I have accepted UCL’s offer, and will be starting a Master’s degree at the UCL Bartlett School of Planning this September! I am beyond excited about this, it really feels like my education has come round full circle by accepted this course.
I have had a passion for the built environment for a long while, and my goals and ideas around entering this field of work has gone through many phases. Honestly, I would never put this on a personal statement or CV, but it began with being obsessed with making houses on the Sims 2. My mum really encouraged it and thought I was going to become an architect when I grew up.
This encouragement nearly steered me that way, but I really hated maths and physics and in the UK they really are essential to studying architecture. Despite this I signed up for Maths and Physics, as two of my A Levels. After a summer of sleepless nights and dread about maths A level, I asked the school to change me to Geography, Design and Technology, English Literature and History. I’m much more confident in essays, but I thought this had destroyed my chances of entering a built environment career.
I applied to art schools and universities at the same time during my A Levels, despite having never done Fine Art GCSE or A Level. I was rejected from Kingston and Central Saint Martins during a lecture on the Wyfe of Bath with my friend Frances. I cried and she took me to Selfridges after for some retail therapy. Still one of my fondest memories. I hope she reads that. I was accepted though, to Ravensbourne University. I was also accepted to the University of Bristol to study BSc Geography, I asked to defer in order to do the Art Foundation.
It was during my art foundation I started this studyblr, inspired by my friend Sadika, who no longer posts to her blog. Sadika is super smart, and went on to study architecture at UCL (a school I thought I couldn’t ever get into). I took the 3D design pathway and did some atrocious designs, but I was awarded a Distinction, and my sketchbooks were kept as exemplary material.
The next year I began at the University of Bristol, where I had the time of my life. I swear, i met the best people, went to amazing parties, read some very difficult books and drank a lot of coffee. Those years are the majority of this blog’s content. But geography (I took the ‘human’ route) taught me invaluable reasoning skills and nuances that I think many people who go into built environment sectors don’t get. You need to reconsider your world view every day. With every lecture, what I thought I knew was challenged. It has its issues (most lecturers at Bristol were white older men, some women, still white) and these need seriously to be addressed. But I think geography is more valuable and meaningful to our world than the ‘doss’ subject its cracked up to be. While studying I kept thinking about urban design, and planning, and started to apply to a masters but couldn’t do it on top of everything else.
When I graduated, I didn’t enjoy the day. I think something about having an eating disorder is hard to explain. Its not about the food. It’s about living up to your own expectations. A 2:1 wasn’t good enough for me. It ruined it and I hate that I couldn’t be proud of myself. But I did everything you’ve just read, if you’ve got this far, while actively trying to starve myself every day, with a short stint of therapy in uni.
Sat about the house for a few months, chanced upon an ad for a temp job in property marketing, got made permanent, that’s all okay. But while doing that I found a couple of jobs in urban planning and sort of found... hey... I like this plan. And applied. And got rejected. I found out that if I didn’t have an RTPI accredited degree I couldn’t do it, so started researching and applied to UCL, Westminster and London South Bank, and got into all three. Which is pretty wild!
So yeah, that’s me. I’m really open to answering any questions people might have about my education and personal background, mental health and anything really. I’ve also made an instagram titled @planned.by.emily and there’s nothing there yet but if you’ve got to the end of this long post maybe you’ll like what I’m posting there! Thanks for reading xxxxx Emily
