Hi.. apologies as this has turned out longer than expected, but I'd really appreciate some advice!
I'm due to go to Uni in 2008 (so currently y12), and I live in SE London. I've decided for several reaons that I want to stay in London for Uni, and intend to live at home, for the first year at least. I went to the UCAS fair yesterday and now feel even more unsure about what I want to do.
I'm interested in doing a Public Relations degree, or something similar, such as PR & Marketing etc. The thing is, I feel like I'm letting down parents, and more so teachers etc because of this. I've always been pretty bright (not amazingly intelligent), but have always done well academically, am doing English, History, Sociology and Media and so am more in to written subjects and would say I'm quite capable. I got all As and Bs at GCSE and am predicted the same for this year and next. I wanted to go in to law for years, and then changed my mind to teaching, and all the while, felt like people assumed that I would go in to something like that.. do a degree or go in to a career that was quite 'academic'. Some of my teachers assume I'll be applying to top Unis etc..
However, I'm really determined not to go to Uni and get a degree for the sake of it.. I want to get a degree which will be helpful to my career, will put me a slight step ahead and which will prove that the three years of studying for it will have been worthwhile. I don't think I'd cope with a history degree (don't think I'm good enough to be honest, and don't want to struggle for three years and end up with a crap grade) and if I did a social science degree, I'm not sure I want to go in to anything related to this as a career. That's why I'm steering towards PR (or something similar), as I feel this is possibly more beneficial career-wise and won't be so work-heavy (as in lots of writing and essays etc). However, I feel that loads of people expect me to do something better than this and I feel as though people will think I'm throwing away great opportunities and not fulfilling my potential.
The Unis in London I looked at yesterday that did PR or similar were: London Met, Greenwich, Westminster, Thames Valley, Middlesex, Kingston, Roehampton and Southbank. None of these are apparently great Unis, and I got lots of frowns when I mentioned going to London Met, and have been told I could do much better than any of these.
So, my questions are:
Where else in London does a good PR (or at least marketing/media related) degree?
Would I really be not aiming for my full potential if I do PR at one of these Unis and is this such a terrible mistake?
Would I be better to try and exert myself and try and get in to a better London uni doing something like Sociology or a social science degree, even though I'm not sure what sort of job they'd be great for and lead me straight in to?
Which of these Unis is the best generally? (apart from Southbank, as I live 10 mins from here and know it's not the best!)
Many thanks for reading.. xxxx