Care experienced and in my 30s: My UCAS journey

Deciding to apply to university was a monumental decision for me.

I was returning to education in my thirties as a difficult childhood, which had resulted in me going into care, meant I left school with no qualifications. Once my children were a little older, I started to think about what kind of career I wanted. I had a positive experience of being in care and as such, I had always dreamed of becoming a social worker.

I re-sat my GCSEs in evening classes, then enrolled on an Access Course at college.

Only one month into the course we were told we had to begin filling out the UCAS application. It all seemed straight forward enough until I reached a box which asked if I had ever been in care.

Up until now, I hadn’t been particularly open about my care experience. There is a lot of negative stigma around being in care and sadly a lot of bleak statistics which reinforce the harmful stereotypes. I wondered what ticking the box meant and how would this information be used? Would I be judged? Is it a big red flag for studying social work? Thankfully UCAS provided information which advised how this data is treated.

I soon learned that ticking the box actually opened the door for a lot of support. Universities are increasingly providing more and more support for care experienced students, as they are recognising our path to further education is not always linear.

Support offered can include access to financial assistance, accommodation and pastoral care. Additionally, it can allow universities to give you a ‘contextual offer’. This means taking more than just your grades into consideration, be it life or work experience. The information is kept confidential and only shared with the few people that need to know at whichever university you apply to. Your tutors certainly won’t be told!

My next UCAS hurdle was writing the personal statement.

I felt I had to be open about my past, as this is what influenced me to apply for a social work degree. You only get 4000 characters, which sounded a lot at first, but it quickly gets used up. I decided to write a draft and include everything I felt was relevant.

Next, I looked for anything in my life and work history which showed the same skills, enabling me to cut a few examples down. Once I had a concise list, I then worked out how each of these experiences or personal values linked to social work practice. It is important that you demonstrate why whatever you have been through makes you desirable for the degree you’re applying for.

Finally, get a tutor or friend to proof read it for you; it is important that there are no spelling or grammatical errors. There is a fee (circa £25) depending on whether you apply to a single or multiple universities, so be prepared when you reach the stage of submission

You can apply for up to five universities through UCAS. I would highly recommend that you visit the universities you think you might like before you apply. This helped me, as the open days provided me with a lot of useful information which assisted me in making my choices and rank them in order of favourites.

The University of Hull was actually the one I was least interested in before I visited. I am an hour's drive away and have other universities closer to me. I decided to still go to ‘rule it out’, but fell in love with it the moment I stepped foot on campus. The open day was incredibly well organised and everyone was so welcoming.

Clear information had been sent to me prior to attending, which detailed when each subject was giving a talk. The campus was clearly signposted and I managed to find my way to the right room. The talk was delivered by one of the faculty who was so passionate, I knew that Hull was going to be the correct choice for me.

I strongly believe that often you get intuitive feelings when something just seems right and I certainly felt that with Hull. The member of staff was happy to answer everyone’s questions, really taking the time to chat to everyone. This was in stark contrast to another university where I had to chase the tutor to ask a question, as he had wanted to get away so quickly!

As social work is a professional degree, this meant that I had to attend an interview day for each of the universities that liked my UCAS application.

On the interview day at Hull, I was a bag of nerves as I wanted so much to come study here.

It was a gruelling day which consisted of a written exam, group task and interview with a panel. We were put through our paces and quite rightly so for such an important profession. Thankfully, we were told that we would be called later that evening with a decision.

The whole journey home I was anticipating missing the call as I was driving. That evening I got the call and was offered a place. I felt I couldn’t verbally accept the offer, as I still wanted to attend the other interviews I had been offered, although I knew deep down that Hull was the one.

After each subsequent interview I had, I was offered a place but none of them excited me as much as Hull. I had felt welcomed, empowered and safe on campus, so it was a natural next step to accept University of Hull as my first choice when the official offer came through on UCAS.

Accepting the offer on UCAS was a simple task; it was an incredible feeling to see my offer change from conditional to unconditional when my Access Course results were uploaded.