Has anyone left uni? Did you regret it? And a few more questions.

apoorstudent

I have a few questions for anyone who cares to answer...

1) At what point did you leave?
2) Do you regret it?
3) How much did you have to pay?
4) What are you doing now?

Today, I have this overwhelming urge to jack it all in. I really dread going back next week. I also dread having to part with £3,000 (if I left now, I'd only lose £1020)

ARGH.

firesidemaid

hi there

just a few thoughts IMHO. i left uni after a few months in 1989. i was lucky then and fell into my current career which i have done ever since. but compared to then, today there is much more competition for jobs if you only have A levels.

also since then i have studied part-time through work and am now back to msc level anyway!

when i did leave, it cost me lots of money too. i realised that if i could last out till the end of a term, it would have cost me nothing. don't know if that still applies.

thing is though: i get paid really well and like my job but i don't always enjoy the level of responsibility. i have been off for a week and feel exactly like you do - but i just get on with it and feel ok again.

do you have any idea what job you would do? do you enjoy your subject or is it the work you don't like?

apoorstudent

^Thanks for the reply. I definitely would have to pay £3000 if I complete the year. I can't really see the point in it...

I have absolutely no idea what I want to do, but I know that I'm finding uni pretty unbearable, and perhaps I need a taste of the 'working world' to enable me to fathom out what I really want. I don't like the way that the course is taught, I know very few people, and if I'm frank - I'm there because I've been pushed into it from a young age. I hate reading (yet I do English), I have no motivation to do the work, and I can't see me doing a job in this sector.

*deep breaths* If you don't mind me asking, what do you do now? I have A levels, GCSEs, all mostly As... but are there jobs for people like me? Or just jobs for people with degrees? Hmm!

studentphil

I have hated my course in the majority and if you really do hate it then it is better to leave or change subject after the first year if you can.
Maybe there is something else you want to study instead or at a different university and you could just class this year as a faulse start.

studentphil

There are jobs open to you with A levels or GCSEs and you can do as well without a degree in life, but you just have to take the rough with the smooth and work hard and show you are willing to try different things be you a Graduate, Diplomate, or A levels.

studentphil

You do English and you hate what you read, that is probably a large problem if your degree does not allow you to pick modules you are really interested in as you will hate it all your degree.

apoorstudent

English Literature. I never read... I hate reading. Everyone is passionate about it, and I can't think of anything worse/more boring. I just wish that I could stop getting good grades; it would make me feel a lot better about the decision.

I don't know what I want to do. I almost deferred my place in September and was going to work for a year, but alas, my 'rents convinced me to go and get it over with.

Sigh.

studentphil

apoorstudent wrote:

English Literature. I never read... I hate reading. Everyone is passionate about it, and I can't think of anything worse/more boring. I just wish that I could stop getting good grades; it would make me feel a lot better about the decision.

I don't know what I want to do. I almost deferred my place in September and was going to work for a year, but alas, my 'rents convinced me to go and get it over with.

Sigh.

If you hate reading then you are on the wrong degree.

You need a course where the reading element is smaller and probably more important the reading interests you.

firesidemaid

hello again

i'm a scientist in the nhs. i have done it for the last 18 years (not all in one place) and love it. i suppose i have always been science based, but when i dropped out i knew i had to get a job straight away and fell into this.

i then did a 2 year hnd 1991-92 (age 22) and my msc 1996-98 (age 28)

from an employer/recruiter point of view, you stand a much better chance if you know how to fill in application forms well (i'm sure you do) - you will only get an interview in theory if you meet all the criteria that are essential in the job/person specs.

what are you passionate about? again employers like to see people who are enthusiastic, motivated and who use their own initiative.

if you are really sure about leaving, maybe see the rest of this year as your gap year. try locuming and see what appeals to you.

Catseyez

I really feel for you.

When I was at school everybody just 'expected' me to go to university without even considering what I wanted. As I was doing my A-levels, I realised that I would only be going to university to make everyone else happy.

Much to everyone's horror, I opted out of going to university and ended up training for a purely arts-based job. I had a great time and excelled but after a while I felt that my brain wasn't being used and no longer felt challenged.

A few years done the line, I've started university as a mature student and am training to be a social worker. The subject fascinates me to the extent where I actually find the assignments interesting! Before I started the course, I often regretted having not gone to university when I was 18 but if I had done so, I would have probably left half-way through as I would have been doing it for all the wrong reasons.

Did your parents suggest that you do English lit? It's your life and your future, so you should do what you want to do, not what others think you should do. After all, they are not living your life for you.

apoorstudent

^^Thanks everyone. The thing is, I can see it from both perspectives. I feel forced into staying because I know that my father will give me HELL and force me to get a job the second that I leave.

On the other hand, I can understand when people say that I shouldn't leave because I have no other plans. I feel lost. I would love a more practical job... Something where I can learn on the job.

Do I opt for unhappiness by staying at uni, or... hell from my father? It's like a tug-of-war between my mum and my dad. My mum said to do what makes me happy... Ultimately, I don't want to end up in a psychiatric ward for the sake of this degree (my father's attitude is 'so what! at least you'd have a degree) so I'm biased towards listening to my mum... But I fear that world war 3 will erupt if I just do it.

Life is scary. I wish I could fast forward a few years and see where I'm gonna be; unfortunately, nobody has invented a time machine yet.