{"id":10697,"date":"2022-07-27T10:56:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T09:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/student-voices\/?p=10697"},"modified":"2022-12-22T09:47:36","modified_gmt":"2022-12-22T09:47:36","slug":"from-a-small-town-to-a-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/student-voices\/2022\/07\/27\/from-a-small-town-to-a-university\/","title":{"rendered":"From a small town to a university &#8211; fulfilling my dreams!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hi, my name is Sophie, and I&#8217;m a third year <a href=\"https:\/\/www.york.ac.uk\/law\/\">Law<\/a> student in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.york.ac.uk\/colleges\/goodricke\/\">Goodricke college<\/a>. Thinking back, it now seems like such a long time since I applied to university, especially since I applied twice! But we\u2019ll get to that later. We\u2019ll start at the beginning\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">University was always on the cards for me. I have always had high expectations for myself and I knew I wanted big things in life, and for most of us, it was said that university helped you get there. However, I am from a small town in Nottinghamshire, commonly referred to as the gateway to the dukeries, a passing place for people who were on their way to other places. In my home town, we always thought that people from there could never amount to much, least of all university.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The first application<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In my last year of sixth form, my school tried their best to provide us with as much information as possible about universities, however, the underlying lesson in all of it was that we shouldn\u2019t \u201caim too high\u201d otherwise we would be disappointed. We were taught that universities were sort of like a lottery draw, sometimes you would be lucky and most times not, this was based simply from where we came from and what our backgrounds were \u2013 but we were not taught about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.york.ac.uk\/study\/undergraduate\/applying\/entry\/contextual-offers\/\">contextual offers<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is shameful to say that I put little effort into choosing universities and writing my application. I went through the entire UCAS process un-enthused, fearing that I would be rejected due to the fact that I did not come from a traditional background. But underneath everything I was still the determined girl who wanted to study law, I&#8217;d just been beaten down.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When it came to results day, I surpassed my own and my teachers\u2019 expectations, I actually did well! I went through Adjustment and received an offer to study French abroad &#8211; but it wasn\u2019t Law \u2013 it wasn\u2019t my dream.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Middle \u2013 Otherwise Known as the Gap Year<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I was all set to go to university, but two weeks prior I made the wise decision to take a gap year and reapply to university, this time doing the research for myself and putting all my best efforts in. Also, I decided that on top of working through my gap year, I would go back to school and do the Business Studies A-Level in my spare time. You can definitely say I was trying everything possible to make up for my mistakes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During my research, I came across the term <strong>\u2018contextual offer\u2019.<\/strong> I had never heard this mentioned before, but I quickly came to realise that this meant a reduced offer. A contextual offer took into account many things: background, circumstances etc\u2026 It didn&#8217;t mean an easier route or cheating the system, <strong>to me it made applying to university a more even playing ground<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">I chose York for many reasons&#8230;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-large is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/student-voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/07\/Sophie-halls.jpeg?resize=373%2C496\" alt=\"Outside of my first year room in Goodricke.\" class=\"wp-image-10700\" width=\"373\" height=\"496\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/student-voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/07\/Sophie-halls.jpeg?w=720&amp;ssl=1 720w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/student-voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/07\/Sophie-halls.jpeg?resize=225%2C300&amp;ssl=1 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 373px) 100vw, 373px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Outside of my first year room in Goodricke.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It had always held a close place in my heart, and I had always heard such good things about the Law department, especially how they taught their students. When I went for my interview, I was informed that I was able to receive a contextual offer, since I had already sat my exams and my personal circumstances. The weight that was on my shoulders seemingly fell away. My dream of going to university was back on, as soon as that offer came through UCAS I accepted straight away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>I see my offer as an achievement, recognition of all the work I put in for three years<\/strong>. I do not see it as a cheat, I earned my place at York. York gave me the contextual offer because they saw potential in me to succeed. <strong>They recognised my aspiration for bigger and better things and knew they could get me there<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The End (or Now)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finally, after 3 years of studying A-Levels, 2 UCAS applications, and 1 interview, I arrived at York to start my Law degree.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Honestly, a Hollywood writer could make up my story, and most of it sounds really cheesy when I look back. I definitely did not have the most conventional journey to York, but I wouldn\u2019t change my story for anything. It\u2019s made me who I am. I have taken everything I learnt about determination and perseverance and put it into my degree.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/student-voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/07\/Sophie-river.jpeg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"887\" height=\"885\" data-id=\"10701\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/student-voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/07\/Sophie-river.jpeg?resize=887%2C885&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10701\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/student-voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/07\/Sophie-river.jpeg?w=887&amp;ssl=1 887w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/student-voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/07\/Sophie-river.jpeg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/student-voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/07\/Sophie-river.jpeg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/student-voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/07\/Sophie-river.jpeg?resize=768%2C766&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/student-voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/07\/Sophie-river.jpeg?resize=600%2C600&amp;ssl=1 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 887px) 100vw, 887px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">On one of my many walks around York.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/student-voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/07\/Sophie-food.jpeg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"720\" height=\"960\" data-id=\"10699\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/student-voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/07\/Sophie-food.jpeg?resize=720%2C960&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10699\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/student-voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/07\/Sophie-food.jpeg?w=720&amp;ssl=1 720w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/student-voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/07\/Sophie-food.jpeg?resize=225%2C300&amp;ssl=1 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A beautiful pear and chocolate pancake from Double Dutch Pancake House, accompanied with an americano (my favourite place in York!)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/student-voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/07\/Sophie-night-out.jpeg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"232\" height=\"300\" data-id=\"10698\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/student-voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/07\/Sophie-night-out-232x300.jpeg?resize=232%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10698\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/student-voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/07\/Sophie-night-out.jpeg?resize=232%2C300&amp;ssl=1 232w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/student-voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/07\/Sophie-night-out.jpeg?w=498&amp;ssl=1 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 232px) 100vw, 232px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Me dancing in front of York Minster.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, I get to spend my days studying a subject that constantly shifts and changes, all the while I get to live in a city soaked in history and culture. I enjoy going to all the independent caf\u00e9s on my list and tasting all the different coffees (I recommend Spring Espresso for an especially strong coffee). I love walking the city centre when it\u2019s Christmas with all the stalls and beautiful lights. But my favourite thing to do is to walk through the campus before my classes. I see the lake, the wildlife and nature, it sets up my day perfectly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every day at university is a reminder of how hard I worked to get where I am. Whilst the contextual offer reduced my offer, it definitely did not deflect from my efforts and experiences. York chose me and I chose them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi, my name is Sophie, and I&#8217;m a third year Law student in Goodricke college. Thinking back, it now seems like such a long time since I applied to university, especially since I applied twice! But we\u2019ll get to that later. We\u2019ll start at the beginning\u2026\u00a0 University was always on the cards for me. I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[979,52,1031],"tags":[1043,709,290,326,118],"class_list":["post-10697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-choosing-a-university","category-york-law-school","category-ug","tag-contextual-offer","tag-gap-year","tag-law","tag-ucas","tag-why-i-chose-york"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>From a small town to a University - York Student Voices<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sophie tells the story of how she came from a small town to apply to study Law at the University of York, and talks about her 3 years here.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/student-voices\/2022\/07\/27\/from-a-small-town-to-a-university\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From a small town to a University - York Student Voices\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sophie tells the story of how she came from a small town to apply to study Law at the University of York, and talks about her 3 years here.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/student-voices\/2022\/07\/27\/from-a-small-town-to-a-university\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Student Voices\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/universityofyork\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-27T09:56:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-22T09:47:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/student-voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/07\/Sophie-halls.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Helen Richardson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Uniofyork\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Uniofyork\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Helen Richardson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.york.ac.uk\\\/student-voices\\\/2022\\\/07\\\/27\\\/from-a-small-town-to-a-university\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.york.ac.uk\\\/student-voices\\\/2022\\\/07\\\/27\\\/from-a-small-town-to-a-university\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Helen Richardson\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.york.ac.uk\\\/student-voices\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/19d2c8301bbe57e37e1cd1f6e07eb994\"},\"headline\":\"From a small town to a university &#8211; 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