Hm... Perhaps I shall be exagerating my costs slightly, after all that 10 minute talk is rather excruciating...

They take the first £150 or something so I think I'll need to make that up. After all it's my poor parents who have been paying like £120 a month for me. Poor mummy, poor daddy.

Also, re. SAAS travel expenses - you can do it online and it's the single biggest scam opportunity on that website. I barely have to travel when I'm in Aberdeen, definitely costs me no more than £50 a year - yet I always get upwards of £400 from SAAS. Don't be scared to lie through your teeth to them. You NEED to get the subway from Central Station to Buchanan Street .

I'm HeatherIAm, though I haven't uploaded my word count yet (around 9000, must get skates on!) and my profile is ancient too. You'll be my first friend!

Need your NaNoWriMo username. Me doing it too. 10100 words-ish .

I didn't know that SAAS would make you pay if you had a HND. SAAS is not fun, I'm an idiot as I rushed through the application because SAAS sent me a scary letter. I need to get one of those forms so that I'll be able to claim for travel expenses.

Yeah I noticed that Unis say that they'll let you in with college qualifications, but the reality is that there is only 5 or 6 first years in my faculty who presented NQ Certificates as opposed to SQA ones. Luckily my friend has a Higher and has sat a few Highers, so if she's lucky she'll get an interview at least (afterall, Abertay gave me an interview with two Ds - luckily I'm in a better situation now), and since she's doing her UCAS form this early she'll probably have a better chance.

Yes, it's Jimmy Watt college. About half of my year piled into it after the exam results came. Sadly this is probably what's going to make me teetotal for life - a girl in my class had great offers for singing in a Uni somewhere in Edinburgh, then she failed everything because she spent so much time bingeing. Bit of a shame really, she was quite a good singer and has been reduced to a HNC in Music after sitting Adv. Higher music last year.

It's not James Watt College is it ? I went there. YEAH, DEBT! JAMES WATTERGATE! WOO! HNC Social Sciences, 2006-07. Good times indeed.

Anyway, the older universities - Aberdeen and upwards - seriously look down on HNC/Ds. They'll not let you in above first year even if you have an HND. They want people to stay in school, do their Highers, straight and narrow - it's retarded, but that's the way it is. Places like UWS and Dundee will let you into second or third year with your college qualification, but the snobby ones won't. Go figure. Bitch with that is if that SAAS are paying attention they'll make you pay your own tuition fees if you have an HND and end up going into university in first year.

I'm glad you'e enjoying it though. All my friends are in their Junior Honours now, and telling me how difficult and awful it will be. I think they're just jealous because my working week is 14 hours long and I get paid through the nose.

I'm feeling all academic by being at Uni. You were right, it is much better than High School. The commuting is a bitch though, and so's the common first year that that the faculty does, I only have 1 module out of 9 (well that's a guess, of the first six it's been one) all year that is definetly important to my course.

Also, a friend of mine who is doing a HNC this year (don't make me mention the college - it has a worse reputation than WoS) is applying for Year 2 entry for next year at Cale. Which begs the question, 'If HNCs can get you into second year and HNDs can get you into third year, then why do we even have first year?'

Isn't it redundant to have a course that takes the same amount of time and gets you to the 'same level'? I appreciate that some people have to go to college to make up the grades but what's the point? It's like getting into first year but with lower grades.

Huh. I'm back in Aberdeen, and it turns out that I did miss Scotland. The banter, mostly. After a whole day (like 16 hours) spent travelling I found myself on the Edinburgh-Aberdeen late train and just felt at home. Two teenage girls were laughing, Fife accents, and there was a ridiculously drunk gay man who kept saying funny things of the variety that you just don't get anywhere else in Europe. It was the first part of my journey where I fell asleep without my backpack wrapped around my arm; I felt safe. Maybe that's what home is.

I heard that Griffin's appearance was a hoot. I look forward to watching it, because I can now. No iplayer in France, boo.

Also, how are you, ya big first year?

The reason why you don't miss Scotland? It's probably because we're so unfriendly, and neddish.

Well, we both know that's not entirely true but the fact that a small amount of people manage to make the whole country look like that is a bad thing.

Did you watch Question Time on Thursday night (or on BBC iPlayer)? I know you're in France but the controversy probably reached there. Nick Griffin single-handedly made that the funniest political show ever.

I know, I wasn't expecting it. I was just chatting with my mum about university type things when she started slagging Strath again (she lives right near their halls and wants them dead) and mentioned they were shutting their digital art courses and concentrating on engineering. It would seem they're leaving social science to Glasgow Uni, modern stuff to Cale, and still giggling about WoS, which everyone does anyway. Those stupid adverts with 'It's our time', to which everyone always adds 'to be laughed at' or 'to get a job in Primark'.

Maybe my view of Cale is becoming antiquated. I didn't even know Strathclyde ran digital courses; the only ones I knew about in Glasgow was Cale. They eclipsed big bad Strath without anyone noticing. For that, they get props.

That was completely out of the blue .

And according to the Times University Guide, Glasgow Cale did better than both Abertay and WoS this year.

Perhaps Cale's reputation is taking a sharp change?

News on the wire which may be of much interest to you: Strathclyde is shutting down its digital art courses because it can't compete with Cale's courses and results. You may have picked a pre-emptive winner here.

Hah, the 'West of Scotland' - I knew someone who got in there with Standard Grades. Bad times.

But yeah, it's totally possible. As long as the courses are roughly similar. 2 girls in my class were evacuees from Dundee (since these girls are doing French and Dundee kinda doesn't really have a languages department mostly). And you never know - you might love the course at Cale. People mock my uni all the time, but I'm proud of it. If you get there and Cale fits you, then it's great. But if it doesn't, then switch to Abertay. Besides which, you're doing computing-related stuff, aren't you? I probably should have remembered that before being bad about Cale. The newer unis, like Cale/Abertay/RGU/Napier etc don't tend to excel in my field, but they always have more computers, which is what I guess you're after. I'm fine so long as they have some ancient Compaq piece of crud which lets me get on Facebook when it's raining.

If they've given you an unconditional, go for it! Proud times!

Cale just confirmed an unconditional offer over UCAS. Although apparently this year UCAS has introduced 'adjustment' - meaning clearing is available to those who have exceeded their offer.

And I really do appreciate your advice but I'm sort of a dead-end here, the only alternatives are West of Scotland (just visiting there made me feel like I was at a high school - not good) and Abertay which would require me living away from home - something I can't do.

So it looks like Cale is were I'm going. Though now that we're on the subject of it, is it possible to finish your first year and transfer to another Uni? Mostly because I do want to study at Abertay at some point but I'm not ready to do so now.

Do you have other offers? Because, and I feel I can be honest with you, Cale doesn't really have a great reputation. I'm not at St Andrews or anything, but still, it's worth thinking about.