The Student Room Group

To uni or not to uni

I’ve been at uni since September and I’m really not feeling happy with the actually university aspect of things. City is great, house/course mates are as nice as expected (some good, some bad) and even being away from home is kinda fine for me. But I’m really struggling to find any motivation to do the course, I don’t have an end goal other than ‘get a job’ and I feel like I could do this through an apprenticeship or something at home rather than getting a degree right now. I’ve never pushed myself to work super hard but I’ve normally been able to make myself work when it counts but not now. Any advice? (If this post seems odd style it's bc I just copied it from my tumblr)
Which course is it?
Reply 2
maths
Reply 3
I would advise that you get more concrete information about alternatives before you decide to give up on the degree. What would you like to be an apprentice in? You'll need to know what you want to do - plumbing, gas fitting, bricklayer, IT, law, healthcare etc.

You should be aware that there are far fewer apprenticeships than you might imagine and they will be competitive. You won't necessarily get one if you apply, so leaving uni in advance of winning an apprenticeship place would be a big risk.

This site will help - you can follow links to a search facility where you can browse for apprenticeships in your area (there are currently none in the UK under the Maths/Science section):
https://www.gov.uk/topic/further-education-skills/apprenticeships
There is no point in dropping out unless you have a better plan that you are 100% certain you are going to have the motivation for.

Unless you want to spend your life working in Debenhams as a sales assistant, you HAVE to get qualifications, be they academic or high skilled vocational. There is simply no way around it. A maths degree will open up many potential career routes to you.

I would suggest you stick at it for the time being, whilst thinking more deeply about what kind of job you want to spend your life doing. Perhaps once you have a better idea of that, the maths degree won't seem so irrelevant and you will gain the motivation to work hard.
Reply 5
Yeah I wouldn't leave uni if I didn't know what I was going to do, but it's making me unhappy and when my only goal out of this is a job I feel like it makes sense so look into other routes of getting one perhaps?
Reply 6
Original post by tamlh
Yeah I wouldn't leave uni if I didn't know what I was going to do, but it's making me unhappy and when my only goal out of this is a job I feel like it makes sense so look into other routes of getting one perhaps?


It's definitely a good idea to understand your potential options more clearly before making any decision.

If you leave uni before you start your second year, you'll still have enough Student Finance entitlement left to do a new degree fron scratch at some point in the future. It's always good to have options.
Reply 7
someone suggested to me that I try getting a part time job after christmas because it might get me up and about more and then i might be more motivated to work
Original post by tamlh
someone suggested to me that I try getting a part time job after christmas because it might get me up and about more and then i might be more motivated to work


you don't have to continue if youre totally not happy! It doesn't matter what course youre doing find your passion and go out and do what you want to do.

Success is seriously not defined by the degree you have....and you may even find out you hate studying the content at university.

(Source- Mechanical engineer in training :wink:)
Reply 9
thats kinda what i needed to hear i think. I don't want to give up on this just yet but I just kinda want to know that i should be okay without a degree behind me.

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