I know that they have the real sort of raw potential to apply to Cambridge.
It's just, you know, a few tips and tricks here and there
to make their approach even better.
And it was something that was in the back of my head,
will I fit in will I enjoy it or will I just be a bit on my own for a while?
But I think after coming here today and seeing the community
I've realised that I will fit in.
It's given us a personal experience towards what studying at Cambridge is actually like.
Certainly it's added more context for us to help and support Zayn through this process.
I'm not gonna lie, coming in for a few weeks, trying to adjust to that,
trying to adjust to the new academic environment,
that was very difficult at first.
Cambridge acknowledge this and there's always people for you to go to to get like academic support
and even people in the year above you can ask to help you settle into the
into the new transition which is Cambridge.
When I say spend some time choosing your course,
what I'm trying to say is do your homework,
research what is it about the subject that you're interested in?
It was kind of throwing them in the deep end and kind of getting them getting
them used to thinking about academic content in a more thoughtful way,
getting them used to thinking outside of the box,
all skills that are going to help them succeed in the interview.
So I think some people felt a bit nervous at first but we kind of created
a very encouraging and positive environment.
I'm going to go through my personal statement again, completely rewrite it
because it didn't get trashed to pieces but
I know many areas that I can fix that up on.
Yeah!
A History student gave me literally so much help.
He looked over my first draft, he annotated it, he spoke to me about it, he's given me his email
and hopefully I'll be in contact with him and he'll look over my next drafts.
You know Cambridge is a bit of a mystery to me
in my community Cambridge is seen as an area dominated by
a class which is very sort of different to mine
but thankfully the case was having gone there I realised was not actually the case.
Cambridge is actually a very diverse place with a lot of different groups of people
and it's actually a place where you know a lot of, sort of,
your own personal decisions and choices are respected.
It's not like school where like you might
feel like pressure to like go spend money
because all your friends are
like you learn that it's okay to say no to things sometimes.
and you're not made to feel bad about it either.
It's a case of growing up, it's a case of developing your abilities with regard to,
you know, budgeting and managing your money.
It's a learning curve.
I'll admit in first term I did sort of run out of money.
But then, you know, second term, third term, I realised that, you know,
buying that many pastries from Sainsbury's is not a financially sound decision.
You're not going to get through the degree by yourself.
It's actually working with your course mates
mates that gets you through the degree.
And everybody helps each other
everybody goes to sort of like down times
and it's the other ones that pull you up
and then it's your turn to help your friend.
You will get to lectures together, you'll do late nights in the library together,
you'll be happy together, you'll cry together
but ultimately that is the beauty of University
it brings people from all over the world in one place
and I think that's the way the world's going it's a bit of a global village right now.
It was really nice to have both parents and the students here today
because we kind of got a mix of questions.
A lot of them reminded of me of myself when I was applying.
I've been to university myself absolutely,
so I've already given Zayn an understanding and a feeling
around what student life is about but
but like anything, you know, times change.
I think for my parents it's finance and just that worry of being out there,
like whether I'm safe or not but this has really helped.
When you send your daughter or son away
you have a lot of thoughts, a lot of concerns about them
but what I hear now, it gives me more confidence.
Hearing about other people's experiences and seeing their grades
because I know someone personally who has got like straight A*s stars and everything,
so that might have been a barrier but
I would have still tried anyways because if you don't try then you know it's a certain no.
I see it as a huge challenge, like it's a journey.
It's an emotional journey and academic journey
and I just think today has helped me so much.
Hi guys, my name is Rahat and I'm the publicity officer for the ISoc.
This year's conference will be online,
so make sure that you use the link in the description to sign up by the 14th of August.
We hope to see you there!