Do I stay or do I go?

I'm really struggling at the minute. I'm 5 months into my first year at Leeds Beckett Uni and have just done my first set of exams. They went alright and I passed them so that's not the problem. It's uni itself. I find it so hard leaving everyone (girlfriend, family etc) behind in Nottingham and only getting to see them at the weekends. I've dragged myself to Leeds every week so far and I haven't experienced that uni lifestyle that everyone talks about. All I hear is "Uni will be the best experience of your life" and "you'll love it" but I can't seem to relate to. I don't particularly want this degree although it could be nice to have one next to my name when I'm done. At the minute, II can't see myself carrying on and I haven't been able to head back to Leeds for the first week of semester 2. Do I stay? Or do I follow another route, whether it be a job, apprenticeship etc. I NEED HELP!

Reply 1

Blondie987

Original post by koczalski12

My advice would be to make it to the end of first year and use the summer to think about what you want to do, many first years go through the same thing so don't stress! There's no point wasting your time being unhappy when you could be doing something else but don't make any drastic decisions, especially if it could just be a case of missing home. Think about why you decided to do the degree in the first place and don't be afraid to put yourself out there to try new things, hope this helps you in some way, good luck! :biggrin:

Leeds Beckett University

Leeds

Reply 2

koczalski12

Original post by Blondie987

Thanks for the reply. The only real reason I did a degree was because that was all that was really offered to me! It seemed standard procedure at college to go on to uni and nothing else really crossed my mind. It just seems like I've made a bad decision and I can't physically see myself getting to the end of the academic year!

Reply 3

Blondie987

Original post by koczalski12

I completely understand where you're coming from, I decided to go to Uni straight from school as, in my mind, that's what people did and I honestly didn't look into any other options. I ended up not enjoying the course at all and basically dropped out. I'm repeating first year in a different course that I'm enjoying more but I'm still unsure of what I want to do lol so I'm just trying my best to get good grades and I'm going to start looking into other options in case I want a change. Like I said though, you're definitely not meant to know what you want to do at 18/19 so there's no point worrying about it and you can always change your decisions, nothing's set in stone :smile:

Reply 4

Beckett Becky

Original post by koczalski12

At the minute, II can't see myself carrying on and I haven't been able to head back to Leeds for the first week of semester 2. Do I stay? Or do I follow another route, whether it be a job, apprenticeship etc. I NEED HELP!

@koczalski12 Hi, I just wanted to check if you've talked to any of the support staff at uni? Maybe your SLO or the Union? If not, I'd really recommend getting in touch with them. It's more common than you'd think to feel like this in the first year of uni, so most, if not all, universities offer support to help students make the best decisions for them and take steps to make things better.

If you'd like me to put you in touch with some people, just send me a message.

Reply 5

koczalski12

Thanks for the message. I have been advised to talk to someone at the uni but I'm not sure how to do this and who to talk to?

Reply 6

beautifulbigmacs

First year of uni was meh. It took me until second year to start feeling comfortable living away from home and I started going out to meet people outside of uni because the uni social groups felt too immature and about drink.

What I'm trying to say is that the way you are feeling is normal and it's not necessarily how you will feel for the whole of your uni life.

Reply 7

Beckett Becky

Original post by koczalski12

Thanks for the message. I have been advised to talk to someone at the uni but I'm not sure how to do this and who to talk to?

@koczalski12 the details of your SLO will be on this page, and they tend to be a good starting point for helping you find more support services and they'll also talk to your course team for you. There's a lot of other teams/people you might also be interested in contacting with the main one being the Student Wellbeing Team.

The details are on those pages, but I can probably put them in touch with you if you'd rather do that. You'd just need to send me a private message with your uni email.