University

 University 

Before this course I through I had worked out what my next steps where, I was going to grow my confidence alongside doing this course for the next two years and learn to drive (finally) then I was going to try being a free-lance makeup artist myself, hopefully by the time I would have gotten to this point I would have figured out how to do this. I never had any thoughts on going to university, I didn’t think it would be something that I would be able to do.  

Leeds 2021

First, we had a lady called Helen from Leeds university come and give us a talk about their courses and all the different options they have for us. She talked about all the opportunities you get to have while you are there, showed us a PowerPoint on what the campus looks like and the studios and sets you get to work on. When she mentioned that the course is only 2 days a week and the fact that Leeds is only an hour down the road from me, that is when I first started thinking that I would have loved to have gone to university (still thinking I wouldn’t be able to achieve this). After going home and speaking to my family about the university and my partner asking me ‘why I am not thinking of going?’ and ‘what's stopping me?’ since its obvious when talking to me that it's something I would love to do, I finally started to open up to the idea that I could think about going, that there is nothing actually stopping me going. 

SPEACIAL EFFECTS CREATION WE GOT TO TRY OUT

 

Manchester 2021

We got to go on a visit to UCEN at Manchester and find out all about what their courses entail and everything they have to offer, including finding out all about their new campus that is getting built as we speak. We also got to meet more of their tutors and find out more about them and how they became to be where they are today. They showed us a special effect demonstration (one of the things we would be doing on the course. Afterwards we got a chance to get creative ourselves and do a creative lip or eye look with products provided by them, then got to have our work photographed in the studio. I really enjoyed this part then getting to see how your work looks on camera. All this made me want to give the university experience a chance even more so. 

CREATIVE LIP DONE AT UCEN 

 

The big differences for me between Leeds and Manchester university would be that I would have to move if I were to go to Manchester as this would be a 2-and-a-half-hour commute as appose to only an hour to Leeds. Manchester is also 3 days a week whereas Leeds was only 2 days. 

After both universities, I have definitely changed my mind on the thought of going to university and I think my next steps well be me heading to Leeds once I have finished this course (still need to learn to drive though) can't wait to see the Leeds campus myself. 

LEEDS 2022 

We got the opportunity to go and visit University Centre Leeds on November 10th 2022, which was great for me and this is the University I am most leaning towards. Last year we had a tutor from Leeds come to us in college to tell us all about the courses they offer but I'm so glad we actually get to go see the university for ourselves! I've never even been to Leeds city so it was amazing to see everything that is just opposite the University! everything is right in the heart of the city, literally about a 10 minute walk to the train station if we needed to get the train down to Uni (fingers crossed I'l be driving by then 🙏). When we arrived we were met by Helen the tutor who had came to speak to us last year, she showed us around the building where our courses would be held, I like the act its similar to our college the was we have an APTA department they had a creative arts department that has its own building to itself including its own library inside which includes all the books associated with all creative arts subjects! I love the fact its got its own building I would have found it a lot more daunting if the university had been all together it would have been massive! She spoke about all the courses they have to offer and the different pathways which we can choose, she told us more about the studios that we get to work with such as prime studios which is a short walk from the university itself. We got to meet some of the other tutors one that teaches hair styling and wigs and another than teaches special effects, we also got to meet a few students currently studying at the university that have previously been students at our college. 

we got giving a demonstration on how to apply silicone bondo moulds and then we got to try these out ourselves, these are really straight forward to use and so much quicker than creating wounds fresh with wax or silicone etc. These are also great if your working on TV/Film as you can create multiple of these moulds ahead of time and use these to help with continuity instead of having to try recreate the same wounds over and over again! 

I was giving the Bullet wound bondo mould to try creating. at first I couldn't tell what the mould was that I was using with it being use a translucent piece it wasn't until I started colouring the piece that it started to come together! I really appreciated them allowing us to try out something practical. 

It was good we got to speak to the students as well as we could as them questions about how they found the courses and since they have all moved to Leeds into the student accommodation people had questions about the cost and if the dorms are ok and of course the night life around Leeds also was a bonus. Since the tutors talk a lot about getting to collaborate this other people and businesses my main question for them was asking what opportunities they have had come from them being at University here. Sometimes what a University has to offer doesn't always pay out that's why I find it important to here from students as well as tutors. 

Overall I think for me the visit to Leeds has definitely confirmed that I do want to carry on my studies after I have completed my current course and I am 100% sure I will be applying to join University centre Leeds, just still deciding on which pathway I will choose still as I love every aspect of makeup and wouldn't want to narrow it down to just one avenue but the thing that stood out to me the most was when the tutor said if you specialise in Film & TV for example you would be love likely to get the job over someone who has a degree in the general course! this is something I really need to think about! 

Applying for University 

For help with applying to university we got to speak to a lady called Carol who specialises in helping students to apply for University. She spoke about all the different options we would have and discussed how to write a personal statement and all the things that would need including in this. to start with she suggested that if would be a good idea to create a Me Mood-board so that it would help us. 

Me Mood-Board 

The next time we done UCAS work we discussed as a group our mood-boards and made a mind map for each other on what they said about us.

Once we had this wrote down we went away and started our first paragraph for our personal statements based around the points wrote. 

Over the next couple of weeks we created more mind maps as a group to help us with completing our first draft of our personal statement. 

Each mind map created was to make a paragraph and at the end we would focus on cutting it down as we were only allowed 500 characters for the statement. 

Once the first draft was completed our tutor helped us to rearrange and cut out what wasn't necessary. 

 

 

Once my personal statement was completed now all i needed to do was apply to university. Since I was now 100% sure I would only be applying to University centre Leeds, I wouldn't need to go  though UCAS to apply Leeds were going to send a link over for myself and one of the other students to be able to apply straight to them themselves.