#warwick uni

Warwick Writing Programme and Mahābhāratam Diaries

i have officially completed my first year of the Warwick Writing Programme! 🥰! it has been absolutely delightful. 🤍 my gratitude to my professors for guiding me on working on my first collection of bhakti poetry, in researching devotional literature & in translating from sanskrit, as well as from my mother-tongue. 🤍 it was so much fun to venture into freelance writing & to work with my colleagues on different projects -  a highlight of this year has been a collaborative audio-translation of my beloved Draupadī's imposing speech from the Mahābhārata created with Sumithreyi Sivapalan! it is always a joy to work on anything Mbh-related, but it truly is an honour to collaborate with someone equally enamoured with itihāsa! 🙏

indeed, what i adore about academia is the opportunity to meet and connect with people with similar (or identic!) research interests! it truly is so enriching to discuss your research with someone as equally passionate about it as as you, and these discussions unmistakably propel each of you towards greater growth and understanding. in my case, it has been one of the greatest gifts to meet someone as madly infatuated with the Mahābhārata as me!

it wasn’t until meeting my colleague Sumithreyi that i realised how much i had longed to dissect the Mbh with a fellow lover of this magnificent epic, and i can wholeheartedly say that the insights we shared together refined my understanding of the intricacies of its narrative – a narrative so grand that it undoubtedly humbles anyone who dares to venture in it. thank you, dear sakhī! here’s to continuously learning and to emptying our cup of the arrogance of knowing.

pics: all smiles after 7 hours of editing work for the Warwick Anthology 2022!

you can read a sneak peek of our collaborative audio-translation of our beloved Draupadī’s imposing speech from the Mahābhārata here:

Hello budding artists and historians!

We’re the University of Warwick’s Ancient Art Society, and we’d like to welcome you to our Tumblr!

Here you can find posts we like about historical arts and info on the society, posts from the exec and other fun things like that! Let me introduce our head exec members for this year:

Basmah, our President, a very organised and sweet being who keeps everyone in check and remembers, like... so many things no one else does about setting up the society. Most likely exec member to sell a book and become a millionaire.

Willow, our Treasurer, a crazy good artist who is fantastic at graphic design and eats so many gluten free brownies we aren’t sure why she hasn’t turned into one.

Rhianna (me!), our Social Secretary, who likes D&D, might overdose on tea some time soon and is constantly stress-eating bread. 

We all wish you a lovely rest of the month and hope you aren’t feeling too nervous for the new academic year, whether you’re a fresher or a PhD student. Stay tuned for more from us, updates for our society, classics and history news and other bits and pieces. 

Hi All!

So, to begin my university series I have decided to start with my University Application experience through UCAS, and how my AS Levels went and reveal what university I will be going to. So in 2016, I completed my AS exams in Psychology, English Literature, Business Studies, Philosophy and Ethics and General Studies (GS was forced on us by our school – yawn). And much to my disappointment I did not do brilliantly at AS, I received BBBDD, with the D’s being in GS and English Literature. This was a huge disappointment for me as I was potentially considering applying for Oxbridge had I got good grades given recommendation from a progression tutor at my school. However, while this had not been my main goal it was a disappointment to find I had not done great in one of my favourite subjects. Now, this was my own fault to some extent, while my school did not provide us with the right resources or even the right criteria to pass the exams, I should have taken it upon myself to find out what was on the specification and mark scheme.

However, my not so brilliant grades became my saviour as I am the type of person where when something becomes difficult I immediately push myself to achieve and prove that I am better than what originally happened. And so, because I preferred English Literature to Philosophy, I dropped Philosophy. After all, what’s life without a challenge. And so when it came to UCAS predictions instead of AAA I got predicted AAB, since my English grade was 2 raw marks below a C. Now, those were the grades I sent off to UCAS with my application as discussed with my Head of Year. He had full faith in me, and only allowed my high predictions due to the earliness of my application, since I handed my personal statement draft to him a week after term had started since I finished it in the summer. I was so proud of my personal statement and I am so happy with how it turned out, and I think it really did help doing it over the summer to help me get my offers. Since everyone usually submits their applications in November/December, the universities have more time to really study your application, and they have more spaces to offer. Think of it logically, if I had sent my application off in November, the universities may have only glanced over my application and I would have been in competition with multiple people, and those people potentially having more experience or better grades than myself.

So, I had my reference being written, my head of year had checked over my application, and I had to think clearly and cleverly about which universities I wanted to apply to. So since I couldn’t apply to Oxbridge I decided to stay close to home, and living in the Midlands is the best place to be for that. And so, my five choices were the University of Warwick, the University of Birmingham, the University of Worcester, the University of Coventry and Aston University, and I applied to study their individual versions of Management.

The first university I heard back from was the University of Birmingham, around two weeks after I’d applied, and at that time I thought this would be my firm as the grades were AAB, and a Russell Group uni! Next, I received Worcester’s offer of 112 points (equivalent to BBC), which I always knew would be my insurance. Then I received Aston, with an AAB, or a ABB if I firmed. And then, I received Warwick’s offer of AAA maybe a month after I had originally sent off my UCAS. And finally Coventry sent me an offer last of ABB. So I received offers from all 5 of my choices. And I genuinely believe that that was mostly because of how early I got my application in!

Now one amazing thing that happened was the day before my applicant day at Warwick I had received an email telling me to check my UCAS as I was applicable for a reduced contextual offer. This offer basically meant that because I went to a school that was a lower performer I was able to get a lower offer, and it is the reason why so many of my friends and people I went to school with got unconditional offers (honestly, I think half of my year got unconditionals and at least two people had all five offers unconditional). This is an amazing system that has been added and I’m so grateful because I got an offer of AAB from Warwick. So I went to the applicant day and I absolutely loved it, I loved the facilities, the campus, the lecturers, the course, everything I fell for. And so I firmed it. (I did visit UoB but it wasn’t for me if I’m honest).

And so I got cracking, I really knuckled down and I achieved A*ABD, (the D was in GS, which no one cares about anyway). And so, I have a place at Warwick University. The 8th best university in the UK, and the 5th best business school in the UK. And honestly I could not be happier.

So I’m ready to start the next chapter of my journey. And I’m going to blog about as much of it as possible – mainly to share this experience with others, especially those hoping to attend Warwick as I’ve been obsessed with university bloggers and vloggers since I was accepted.

Whoosh,

Did you know Warwick Uni is reforming its constitution to harm academic freedom?