I am a BSc Psychology student who will start my final year (level 4) in September. My individual curiosity of understanding why people behave the way they do made me want to pursue a degree in psychology and broaden my knowledge in human bengs.
I am originally from Eritrea (East Africa) but I was born and raised in the middle east (Saudi Arabia specifically). However, I am currently living in Sweden- I moved in 2011 with my family and I had to move again to UK to study. I knew education in Scotland was free for EU citizens, so I attempted to get in. However, I didn’t get accepted in the beginning. I was accepted by the University of Hull in England as I decided to try one last time. After that I got the idea to transfer in second year and my application was accepted by the University of Aberdeen. It was a friend’s recommendation to apply to the universities in Scotland. I decided to apply to University of Aberdeen because I loved the content that the Psychology degree had, and the university had a very good reputation and ranks one of the top universities in the world. I knew that I would earn a lot from coming here besides obtaining high quality degree, i.e. the social life experience and personal growth.
The beautiful thing about studying psychology is that what we study is very broad, incorporating almost every aspect when learning about human beings. My personal area of interest is in social psychology, specifically cultural differences. As someone with multicultural background, I have a lot of questions about the different behaviours in people around me: family, friends, and strangers who have different cultural background. I am also very much interested in neuroscience and forensic psychology.
The whole experience of moving out of home and living independently has been the highlight of my experience, taking care of myself despite it being very challenging. Of course, this also includes the student life of meeting new friends that are international. I won’t lie, I still haven’t experienced the crazy typical student life of going to parties every other day due to the whole pandemic and personally it usually takes me time to get to know people and be comfortable in those environments. But I am very much looking forward to my final year here in Aberdeen and to experience more.
The pandemic affected my studies in a positive way, because my grades got a lot better. However, the whole experience is very challenging. I don’t know if it was level 3- which is usually tough or the pandemic, but both combinations were not good. It was very hard, and mentally exhausting, yet manageable. I am proud of my work and effort I’ve put in, which has showed in my result.
Sara began her psychology studies in Aberdeen in September 2019.
