Hi guys, my name is John Villa. I’m an international postgraduate student here at The University of
Nottingham. I’m from the United States and I'm here doing my masters in Art History.
I'm just going to talk to you about my experience here as a postgraduate so far.
Postgraduate study is so important. You kind of need more, there’s only so much you can
do with a Bachelor’s. So I always kind of knew that I was going to need to go a little
bit further.
If you’re in an Arts subject like I am I think it’s kind of essential these days.
This is kind of where you hone in your skills and really focus on either a period of time or
a certain subject that you’re really passionate about, and it’s kind of daunting but pretty
exciting to have the opportunity to do your own research and get really acquainted with
one kind of thing that becomes sort of yours.
I love studying in the Arts. It’s just kind of what I’ve been passionate for for a long time.
It’s a really interesting kind of creative community.
We had a mixer during Welcome Week of postgraduate students in Humanities and everybody
was just kind of like together talking about their own sort of respective subjects
and how they interrelated with one another which was really really cool.
Obviously, me writing a dissertation about paintings isn’t going to save the world
or save anybody’s life. But I do think it’s really important to maintain scholarship in that
field. It’s such an integral part of our culture as humans, and we need to kind of
support it and sustain it, so I love being in this community.
I chose Nottingham because I ultimately decided for myself that it seemed like a good idea,
but I first heard of it through one of my professors back home during my
undergraduate career. She did a research fellowship here for a few months. She recommended it
so highly and said that the faculty in Art History was so great and wonderful to work
with, and that it was a really nice campus, really nice university, and kind of a cool atmosphere.
And I was like ‘Alright, that sounds pretty good!’ One of my good friends from my university
back home just finished her Masters over the past year here doing Biology or something.
There’s a lot of science going on over there. She loved Nottingham, and said it was an amazing
city to be in as a student and that there is, y'know, lots to do without,
kind of, the chaos of a bigger city like London.
I’ve definitely found that to be true, it’s like the perfect size. It’s big enough to
keep you interested and captivated and that’s really important because you kind of need
to stay sane during a Masters course.
Finally, if you do decide to apply, the application process was so, so easy. I did apply to a
few other unis throughout the United Kingdom. Nottingham was by far the easiest, they got back to me
really quickly which was so great. I’ve never had such a fast response from
a university before. There’s nothing worse than pouring yourself into an application
and then sitting around for months at a time.
For me as an international student it was a little different because I had a visa to
sort out and that was a whole other deal. Just applying to the University itself was
really great. I do think that even though they get back to you really quickly, go ahead and
do it as soon as possible, you can never start planning this process too early. I didn’t
wait around or anything but I wish I had started a little bit earlier than I did.
So I’m really enjoying my time as a postgraduate
student here at The University of Nottingham. The facilities are amazing, the faculty is
really great and really helpful. I’m just kind of looking forward to the rest of it
and I hope you’ll feel the same.
Go ahead and get your application in, you will not regret it, this is really great university.
Besides all the rankings and awards and stuff it’s just a really great school, and I think
you’ll really love it.
I hope this was helpful to you! Good luck in applying for grad school, it’s not as
scary as a lot of things make it out to be! I will see you guys later, bye!