How to prepare for your new course?
Most UK master's programs are one-year courses and many bachelor students will choose different major as their MA degree. So how do you prepare well for a new field and adapt to a new environment especially if you are from another country?
As a Masters student from China, who will study abroad for the first time and applied for Arts University Bournemouth (AUB) totally by myself, I would love to share my experience with you, hoping it can help you a little bit.
Find a Facebook group and tell them who you are:
After I accepted the offer from AUB, I searched the “2019/2020 Bournemouth fresher’s” on Facebook and joined them, in which I can find some useful information like how to apply for the Tier 4 Visa. Then, I posted my MA major so that my future classmates can invite me in their group, which means I can know them in advance.
Email your course leader for references:
Actually, AUB’s teachers and staffs are so nice and answered my questions patiently and promptly. Before I decided to study at AUB, I was not sure what kind of films I would want to shoot, so I asked the course leader to recommend some professional books and films. Moreover, he replied to me the next day and asked me my further interest so that he could give me specific ones. At that moment, I knew AUB focuses on individuality so much and I decided to come here.
Find alumni or peers for help:
Thanks to the Internet, I found one of the alumni’s through an application called “Zhihu”, kind of like “Quora”, he studied MA Film Practice at AUB in 2015 and is now working as an advertisement director in China. We added WeChat accounts and had a video call, which lasted for half an hour. With his help, I knew more details about my course and what challenges I might encounter in the future, for instance, the language problem, so I learned the film terms from YouTube in advance and tried to watch films without subtitles.
Right now, I have studied here over a month; I can handle the relationship and studies with great ease because of my preparation. Of course, there would be unpredictable challenges but just ask the teachers and classmates for help, never have a single fight! “Artist” doesn’t mean isolation. Creative ideas are born from connections.