Graduation - Did you go?

his_missus

I didn't really want to go to my graduation, I was just glad Uni was over forever. No particular bad memories of Uni, I got a decent grade, I just felt I didn't fit in, only made a few friends and home was such a long way away (3 trains and a day of travelling).

However my parents (dad in particular) were really proud of the fact I'd graduated (I was also the first and only to graduate on dad's side of the family) and it was a really big deal to them.

They'd supported me through Uni emotionally and financially (student loans weren't around until my final year) and I felt I at least owed them "their" big day. The ceremony wasn't too bad, a bit boring and drawn out, and afterwards we sat in the castle grounds, had the champers and strawberries & cream, then headed home. I didn't want to hang around. Dad took what seemed like 100s of photos of me in my gown and he really cherished those memories.

It was worth the long drive and the boredom to see my parents as pleased as punch.

You have to do what's best for you though.

Cottage_Economy

Buzzybee90 wrote: »

I know it's different for different courses but it's hard to simply miss out on a first, if your work was worthy of it then a first would have been awarded. It's true with exams that you could be a few marks off a first but with essays/ dissertations etc it's banded first then decided how high or low from that, e.g. A 60 and a 68 are both 2.1s, the 68 is just a better 2.1.

In my experience my degree had three ways of being graded, in order to give students the best opportunity. Dissertations are very heavily weighted so need a good mark. If you got 100% 68%s then that's great but it's still just a very good 2.1, not a little bit from a first.

Well hard to do or not, I did. I was told by the head of the school on the day the results were released I missed the second year's required average score for a 1st class degree by two marks. The first and third year I 'comfortably' achieved it. However, while the tutors had all agreed it was a terrible shame they could not award me a first.

By the way, when I say I failed the exam in the second year, I mean I catastrophically failed it. I had a complete meltdown and I'm not sure any marks were even given on that paper because I don't think I wrote anything more than 2 or 3 lines of nonsense at the top of the page. That pulled my average right down.

I still don't know why I just didn't go and see someone and say I have a raging temperature, tunnel vision and need to do this another day, but I think there was part of me that figured they'd think I was pulling a fast one.

I know it is difficult for people to understand and I can't pretend it doesn't make me sound like an !!!!, but I didn't go to university to do the best that I could. My goal at going was to achieve a first class honours degree. That was the goal I set myself and I didn't reach that goal. However a 2:1 was still very good and allowed me to go on and do a PhD.

Let me repeat that, a 2:1 is very good, but my goal at that time was a 1st and I had been ruthless with myself over the three years to try and achieve it.

Carmina-Piranha_2

pollypenny wrote: »

Those of us who are older, and were assessed on 'the normal curve' wouldn't call a 2:1 !!!!!!. There was only one first and four 2:1 s in my cohort, one of which was me.

The idea of 'all my friends collecting firsts' just shows the change in structures.

Hardly anyone got a first when I graduated in 2002, less than ten percent of the course. They didn't say who got what anyway, we all just trooped up alphabetically.

I had a baby during my course, and graduated after my friends did. I didn't know anybody at the ceremony and the other students I was sat with were unfriendly.

I was the first to graduate in my family though, and it was such a big deal for my grandma, she was so proud. I have a photo of me with her, but not an official one. She'd been hoping that the 'scroll' would say that I'd got a first, bless her, but it was just blank - the certificates came later in the post.

So, due to not having a family history of graduation, my parents wouldn't have minded whether I went or not. Apart from that nice photo of us in front of a tree, the rest of the day was boring. Having said that, my brother enjoyed his, and my sister went to hers even though she didn't graduate - she went to share the day with her mates.

I think that if you have friends on the course it's more fun. I'd do it again even though it was boring and uncomfortable, just so my Nan had a photo. It meant a lot to her that somebody in her family had (in her eyes) crossed the class barrier and got into uni.

Is it REALLY important and special to your parents? Could they just frame a print of your degree certificate instead? In my family and friends I don't know anyone who even hangs their photo up, but in my husband's family they all do - their own, their children, etc.

Person_one

Cottage_Economy wrote: »

I know it is difficult for people to understand and I can't pretend it doesn't make me sound like an !!!!, but I didn't go to university to do the best that I could. My goal at going was to achieve a first class honours degree. That was the goal I set myself and I didn't reach that goal. However a 2:1 was still very good and allowed me to go on and do a PhD.

Let me repeat that, a 2:1 is very good, but my goal at that time was a 1st and I had been ruthless with myself over the three years to try and achieve it.

How long is it since you graduated? You do really need to let it go, stop beating yourself up and convince yourself properly that a 2:1 is fine. Use a bit of CBT on yourself! You don't want to be one of those people who dwells on a perceived injustice for years, or always makes sure everybody knows just how close they were to a better grade, like people in their twenties or thirties who still talk about how unfair their GCSE or A level grade was!

I wanted to get a first when I started my current degree. Got one with my first degree so thought I could, and was on track to until the end of second year. Then third year came along, and a few disappointing grades later its looking like a 2:1. That's fine, things change, maybe I'm not good enough to get a first on this course, maybe I could have worked a bit harder, but that's life. Nobody will care about my classification once I'm working, in fact I've been offered a great job and haven't even been asked what I'm predicted to get!

There are people on my course who will celebrate, get out the champagne and be delighted if they pass with a 41, for various reasons. Complaining about a 2:1 really feels like an insult to them, I wonder what they think if they read these sorts of comments?

Izadora

I loved uni but really couldn't have cared less about going to the graduation ceremony. I knew how much my mum and dad wanted to see me in the cap and gown though and, seeing as they'd largely funded me through college, felt it wasn't fair to deny them that for the sake of spending one day doing something I didn't particularly want to do. I guess it depends on how much your parents want to see you graduate and how much you don't want to go.

[Deleted User]

Cottage_Economy wrote: »

Well hard to do or not, I did. I was told by the head of the school on the day the results were released I missed the second year's required average score for a 1st class degree by two marks. The first and third year I 'comfortably' achieved it. However, while the tutors had all agreed it was a terrible shame they could not award me a first.

By the way, when I say I failed the exam in the second year, I mean I catastrophically failed it. I had a complete meltdown and I'm not sure any marks were even given on that paper because I don't think I wrote anything more than 2 or 3 lines of nonsense at the top of the page. That pulled my average right down...

Off topic a bit, but I thought that on most degree courses if you failed an exam / module and re-sat / re-did the module then no matter what the rest of your scores were (even if all of the rest of them were above the level to gain a first) you would not be awarded a first.

Person_one

Spider_In_The_Bath wrote: »

Off topic a bit, but I thought that on most degree courses if you failed an exam / module and re-sat / re-did the module then no matter what the rest of your scores were (even if all of the rest of them were above the level to gain a first) you would not be awarded a first.

Not the case at my uni. If you need to resit (and there aren't exceptional circumstances which mean are granted another 'first attempt') then the maximum score you can get is a 40%. That's your 'punishment'. If you do well enough in your other modules that you can still average above 70 even with that 40% dragging you down, you can get a first.

studentuk1

Thanks for the replies. They've definitely given me food for thought.

It suddenly dawned on me today how ironic this thread would be if I got my results back and failed.

Buzzybee90

Person_one wrote: »

Not the case at my uni. If you need to resit (and there aren't exceptional circumstances which mean are granted another 'first attempt') then the maximum score you can get is a 40%. That's your 'punishment'. If you do well enough in your other modules that you can still average above 70 even with that 40% dragging you down, you can get a first.

Yep, also there's one way (at my uni) that you can be awarded the classification by getting a certain number of credits in that classification.

First year marks don't count and you can base your classification entirely on your third year if you so wish (which I did).

Just incase anyone wanted to know a bit more about what it's like now

supersaver2

Person_one wrote: »

How long is it since you graduated? You do really need to let it go, stop beating yourself up and convince yourself properly that a 2:1 is fine. Use a bit of CBT on yourself! You don't want to be one of those people who dwells on a perceived injustice for years, or always makes sure everybody knows just how close they were to a better grade, like people in their twenties or thirties who still talk about how unfair their GCSE or A level grade was!

I wanted to get a first when I started my current degree. Got one with my first degree so thought I could, and was on track to until the end of second year. Then third year came along, and a few disappointing grades later its looking like a 2:1. That's fine, things change, maybe I'm not good enough to get a first on this course, maybe I could have worked a bit harder, but that's life. Nobody will care about my classification once I'm working, in fact I've been offered a great job and haven't even been asked what I'm predicted to get!

There are people on my course who will celebrate, get out the champagne and be delighted if they pass with a 41, for various reasons. Complaining about a 2:1 really feels like an insult to them, I wonder what they think if they read these sorts of comments?

Maybe they will be intelligent enough to appreciate people have different opinions and feelings. It certainly doesn't make them wrong for feeling they should/could have done better and I have no idea why somebody else's feelings about their results would insult anybody!

Some folk have high expectations of themselves.