When I first applied to do a Masters in journalism, I was living in Indonesia and was gripped with a sudden panic about what I was supposed to do when my year long contract finished.
I cannot stress enough how difficult it was to apply from abroad, not because universities make it so, but because the Indonesian postal system is, to put it nicely, unreliable.
Also, the internet is so slow it’s actually possible to make a cup of tea while you’re waiting for each page to download. It took what felt like several hundred emails back and forth between admissions, my parents, the people providing my references, and various tutors. In retrospect, I think I got off lightly in terms of the interview process.
However, I was faced with the unusual situation of simultaneously liking and disliking whatever situation would occur from my application. I loved Indonesia and I wanted to keep on living there, but I also wanted to do an MA because ultimately, I really wanted to write.
As you have probably guessed, I am now installed back in the UK, demanding twenty four hour central heating and drinking excessive amounts of Yorkshire tea. I’m also a student at Westminster University studying Print & Online Journalism.
Being on a university campus for the first time in over three years was an incredibly odd experience. Once I’d realised that everyone was so dressed up because they were either trying to make a good first impression as freshers or because they were fashion students (a nod to the man in flowery leggings), I relaxed a little bit and promptly took advantage of all the free things they were handing out.
What I think is reassuring about studying an MA is that predominantly, people want to be there and they want to study. Unlike an undergraduate degree, which I know from experience a lot of people will go into because it is what is expected of them, people who choose to study an MA want to learn a more specific skill that will help them secure the job they desire. What I underestimated about my MA is the sheer volume of work I am faced with. As a would-be journalist I should be writing all the time. That means even when I have ploughed through fifty pages of Frances Quinn’s Law For Journalists, there isn’t any time to relax with a glass of wine, because I should be writing for my blog. Friends who have completed their own MAs have commented that they didn’t seem to work as hard as I am. Perhaps this is partly because when I did my undergraduate degree, I generally gave the impression that I didn’t have very much to do. I was notorious for leaving essays until the very last minute, then staying awake till four AM fuelled by coffee and sheer panic. My ex-housemate still tells the story about the time that I asked her to go out for a cup of tea the day before I had a two thousand word essay due, which I hadn’t written a word of. I can’t do that now as I spend four days, 10am to 5pm, at university. But if we put aside the fact that I will stay alive this year purely due to the invention of Red Bull and chocolate, I am really, really enjoying this degree. This is predominantly because the lecturers try to put us into as many real-life situations as they can.
Perhaps the most terrifying of these is the ‘A-Z Assignment’ in which we are given the name of a place and have to research and write a piece about it to a deadline. As a result of this particular assignment, I went to an Arsenal Reserves match, which is definitely something I wouldn’t have experienced before embarking on this degree. I have also annoyed the Mayor’s Press Office, campaigned for London’s only Rape Crisis Centre, tried to sell a story to the editor of the Daily Mail, and had the area of Hampstead follow me on Twitter. And it’s only the start of week four.
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