As September 11th looms around the corner for me, I realized that I am a member of a largely creative forum which enjoys game design in one aspect or another. I also realized that, despite my own fears, I am in fact about to depart for the city and study Games Development at a Degree/Honours Degree level. With this knowledge, and my past accomplishments, in hand I feel that it is the best time to tell others of how I got here. Please note that this basically covers Scottish residents only but will give an idea as to what is needed to others.

Note: see Protip section for an explanation of photo

School

My early schools days were nothing impressive, hardly worth talking about in my eyes, but never-the-less mentioned here. I started school at a ripe old age of 4/5 and breezed through my first 9 or so years. 7 years of primary and 2 years of High School up my sleeve, it was time to make my first subject choice ever. Come Guidance class time, we were led to the library to look at books, magazines and large directories of information pertaining to our futures and university choices. That’s where I found the Games Development course offered by a university just 2 hours drive away. This was to influence my entire future it would seem. After finding this and deciding it was my desirable career, I chose subjects as related to computing/maths as I could find though they were compulsory at this point anyway. The two required at this stage were Standard Grade Maths and an introductory course in computing. Easily getting through these two and the rest of my subjects it was now time for higher. This was perhaps the most important subject choice stage for entry into university. My subjects of choice, related to the university course, were Maths and Information systems. These were simple enough, though I did not work as hard as I should have. My maths grade was just short of what was required. 59% gave me a C, 60% would have given me the required B. But my Information Systems grade was a successful B giving me my first step towards my goals. Next up was tackling college.

College

With the next stage in life commencing, it was time to experience college. In the UK College is a higher education institute that doesn’t quite match up to University level. With HNC and HND courses available, which are equivalent, respectively, to 1st and 2nd year of a degree, my choice for college was the Computing (Technical Support) course at HNC level, available at a local college just 45 minute bus trip away. This course was relatively simple and when I realized that I really did want to go to University, with no doubts, I put my head down and worked harder than I ever had previously. In the end it paid off, I left college with a full 15 credits and a HNC in Computing (Technical Support) as well as an additional Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician qualification. Now that college was over, it was time to finalize the process of entering university.

Preparation

In order to enter university in the Scotland, and the UK, you have to go through an application process that is the same for all universities. The system is called UCAS (http://www.ucas.ac.uk), and involves students entering course, personal and family details into the online forms and submitting it with a £15 administration fee. After this is done, you wait for replies. You can either receive an unconditional offer, which means you are guaranteed a place, or, like me, a conditional offer which means that you have to meet conditions set by each of your choices. My conditions were to obtain a HNC, with full 15 credits. Once I achieved these conditions the offer was changed to an unconditional offer. After which I was able to apply for accommodation, funding and organise money. For Scottish residents there is a funding agency which pays for course fees and grants bursaries and loans depending on students circumstances. This company is called the Student Awards Agency for Scotland and the website is http://www.student-support-saas.gov.uk. Coming from a poor family, I was awarded full bursary and loan amounts, which brought my total to over £5000 for my first year.

Next up was the accommodation. A simple application form of just 1 A4 page was all that was needed for this. So that was filled out, but then I also had to pay an advanced, 2 month rent, payment of £650 with the initial acceptance of contract. This was done by going to my bank and arranging a student overdraft limit of £1000, which also gave me money for supplies. However, I was again stupid and spent the spare money on a HDTV for my PS3 and so I found myself short on money at the end of my preparations. Having filled out all the forms, applied to all the agencies/companies and ‘sorted’ out my finances, I found it was time to prepare my farewells to family & friends and ready myself to head out to fresher’s week. As I wrote this there was a mere 5 days and 4 hours before I departed and that allowed to me reflect on all I have done to get here. It has been tough but I feel I have worked hard for what I have gained and leave with that knowledge in hand.

Final Words

I shall leave you all with this. If you really want to do this, you are committed to your beliefs and you truly believe this is your future then don’t let anyone stop you, put you down or ruin your chances. Go for it, no matter what.

I shall leave you here and hope you’ll join me next time for my reports on first year and the life that it brings.

Protip

One last thing I should mention, be sure and make better friends than I did. Ones who won’t pretend there is a giant killer polar bear attacking them in a bus station.

External Links

UCAS
SAAS
Game Development at Caledonian

About the author

I am who I am, but I do not know who that is.