ACCEPTED!

My blog has been somewhat stagnating of late, or has been rather negative in tone. Honestly, not much has been happening beyond the usual boring rigours of student life - essays, note-taking, and more essays. In my case, this has included essays, note-taking, and conducting research in the lab all day. Still, this is what I want to do, so I can't complain.

This week, however, I have GOOD news! After months of waiting, heartache, and a rollercoaster of other emotions, I have finally been accepted for an MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London! Getting into UCL has been a dream of mine for a very, very long time. The university is one of the best in the world for neuroscience research, and I wanted to be a part of it. It feels fantastic to say that in six months' time I will be studying there.

I applied for the MSc way back in January, and it had been a long time waiting. Over the last week I was rapidly losing hope, and generally being a pain to live with and listen to (I cannot thank my family and friends enough for putting up with me while I was nothing more than a bundle of stress and anguish!). On Friday, the applications website finally updated from 'Application Complete' to 'Currently being processed by Admissions' - I'll admit that at this point my anxiety reached a whole new level, and I spent most of the day searching through forums to see when other people had received an answer following this status change. Searching through forums brought a mix of hope and terror. I managed to find out that, no, this change didn't mean I'd been accepted, and generally people received an answer at 2am.

I did consider staying up until I had the answer from UCL on Friday night/Saturday morning, although my tiredness got the better of me. Needless to say, I didn't really sleep that well. I woke up at 2:30am, and did wonder whether to check the applications website at that moment and get it over with. Thankfully, I came to my senses and went back to sleep. When I woke up again at 5:30, curiosity got the better of me. I'd already opened the login screen on my phone, so I clicked the relevant buttons and awaited my answer.

You can imagine my relief when I saw that the answer was positive. Far from jumping around the room (it was still early after all), I smiled and let the adrenaline die down a little. At 6am I got up, told my parents, and let the news sink in.

So, I've finally achieved a goal of getting a place. Now, I need to raise my tuition fees. I've managed to save a fair proportion of the tuition, although I still need the rest and enough money to commute to London each day. I'm reluctant to take out a career and development loan, and so I'm hoping to raise the money through scholarships, hard work, and the kindness of others. I've set up a fundraising page, and I am hoping that you lovely people can share it for me (or even donate if you would like!). You'll have my gratitude forever, and if there's some way I can repay you then please let me know. The fundraising page can be seen here, and I'll be posting regular updates on my progress from now on. It seems exciting times are ahead at last!