Enrollment day
I finally decided to enroll!
I first sent an email to the University at the beginning of May to do a pre-registration, so that the University could look at my profile and decide to offer me a place at their school.
The University responded to me after a couple of weeks saying they wanted me and I had just to go to see them in September to do the formal registration and make the payment.
At that point I still wasn't sure how much the course was, how many days a week it was, and what time of the days the course was (on the website they just give you a brief description of the course and say that the course is a part-time evening one). Of course I needed to know this information before enrolling as I had to ask my employer to give me permission off work and let me catch up with my working hours during the other working days.
To be honest I emailed the University a few times asking for all these info, but they were very vague and never gave me a proper answer.
The enrollment day finally came in! It was an unusual sunny and hot Saturday of September - very unusual considering we didn't have a proper Summer in England last year as I rained nearly ever day!! I drove from my village in the South East of England to Ealing in West London, taking with me my pre-acceptance letter, passport and Debit Card (the course price was still unknown to me at that point).
The student car park was free that day - they usually charge you £5 for all day if you arrive there before 3.30pm, and £3 all day if you arrive after 3.30pm.
I parked the car, went into the building and told the guy in reception that I was there to enroll to the NVQ2 Pastry course and needed some directions.
To be fair all the staff at the University have been very nice and helpful since the very first day.
They directed me to the 'Tourism and Hospitality' department to complete the registration. The lady that received me asked me to sit down, show her my passport, fill in a small form with my details, and decide which day of the week I wanted to attend the course. I finally founded out at that point what days the course was on!
The course was only once a week from 5.30pm to 8.30pm on Tuesdays or Thursdays. When I heard the course started so early - considering I do normal 9am to 5pm office hours a work - I thought it would have been impossible for me to get to Ealing in time from my work place. But I did love that course so much that I didn't even think twice; I didn't care about work at that moment or even told my boss that I was considering enrolling to a part-time Uni course in London, but despite that, I put my name down for the Thursdays night list (I though Thursday would have been a much better day than Tuesday, as Thursday is nearly the end of the week, and even if I came back home on a Thursday night really tired after the pastry course, I would have had just the Friday to go through and still not the entire week). That was a very wise choice of mine :)
At that point the lady told me my very first lesson would have started on 11th October - yeah, I finally had a date!
Once this part of the enrollment was completed, I was asked to go to another room where they would have keyed my details into the system and given me my student number. It took approximately 5 minutes to get this sorted.
Once this stage was completed, they told me to use one of the computers available in the next room and complete the online registration with my new student account, so that I could get access to the University students' portal.
This was done in 10 minutes.
It was time to make payments now. The Finance room was next to the computers' room. At that point I was told the course was £900, and if I paid the full amount immediately, they would have given me a discount by letting me pay just £860. I paid in full that day. I must admit the girl in Finance was surprised when I said I could pay in full, as that was the first time she saw a student not paying by installments.
The payment went through their system and they gave me the receipt as proof of payment.
For the very last stage of my enrollment, I was asked to go to the Help desk by the reception area to get my picture taken and my student card. The guy at the Help desk told me that the student card is like your pass par tout: basically this gives you access to the University building; unlimited access to the University library where you can borrow as many books as you want to; up to 20% student discounts at high street shops, such as New Look, Mac Donald's, Vue Cinemas, etc. That was cool!
The enrollment was now completed and I was an University student again at 29 years old! :)
I first sent an email to the University at the beginning of May to do a pre-registration, so that the University could look at my profile and decide to offer me a place at their school.
The University responded to me after a couple of weeks saying they wanted me and I had just to go to see them in September to do the formal registration and make the payment.
At that point I still wasn't sure how much the course was, how many days a week it was, and what time of the days the course was (on the website they just give you a brief description of the course and say that the course is a part-time evening one). Of course I needed to know this information before enrolling as I had to ask my employer to give me permission off work and let me catch up with my working hours during the other working days.
To be honest I emailed the University a few times asking for all these info, but they were very vague and never gave me a proper answer.
The enrollment day finally came in! It was an unusual sunny and hot Saturday of September - very unusual considering we didn't have a proper Summer in England last year as I rained nearly ever day!! I drove from my village in the South East of England to Ealing in West London, taking with me my pre-acceptance letter, passport and Debit Card (the course price was still unknown to me at that point).
The student car park was free that day - they usually charge you £5 for all day if you arrive there before 3.30pm, and £3 all day if you arrive after 3.30pm.
I parked the car, went into the building and told the guy in reception that I was there to enroll to the NVQ2 Pastry course and needed some directions.
To be fair all the staff at the University have been very nice and helpful since the very first day.
They directed me to the 'Tourism and Hospitality' department to complete the registration. The lady that received me asked me to sit down, show her my passport, fill in a small form with my details, and decide which day of the week I wanted to attend the course. I finally founded out at that point what days the course was on!
The course was only once a week from 5.30pm to 8.30pm on Tuesdays or Thursdays. When I heard the course started so early - considering I do normal 9am to 5pm office hours a work - I thought it would have been impossible for me to get to Ealing in time from my work place. But I did love that course so much that I didn't even think twice; I didn't care about work at that moment or even told my boss that I was considering enrolling to a part-time Uni course in London, but despite that, I put my name down for the Thursdays night list (I though Thursday would have been a much better day than Tuesday, as Thursday is nearly the end of the week, and even if I came back home on a Thursday night really tired after the pastry course, I would have had just the Friday to go through and still not the entire week). That was a very wise choice of mine :)
At that point the lady told me my very first lesson would have started on 11th October - yeah, I finally had a date!
Once this part of the enrollment was completed, I was asked to go to another room where they would have keyed my details into the system and given me my student number. It took approximately 5 minutes to get this sorted.
Once this stage was completed, they told me to use one of the computers available in the next room and complete the online registration with my new student account, so that I could get access to the University students' portal.
This was done in 10 minutes.
It was time to make payments now. The Finance room was next to the computers' room. At that point I was told the course was £900, and if I paid the full amount immediately, they would have given me a discount by letting me pay just £860. I paid in full that day. I must admit the girl in Finance was surprised when I said I could pay in full, as that was the first time she saw a student not paying by installments.
The payment went through their system and they gave me the receipt as proof of payment.
For the very last stage of my enrollment, I was asked to go to the Help desk by the reception area to get my picture taken and my student card. The guy at the Help desk told me that the student card is like your pass par tout: basically this gives you access to the University building; unlimited access to the University library where you can borrow as many books as you want to; up to 20% student discounts at high street shops, such as New Look, Mac Donald's, Vue Cinemas, etc. That was cool!
The enrollment was now completed and I was an University student again at 29 years old! :)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi! This is really helpful. I applied for this course last week and got my acceptance letter today! I'm really interested in your experience. And excited to be a student again myself (at 28)!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations Becky! :) I'm sure you will enjoy this course.
ReplyDeleteI'll carry on writing the blog and tell more about my experience throughout the year.
Take care
Claudia :)