I didn’t have any idea about uni in year 10, but given that I hated going to school, I couldn’t imagine that I would enjoy doing even more years of study than I had to! I left school after year 11 to go to TAFE, and then worked in many different jobs (I even worked in a morgue!). After about 10 years, I decided that I wanted to get into better jobs than I had been in. It was really hard to do this, and I thought that a uni degree in something broad (such as arts) might help me to access interesting, well-paid jobs. I didn’t have any money, and I thought that this meant that I’d never go to uni. A friend told me that I could probably get ‘Austudy’: Government assistance that would pay me to study. As soon as I knew this, I started calling unis to see if they would take me.
Most of the unis didn’t want to know about me, because I had not done VCE and had old TAFE qualifications. I thought that perhaps the country unis might be more likely to take me because they had less demand for places. It was too late in the year to apply through VTAC, but I was desperate to get in, so I wrote ‘essay style’ letters of application to the country campuses of reputable unis that offered interesting Arts degrees. I was delighted that Monash University in Gippsland wanted me!
The week after Monash accepted me, I was living in Gippsland and attending Orientation Week. I had no idea what was going on, had not written an essay in over 12 years, and couldn’t work a computer. I took advantage of all the extra classes that taught students about essay writing and exams, and made sure that the ‘Language and Learning’ staff looked over each of my essays before I handed them in. I studied hard and was rewarded with some good marks. At the end of the year, I decided that I would try to study law, so applied for a transfer to study arts and law at the University of Melbourne, where I am now in my second last year.
Deciding to go to uni was absolutely the best decision I have ever made. I never thought that the things I could study would be so interesting, that I would meet a wonderful group of friends, or that I would receive so many opportunities for exciting work and travel. Before I came to uni, I never dreamed I could do the work I’m doing now; uni has given me the confidence and skills to do so.
Uni is completely different to school. You are free to study whatever you like, you are treated as an adult, there are no uniforms, detentions, bells, boring teachers or compulsory classes. If I’d known this, I would have come to uni much earlier. If you are not sure that you want to keep studying, check out all the different topics you can study at uni and spend some time on uni campuses. You might find that having a taste of uni life gives you that extra direction and motivation to keep studying until you finish school and become a uni student yourself.