Why I Chose the Met & All My Options

In my blog post last week, I got pretty real about the bumpy path to where I am now. I mentioned how I chose the Media Production course at Belfast Metropolitan college over different degree courses, in this post, I’m gonna explain why.

My original plan was to study for a degree in Film Studies at Queen’s University Belfast. After loads of research, I was happiest with the theory:practical ratio of the course, and knew that I wanted to start building my career in Belfast, so Queen’s felt like the perfect fit.

When I didn’t get the grades for my first choice Uni, I was in a much better position than most people in that situation. I hadn’t met the AAB grades for my second choice, The University of Glasgow, either, but they had generously changed my offer to unconditional. 

I also looked into the University of Ulster Media course through clearing and found out that they were accepting applicants with Grades BBC through clearing, and several other university’s phoned me themselves to see if I was interested in their film courses.

I was informed by my school’s career counsellor to look into the Belfast Metropolitan College Media Production HND if I was hell-bent on staying in Belfast, so I looked into the course myself. I found out that it was way more practically based than any of the University courses I’d looked at when filling out my UCAS form and the units all looked really fun. 

A lot of people around me were wondering why I would turn down an unconditional offer from a very prestigious university to study at a college for a less advanced qualification. The issue was, that I knew I wanted live and work in Belfast, so studying and making contacts elsewhere felt like a moot option. 

The Glasgow course also included units like ‘the theory of TV’ and ‘the history of TV,’ and I knew that I would rather be studying units that gave me more hands-on experience that I could actually use on set.

The HND is a level 5 qualification, which I can turn into a full degree by completing a  one year ‘top up’ course once I’ve completed my first two years. This way, I can still graduate in 3 years time with a full degree qualification, having saved A LOT of money on the first 2 years on a Uni course, which, for me, is a win-win situation.

I know my choice to study at the Met raised a few eyebrows, but, with my first year in, I’m so relieved and grateful that I made the decision I did. I had an absolute blast during my first year, with the Met, I got to work on a Talk Show, podcast, short fiction film and short documentary all in the one year. I also got to try my hand at scriptwriting, camerawork, audio, storyboarding, directing and producing. 

The Met course is brilliant for having us constantly creating and filming, and with the scriptwriting, camera & lighting, directing & producer units, forced everyone to step out of their comfort zone and try their hand at a different role, which is a brilliant way for us to learn more about the filmmaking process and help us narrow down exactly what we want to do when we graduate. 

I absolutely loved my first year on the Met course and, if I could turn the clock back to filling out my UCAS application in upper sixth, I’d put the Met course as my first choice.