Molly Sheldrake, Ancient History BA (Hons)

So, the main reason I chose Kent was because of Canterbury as a city. So, I study ancient history and it's full of history so it's perfect for me. You've got the Roman wall running around the outside, you've got a Roman museum where it's actually got some archaeological like buildings under the ground, which is amazing, that you can go and visit and just Kent in general as well it's just a really pretty place and when I visited it I just got that kind of feeling that I wanted to come here. 

The practical element of the course appealed to me a lot yeah. So, I have quite a lot of digs that I've been on, which most other unis didn't offer at the time and that's actually helped me decide that I want to go into archaeology further. 

So, I do a module that is basically just pure archaeology and I did a piece of coursework for them which was an archaeological portfolio. So, throughout the term we go and visit different dig sites and then they teach us all of the different methods and once we've done the methods we then have to write up a 5,000-word portfolio on the methods and how they work together to form a dig. I study archaeology mainly and they have a lab an archaeological lab here and it has all of the different things that you'd need for an archaeological dig. So, it has geophysical equipment, it has a drone, it's got everything that you could think of and it's also just an area that you can go to study further. So, I had my portfolio due and I needed to analyse some finds, so I went and sat in there with my lecturer and went through all of the finds. 

So, the lecturers are really approachable and supportive. I have two lecturers this year and because I only have two they actually helped me so much because they know me on a first-name basis, they've known me throughout my three years at Kent, and yeah if you email them they reply super quickly. And you also have an academic adviser and this person is there for all of your general needs as well, so if you have any questions about what you're doing afterwards or any questions about how to, how to reference and things like that then they help you a lot. 

One of the main reasons I came to Kent is because of all of the archaeology that surrounds this area. I've been on around seven digs around here now, all of which are from different time periods so you can choose which one that helps you. The actual Archaeological Society here, they really help you, like, if you email them and they'll help you to get on any dig that you want and help volunteer there, so you can get some really valuable experience. 

So, archaeology is the area that I'm zooming in on. I've decided to go further with this and do a Master's in Archaeological Science because the actual archaeology really interests me, like the fact that you can look at an artefact that is from 2,000 years ago, that someone else held in their hand that you're now holding in yours. It just really fascinates me.