A journey to Cambridge...

Leaving the 'Berra

2011-08-24T11:18:00.000+10:00

This week has seen a dramatic change in my attitude towards leaving. Up until this point, I've been so busy organising university places, and visa applications, and flights, and leave and luggage and all the multitude of other things that I thought I would never get together. I've passed the time daydreaming about what my trip will be like, and cursing how slow the time is passing and the monotonous waiting for things to happen. But this week, I've started noticing the things that I will be leaving. This week has been full of things that I've done 'for the last time' (must remember that I'm not dying, and will return to Canberra/Australia in just over a year), and people I'm going to miss.

Over the past couple of weeks I've farewelled friends in Sydney, and at the coast, and at a very fun night out in Canberra, and at a work dinner, and at a work afternoon tea, and at a lunch with colleagues, and at a dinner at a friend's place, and over coffee, and at trivia at the local pub, and at drinks at Parliament House. And at each of these events it hasn't been until the hug at the end that I realise, 'Oh, I'm going!', and that it will be a while until I do any of these things again. It's equal parts exciting and daunting.

The thing that really enforced that I'm actually moving away from Canberra and not just going on a brief holiday was my garage sale. The last time I moved houses (in January) I gave my sister some of the more sentimental stuff that I wanted to keep, but knew I wouldn't really use. So this weekend just gone, I was free to sell the majority of my possessions.

I decided to get rid of everything - I can buy new stuff when I get back. I just didn't want to be tied to this stuff anymore. And this way, when I return to Australia, it will be a whole new beginning where I can make decisions about the stuff I want in my life. Plus, there are plenty of fully furnished apartments around Canberra, if this is where I return. My sister took my cat, Miles, and my scooter, Betty, and I sold everything else. I sold the bed, I sold the TV, I sold the BBQ, I sold the kitchen stuff, I sold the CDs, I sold the DVDs, I sold the Tupperware (by far the hardest of all my collections to see carried off my tight-arse bargain hunters), I gave away the clothes, I sold it all. Highlights of the garage sale were the first purchase of the day which was a pair of handcuffs to an old guy at 7.15am (I was still supremely hungover and weirded out), and another guy who rummaged through a box of junk I'd just randomly thrown things into and who was determined to give me money for a used file for scraping skin off your foot and an assortment of nail polishes. I was determined not to have too much junk left at the end, so people were just loading up armfuls of stuff and taking it.

My very kind sister, to whom I will be forever thankful and indebted, drove up from Albury and took anything that was left from the garage sale to charity/the tip. I was also very impressed with our girl power after loading up the trailer with my scooter and checking out youtube for some knots to tie it down. From all accounts, Miles is also enjoying his new home in Albury and has managed to avoid the resident Labrador.

So, after the garage sale (and a massive night out on the town), Brook drove off into the sunset with the last of my possessions, and I was left at home alone on the couch with nothing to do and no TV. And I cried. I was somewhat overwhelmed, peering into my bedroom and knowing that everything I now owned amounted to this:

A bunch of clothes, some pillows, a suitcase, a backpack, a laptop and an iPad. I wanted a nap, and I didn't have the energy to set up the air mattress. So (and I'm not proud of this bit), I consumed some of my other possessions (half a case of beer) and passed out on the very uncomfortable couch.

But, I have to say, it is completely liberating not having 'stuff' (aside from the lack of sleep I'm getting on the air mattress due to it's slow leak which leaves me lumpy and restless at about 4am every morning). Even though I can carry everything I own, I'm still pretty lucky to have as much as I do. Especially when I add to that the many fantastic friends that have farewelled me so kindly and put up with my talk of Cambridge over the past year or so.

It's been such a long time coming, I'm actually surprised it's happening! But, when I look back at how fast the past year has sped by, I know that the next year will be gone in an instant. So, for now, I will try and remember this feeling of being overwhelmed/excited/scared/anxious/energetic/liberated and make the most of the adventure that will be the next 12 months. Thanks Canberra for being my home for the past seven-and-a-half years. We've had lots of laughs, many hangovers, and even more valuable life lessons. I'll miss you, but you haven't seen the last of me...

30 sleeps and counting...

2011-08-05T15:48:00.000+10:00

In exactly 30 sleeps I will be checking-in to my flight in Melbourne and getting ready to fly to London. Eek! Feels like my life is one big countdown at the moment. Here is a current checklist.

In 1 sleep, I will be catching a bus to Sydney to get loose and farewell my Sydney friends
In 4 sleeps, I will be farewelling two of my closest friends as they go off on a journey to Brussels (after which I will be counting down the sleeps till I can catch up with them in Europe)
In 7 sleeps, I will be catching my last taste of salty ocean air and celebrating with friends at a house on the South Coast
In 14 sleeps, I will be having a farewell lunch at work
In 14 sleeps, I will be having a family dinner with a work colleague to celebrate my scholarship
In 15 sleeps, I will be selling everything I own at a garage sale and taking the rest to the tip
In 15 sleeps, I will be getting loose in Canberra and catching up with a lot of people for the last time in a while
In 16 sleeps, I will be packing up the rest of my stuff, my cat, and probably my scooter and moving it to Albury
In 20 sleeps, I will be struggling through my last day of work and leaving Canberra
In 21 sleeps, I will be waking up in Albury and officially have no permanent address
In 22 sleeps, I will be celebrating my Mum's 60th birthday
In 29 sleeps, I will be celebrating my niece's 12th birthday and living it up in Melbourne with my mother and sister
In 30 sleeps, I will be crying lots and saying goodbye to my family and hanging out at the airport lots. Eight hours after this I will arrive in Kuala Lumpur where I will hang out for 2.5 hours before boarding my plane to London. 13 hours after that I will arrive in London where it will be 4.15pm of the same day my plane left Melbourne.
In 31 sleeps, I will wake up in London at the Generator Hostel
In 33 sleeps, I will be seeing Darren Hanlon at the 100 Club in London
In 35 sleeps, I will be wandering the banks of the Thames and enjoying the free Lord Mayor of London's Thames Festival
In 36 sleeps, I will be waking up early to check out the Portobello Road markets (because I was raised on the movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks)
In 38 sleeps, I will be seeing The Jezabels at XOYO London
In 39 sleeps, I will be seeing Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
INSERT LOTS OF OTHER THINGS IN HERE THAT I HAVEN'T PLANNED YET
In 43 sleeps, I will be catching a train to Cambridge and moving into my room on Lower Park St as part of Jesus College.
In 51 sleeps, I will be embarking on the Jesus College Graduate Freshers' Fortnight.
In 56 sleeps, I will be attending the Wish You Were Here festival in Cambridge.
In 56 sleeps, I will be donning my robes and signing the Matriculation Roll at the University of Cambridge.
In 59 sleeps, I will be attending my first day of term at the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge.
And then in lots of sleeps after that, I'll be flying to Brussels for Christmas, stopping in Paris, and then heading to Edinburgh to attend Hogmanay for NYE, the world's biggest street party.

I can't wait!!!!!

Wakefield Scholar, at your service...

2011-07-19T19:17:00.001+10:00

So, five minutes ago I discovered that:

the Managers of the Wakefield Fund have awarded you a scholarship of 8,000 GBP for the 2011-12 academic year.

Which means that I'm getting just over $12000 to study at the Cambridge Institute of Criminology!!

Aside from the huge difference this will make to my finances when I'm over there (i.e., I won't be living below the poverty line), this also means that I'm a legitimate student. Since securing the personal loan, I've been worried that I was just forcing my way into Cambridge and that it wasn't really meant to be. 'Buying' a place at the university didn't sit well with me. But now that I've got a scholarship, especially one offered through the Institute I'm studying at, I'm a real, bona fide, earnt my place, student! No matter the value of the scholarship, just the fact that somebody else at Cambridge thinks I should be studying there (so much so that they're willing to sponsor me to do so) makes me feel so much better about the experience. And 8000 GBP will go a looooooooooong way for this seasoned student.

Thank you Priscilla Wakefield and your forebears:

Wakefield Scholarships are awardable each year to persons intending to pursue a course of advanced study or research at the Institute. Scholarships are awarded from the benefaction of Mrs Priscilla Mitchell (née Wakefield) in memory of her brother, Captain Edward Roger Wakefield, and also in recognition of the historic work of her forebears, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, Daniel Bell Wakefield, William Hayward Wakefield, and Arthur Wakefield in the development of New Zealand, South Australia, and Canada in the nineteenth century.

Also, did all my biometrics for my visa today, so now have to send my passport via Sydney to Manilla. A little worried about sending my passport in the mail, especially since they don't accept registered post, but I'm sure it will be fine. It will have to be!

But no time for boring visa thoughts - shall do a happy dance in my office instead...

Jesus College - soon to be my new home

2011-07-07T15:30:00.001+10:00

For anyone who wants to know where I'll be living and studying at for the next year, I just found a youtube tour of Jesus College, which will be my new home in just under two months.

The video isn't all that interesting, but if you skip through it, you can see some of the key buildings and chapel, which are all quite beautiful. Very excited to be wandering the large grounds of this place soon...

In debt up to my eye-balls

2011-06-10T16:05:00.000+10:00

Alright, it's official, I've become one of those annoying international students that pay exhorbitant amounts of money in order to study in a foreign country. Yup, that's right, I didn't get a scholarship, but I've decided to go to Cambridge anyway. Don't judge me.

Actually, I feel like this was a group decision. Using the wonders of modern social technology, I asked my facebook friends what they would do "if you got into Cambridge and didn't receive a scholarship". An overwhelming majority of 18 people (out of 24) voted for "take a personal loan for $45,000 and be in debt for the next four years". The next closest option was "travel for a year with the money you've saved" with three votes (and I had expected this option to be the winner!). I chose to ignore the friend of a friend who voted for "kill yourself".

So I've done it. I've gone to the bank, sat down with them and told them to give me $45,000 because I 'would totally pay them back and stuff'. Actually, I did a fair bit of shopping around, primarily through the website http://www.personalloans.com.au/ I know this sounds like a dodgy website, but it's for real. It has very handy calculators and comparison features that allow you to compare your fees and fine print while also seeing the differenec in monthly repayments and interest paid over the life of the loan. It also updates daily with new promotional rates so I was on it a lot. But in the end, I went with a fixed interest rate loan with Commonwealth Bank over five years at 14.4 per cent. There were a few places like GEMoney, RACV and MECU that offered cheaper rates, but I was basically told that because I have no assets they wouldn't fund a loan, and I was lucky Commonwealth was offering me anything at all, let alone a rate as good as 14.4 per cent. I guess all that banking I've done in my Dollarmite account since I was five has really paid off.

And now the paperwork is signed. This little scholar officially has $45000 in her bank account, and owes the CBA $63,610. And what will I have at the end of it? A piece of paper and a year's worth of experiences. They better be worth it!! (That's a hint to the universe to send me a hunk of a Cambridge man who will pay off all my debts, and maybe take me on a little European adventure as well).

Actually paying for my studies doesn't sit that well with me. I've always been a big believer in earning your way, and letting circumstances decide my fate. I'm hoping that by persuing this down the road of personal debt I'm not ignoring all the signs of the 'universe' (or a word that doesn't make me sound like a hippy nut) which is screaming "Don't do this, it's a massive mistake!" Rather, I'm choosing to interpret it as identifying the things I want in life and doing whatever it takes to get them - which can be an admirable quality in some people.

Anyway, in order to take my mind off all the debt that is weighing down my savings account as of today, I went and made my first official Cambridge purchase. I just bought the below 1970s bike with basket and lock for 80GBP so that I have something to cruise around campus on. I'm gonna be the coolest kid in town.

I think I'm going to call her Odette...

A friend and colleague has a friend that went to Cambridge this year, and gave me her email address so I could get a little advice on my new adventure. So Fiona, as well as being completely patient at answering my questions and silly fears, offered to sell me the stuff that she won't be bringing back to Oz. Her friend Odette had done the same for her when she moved over there and it had made all the difference just having a few necessities upon arrival. So that is why my new bike will be named Odette. In addition to this gem, I'm now a proud owner of an iron, a full length mirror, a makeup mirror, a clothes drying rack, a hair dryer, a kettle, a quilt set and some kitchen odds and ends. These things will all be waiting for me at the Jesus College porters lodge when I arrive in Cambridge on 15 September 2011. Eek! I'm so excited and relieved that it's all coming together... even if I will be paying for it for a long time...

Decisions, decisions, decisions...

2011-05-10T16:19:00.002+10:00

After receiving offers to study in the UK, and realising that my ambition was actually achievable, I first had to choose where I was going to go, and figure out how the hell I was going to afford it. I read the fine print of the offers and discovered that even if I accepted an offer, I wasn't liable to pay it until I actually enrolled in the course (I hope this is the corrrect interpretation, otherwise I'm in a lot of trouble). So I continued my acceptance at Edinburgh, while also accepting Cambridge and Oxford. The latter two universities also require graduates to be a member of one of their colleges. I got offered a place in Jesus College at Cambridge, and Wolfson College at Oxford.

The offer to study through Wolfson College at Oxford basically made my decision for me regarding that institution as the college had no significant scholarships which applied to me, and I was very doubtful about my chances for the Oxford Australia scholarship I applied for with my Oxford application (a doubt that was later confirmed). I applied for a few scholarships which were not institution-specific (eg, the Chevening Scholarship offered by the Birtish Council), but decided that if I got one of those I would use it to go to Cambridge. I was much more enamoured with the M.Phil offered by Cambridge, and the opportunity to study through their Institute of Criminology. The MSc I got into at Oxford required an additional year of study to turn it into an MPhil, and only then did it roll into a PhD. I also preferred the course structure offered by the MPhil in Criminological Research at Cambridge.

In 2011, the Times Higher Education supplement, which I had first used to help me decide where to apply, published its ranking of the the top 50 universities by reputation. On this list, Cambridge came in third, Oxford came in sixth, and Edinburgh came in at 45th (putting it equal with University of Melbourne, the only Australian institution to make the top 50). So, I refused my offer at Oxford, and focussed my attention on Cambridge.

A condition of my offer at Cambridge was proof that I could fund my college, university and living fees. In total, my financial liability comes to a total of approximately AUD41,000:

That's a lot of money! Particularly when you consider that Cambridge does not allow its Masters students to have jobs.

At this stage, I was also considering my options for Edinburgh. I had been told numerous times what a great city Edinburgh was to live in, and I was excited by the prospect of living and working in a city home to the Edinburgh Festival, the Fringe Festival, the Tattoo and countless other cultural events. In contrast to Cambridge, I would also have the opportunity to pick up some casual work in Edinburgh and hoped I could get some work experience at the Scottish Parliament, Holyrood. This was all dependent on a fantastic scholarship offered by the Scots Australia Council in conjunction with the Royal Bank of Scotland which covered airfares, university fees and a monthly stipend. However, despite feeling like I aced the interview, they chose another candidate with better life goals. Unfortunately, while I know I'm going to do bigger and better things once I finish studying, I don't really know what they are yet (and don't want to know either - I want new and exciting opportunities to come my way, not to be stuck on a path set in stone). I mean, I didn't say that to the scholarship people, but there's only so much you can say about a theoretical criminology degree changing the world...

So, while Cambridge was always number one on my list, it seemed that everything else just fell away to make room for it. I'm now waiting on two scholarships offered at Cambridge: the David M. Livingstone (Australia) Scholarship offered to Australian members of Jesus College, and the Wakefield Scholarship offered to Australians studying at the Institute of Criminology. If neither of these two come through, then I'll have to consider whether I should still go. Some days I'm of the mind that I should earn my place at Cambridge through a scholarship, and other days I'm determined to go into debt for the rest of my life just to go over there. I'll be going on 12 months leave without pay while I'm over there, so will be returning to the Public Service and could pay off any debt I accrued. But $40,000 is a lot of money...

Anyway, my number one tip for both uni and scholarship applications is to make sure you have great relationships with a number of lecturers at your university and can get them to write multiple references. Most applications require three academic references, and much to my dismay, most of them need to be confidentially submitted by your lecturer using private log-ins. The majority of the last six months have been filled with co-ordinating references and reminding people to please submit before looming deadlines. The Cambridge application needed three copies of each reference, printed on institution letter-head, sealed in an envelope, with a signature by the referee over the seal, and a piece of clear tape over the signature - and then sent hardcopy to Cambridge. Even then, I had to resubmit one of my references because while she had signed the back of the envelope in pen, her signature in the reference was an image (rather than pen). Sigh.

Any advice on funding is very welcome. If I don't get a scholarship, should I get a personal loan to fund my studies? Or, should I take the money I've already saved and travel the world a bit and take the lack of scholarship as a sign that I shouldn't study?

The applications

2011-05-07T16:38:00.001+10:00

In August 2010 I completed a gruelling Honours thesis and vowed never to study again. By September, I was desperately seeking out Masters courses throughout the UK. My reasoning was that I could pursue further study, while also seeing the world. I have been on international holidays before, but I wanted to live somewhere and enjoy everyday life in another country. I figured if I based myself in the UK, with some of the world's best institutions, I could see a fair amount of the rest of Europe while I was there.

My first stop was to check out the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. I then made a list of all institutions in the UK which ranked higher than Australia's top ranking university (University of Melbourne at #36), and investigated whether they had taught Masters in my field of interest. I decided on a taught Masters due to many bad experiences in my Honours year with disorganised faculties and supervisors - I didn't want to get stuck in an institution halfway around the world with a clueless supervisor and a messy research project. I thought a taught Masters would introduce me to a new institution and give me time to find people I would want to study further with, while also giving me time to develop my interests and specialities in my field of criminology a little more without being committed to one research project.

The top institutions in the UK, Cambridge and Oxford, ranked equal sixth on the world ranking with the top five institutions all being in the USA (where I had no desire to study). There are better funding programs and studentship opportunities available in the US, but I just couldn't bring myself to commit to a year in America. Europe was my goal (maybe the PhD can be in the USA...). So I applied away.

Only a few of the universities required an application fee, and once I had put together the appropriate paperwork such as a statement of purpose, copies of my transcipts and degrees, samples of writing within specific word limits, and a comprehensive CV, I could upload them to most of the application websites. I chose to apply directly through the institutions rather than use a third party website or organisation. I also started applying for other institutions which had courses designed by theorists I admired, or had lecturers I'd heard of. The added benefit of the UK institutions was that an Honours degree awarded at second class first division or higher was sufficient to apply, whereas the majority of US institutions required you to sit the GRE. After doing a sample GRE online, I was both scared of having to sit such a massive exam, and daunted at the prospect of organising the test as they're only held a few times per year in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. So I didn't do it.

The first university to get back to me was the University of Edinburgh in Scotland which offered an MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice through its Law School on 24 November 2010. However, the unconditional offer of a place also required me to make a decision before 22 December 2010. At this stage I hadn't even finished all my applications, but Edinburgh was the third highest ranked institution in the UK which offered criminology courses (Imperial College London and University College London both ranked higher, but had no courses in my field). I decided to accept the offer, but continued to apply to a few other institutions just in case.

Apparently, the 'just in case' wasn't necessary, because over the next few months I was subsequently accepted into every institution I applied for:

MA in Criminology at University of Kent (8 December 2010)
M. Phil in Criminological Research at University of Cambridge (11 February 2011)
MA in Criminology and Criminal Justice at King's College London (16 February 2011)
MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice (Research) at University of Oxford (1 March 2011)
MSc in Criminal Justice Policy at London School of Economics (9 March 2011).

But now that it seemed that overseas study was a viable dream, I was faced with the task of choosing where to go, and figuring out how on earth I was going to afford it...

Reasoning

2011-05-04T19:13:00.001+10:00

So, I decided since the last six months (or more) of my life have centred around applying for universities in the UK, and then scholarships to fund positions at those universities, I should probably take the opportunity to share some of those experiences. Also, some people might be interested about what happens while I'm over there so the theory is I can blog about it. Somewhat more selfishly, I have recently been considering my options if I do not secure a scholarship, and friends have suggested that I could fundraise. If such a thing is necessary, then this is where I will be able to post information, and also take suggestions for fundraising events.

Anyway, aside from all this, hopefully this blog will give people some insight into what my desire to study at Cambridge is all about and why I'm so wrapped up in it all the time. Please post many comments and share with people who might be interested.