Jamie Mathieson

Get on and get in

There’s an art to filling in your UCAS form, and it doesn’t involve simply listing your after-school activities. Jamie Mathieson separates the bad from the good  Applying to university is like moving house. You need to know what you want, you have to be realistic, and you have to get the paperwork right. It can be very stressful, and an awful lot comes down to luck. Yet, wherever you end up, it will start feeling like home very quickly. A university, like a house, is just walls, and you can put whatever you like inside them. If you’re reading this, you may well be at an independent school. If so, you are at an advantage. Accept this.

Kids don’t care about the moon landings

Last week a 15 year-old Morgan Stanley intern claimed that teenagers don't use Twitter and shook the business world. Well, here¹s another revelation for the media: young people don¹t care about the moon landings either.   This is partly caused by anniversary fatigue - don't TV commissioners have any new ideas? But mostly because, for my generation, breaking new scientific or technological ground is par for the course. The wide-eyed amazement of older generations (think Uncle Bryn in Gavin and Stacey) at new sat-navs, iPods or cameras is something that entirely bypasses their children and grandchildren. Fascination with technological achievement has been lost as surely as prudery at promiscuity.