The decision to study computing for me was one that was very easy. It had become my passion after studying it at GCSE, and despite having a bad experience of Computer Science at AS-level where I dropped the course, I knew it was what I wanted to study for my degree. However, picking which university to study at was a decision that was much harder for me.

I was stuck between three universities, including Leeds Beckett. What played the biggest role for me in making my decision was Open Days and Applicant Days. At these, I began to be able to picture myself more at Leeds Beckett than anywhere else. This was because the lecturers hosting the days made me feel as though I was already a part of the university. Another key part of why I chose Leeds Beckett for computing was because I was assured that not having computer science as an A level would not affect my application. This was something that I had been worrying about a lot.

 The next worry for me was getting the required UCAS points to get into Leeds Beckett as my first choice. In the end, I was lucky and got an unconditional offer. A little tip for anyone applying to university is to check UCAS regularly even after you have your offers back, as an unconditional may not show straight away. After accepting my offer and knowing I was going to Leeds Beckett, I still went to another Applicant Day. This made my total of open days and applicant day visits spread across my three options to 7, because if you don’t go, you’ll never know.

My course is located at the Headingley Campus which was a slight relief for myself as the only part of Leeds that I knew was Headingley. This is thanks to visits to the Headingley Cricket Ground to watch Yorkshire County Cricket. The campus is spread out over a large space but all the buildings are located within the same area, rather than in city campus where buildings are more spread out. The facilities are really good - most computer labs have two sets of computers. One set is for working on for the majority of lessons, and the other ones have restricted network access to allow the learning of operating systems and how to install them.

The lecture theatres are very big and once you learn where they are, they’re very easy to get to. They all have comfy seats and have space to write notes which is very useful. At the moment we’re having new facilities built for our course. They’re not yet fully functional, I think 2019/2020 students will get to test it all out properly. It’s all based upon a new software known as Avaya which is very interesting and looked fun from the test my class got to do with it.

One of my favourite modules was the group project. We had to create an entire website and database to go along with it (don’t worry, it’s in the second year) which I found so fun to do. I was lucky enough to work with a few close friends I had made throughout my time at university which made it all a lot more enjoyable. Making friends here was easier than I had expected. I was terrified of having no friends, but the very first day, everyone got put into groups and that was when I made friends. Everyone in my class is so nice. One of the most important projects I’ve completed was back in my first year, which was database designing. I went in the lessons expecting to hate it because I wanted to be a python or java programmer, yet I came out of the lessons knowing I want to work with databases. Two years later, in my final year, I still am following that desire.

The tutors are amazingly helpful and very easy to talk to. If you ever feel as though you are struggling either academically or personally, talking to them is a huge help. There’s lots of support in place to help with any negative situations you might experience - you will get a tutor for each module, along with a personal tutor who will remain the same each year. They will try to help no matter what you’re struggling with.

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