Looking back to when I first looked around Leeds Beckett, I knew it was the university for me.

I looked into a lot of different universities online, looking specifically into my chosen course, Journalism. I checked out their entry requirements, and also the facilities they had to offer. Leeds Beckett stood out to me particularly because of its brilliant city centre location, its high survey ratings (such as the NSS) and its high employability rates of students after graduating.

When choosing what universities you want to apply for, make sure to do your research if you’re doing a practical based degree like mine, or filmmaking etc. Look into the facilities the university has to offer and make sure you properly check them out at open days. Their equipment and working spaces will be your base for the next three years, so it all needs to work for you. Also, investigate NSS ratings. This is a survey all students complete following graduation, based on their experience at their university and specific course. This is a real example of how your experience at university could be, whether that’s good or bad.

When choosing Leeds Beckett, it was the open day that sold it for me, there was just a special atmosphere on campus. The staff and students didn't seem stressed or annoyed at spending their weekend explaining why they loved this university (as they had at some other universities) - the whole experience really cemented my choice to place it as my first-choice university.

After receiving my conditional offer from the university, it only pushed me further to work hard towards my A-Level exams. I wanted to achieve the grades to be accepted into Beckett. I remember waking up on the morning of exam results day, barely having slept the night before. All I could think was, this was it. Opening my laptop, I was so nervous to see if I had been accepted! I went straight to UCAS to view my application rather than seeing my grades first, and thankfully it said accepted. Not only was I overjoyed but I was relieved to know I was going to my chosen university rather than having to go through clearing.

The time between getting accepted to moving to Leeds in September flew by. It was full of buying essentials such as pots and pans, to arranging my student finance, to trying to find my flatmates on Facebook student pages. These were helpful as you could see from other people’s posts that everyone was just as nervous and felt as unprepared as me. Moving to university is a big step as for a lot of people. It is your first chance to be solely dependent on yourself rather than having family to clean up after you.

Luckily for me, Leeds isn’t too far to come on the train. I came up a few times over the summer, so I could gather my bearings and familiarise myself with my new home for the next three years. I moved in on the Sunday that Freshers Week began. I chose to live in Mill Street, one of the student accommodation options, and there was so many of us moving in which was nice as there was a real buzz around the place but also a bit stressful as it was so busy.

I barely even unpacked before I began introducing myself to my flatmates and going into town to buy last minute bits. Luckily for me I settled in quickly and instantly got on with my other flatmates. It wasn’t long before we were getting ready for our first night out in Leeds. The rest is history and now I'm all settled and a fully fledged student here at Leeds Beckett.

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