Lauren's story
Lauren says her Foundation Year helped give her a better understanding of the basic concepts in physics and she felt more prepared to start her degree.
Lauren's Foundation Year
"I initially applied for the Physics with Astrophysics BSc course but I ended up getting three Cs in my A-levels so was automatically offered a place on the Foundation Year. Although I was knocked by my A-level results, the Foundation Year actually ended up being the best thing for me. At the end of the year I felt I had a much better understanding of the basic concepts in physics and I felt more prepared to start my degree.
"I achieved 84% on the Foundation Year so was able to choose between an MSc or the four-year MPhys course. Because of my A-level results I’d thought I may not be able to get a Masters degree, so I decided to take this opportunity and enrolled onto the MPhys. Then about midway through the first year we got an email telling us about the research placement degree, which we could transfer on to if we did well enough in our exams. I applied for this and was delighted to get high enough results to be accepted.
I believe Sussex has prepared me in the best way possible for the future as I have gained skills that will give me many job opportunities.” Lauren conway
Physics and Astronomy (with a Foundation Year)
"The physics department at Sussex is great; I like the study areas and my lecturers are supportive and encouraging. I believe Sussex has prepared me in the best way possible for the future as I have gained skills that will give me many job opportunities. There is also a sub-module in the first year, which helps us with applying for jobs and writing a CV that stands out.
"Last summer I did my first research placement, which involved spending four weeks researching isolated neutron stars and producing magnitude diagrams of various patches of sky around them. This placement involved a lot of coding, which was challenging but very rewarding when the code worked, especially considering that I’d had no experience of coding before a sub-module we took in the first year. This summer I will be carrying on with the work involving INS stars."