So this October a rather scary thing happened I went to university, not knowing anyone in my halls and being friends with only one other person at the university who was in my enemy halls and not on the same course as me! Fortunately we are all in the same boat at university so the prospects of university is not as daunting as it seems as after all; most of us are in the same boat.
Now the halls that I'm in have a bit of a reputation of being the "posh" halls of Reading, Wantage Hall was founded in 1908 by Lady Wantage, widow of Baron Wantage who was a VC holder in the Crimea. It is believed to the first of its kind in terms of student accomodation outside of Oxbridge. I went into to Reading thinking that it was going to be a normal university with normal people like me being the norm. Though this is by and large the case in my halls I would probably say there is a 50/50 split between private and state if not slightly favouring private. This is not a bad thing at all, it has been a learning curve for me, and rather intriguing when trying to engage with Agriculture (Agrics) students on the issue of the Badger cull and Fox hunting. But this is more and more becoming the norm at UK Universities with more Oxbridge places going to state students this will become the norm in certain pockets of UK Universities especially in catered halls, which of course greatly appeal to those who have been boarders all of their life as it is exactly what it is like at Shrewsbury and Rugby! At the moment the stats show that 15.6% of Reading's students were privately educated, that is not a large number at all but if you look at certain courses of which Reading is very good at the rate sky rockets to probably way over 50% for Real Estate and people studying Agricultural Business Management.
Why? Courses, why on earth would you study Real Estate unless you had a great interest in it? Most Real Estate students at Reading are children of Real Estate students from the University, the reason they go to private school is because its a high paying degree, ABMers are by and large the children of large farm owners with lots of cash flow who can afford to send their children to privates schools and once they retire their child will take on there mantra as the owner of the farm! For courses like Maths the number of private is much lower as it is a subject that is by and large something everyone wants to do because they have a passion for it from school.
Enough of my ranting about the inequalities of life, something which I have become involved in very recently is Model UN which I can safely say has improved my public speaking leaps and bounds. It is something I would recommend for anyone with a vague interest in global politics; or in my case just likes shouting at people from ridiculous positions such as that of the state of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in a debate concerning water, blaming capitalism for everything from water shortages to global warming! It truly is great fun, but be warned conferences will mildly bankrupt you and be prepared to lose the right to work and have a job as the conferences are on weekends.
To conclude this rather rambling blog I would like to make a point for all teachers/lecturers please develop a catchphrase! The best lecturer of my course has so many that we have made a mild mannered drinking game out of it, pretend playing it with sweets really does help, you listen more often and it makes quite a dull subject that is Calculus Methods which half the room has already partially covered interesting and enthralling, so folks thats all and Merry Christmas!
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