[trollko]

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum so keep the hate and flame to the minimum please.
So straight to the point.

I am a 20 year old guy from a pretty less financially stable family.
I have a sister who's 14 at school, and a geek brother who did IT at college and just got accepted to study IT and management at uni.

Me myself I am a first year student at uni now, studying an undergraduate course but I have messed up big time with my time management and missed out on some course work therefore I gotta do the re-sits if I want to go through to the next year.

The thing is I've missed the first re-sit deadline as I had no will, and motivation to do it, and now the second and last re-sit deadline is coming up in like few days and I still don't know whether I should do it or not. Whether I should stay at uni and fight for it. At college I did Sports Studies and when I finished college I think I kinda rushed my decision also because of peer and family pressure to go and go and go uni like a must. So I chose Journalism and Media as I thought it will be a cool and interesting industry to get in to thinking that TV/Radio presenter is what I'd like to do as I like to talk a lot. However my point of view on the whole journalism thing has changed after I learned some bits and pieces about the subject and and what it requires. And I feel its just not for me. My parents are pretty mad that I messed up and they want me to do it regardless always highlighting the fact that if I decide to leave uni now and try to go later it will cost twice as much and all that kind of stuff. And I am fully aware of that but I am just stuck and hopeless as I don't seem to be enjoying the whole journalism thing and I don't even find motivation to succeed in there. I try many times but I get bored of it too easily. Maybe it's because I was not prepared for journalism before I went to study it at a university level as I had difficult times during that first year. But I also want to admit that I can be lazy and if I'm not enjoying what I do I simply wont see the point doing idk how to explain it. And now I'm stuck with the re-sit deadline and like 6700 words of work to do in about 3 days which is beyond my writing limits/skills/experiences. If it helps I can add that my interests are sports mainly football(played for local amateur teams since 10), tennis and IT, programming and video games (i play those a lot like 2-4 hours a day sometimes).
I worked part time as a waiter prior to this and I also did about 5 months football coaching U8 and U12. I enjoyed coaching the younger ones but the older ones were cheeky so I got demotivated and kinda gave up. Maybe I should try coaching the little kids again and work it up from there and see if its what I like and when I'm 100% sure then apply for uni to become a PE teacher or a Fitness coach etc. All I'm asking you guys for those who read this all the way to this point is what should I do? Any constructive advice or criticism is welcome. Did anyone had similar experience I am going trough right now?
What would you do if you were on my place?


Please help coz I seriously don't know what to do.

Best Regards.

[SpiritedAway]

It really sounds like you've made your mind up, and it's only because of family pressure that you're holding back. One of my friends studied media because he thought it would be interesting and then hated the course, and now he's getting ready to graduate, he has no idea what to do, because he's got a degree in something he hates and doesn't want a job in media.

I would advise you to drop out. Take a look at clearing and see if there is anything you'd might like and that you meet the entry requirements for. If there is, ring up the university, tell them your situation and why you want to do their course and if this hasn't put them off then ask if they can hold you a place whilst you sort everything out.

If there isn't anything, then take a gap year. Even if the fees will be higher, if you don't enjoy your course you won't do well. And since you can't even manage to get the motivation to pass first year, I can't see you getting through second year. This then gives you a year to think about what you want to do. Get yourself a job, think about what you want to do and look around unis.

If your parents are still worried about you, tell them that you want to go to uni, you just made a mistake with the course. Tell them your plans, and they'll get over it in time .

I'm assuming you're doing a 3 year course. So financially, as long as you don't make the same mistake again, you'll be covered by student finance.

[trollko]

thank you for you input

i think that in my cause id rather not rush another course again as making the same mistake again would be a disaster, so IF it happens that i will drop out and have a year off i will think through what to do and how. and if im fully convinced that i have enough skills, qualities and passion to do that course i will study it. otherwise i would probably end up doing the same mistake again.

What do you guys think. Any other advice?

[Dappaman]

Out of interest is it a 3 year course? so if you do the resit you'd have 2 years left?

Its hard to say what I would do. I've heard plenty of stories where people end up doing work completely unrelated to their degree. Remember you can do a degree in anything and still get a job in a grad scheme.

But only you know if you will manage getting by 2 years of something you dont wanna do.

[trollko]

It's a 3 year course, yes.

[Vinchenko]

(Original post by trollko)
It's a 3 year course, yes.

Well the really important thing is that you don't do another year of your course and then decide to drop out and go to a different course, since the government will only give you funding (loans & bursaries) for the length of your course +1yr except in exceptional circumstances. This means if you do 2 years, and then decide to drop out and do another course you'll have to pay for 1 year yourself. If you decide to drop out now, you could:

a) look in clearing to see if there's a course you're interested in, and call up the university to see if there's any way of applying
b) take a year out, and start preparing your application properly now to apply in October-ish for something you really enjoy. Don't worry about the increased fees, you'll only have to pay them back when you're in a decent paying job.
c) decide university's not for you, and look for a job at something you're interested in

it just sounds like you're really unhappy in your course at the moment, so there is just no point in carrying on - you will drop out at some point or other, and better to do it before wasting your time, government money, and losing the opportunity to start a new course with full funding!

[trollko]

I feel bad. Time and money wasted. When I was at my last year of college I was already applying for university without knowing enough about the course and journalism as a whole and what its about. I had difficulties getting qualifications certificates from my old college to prove theyre good enough to get into uni. After all that stress to get there now it looks I'm going to drop out. I just thought that media and journalism is cool but the more I learned about it the more things were knocking at the back of my head that this is not for me, I am not skilled, qualified in journalism to do this and so on. Going into university is a massive decision in life and very important in todays life if you want to have a decent job where you can take care of your self, wife and two kids for example. I just wish I was more aware about what I was going into when choosing for this course or just wished I did journalism at college. But then again we can't go back in time and change things.

thank you guys for you input so far. more feedback and advise is of course hugely welcome.

[SpiritedAway]

You shouldn't feel bad We all make mistakes, but it's better to rectify a mistake than carrying on making the same mistake. And it really would be a mistake to study something you hate. I love my subject, I seriously have such a passion for it, I probably bore everyone stupid talking about it, so I always find it a shame when people do a degree they hate.

[trollko]

i agree with you but i just feel guilty and my parents are mad at me and so on

out of subject but what do u study if i could ask?

any more advice you guys can give me

best regards

[SpiritedAway]

foreign languages

I would just advise you not to break under your parents anger. At the end of the day, it's your life, and do you really want to be stuck doing this for 2 more years?