Emily Simons
What did you enjoy most about your degree programme?
My lecturers were incredible, they taught the most interesting and brilliant content. They were so engaging and helpful and always there for me if I needed help with my problem sets or needed a chat. Without the amazing lecturers I would never have got so much joy and a sense of accomplishment from my degree.
Please tell us if you were a member of any societies, groups or sports clubs?
I was a member of the cricket, physics and dance societies.
What was the highlight of your time at Exeter?
As part of my masters project I created code to digitally pseudo colour medical images in order to detect cancer. I was so proud of my work. As part of this project I attended a global conference with physicists in the non-linear optical pathology field, it was incredible. I was even able to work with human tissue to complete impactful research.
What will you miss the most about University?
I will miss all the friends I made along the way, from the lecturers who made the degree so amazing to my classmates and the girls from my cricket team. I have made lifelong friends who have forever changed my outlook on life and given me memories I will never forget. I will miss playing cricket with my team of girls for the university of Exeter! After only training for a year we became inseparable friends and supported each other through sport and our degrees. I felt so proud to be representing the university and so fulfilled to be surrounded by such an amazing team.
What advice would you give to current and future students? (If you are an international student what would you like to tell future students from back home who might be thinking about applying to study in Exeter?)
As a girl from a state school I was terrified to go into a physics degree. I thought I wouldn’t be smart enough. I couldn’t have been more wrong- I had so much support from my lecturers, they were so kind and explained anything and everything to me. My friends were brilliant, they gave me the confidence to believe in myself and to put my hand up and ask when I had questions and didn’t understand. I came out of my degree with an even greater love of physics and an amazing degree – something I never thought possible. My advice would be not to doubt yourself, I knew I loved physics and that was the degree I wanted to peruse but I was so worried that I would fail. I would tell anyone to just follow what they love and to not be scared. Everyone is so lovely and they want you to succeed!
What are your plans now that you have graduated?
I have a grad role at the Bank of America as a risk analyst. I am super excited to learn about a new subject and explore the world of finance.
