After telling someone the degree you study, what is their response?

For Law at UCL

Either "oh, okay, wow" (as in surpise/impressed) or "why did you do that, you know you can just do a conversion course right?"

which I HATE.

EDIT: oh and also: "but how can you defend people who you know are guilty?!"

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 2361

Hjyates

2

I'm doing outdoor activities and leadership which only like 5 universities do so I always get:

"I guess it's better than working in a call centre"
"So you just tell people what to do outdoors?"
"There's a lot of made up degrees now days"

Or they just laugh but I've left going to uni 3 years now and this is the degree I need to go into what I want to do, so.......

I keep changing the name of the degree to people as well ahaha

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 2362

Hjyates

2

Original post by HarleenQuinzel

Me: "I'm studying English."

Most other people: "So you're going to be working at mcdonalds/ starbucks/ other low paying job?"

It really annoys me that there's this stereotype that English is useless and you just end up working unrelated jobs if you study it. People seem to think that about Arts subjects in general. My thoughts are that if you have a plan and you know what you need to do to get into a relevant industry (internships for example), it is not a waste of time.

My aunt did an English degree at Cambridge and she has an incredible job in New Zealand

Reply 2363

genson

17

Original post by Hjyates

My aunt did an English degree at Cambridge and she has an incredible job in New Zealand

Yeah, my bf's dad did English at Oxford and he's doing/done quite well for himself as a lawyer.

Now, I'm just taking a wild guess here but I think their success may be more to do with the fact that they both got their degrees from Oxbridge than because they did English.

Reply 2364

BlueSam3

17

Maths. Responses tend to be either of the *back away slowly* or the "here, do some mental arithmetic" variety.

Reply 2365

HarleenQuinzel

10

Original post by goodwinning

Yeah, my bf's dad did English at Oxford and he's doing/done quite well for himself as a lawyer.

Now, I'm just taking a wild guess here but I think their success may be more to do with the fact that they both got their degrees from Oxbridge than because they did English.

Well Bristol is the best I thought I could do, so I guess I'll just have to deal with imminent failure if you're right. Not a nice prospect honestly.

Reply 2366

JustGeorgeJ

16

Original post by StrayBullet

Does anybody else get a 'typical' response?

I study psychology and almost laugh to myself before mentioning this, simply because I know full well that they will respond by saying something along the lines of; "Oooh, don't figure me out!", "better watch what I say around you then, eh!". Makes me feel like a right manipulative cow!

Anyone else have similar retorts? :biggrin:

I get a very 'typical' response and I can tell you, it's very annoying.
I study Drama in The Community and as soon as I tell someone that, they go from sounding impressed that I'm attending university to sounding like they think I'm wasting my time.
It's always like "drama? what do you do, just sit around all day and talk about shakespeare?" or "haha, drama?! because pretending to be a tree all day is that hard?" and the classic "look at me, I'm an angry tree"

I just laugh a long due to the fact I'm too tired from putting the hard work into my course that it demands to argue back.

Reply 2367

genson

17

Original post by HarleenQuinzel

Well Bristol is the best I thought I could do, so I guess I'll just have to deal with imminent failure if you're right. Not a nice prospect honestly.

Don't get me wrong, I don't personally believe that English degree=working in retail. Realistically, there are some subjects that do not make you as employable as others but like every degree it's all about how you apply yourself to maximise your job prospects.

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Reply 2368

Hjyates

2

Original post by goodwinning

Yeah, my bf's dad did English at Oxford and he's doing/done quite well for himself as a lawyer.

Now, I'm just taking a wild guess here but I think their success may be more to do with the fact that they both got their degrees from Oxbridge than because they did English.

Very likely aha

Reply 2369

mine turtle

19

Original post by whorace

Oh so you want to be a plumber

of the ben 10 variety :P

Reply 2370

posihannah

Original post by StrayBullet

Does anybody else get a 'typical' response?

I study psychology and almost laugh to myself before mentioning this, simply because I know full well that they will respond by saying something along the lines of; "Oooh, don't figure me out!", "better watch what I say around you then, eh!". Makes me feel like a right manipulative cow!

Anyone else have similar retorts? :biggrin:

I study Forensic Psychology and Criminal Justice, so needless to say I get some pretty strange reactions haha :smile:

The one's I get the most are:
1. So is that serial killers and stuff?
2. What am I thinking right now then?

Reply 2371

Galaxies

2

speech therapy - what I'm applying for ...
a lot of people don't really know what it is, even my mother (who was a nurse) seems to think it's something about making speeches and just children.
Or it's looked down upon I guess because people might see it as one of those unimportant health professions that just interfere and piss people off or something - even though it's nothing like that

Reply 2372

Audiology-Med

14

I'm starting audiology

what I got was 'why do you want to look in ears'
'I couldn't do that' ... its much more than looking in ears but its not a largely known profession so people try to judge without fully understanding what I'm going into

Reply 2373

LavenderBlueSky88

20

Back when I was doing psychology it was either "ooh can you read my mind?" or "don't most people just do psychology to analyse themselves?"

My second degree honestly would mostly get blank stares until I explained it. Sometimes the other person would know what it was and it was amazing.

My job now gets a similar response. Either silence or some sort of noise alluding to it sounding like a fancy title. Rarely do people know what it is.

Reply 2374

ChaoticButterfly

20

Original post by LavenderBlueSky88

Back when I was doing psychology it was either "ooh can you read my mind?" or "don't most people just do psychology to analyse themselves?"

My second degree honestly would mostly get blank stares until I explained it. Sometimes the other person would know what it was and it was amazing.

My job now gets a similar response. Either silence or some sort of noise alluding to it sounding like a fancy title. Rarely do people know what it is.

What was your degree?

Reply 2375

valkyrie-grey

11

I haven't started yet when people ask what I will be studying, it's an 'ohhh right' or some sort of raised eyebrow expression which I can never decipher. It's either mildly impressed or disappoving - probably the latter.

Reply 2376

cuppacoffee

14

Original post by Zefiros

They: "Computer science, is that like IT?"
Me: "It's like maths."
They: *gasp*

Me: "Computer science."
They: "Good, so if anything if wrong with my PC I can call you."

I have a friend who does computer science and I must say I am guilty of saying this to them :biggrin:

Reply 2377

username2041985

14

Me: Oh I'm doing education BA
Person: oh your carrying on education? What course are you doing at university?
Me:.........
Person: ?
Me: Education BA is my degree......
Me: it's about education as a whole...theorists.....history of education....
Person:.....
Me: *sigh* it's childcare
Person: Ooooooooh! So you want to be a primary school teacher?
Me: no.....

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 2378

Lord Jon

21

"So you want to be a lawyer?" - Presumptive but logical enough conclusion.

"Ahhh so you're gonna be rich!" - Again presumptive because the legal profession is being decimated..

"Ahh you must be smart" - Not particularly, I'm just able to "play the game" as it were throughout my course, you don't have to be particularly brainy to study Law.

Yeah I study law... the joy