Abigael's story

"Obviously everything hasn’t been perfect, but everything has been amazing."

So I went through Clearing because I didn’t get the grades that I wanted to study law here. I’d applied to do law at Essex and so I decided to go through Clearing for history instead because I really enjoyed it at school.

The process was actually very easy. I called up Essex, actually I called a lot of unis, and then I called up Essex and they said they’d email me back and I thought, ‘ok, they’re probably not gonna get back to me’, and then they emailed me back in like an hour saying that I got through and then after that I just had to accept it on UCAS. Other unis gave 24 hours to make a decision, so the fact that Essex gave me more time made it easier for me to make a decision. I had another uni too, but I decided to come to Essex and I’m so happy I did! I’m so happy I do history, like I just love it so much!

When I found out I was in, the first thing I did was look for accommodation, because I hadn’t looked for it yet, and then I told my friend who was coming here as well, so that was pretty cool!

When I got to Essex I think the first thing I did was order takeaway although I didn’t really have the money to, but I was really happy so you’ve got to do something!

Once I was at Essex it was actually very easy to make friends. I think because I lived in South Courts on campus and you kind of bump in to people and I’m very outgoing. So I would walk out of my accommodation and be like ‘hi, what’s your name?!’ Freshers’ Fair was really good because you can check out different societies and you get to know everyone. Societies are really good for making friends.

I’m part of Enactus as the head of fundraising, so I’ve made friends with people that I would never have met if I didn’t join the society. It wasn’t hard at all.

I’m really happy I’m here. I feel like God placed me at Essex. Obviously everything hasn’t been perfect, but everything has been amazing. I wouldn’t choose to go to any other uni. It’s so cliché but literally like I just love Essex! People are always like ‘why do you love it so much’ and I don’t really know, I just feel like Essex is a student-friendly university and everybody is really, really nice. I love the campus too.

Looking back at my own experience, I’d tell anyone going through Clearing now not to worry too much. I wasn’t really too worried, I really believed ‘ok I’m gonna get in to uni’; I prayed that I would get into uni, so I wasn’t too worried.

I think that it’s important to be calm, because if you’re too stressed you might call unis and you might forget to say something. So I would say calm down, write a list of universities, that’s what I did, and then call them and just be calm.

If you’ve called a lot of unis in one day, then take a break and call them again another day. I think it’s just about being calm and not being too stressed, because a lot of people get really stressed.

I called the university when I was on the bus! I don’t know why but I was really calm that day, thank God! Even when I went to get my results, I went to McDonalds first! So don’t be reckless like me, but calm down.

I have so many life mottos. Sometimes you’ve just gotta fake it ‘til you make it. Then I would say, I will kill it before it kills me; you know when coursework is just getting too much and I’m just like no, no, no, if any of us are going to die then the coursework is going to die, I’m gonna make it through. That’s my thing. I’m always fighting things, like the other day I slept past my alarm because I said ‘no, no, no I’m going to win, BYE’, and then I woke up late so the clock kind of won. I need to get better at it!