Degree Education? Worth it??

theoretica

You might also want to get him to find the employment statistics for courses he is interested in - universities now gather data on what their students are doing after graduation and sort it by course. Sometimes the results can be surprising. At one time I was told History and Philosophy of Science had the best employment statistics of Cambridge University.

Pupnik

Lots of good points in this thread- uni is expensive but you needn't pay for it yourself so don't get hung up on that. I know this is money saving expert but money isn't the be all and end all. Your son will get out of uni what he puts into it- it can be very rewarding and fun, learning for the pleasure of learning is a good thing and shouldn't be looked down on if the degree doesn't lead to an obvious job. University isn't for everyone though- you need to respect it for what it is and not treat it as one big party, you need to be self motivated and put in the extra hours and not just coast by on the bare minimum. It is also a big learning experience, to start to live on his own two feet with his peers in the same situation. There are so many other good things about university beyond just the job at the end, but students need to be realistic and realise a job is not going to fall into their lap at the end of it- work experience (both paid and unpaid) in their chosen field and making contacts throughout those 3 years are very important.

mr_sifter_2

Simon11 wrote: »

· Finally, think outside of the box. I applied for numerous graduate schemes however didn’t get a job, so instead looked at the regular full time jobs! Sometimes students believe the only way into a job is a graduate job.

Good point!

I've started to send speculative letters out to firms I'd like to work for; stating my position, ambitions etc. along with my C.V. I've had a couple of interviews from doing this and have another two lined up - so fingers crossed!

It's definitely the era of taking initiative and being creative. Old ways of getting jobs are becoming defunct thanks to the internet and other technologies.

newmumincov

A degree is politics sounds perfectly respectable to me, but he'd really need to be aiming to go to a red-brick university if at all possible.

Secondly, as at least one other poster has said, these days you need to be career minded whilst at uni to get ahead. That's not to say that he'd need to know exactly what career he wants but he needs to start building up contacts and experience whilst he has the opportunities at uni. A lot of people don't seem to think of work/experience until they've done their degree and this will definitely leave you behind when looking for a job (unless you genuinely have other things going for you). Ideally he needs to be doing voluntary work and/or getting a weekend/holiday job that's vaguely relevant to the degree (e.g. researcher) or that will give you transferrable skills or show that you already have exposure to the corporate world or that will allow him to network and build up useful contacts. Getting involved in the more serious/traditional student societites also helps to build up skills and to build up contacts.

More about what he could be doing with a politics degree can be found here:
http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/Politics.htm

Oldernotwiser

pgilc1 wrote: »

I guess my ultimate question is if you're going to do a non vocational course with no hope of getting a job with it at the end of the course, would it not be more sensible to spend those four years in employment and probably further up the career ladder rather than put yourself through the financial pain (and those around you too) of a degree course?

I am not saying i'm not going to support him, but i want to be able to advise him fully as to what he should do.

He lives with me and my wife. His mother will contribute very little if anything and my wife wont be contributing so a lot of the financial onus is going to fall on me.

Maybe that sounds selfish but i'm not particularly in the position to spend thousands each year and it will be a struggle. I dont mind struggling if there is a benefit at the end of it, but i'm not seeing that.

You're wrong in thinking that a non vocational degree won't lead to a good career as long as it's a solid academic course at a reputable university. There are also very few employment opportunities post A level and many would argue that the main purpose of doing them is university entry.

I still don't see why you think that your son's university education is going to cost you thousands a year.

alyth

Perhaps the OP thinks that it would just be nice to contribute to his son's education - even at my advanced age my parents give me an allowance each month to contribute to me educating and hopefully giving myself a better future.

I've actually thought a little about this thread this evening - quiet night at work! Perhaps once your son starts uni, he may find that some aspects of politics interest him more than others, and want to change his degree. I had to do a philosophy module as part of my access course and I detested it. However, one module this year is philosophy and I love it - to the extent that I sort of wish I'd gone for philosophy rather than history/politics! It wouldn't make me any more employable but I have mixed feelings - for sure you should study for pleasure and in a subject that you have an interest in, but then if you are an 18 year old you have to study something which ultimately is going to give you gainful employment at the end of it.

Musing out loud if I'm honest, as I say I'm at a stage in my life where I can study for the sheer pleasure of it, and everything apart from Scottish Politics on my degree course is fantastic.

Oldernotwiser

alyth wrote: »

Perhaps the OP thinks that it would just be nice to contribute to his son's education - even at my advanced age my parents give me an allowance each month to contribute to me educating and hopefully giving myself a better future.
.

And you take it?

Uncertain

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

And you take it?

Any why not if that is what the parents want to do?

Plenty of parents subsidise "adult" children in all kinds of ways just as plenty of middle aged people subsidise their elderly parents.

We know nothing of the background and circumstances so really can't comment.

Oldernotwiser

Uncertain wrote: »

Any why not if that is what the parents want to do?

Plenty of parents subsidise "adult" children in all kinds of ways just as plenty of middle aged people subsidise their elderly parents.

We know nothing of the background and circumstances so really can't comment.

I'm not commenting any further on a public board but, for some of us, that last statement is untrue.

katerinasol

Didn't read the rest of the thread, but what do you want him to do instead?