Have been grafting my arse off for a year on an Access course...I give up.

[MoreSpamThanGlam]

And have been turned down for my 2nd choice uni. I did not even get an interview for my my first choice of 4th choice. Verdict is still out on 3rd choice, but it's so far away, and I have 3 kids.

I have always had the best best grades in every subject and my attendance is at 99%.

I am so stressed about getting my essays in on time and nobody else really is. It's been a waste of time, so I just sent an email and quit.

I am devastated.

[BoeuffinMum]

MoreSpam, email me at boffinmum at hotmail dot co dot uk with name and contact details, and also details of the Access Course you have taken, and I will make arrangements. Hopefully they will be able to give you a few strategic tips. I am not sure who is on leave over Easter but certainly someone will be on hand for an informal chat later in the month.

I think if you have your heart set on being a mw, then just do it, as Nike say. You just have to come back from this and keep trying. A bit of perseverance will go a long way in getting you where you want to be.

Another Allied Health Profession might be an alternative, or something like that (eg Occupational Therapy), but generally in life people do best when following their hearts.

[MoreSpamThanGlam]

Thought I had this sussed, but have just found out that another person has been offered a place, someone that I helped to write essays for.

I feel utterly humiliated.

As you can imagine, they all have facebook updates going on about how clever they are at getting a place. I just feel like an utter loser. I am definitely not going back after Easter, but thanks for the offer.

[muddleduck]

Hi.
This may not be relevant but i thought I'd mention that ime it can really hard for unis to work out how good access students are because their tutors usually have not known them very long whne the forms go in and so the references are often vague and unhelpful. Is there anyone at the college that you can ask to appeal to the unis on your behalf. They will only do this if they think you are a very strong candidate but it is definitely worth a go.
btw the thing about the forms going in late should not make any difference at all. IME the vast majority of access applications go in in the final week or so for exactly the reason you mention. It is different for alelve students where the teachers have known them for at least an extra year.
Good luck

[Tortington]

can you further study something that would compliment midwifery, knowing now what you know about the application and the system, just play the system better next year?

look, i too went on a thicko course, then went to uni with 3 kids under 5 and a part time job. no, i can't say that i was ever oxbridge material - hell, it wasn't even a russel group uni, but i am so very proud of ME, it was hard work and i earned - what other people can do in their sleep.

so if it doesn't come this year - it will come next. don't give up.

also - when considering universities that are far away, i wonder whether there is any chance of having a look at the syllabus?

i ask becuase i was on a full time course - pout chose my units so that i could cover child care and go to work to suppliment the household income.

i don't knopw about midwifery, but it might be worth making enquiries to see whether it really is a all day every day thing, and whether if you condense some units into say three days - you can get help dropping and picking the kids up from wherever?

anyway - dont lose heart.

[DaisyMooSteiner]

Had you done any relevant work experience to support your application? It is very, very difficult to get a place for midwifery without this.

Don't give up; lots of people find it takes 2 or 3 attempts to get a place and I know of people training who are several years older than you!

Have you found this website? I found it enormously helpful when I was applying.

[scottishmummy]

you have suffered disappointment.understandably you feel angry deflated,scared.

so what next

Get feedback from the uni's.it may have an ouch factor but definitely worth pursuing.get eedback on persoanl statement

have a look at this page midwifery personal statement examples and feedback

you had the gumption and ambition to enrol on an access course.balancing a family and course to study.that takes drive and commitment.you already have those skills,and still have them.just you feel so raw at the moment

ok so unfortunately this time you didn't get in.it is a competitive course

try get work experience or volunteer

don't chuck in everything because of a setback. realistically even on the course you would have setbacks and disappointment eg hard placements/difficult mentors, slogging it out on an essay you thought was good grade only to receive an average etc.healthcare course are demanding emotionally and mentally.you go through rigorous training

so do continue do persevere

good luck

[scottishmummy]

also maybe this guidance about statement

Since SMNET has been running, I have helped hundreds of applicants write personal statements and this 'formula' seems to work! If you have PMd me re reading and commenting on your PS please bare with me as I always have alot to get through! I will get there though I promise! Do give me a shove if your deadline is coming up though!

In short tell them why you would make a good midwife and a good student and back it up with examples and let your passion show!

Why you want to be a midwife

• personal passion
  
• to work with women and families
  
• to be an advocate for women
  
• to care for women
  
• to provide women with informed choice
  
• to educate women
  
• to give them the birth experience they want
  
• to work as an independent practitioner
  
• to work as part of a multidisciplinary team
  
  Relevant skills to bring to midwifery i.e. transferable skills from a past life, personal etc
  
  Here's some examples;
  
  
• Working as an HCA/MCA in care environment (I didn?t have any direct care experience)
  
• Being a birth partner/doula (I was my sisters pregnancy/birth partner and was hooked)
  
• Coming from a large family where pregnancy and birth were normal events, so you are familiar with pregnancy/birth/new babies
  
• Having a baby and wanting to care for other women in pregnancy/labour, because of your experience whether that be a good or bad experience
  
• Skills you may have, maybe you have volunteered for an organisation or worked in a particular role that makes you a good organiser, listener, having experience of working with women and families, or as part of a multidisciplinary team.... even if you haven?t worked for years and have been raising a family - how you organise family life and responsibilities, how you have fed your love of midwifery in that time
  
  If you have NVQ's/qualifications that are relevant then highlight these and explain why they are relevant. Say why these make you a good student.
  
  
• if you have a degree already say how you are educated to degree level, show you can complete degree level work
  
• if not say how your access course has prepared you, or your A Levels, or that you have the 210 UCAS points (or whatever your institution requires) via whatever route it is you have them!
  
• You will need to show evidence that you have studied in the past 3-5 years (usually) even if its totally irrelevant to midwifery put what you have studied and if you got good grades then tell them you are an excellent student and why!
  
• Say how you organised your time between home and study, whatever your age and background say how you achieved a study/life balance and how you enjoyed researching assignments or reading or whatever it is you loved!
  
  Your passion for midwifery - unleash it on paper!
  
  
• books you have read
  
• articles
  
• websites (like this one shows interest and enthusiasm in midwifery plus lots of Uni's now have a link to us from their websites so they must like what we do here )
  
• journals
  
• midwifery magazines i.e The Practising Midwife, British Journal of Midwifery, Midwifery Matters
  
• organisations you are part of/aware of Royal College of Midwives, Nursing and Midwifery Council, Association of Radical Midwives....
  
• talk to a current student midwife via here or in 'real life' - read our interviews with student midwives section demonstrating you have researched life as a student midwife and say how it is for you www.studentmidwife.net/studen....html#post1553
  
• talk to a current practising midwife show you have researched the job by reading around and also by going to the real people that do the job, look under our interviews with a midwife section, show you have researched what it is really like out there in midwifery today www.studentmidwife.net/interv...h-midwives-rm/

[BluebellSun]

Sorry to read you didnt get a place this time, you do have other options tho You can apply via clearing and via ucas extra have a look at this, it explains how
www.studentmidwife.net/wannabe-student-midwives-82/i-want-to-be-midwife-1/applications-i nterviews-and-open-days-3/14219-havent-heard-didnt-get-place.html
Good luck

[LibrasJusticeLeagueofBiscuits]

You have got lots of support and good advice on this thread so I just want to say please please don't give up. You sound just like the sort of person we need to be a midwife.

[sandberry]

You would be mad not to go back. Midwifery has a high drop out rate. I trained at Kings and still work at one of the trusts linked with them. Even if you don't get a place through clearing, there are always two or three people who don't turn up on the first day and they offer those places to whoever rings them first.

[jancolls]

Only just found this thread, so don't know how things are progressing for you. I also took the Access to Nursing and Midwifery course, back in 04-05. My uni did mess me about a bit, as I wanted to do prem babies [of which I have experience as a maternity practitioner] but they told me that came under paediatrics, so offered me a place on the RN paed course, having told me the midwifery tutors wouldn't consider me .

Well, it turns out that they would have considered me and I could have done the midwifery course at the ADip level for all 3 years, then built up the credits to the degree by doing CPDs in prem care! I ask you, left hand doesn't know etc!

Anyway, as it turned out it would probably still have come to nought, as they gave me an inoculation I've never had before and I developed dermatitis on my hands, this meant I could decontaminate, so I was out until it was cured. 1 year my homeopath reckoned, I've still got flare ups today, so health profession has gone west... not to worry, done the MNT qualification and now hoping to return to maternity work.

Having said all of this, my uni were great in other aspects. They guaranteed us an interview, prepped us well and most of my midwifery friends got in, if not in Sept, then in March the following year. Most of them are now well qualified midwives and enjoying their new work. My uni submitted all of our applications to them by Dec 15th of 2004, we did our boards from May to June roughly.

I'm just wondering where you are, as you mentioned Kings [would love to have gone there, grades were good enough and they put you on placement at GOSH, but just too far away for getting to shifts], so I'm assuming you're in London. Have you thought of or applied to TVU [Thames Valley Uni]. They used to be here in Ealing where I live, but are now based at the Paragon, which is right beside the M4 [hope they've got triple glazing!!] at Brentford. Might be worth a try www.tvu.ac.uk

Have you thought of doing the MNT course? The only drawback is its expensive [around £500] and is run over 2.5 days out in Reading. I've been there twice now, as I did this course over a Thurs-Sat in '07, then in May, fiance and I went to the same place to do our first aid course [ABC Medical]. Its a lovely quiet old campus and the training team are great, you also end up with the same maternity qualification as Norland Nannies and at least one of the students in our group was a midwife! Have a look at www.mnttraining.com

You could also do the NEST course. I don't know much about this, other than it carries more NVQ credits than the MNT course and its longer I think. Both courses carry credits that can be used to offset uni training.

Do let us know how you get on.

Jan.

[Mistiek]

Hi,

Not sure where you are at with what has happened andnot sure if tis has been said yet either....

I hope you have not given up. I have just completed my access course and have managed to secure an offer at Surrey Uni, however its not what I originally decided to do.

I like you really wanted to do Midwifery but was told that the places were hard to get and competition was rife... so I started looking around and doing some digging....

I bumped into a 3year student nurse who told me that the University of Surrey still offer the 18 month midwifery top up but dont advertise it....

So I decided that was what I was going to do. I am now starting my adult nursing next month and will have to work hard and get good grades but should then be able to top up to midwifery or neo-natal when I am done... yes its another 18 months but when I am done I will have a much broder scope and more opportunity.

Dont give up...

its never too late....

[frakkinpannikinAGRIPPA]

Bumping this because results come out today and some places may be open. If you didn't give up then CALL THEM and see if they have space.