My life, in a nutshell
======================

At the age of ten I achieved a scholarship to Chetham's, a specialist music school where I studied the piano for eight years (to grade 8 and beyond).

After leaving school, I achieved a place on a degree course at Oxford in 1998, studying chemistry.  After two terms it became clear that I was unprepared for university, and I ended up abandoning the course.  I believe I can succeed this time round, for reasons outlined later.

I returned to Leeds, and have been a computer programmer (both professionally and as a volunteer on free software projects) for much of the time since then.  In particular, I am a long-time contributor to and current maintainer of the giFT project, an open source peer-to-peer filesharing framework.

I also enjoy camping and the great outdoors, and recently climbed Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England.  Music is still a major interest: as well as playing the piano, I sing in a choir and compose.  The fusion of music and technology fascinates me.  I am a keen chess player, and enjoy the writings of Douglas Hofstadter.


Why NatSci
==========

Natural Sciences seems a good choice because the breadth of options offers a large amount of flexibility.  My current plan is to study biochemistry and mathematics.

I have an interest in reverse engineering, and while most of my experience in that area has been with software, it seems to me that nature, and life in particular, offers the ultimate challenge to human understanding.  Helping to advance the state of knowledge of how the world works is something I care deeply about.

Mathematics, on the other hand, is a subject I have long found fascinating for its own sake: it has a purity and elegance unequalled elsewhere.  In addition, the concepts learned may prove useful to scientific understanding.


Why this won't be a repeat of Oxford
====================================

Although I had been away from home before, at boarding school, Oxford was the first time I'd had to fend for myself.  I knew nobody, and I didn't cope well.  I'm now settled in Leeds, so this shouldn't be a problem.

I was very distracted by the computing facilities at Oxford, which were on a scale unlike anything I'd experienced previously.  I spent all my time investigating them and not getting any work done.   Over the past decade I've had my fill of computers, and am now looking for something different.

I had no idea of the consequences of failure.  I'd found school very easy, and was expecting to be able to get by at university with a similarly small amount of effort.  I'm older and wiser now, and not only am I more aware of what's expected of me and of my own limitations, I have the determination to succeed.