A Levels. I have to admit to doing poorly in my A Levels as I was already set on joining the Army but I did not want to be a junior soldier (younger than 18) so needed to do something in the mean time. Looking back I wish I had done better but looking forward, it does not really matter now. I had to apply through UCAS but making the point in my statement about being a mature student (I was 26). Most universities look kindly on mature students as we work harder apparently, also because when I did my A Levels there was no such thing as A* so not possible to achieve anyway.

The universities - Birmingham, Royal Holloway, Leeds, Birkbeck and Brighton.

Brum said no (in less than 24hrs) because of grades. Leeds said yes but to do a foundation year with them first. Brighton said yes with no conditions. Royal Holloway became a sore spot for me. It is a great university set in a stunning campus. I went for an interview and the department basically said that wanted me but because I had been out of formal education for so long they wanted me to do an access course - not a problem I thought, I even got the army to pay for it. 6 months of access course later and a distinction grade overall with the Open University I thought I was in BUT....the admin people at Royal Holloway told the Earth Science department they could not take me because my results were too late (they came about 3 weeks after A Levels results). Bastards! (but much love to the department head who emailed me to say sorry that it could not work out).

So here I am at Birkbeck College, University of London. A uni that most people associate with older folk coming in the evenings to partake in some late life learning. This is true in many cases however what most people do not realise is that actually Birkbeck ranks 6th overall in the country for Earth and Planetary Science (another cheeky plug) and the course is accredited by the Geological Society of London - our sciences professional academic body - which actually knocks quite some years off getting chartership. We have some pretty eminent professors too who actually enjoy teaching and getting a meeting with them does not take 4 months and a piece of your soul.

Life at Birkbeck as a full time student is enjoyable with some decent perks (one such perk being the people) but of course has some major issues in my most humble of opinions.

Those and more for another time I think. Until then....

Assessed Field Techniques 2, Scourie (Scotland), 2016