How to approach this

JimmyTheWig

mountainofdebt wrote: »

Uni was always plan b - and if plan a had come off, he would have quite happily dropped out of Uni - but this week its become plan a.

However he may have another crack of the whip next year

X-factor contestant?

SavingPennies_2

My Uni introduced a 4th year abroad a year after I finished my degree. I sooo wish I had have had the opportunity to do it If he wants to do it he should grab the opportunity with both hands and dont discourage him!

As far as being in a different year as his peers it really doesnt matter, the final year is more about study than socialising, after which most of his coursemates will go their seperate ways anyway.

TBH your unwillingness to give a concrete reason suggests this boils down to you not wanting him to leave home?

*Beki*

I agree with all the people stating the benefits of a studying abroad.

I spent a year studying in Australia and it was one of the best things I've ever done. It made me so much more mature, confident and introduced me to people all over the world, experiences I would never have considered before and absolutely sets me apart from other people on my CV.

I would also like to point out that I had to achieve a certain grade percentage in my first and second year in order to be allowed to stay on this course, otherwise I would have been downgraded to the 3 year course anyway. The University only wanted to send people they knew could do the work and have fun (we still had to pass our year abroad even if the grade didn't actually contribute to our final degree classification).

JimmyTheWig

SavingPennies wrote: »

TBH your unwillingness to give a concrete reason suggests this boils down to you not wanting him to leave home?

I think we're at the point, OP, where you need to tell us what the problem is if we are to get any further.

Is the following the case...
1. Originally you thought that this year abroad would add extra credits to his degree. You thought that these credits made it worth doing, despite the difficulties it would cause.
2. You then found out that the year abroad didn't add anything to the degree. So you thought that it wasn't worth the difficulties that it would cause for no benefits.
3. Having read through this thread, I hope that you can see that there is at least a little benefit to him doing this year abroad.

So the question is whether the little benefit outweighs the difficulties.
You don't have to tell us what the difficulties are (we're just strangers on an internet forum), but without knowing them there's not much more we can say.
But if you are going to work this out for yourself, and/or talk to your son about it, then you need to at least establish yourself what the difficulties are.
I don't think your son would appreciate it if you had this conversation with him without saying what the problem was.


[Personally I'm more with you than many on this thread are. I think the year abroad sounds pretty much like a waste of time. It's not something that would have interested me, and so not something that I would have chosen to pay for / get into more debt for / inconvenience myself for. But your son does sound like it is something that he wants to do. I would guess it is probably more convenient for him to do it as part of his course than to do it following university.]