Why I chose to study English and Creative Writing at Falmouth
08 May 2024
This article was written by English with Creative Writing BA(Hons) student Deryn.
After I finished college, I was really unsure what I wanted to do. I knew that I’d always loved English, so I decided to look for English Literature courses at universities.
When I had looked through UCAS trying to find a course that felt right for me, there just wasn’t anything that caught my eye. I wasn’t dead set on English Literature and deep down, I knew that it wasn’t really my ‘thing’ anyway. I really just wanted to do Creative Writing - but I wasn’t sure where that would take me. I decided to have a look into Falmouth Uni, not really expecting much to come out of it - but I instantly fell in love with Cornwall and its quaint charm.
I actually didn’t choose Falmouth as my first choice either year (because I applied twice!). I convinced myself that it was too far away from home, I wasn’t sure where Creative Writing would take me, because I didn’t want to be an author, plus I’d never been to Cornwall either; I even told my parents I was going to another uni and I was set on it. Secretly, I kept looking up Falmouth online, watching videos about life down here (it’s so close to the beach - why would you not want to come here?!), messaging people that I knew at Falmouth Uni - I always knew in my heart, I think, that I’d end up here. And it was the best decision.
As I further looked into Falmouth, I discovered that I loved the industry-facing outlook that the uni has. The English and Creative Writing course looked like it would really propel me into a career in this field and there seemed to be a massive push into networking and collaborating with other courses. I’ve always wanted to go into screenwriting, so I loved the idea that I would be studying alongside actors, film students & costume designers and I would be able to work with them too, to create projects that would really help develop my skills - and theirs too. This was something that was really important to me - I’m a very sociable person, I love meeting new people and, working with different, interesting people with differing skills to my own, is something that I really enjoy.
I also loved Falmouth Uni’s approach to assessments. I’ve always found exams to be really stressful and uncomfortable periods of time and also not a true reflection of the world of work, so I was hoping for assessments that would reflect ‘the real world’ a little bit more. Falmouth has exactly that. Challenging, but manageable, reflections of the work you might actually do in the real world, because no, English is not just about writing an essay in the quickest amount of time possible.
I was worried about coming to Falmouth. I live a good 7/ 8 hour drive away and I’d never actually been to Cornwall until the day I moved down here. I was anxious about the distance - being that this was my first time away from home for an extended period of time, but this anxiety quickly melted away once I arrived. Falmouth was such a welcoming town, I was instantly surrounded by like-minded, beautiful and creative individuals - my inspiration was at an all-time high and I was in love with this place. Once I started my lectures, about a week after I moved down here, I could tell that Falmouth Uni was a place where creative people flourish. My lecturers were so helpful in smoothing the transition from college to uni, or for me, gap year to uni and they were so encouraging and kind in this process, something which really helped me and soothed any worries I still had.
Given the opportunity to start over, I definitely would still have come to Falmouth. The experience I’ve had down here, whether that’s within my course, loving the work that I’m producing, feeling really inspired by the people down here, getting to work on projects with other creatives that I never thought I’d be able to, or in my social and general life, meeting the most incredible people, spending time on the various beaches and exploring what Cornwall has to offer - and there’s so much! - experiencing live music whenever I feel like it, going to uni down here has been everything I wanted uni to be - and more than I ever expected, too.
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