Edinburgh WES Submitted

So last night I finished and submitted my Edinburgh WES. I hope the stuff I wrote in the additional comments is not irrelevant. It was also my mother's birthday yesterday so yay!



I'm currently sitting in my biology class and typing this. I'm pretty comfortable with biology, english and biotechnology but my physics and chemistry is weak. I really hope I can step up my marks because I really really want to get into Hisar. It would be a dream come true.



How about a little personal background?

So, I go to school and then an institution in the evening thrice a week. The institute helps me train for the entrance exams as well as helps me for my boards. In India, all competitive exams are crazy so special prep is definitely needed.

My best friend in the world is in school and is prepping for engineering.



I have some more close friends both in school and my institute. I'm close with both my parents but I'm more like my father in the way I think and behave. I have a younger brother who is pretty cool as far as younger brothers go. My two dogs are also an integral part of my family and I adore them. They're approaching 12 now and still quite healthy so I'm pretty happy.



The worst thing about my life is the crazy pressure the boards and entrance exams put on me. My worst fear is that I will not get into veterinary medicine anywhere and will have to do something else. My mom will probably never agree to me taking a gap year. People keep saying that college is bad but for somebody who is already used to working hard I don't think it'll be too bad.

Above all, I'm really really impatient to get the next leg of my life started even though I will really miss my school.

Bristol Interview!

So amazing news!!! I just got invited for a Bristol interview! This is amazing news, especially after my disappointing day yesterday. I'm SO EXCITED!!! It's the best feeling EVER.



Okay I should calm down though...

In this post I was supposed to tell you about where all I applied and I'm sure you gathered from the first few lines, the University of Bristol is one of them.

Let's start from my own country though.

India has two main ways you can get into a government veterinary college. I'm not even considering any private colleges because their degree will probably not be recognized. Anyway, one is through the AIPVT or All India Pre-Veterinary Test and the other is through your state's veterinary exam which you are eligible for only if you have a domicile for the state.



Basically I'm going to be applying for both and my top choices based on a lot of research are-
1) Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar
2) Bombay Veterinary College
3) Madras Veterinary College

4) College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Pantnagar

5) Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University
6) Rajasthan University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Bikaner

Then, as a second option I've applied to the United Kingdom but I would prefer to remain in India since it's closer, better for UG and doesn't put as much of a strain on the pocket.

However I've applied to the following Universities in UK-
1) University of Nottingham
2) University of Edinburgh
3) University of Bristol
4) University of Glasgow

and as a 5th choice (UCAS only allows 4 veterinary medicine choices)

5) Imperial College, London (Biology) 

While I would absolutely love to go abroad for undergrad, one year's fee there is more than all the living expenses I'd have to pay for my five years in India.



If I could get a full scholarship to UK I would go in a heartbeat but I'm not disappointed with being in India either.

It's pretty much a win-win situation if I get into any of these colleges by this time next year. I'll be on my way to my dream!

Hopefully more good news to come,

JoAT 

Why today?

Honestly, I had been delaying this first post simply because I couldn't think of any good way to start. Introductions and back stories sound so weird when I doubt anybody will be reading this anyway (except maybe the select few close friends I've told about this blog *waves at friends*). Anyway, for some strange reason I had a gut feeling to start today.



Maybe it's because my day's been pretty disappointing and I want to start something positive to keep my morale up. To tell you about my bad day though, I will have to go into some back story.

So, once upon a time there was a little girl. She loved animals as much as all little girls do, laughing and jumping with the doggies. Both her parents believed in being well rounded. She was signed up for swimming, skating , tennis, dance, instruments and all kinds of activities. Above all though, this little girl loved to read and she loved fantasy, fairytale and fiction. Her mother had started reading alphabet books to her even before she could speak. She begged for pets when she was six and her parents relented, getting two little dalmation puppies. She loved them with all her heart, played with them, walked them, taught them little tricks.



Yet, that was not when being a veterinarian clicked.

As she grew up more, so did her book choices. She went through the usual customary Enid Blyton phase but strangely, got stuck there. She was set in her schedule. She'd tried out practically all the sports and her favorites were swimming and tennis. She swam in the morning, played tennis thrice a week, went for dance class the other two days, played with her dogs in the grass, and read the same Enid Blyton books again and again.



She studied hard and was at the top of her class. She absolutely adored maths. She had been ranked second in her entire school in the subject. She had been made sports captain in fifth grade. She dreamed of being an architect. She would design homes and make beautiful structures and arches and measure it all with her amazing math skills.

Then senior school happened. It wasn't so bad, just a dip in her marks but it did bring about a huge change. She started disliking math. Drawing wasn't intersting, designing wasn't fun. She did finally moved past her Enid Blyton stage and took up other books. She started swimming competitively and her water polo improved.



It was also around this time that she discovered Animal Ark. Sure, it was quite late and she was a bit old for them but they were cute and she had missed the phase because of her obcession.  The moment she picked up the first book, there was no turning back. Mandy reached out, grabbed her hand and dragged her into the world of animals. Animals jumped, they pranced, they slithered, they glided, they were everywhere! Oh but they weren't always safe. James and Mandy helped the animals, they kept them safe. She wanted to do it too. Mandy wanted to be a vet and so did she. She wanted to help animals and she wowed she would never watch an animal suffer and not do something about it.



It was after this that she started noticing the strays around her. So many animals but she was still so young. She made do with sneaking out bits of roti, bread and milk. She started noting her own dogs more, she studied their behavior. If you tried turning off the television in the middle of Meercat Manor or any big cats show, she would turn into a big cat herself snd yowl your head off. This ambition gave her determination. She knew it was a hard career and she knew from all her research on the net that she would have to pick up her marks.



She did manage to get them up and got a perfect score in science in 10th grade. 11th came around and she struggled but preserved. 12th grade came and so did the pressure.

And here the girl is now, not so young any more, volunteering at an animal shelter and interning at a veterinary clinic. She feels the pressure, she knows what she has to do. She knows how hard she has to work. She just needs to keep her motivation.



My bad day? Oh yeah.

So I mentioned I swam and played water polo competitively right? In 12th grade we have captains and vice captians of our team and I found out today that I'm being made vice captian of Waterpolo even though I play better than the girl who's going to be made captian. It's not completely unfair though, she has been to more nationals than me but that's the work of circumstance rather than skill.



Then, right after that, I found out we (my friends and I) lost this research project award we had taken part in. Two months of hard work went into that project and yet we lost. It was quite disappointing.

I suppose there are better notes to start a blog on but I like to be well balanced in my day's emotions and this does help me accept my disappointments quite a bit.

My next post will have details about all the places I've applied to/ will apply to and my order of choices and why.



Hopefully, I'll start typing the next post in a better mood than I started this one on.

Later,
JoAT