‘After uni, I’m a different person’

Last updated 09:24, Tuesday, 30 September 2008

Rebecca Heyworth, 22, left Nelson Thomlinson School with four A-levels and went on to graduate from Cambridge with a first class degree with distinction, getting the highest marks in her year.

Whole new world: Rebecca in China on a university trip

She recently started work as a graduate consultant for Financial Dynamics, a communications consultancy based in Chancery Lane, London. Here she describes how university has changed her life.

"Applying to universities can be a frightening experience, after all, the decisions you make now influence the rest of your lives.

Our common room was full of fellow students peering through prospectus after prospectus.

Being quite lazy I went straight to the Times website and looked up their university rankings for history.

Cambridge was in the top spot.

That (combined with online research and scanning my local papers) was how I decided where to apply.

Cambridge is made up of around 20-30 different colleges. Choosing between them is not easy but they all have websites.

They are a great way of seeing what student life is really like behind the photographs in the glossy prospectus.

But there is no substitute for going and seeing the place in person.

As soon as I clapped my eyes on King’s I knew it was the college for me.

King’s is a college steeped in history having the architecture of a big college and the atmosphere of a smaller one.

The UCAS application forms were pretty straightforward although my personal statement was a challenge – it is the one chance to impress.

I used it as an opportunity to show that I possessed not just the desire to learn, but a real passion for my subject.

Having heard the Oxbridge interview horror stories (none of which are true) I was a little nervous before mine.

For one, I was seated in my Director of Studies’ room discussing a painting that I had seen earlier in the Fitzwilliam museum down the road. In the other, I sparked a debate between my two interviewers about whether Rupert Brooke came to King’s or not.

My interviewer remarked how impressed he was that I knew something he didn’t.

Academically, Cambridge challenges you, but Cambridge also supports you.

One-on-one supervisions offer the opportunity to grow at your own pace.

Success did not come by staying in the library every night. The phrase “work hard, play hard” had real meaning.

Going to Cambridge took me right out of my safety zone and I have not looked back since. It gave me so many opportunities.

I have been skiing twice, spent a month travelling around India sponsored by King’s, and I have just returned from Shanghai on a teaching programme set up by fellow students.

I’m a different person from the one who first walked through the Porter’s Lodge four years ago. After university, it was a natural step for me to stay in the south. I want a taste of big city life whilst not just being a cog in the machine.

I’ll always remember what my DoS said as I left his room for the last time – “the world is your oyster”.

I think this is worth bearing in mind when applying to universities. The process may be daunting, but university opens more doors than it closes.

The world is your oyster, but it’s up to you to go out and catch it."