[brothertiger]

I have completed my third year at Edinburgh with an upper second. I've recently had thoughts about getting a job for a year in the US instead of doing my fourth year honours. Is it possible for me to change my track at this point? Any help or advice would be much appreciated -- thanks!

[MostUncivilised]

(Original post by brothertiger)
I have completed my third year at Edinburgh with an upper second. I've recently had thoughts about getting a job for a year in the US instead of doing my fourth year honours. Is it possible for me to change my track at this point? Any help or advice would be much appreciated -- thanks!

You'd be mad to do so if it means graduating without honours. Despite the fact that you've effectively completed the same amount of work as many English honours graduates, if the University will not award you an honours degree, it will reflect very poorly on you from the perspective of employers.

You will always regret it if you proceed with this.

[Trollolollol]

(Original post by MostUncivilised)
You'd be mad to do so if it means graduating without honours. Despite the fact that you've effectively completed the same amount of work as many English honours graduates, if the University will not award you an honours degree, it will reflect very poorly on you from the perspective of employers.

You will always regret it if you proceed with this.

Yeah but on the other hand pfft same amount of work as english grads? They don't do anything in their first year, they minor etc in some random subject it's like a level again...




This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[MostUncivilised]

(Original post by Trollolollol)
Yeah but on the other hand pfft same amount of work as english grads? They don't do anything in their first year, they minor etc in some random subject it's like a level again...

Point taken, but I would submit that the issue of equivalence is far less relevant than how it may affect his future career prospects and academic opportunities.

In other circumstances, he might get more from this job than he would in the final year of a Scottish honours degree, or perhaps more in terms of insight and experience than some English graduates obtain in their entire degree (at some universities).

Difficult issues; I don't know the guy, I don't know the job he has been offered, but I guess the employment downside would be a huge concern to me, and I would imagine I might always regret not just sticking it out for the final year and finishing the degree.

[canŵio]

surely it would be more helpful to send an email to your tutor/someone who knows what the answer is rather than a bunch of students who are highly unlikely to be able to provide you with anything but opinions?

imo, not properly finishing your degree, especially as the last year is the most relevant, would be a waste of the three years you've done already. there will still be jobs in america next year.

[nearlyheadlessian]

It depends what degree you're doing at present - some don't have Ordinary degree options. Equally, having completed your third year (and it's June) you've really left it very late to start arranging it. Most people get an Ordinary degree having agreed it between 2nd and 3rd year (or having originally applied for one). I have to I agree with the others, it seems a chronic waste of time to have done three years work and not bother doing the fourth for the honours degree.

[brothertiger]

I don't really see the point of an honours degree. What I am doing is essentially useless (politics/IR). But I have prospective offers from a few VC firms due to previous work/internship experience. Even if plans fall through, I would still rather focus on a few start-ups I'm working with right now since I've already gotten an offer to work in Madrid come fall.

Since what I plan to do career-wise differs largely from my degree, I'm not sure how useful spending an extra year earning that 'Hons' on my degree would be.

Ideally though, I would love to be able to do my last year while working part-time at a VC firm in, or at least near Edinburgh but I'm not very sure how possible that would be since my network in UK is next to nothing.

I will definitely send an email to my DoS but I just wanted to hear your opinions first since my father said getting an honours is not worth much. Thanks!

[nearlyheadlessian]

(Original post by brothertiger)
I will definitely send an email to my DoS but I just wanted to hear your opinions first since my father said getting an honours is not worth much. Thanks!

You will not be taken seriously in Scotland with just an Ordinary degree. But if you've no intention of remaining in Scotland then I suppose it makes no difference.

[oxymoronic]

(Original post by brothertiger)
I don't really see the point of an honours degree. What I am doing is essentially useless (politics/IR). But I have prospective offers from a few VC firms due to previous work/internship experience. Even if plans fall through, I would still rather focus on a few start-ups I'm working with right now since I've already gotten an offer to work in Madrid come fall.

Since what I plan to do career-wise differs largely from my degree, I'm not sure how useful spending an extra year earning that 'Hons' on my degree would be.

Ideally though, I would love to be able to do my last year while working part-time at a VC firm in, or at least near Edinburgh but I'm not very sure how possible that would be since my network in UK is next to nothing.

I will definitely send an email to my DoS but I just wanted to hear your opinions first since my father said getting an honours is not worth much. Thanks!

I get the feeling that you're not from the UK which might be why you have a different opinion to people here, who are primarily from the UK.

In the UK you will not be taken seriously as a graduate without an honours degree because this is what is classed as a "proper" degree. You would not be able to apply for any graduate schemes or really progress in a career because an honours degree is what you need to get these jobs in the first place. You really would not be doing yourself any favours as this would also cut off all of your options for postgraduate study. This is the same story regardless of whether what you want to do as a job is or isn't related to your degree given that most people go into careers which aren't related to their degree.

However, it seems like abroad you've got a lot of personal contacts/family links which mean you've been able to walk into jobs that you wouldn't be able to apply for if you were doing it from scratch without your existing contacts if you didn't have an honours degree. If you plan to go through life getting jobs through family contacts then you may well not need an honours degree (particularly in the US) but if you plan to come back to the UK at any time then this could come back to haunt you as you wouldn't be classed as having a "proper" degree.

That said you've left this very late given its now June and if you were to finish with an ordinary degree then you'd be graduating in less than 2 weeks time. It's far too late at this stage to arrange a graduation for June and it may be too late to appeal to the registry to have your degree awarded as an ordinary degree (this is even assuming that your degree programme does have a non honours option) given that final degree classifications will be being awarded/communicated at the moment. Surely you knew when you came to Edinburgh that the course would be for 4 years? If you didn't want to do 4 years then you should have gone to an English university and studied for 3 years - it's not really the done thing or expected that you'll leave after 3 years. The majority of people who do have either failed to get onto honours or have personal/medical reasons why they can't continue. It's not the case that people leave after 3 years because they don't think the honours year is "worth much" as otherwise that defeats the whole point of having come to the UK to do a degree in the first place.

[brothertiger]

Thanks, oxymoronic. That really put things into perspective or at least gave me a context to consider it. I think you're right -- I do intend on pursuing graduate studies and by your explanation, it would be ludicrous to not pursue an honours. Thanks again!