Would you go to University?

slinxy

slinxy

slinxy

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On the day of A-level results, the question has popped back into my head...

I did go to university straight after college, it didn't give me much of a head start in my working life and saddle me with a load of debts. God knows how students coupe now a days.

For many years of my life, I wished that I didn't go to uni and tried getting a job straight away or at least took a year or two out. But my year was the last year of free tuition so it was an opportunity I had to take straight away.

Given that most young people need an university degree just to get any sort of job now a days as they lack the experience and certifications some roles require, and now that I've been student loan free for a while now, I'm glad I went to university, if for the experince and nothing else. At times think about doing another course like a masters, phd or an undergrad course in something different.

So the question is... for those who went to uni, and I mean real uni not the university of life.. are you glad that you did?
for those who didn't or attended the univeristy of life, did you wish you went to uni?

Has anyone gone back to being a student or thinking about it? or even thinking of going for the first time.. later on in life..
 
I was the 1st person in our family to go to uni, i guess i am glad i did, without it i would never have met my wife etc and i cant say my career has been unkind to me.

but i was the last of the grant supported bunch. had i been faced with a £40k+ debt i dont think i would have gone. I know people say a sudent load debt is not the same as a normal debt, but i just cant stand owing anyone anything. Sure i got a mortgage for my house but other than that i have never got anything i could not afford to pay for up front.

my dad was a builder and i suspect i could have had plenty of opportunity to go into being an electrician or a plumber had i wanted to do that instead, which are also well paid and v secure jobs - more so than my field is now for sure.

my wife did it a really good way if you can wangle it..... she got her work to pay to do her degree part time over 5 or 6 years. She graduated with zero debt and the only thing was she could not quit her job for 5 years after graduating otherwise she would have to pay a percentage of her fees back... on the other hand tho she didnt get to experience university life in the same way i did.
 
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Hard to say if I'm glad I went or not, long list of pros and long list of cons.

If I could go back for a re-do of the same career (web dev) then I wouldn't go to uni - because 3 years earning and learning on the job is better than 3 years of debt and learning in a classroom. Today's prices make that decision even easier.

If I could go back for a free-form re-do, as it turns out I don't particularly like my web dev career, I'd probably try a navy officer career instead.
 
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I went to Uni (95-99) and have never used my degree to get a job, the first 5 years after my degree I worked in retail/high street jobs, then got an apprenticeship at 27 and have been in that work environment ever since. My best mate however left school and went and did an NVQ, then went and did games testing for Eidos/Domark, then went and worked at lego games, before working for Shazam, who then got bought by Apple and he did well out of it lol.
 
If one thing I have learnt is that it is really up to you as a person as to what you want to be in life. In terms of monetary success my school FB group is totally random as in who has and hasn't done well out of it. I have some friends who were in middling to bottom sets who have become incredibly rich.
 
I did. I didn't get a job that required it in the end. Would I now given the cost, absolutely not..

The only way I would go, is if I was doing a really difficult degree that was required for a very specific job.. Engineering, doctor etc.

Business studies, IT, art etc.. Nope, teach yourself and create a decent portfolio.
 
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I went to university, because that's what you did if you were in STEM. I remember teachers being a bit surprised that, as someone doing A Level Maths and Physics, I wasn't fussed about going.


I was talked into it, and while there are definitely aspects of the degree which I did enjoy, it damn nearly broke me. I found it emotionally draining to be stuck with lecturers who didn't want to be there. The mentality of the university was that you're just a number and they're a business looking to make money.


The privilege for which was just shy of £40k of debt when I left.




I think, if I could go back, the cheat code is finding a really good apprenticeship with a good company. However when you're young, you don't have the experience to know what good is - so it can be hard. At least you're not paying 9k a year to do it though.





All that said, I do appreciate where I am and I recognise the benefits of the degree I did, even if I don't technically use the knowledge day to day.
 
I went to Uni for all the wrong reasons, reason being I didn’t know what else to do and everyone else was going.

I was lazy and had no direction with what I was doing. I left with no degree and £1000s in debt.

If i was 18 again would I go back? No.

I subsequently joined the Army and now I’m one piece of work away from an Electrical Engineering degree… paid for.

I’m not sure what the offer is of uni anymore ? Moving away from home, great social life? Finding yourself? I think people live differently now so does that apply?

I think STEM education should be free and all other courses paid for… no idea how that would work but just my 2pence opinion.
 
I went to uni when I was 25 because it the was the year before the fees were changing, I was fed up with where I was going and I had always wanted to go but when I was younger went straight in to work. I did it part time for four years studying a Bachelor's degree in History, I worked around my course.

When I got in to the second year a lot of things in my life started going a bit wrong and it all felt a bit overwhelming but I pushed through and completed the course but I found it very difficult especially juggling everything.

Even in my mid to late twenties I felt quite separate from a lot of the other students as many of them didn’t have any responsibilities beyond themselves.

The degree then helped me move on and I gained a job with the help of it. But I mainly did it for myself, and I am very glad I did. Looking back it was a great time, I enjoyed it, though it became harder than expected.
 
While not the case for everyone, one of the problems IMO is that at that age people often don't know what they really want or what direction is going to pan out for them - I studied IT as it was something I was interested in and other people pushed me that way career wise as it was something I was good at, but then found it is something I enjoy as a hobby and both don't enjoy it as a job and detracts from my enjoyment of it as a hobby. Sadly did that instead of doing a degree in chemical engineering which would have probably been a better career direction.
 
Yup - graduated with a degree in Electronic Engineering in 1990. It set me up for a good career and got me on the home-owners ladder by 23 years old. So - yes, really glad I did.

If I was getting A level results today, I would still go but ONLY to a good uni to do a GOOD degree.

Media Studies with an offer of CCC is simply an invitation to rack up a massive student load with no tangible benefit.

Doing the uni visits with my son makes me wish I was 18 again. I'd love to do a maths/physics degree somewhere really inspirational.
 
platinum87 said:
No, should have joined the military, or, just got a job.
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I did the first one. I couldn't afford uni anyway, but I also could not have afforded to go without a job.

In many ways it was like university, based on how my peers described their uni life - Being surrounded by people smarter than you, completely different way of life, having no clue what's going on, REALLY **** food... and when you're done, you're still starting civvy life with nothing of especial use to anyone in any employment.

I like the idea of uni, and plenty of grads in the Engineering sector have eventually done well out of it. There's a tonne of subjects I'd like to study in that sort of detail, but few that I think would be of much benefit in the real world. You get some jobs where having any kind of degree can make the difference, such as on of our IT network guys who got all his training on-the-job, but only got the job because he had a degree where others didn't... his degree is in the artificial insemination of pigs, which he breezed through because he grew up on a pig farm and already knew everything.

Overall I think requiring a degree is only because so many people go to uni now, albeit often for BS topics like Media and Gender Studies that have almost no use in the working world, because critical thinking is the one useful skill you still get from it. It's great if you are going for a degree relevant to your chosen industry, like engineering or chemistry, surveying, electronics, etc, but it also ties you into that and I find things often change too much for young people to know what they want to do (especially without experience of the actual industry) at such an early age.
 
Yes a Uni degree does massively help many people who walk right into well paid jobs.

My nephew and cousin both walked straight into well paid jobs after finishing masters degrees.

You still have to actually be good though, my nephew was against well over 100 other candidates who all had degrees and he beat them all and got the job even though he lives near 7 hours drive away from the job location and has had to move home.
 
Rroff said:
While not the case for everyone, one of the problems IMO is that at that age people often don't know what they really want or what direction is going to pan out for them - I studied IT as it was something I was interested in and other people pushed me that way career wise as it was something I was good at, but then found it is something I enjoy as a hobby and both don't enjoy it as a job and detracts from my enjoyment of it as a hobby. Sadly did that instead of doing a degree in chemical engineering which would have probably been a better career direction.
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Same here buddy, I enjoyed IT and may have been good or even great at it but I excelled at Maths (in my youth).

I choice a degree in computer science and softare engineering, non of this soft courses BS... and I hated it... when I left; I was all programmed out and wanted a job in anything but programming; hence why I used to think my time at uni wasn't well spent. I only recently (3 years ago) started a role that required programming everyday, and I'm like a duck to water. It doesn't mean that I enjoy it and if they told me that during the interview stage; when they clearly said I wouldn't need to programm.. then I may have not have taken the role.

I have all the lovely computer games and the last thing I want to do is sit infront of a screen, god forbid updating drivers, overclocking etc on a PC. I gave up PC gaming many moons ago and never looked back.

with my 20/20 vision, I wish I did Maths now.. I may have been an accountant or something but who knows' it's a passing intreast of mine at the moment but I may hate doing that as "work" too.
 
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I went to uni more for the 'experience' rather than for the learning, probably why I ended up with a 2:2 :p

Definitely worth it, even though my job is not related to the subject I did.

If I could go back, I would 100% still go, but would stick to learning something that I could do remotely, anywhere.
 
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