My university options...

Since I'm in technically the beginning of year 13 now, even though I haven't been at school for about 5 months, and the last year before I leave school, the options for further education have been rammed into our faces for many months preceding this. Since I go to a grammar school, most of the pupils I would say want to go onto university,(obviously I can't prove this, I don't know everyone) and this is the case for myself as well. Before I began the process of the application (which is a nightmare in itself) I set the check list that I was going to base my options on.

The universities had to:

- be reasonably close to my home town (Plymouth) or the south west in general, or at least simple to get to in case I fall ill etc while I'm away

- do the course I want to study (ancient and modern history) and do it well (obviously)

- be a campus, so I don't have to traipse into a city centre to get anything, especially if I'm unwell

- have good health services around the city, and if possible a specific student medical centre on the campus

Despite these relevant and reasonable points, it was noted that I would have to apply to cities for the best case scenario as well as the worst. So there is somewhere with higher grades if my illness and pain gets sorted and I can manage almost like normal when I get back to school, and also with lower grades in case I fall ill before I leave or don't recover as well as is hoped.

Once I'd got into the mindset that I didn't have to limit my options, I had a visit from one of my friends. She wants to apply for something similar to me, so she brought me some information about places that do history with the added unusual bits that we wanted, and in that pile was Nottingham. A few of my friends have been there to open days, and were very impressed by the beauty of the city and the helpfulness of the staff and students, and I got the same impression on their website. It sounds ridiculous to be able to get the feel of a place from their website and the prospectus, but the website has all the information you'd ever want and more. They had virtual tours of all the accommodation, and details about all the transport around the campus and to the city centre, which is a few miles away but with frequent buses.

And in the ancient and modern history course, there's a module called "swearing and cursing in ancient Greece." Who doesn't want to study that?!

Also on my list is Bath Spa university. Bath university does all the sciences etc, so Bath Spa is all of the humanities and arts, but it doesn't do a course including ancient history, which seems odd seeing as the whole city is surrounded by it... But the city is great, and is home to the Royal National Hospital of Rheumatic Diseases, and the National Youth Pain Services, so I think I'd certainly be well taken care of there. Also you can get a direct train from Plymouth which takes about 2 and a half hours, the same as driving.

That benefit also transfers to one of my other choices, Reading. The course is ancient and modern history but seems mainly focussed on the ancient side, and there's a direct train from Plymouth.

The way the UCAS applications work is mainly over the internet. There are a lot of questions to answer, about your family and your choices (you can pick up to 5) and then a question on illnesses and disabilities. Ah. It had options for "physical impairment or mobility issues", and one for "long standing medical condition or illness", but none for one of each, so I've had to select "You have two or more impairments and/or disabling medical conditions". And then it asks you to explain them. There the problem arises. I doubt they will appreciate me writing "God only knows" or "your guess is as good as mine" so I've decided to leave this box blank until Lupus and some form or rheumatic arthritis are either confirmed or denied.

Once you fill out this form, you have to add in a personal statement, which is basically 40 lines of selling yourself, saying what skills you have and how they will help you in the course, and why they need you at their university instead of anyone elses.

Later on, based on all this and your teacher comments and predicted grades (lord knows what mine'll be like, last time I checked they were B's and C's, but then again that wasn't influenced by these last exam results, that were remarkably good considering I've been so ill, so hopefully my predicted grades will go up. Anyway, once the universities have gone through all that, they'll decide whether they want to offer me a place (either conditional, based on my results or unconditional, regardless of results). The problem I face then, is once they've decided whether they want me, you have to choose 2, one as your firm choice, and one as your insurance choice, if you don't get the results you needed for your first choice.

Assuming I get an offer from all the places I apply to, I will probably choose Nottingham as my first choice (asking for ABB) and Bath Spa as my insurance choice (asking for BCC). If I get the grades for Nottingham, it will be amazing, seeing as I was ill all the way through my GCSEs with my back problems, and have been severely ill through my A levels, but my annoyance with this system is, if I manage to get those brilliant grades, what if I fall ill before I got the results and decided that I'd be much better off in Bath? As far as I've found out, I'm not sure there's any way to get around this, as it seems that you're almost contractually obliged to take the place... I'm sure I'll figure it out somehow.