Degree - hating it

It is hard at degree level. A CS degree is hard. When you work in industry things become easier, as you are encouraged to use frameworks and 3rd party APIs. When I did CS, the theory was hard, and I had to code everything from scratch.



These days, you need good UCAS points and a 2.1 minimum for any good grad scheme. If I were you, I wouldn't cut corners.

If I were you I would stay away from doing a joint honours, just specialize in one subject then do a masters. I might do psychology as a masters at some point.

Life is much better, when you work on interesting projects and earn money, it makes learning CS worthwhile.

Wow, I'm so happy for you that the industry is not so rigid and use shortcuts and that. It almost sounded like a straight nightmare when you described how you thought that you would do programming for 20 years :P.

Damn, I thought doing a joint honours would be an advantage, because I would then have more than one option open to me?

For example if I took a psychology+accounting joint honours and I for example ended up disliking psychology, I could then drop psychology and continue with accounting right?
I think I'm probably wrong about this as I haven't researched info about joint honours yet.

Someone else advised me to specialize at masters level too, however I forgot to ask them about doing a joint honours.

I will definitely strive for a 2.1 and above, I definitely don't want to come across as lazy or thick, seeing as I have terrible A level results, and I am doing psychology which is quite often derided as "soft". Also my UCAS points are very low as well, is there no way of improving them other than retaking A levels?

Also do you mean I shouldn't "cut corners" as in do a degree with good employment prospects, or more as in getting that 2.1?

Ahh, I'm sorry if I'm bombarding you with questions man. I'm just scared really, like I said, I have about a month to apply and I'm having a lot of anxiety as to what to study.

I should have thought about these things in my gap year, but like I said, I was gripped by anxiety and depression in my gap year. And not only that, but I shot myself in the foot by thinking that UCAS applications start after 15th of January, rather than before.
But yeah, that 2nd gap year man, I'm dreading it.

Aside from my personal dilemma, I'm glad things worked out for you man.
Since you're gonna study psychology as a masters, and you do CS which might involve artificial intelligence. What do you think about the link between A.I. and psychology/neuroscience? :P

I'm curious whether psychologist/neurologist can develop an A.I. that is completely independent and autonomous personality that it's almost indistinguishable from being human?

Retake your ALs, your degree will be worthless without good ucas points.

Whoaa!!

I am completely skint and I can't afford to retake any of my A levels, they cost like £90 per exam!!? I have the bare minimum of A level grades so if I wanted to retake every exam I have from A2 for examplel: which is c3,c4,m2, 2X chemistryA2, 2X Physics A2 which is about 7 exams!!? So that would cost me about £630!? This just sent me into a huge panic really

I might try to retake 2 exams every year during my degree, but I am scared it would distract me from my main studies as well, maybe I would need to retake them after I finish my degree.

Is this really true? A lot of people just say that a 2.1 and good work experience is enough? I never knew you needed those UCAS points.
This is terrible man, do you think I might have more luck if I take my degree abroad, I can speak Dutch fluently?

Also sorry for forgetting to mention it, but I think I have 120 ucas points , it's looking terrible.

Everyone is getting a degree these days, if you want to get into psychology, which is a competitive field you need good academia.

Go on any corporate grad scheme recruitment site and you will find for many roles they want between 280-340 UCAS points + a 2:1+. Work experience won't change that. So by not bothering to retake AL, you will end up wasting your time/money and will be unemployable.

Oh man it's horrendous.

Seeing as I can't afford to retake A levels now, it probably looks like I will have to retake them during my degree or after my degree.

The thing is that I have tried to read around some threads on this topic, and some people even said that some companies don't want your resit A level grades, but the ones from your first sitting? Also I have read that some companies don't use the UCAS filter.

By the way, since I can't afford the £90 exam fees, do you think that the jobcenter might help with funding, as I have read that they might do that?

I'm worried about me retaking A levels during my degree while trying to work part time at the same time would distract me from my degree?
I will try to create a thread about this later as well.

But yeah thanks for the warning man, I only know about this now.

Very few companies (corporates) don't care about UCAS points.

For the most part, MANY do.

As you can apply once a year, you are limiting yourself to 5-6 corporates making it much harder to be employed. Many of my friends in grad schemes applied to over a 100 before they broke into one grad scheme. It's extremely competitive. Having good UCAS points means you can do that too.

Yes, some corporates care about resits, but they are the minority and many will overlook the fact that you have resit at app stage.

Can't you get your parents to help you, or get a part time job

Getting a degree for the sake of getting a degree is pointless if your UCAS points are not good. You will spend 9k a year on something that you cannot use. What is the point?

While your point is valid for the big grad schemes i'm sure that plenty of relevant jobs exist in smaller businesses that don't care about UCAS points. Granted it depends which career he wants to go into.

Very few companies (corporates) don't care about UCAS points.

For the most part, MANY do.

As you can apply once a year, you are limiting yourself to 5-6 corporates making it much harder to be employed. Many of my friends in grad schemes applied to over a 100 before they broke into one grad scheme. It's extremely competitive. Having good UCAS points means you can do that too.

Yes, some corporates care about resits, but they are the minority and many will overlook the fact that you have resit at app stage.



Can't you get your parents to help you, or get a part time job

Getting a degree for the sake of getting a degree is pointless if your UCAS points are not good. You will spend 9k a year on something that you cannot use. What is the point?

Wow, this is looking very bad.
Do you have any opinions about looking for work in the EU? The UK is looking incredibly over saturated and competitive. When I was in the netherlands most students have vocational studies, and very few go to university. Rather they study at increasingly higher levels first before going to university.

So in the netherlands it goes like this:
High school>"MBO level studies">"HBO Level studies">And then possibly university (I'm not sure maybe "gymnaseum/atheneum is done instead)
But the vast majority of the students don't go to university.

But yeah I think it's inevitable for me to resit my A levels then.
I could take a part time job at university to help me do that. But I'm only worried that this will take the time away for me to do my degree when I'm also revising A levels at the same time?

Also I took science and maths A levels and it would take much more effort imo to revise for these than say over humanities a levels. Would you say that I should take up easier A levels and study them independently, or should I just continue with my older ones?

So my only problem now is:

1)Do you recommend me to resit my A levels before university, while taking another gap year?

(Problem is that I have very short term employment now that would never be able to fund £90 exams, hence why I thought about the jobcenter helping me. My parents are broker than broke, so I doubt they could help me with the money part.)

2)Or do it while at university? (Which could distract me from my degree and turn out to be a mess.)

Or maybe after I graduate? Which should be a time where I'm looking for employment/further study rather than go over my A levels again.

I think so far it looks like I would probably be better off with a gap year, but I would hate to delay going to university because I want to move on from A levels, I was thinking that before I knew about this ucas problem.

But again, thanks for warning me man, I think I saw you comment about this in an old thread. And some people argued that grad schemes are "overrated" because there are so many hurdles to overcome.

One person said that it would be better to just apply for graduate jobs, and even said that he applied for a non graduate job, but then applied for internal vacancies.

Also please don't take this badly, but I still feel like creating a thread about this to get more opinions in. It's not like I don't value or ignore your advise, but I just want to see more opinions about it

Honestly, I wouldn't bother going to uni in your current predicament. You will be paying 9k a year, and unless you work in tech, or engineering (where there is a major demand) you will be unemployable for the most part.

Wow

The problem is that engineering is exactly what I would hate to do at the moment. And I don't know about any other similar related fields.

The thing is that I considered engineering mainly for the employment prospects, but I realized that I would probably drop out or fail if did it.

What else is there to do really.

My main interest is in psychology. And I considered doing chemistry, law or accounting for example, but I figured that I would be doing them for the exact same reason I would do an engineering degree. So I would probably end up hating them too.

I thought about apprenticeships, but I don't want to do them because I feel that the companies would pressure me into staying with them for as long as possible. And that if I ever left the company, it would only leave me with my experience (and maybe the few qualifications I would earn).
So I would hate to be stuck with one company, doing one job for a very long period of time.

Honestly, I want to go back to the Netherlands, but if I wanted to go to university there it would probably take me twice as long than doing it in the UK. And I am not ready to start a new life there all over again at the moment.

I think I will continue to apply to university now to use the application cycle, but I m leaning on another gap year now.

The solution to your problem is simple, just retake ALs (find a way to do it). You have to redo them sooner or later, might as well do them now, get into a top university and get a 2.1

You're right.

I think it's a shame though that these big employers don't take this problem into account. I have read that this is because HR wants to cut down the number of applicants, while some say that it discriminates based on university.

I would love to get into a better university with better facilities later, but is it really a myth that you're university does not matter? Of course I think this depends, because for Law it would definitely matter, but for engineering not so.

But yeah sorry for the asking you questions all the time, I will stop annoying you and just create a thread or something. But thanks for the warning man, I definitely know at least 3 friends who like me have terrible A level grades but are going or already are at university.
This will surely bite them back, and I have already warned one of my friends.

You said that you don't want to do Engineering.

Engineering to be honest, if you get through it, will lead to employment even from lower unis.

It comes down to supply/demand in the end.

If I could go back, I would have redone ALs, but I had no one to guide me. Despite my amazing experience (worked on multiple award nominated projects), I am still barred from grad schemes, I cannot apply to Accenture, Capgemini etc etc. These corporates honestly do not care if you have great work experience and turned it around post ALs etc and for that reason yes the current HR system is a shambles - because one can argue they don't hire the best people, some people mature later than others academically. Academia also does not necessarily equate to being good in a commercial environment either. But that is the way it is, and you have to accept it. At least you are in a position right now, where you can avoid making the mistake that I made.

Depending on the subject, chances are they will struggle to get employment afterwards.

Yeah I know man engineering is in demand, but I would hate to pick a degree just for the employment prospects.

Also I have read quite a bit about the STEM shortage myth and that a lot of engineering graduates go into finance/abroad for better pay.

This is a confusing situation for me, as psychology is my main interest, but at the same time having any sort of career in psychology would be very tough and competitive. Even if it is just becoming a psychotherapist or counselor I think, and I have read loads about how competitive clinical psychology is, which just further discourage me.

I know that psychology involves things like statistics, research and biology, but I am skeptical as too how transferible these are?

So what's your opinion about this? Would you go to university to study a degree that interests you? Or is university more about preparing for a career after you graduate?

At the moment I am leaning more on the "interest" side, because I already have struggled massively in my A levels when I did subjects that didn't interest me that much, but I did them because I was preparing for the future "employment prospects". I am trying to avoid being in the same situation again as when I did my A levels, and that's the main reason I took a gap year and didn't go further with engineering. I mean if I took easy A levels back then, I would have had a higher chance of getting good grades and with less effort.

Damn that sucks man

So are you still planning to retake your A levels, or are you not looking for grad schemes now since you already found a graduate job?

I have read about academia being a very cut throat and competitive place, and that a PhD is extremely undervalued these days and you would be seen as "overqualified" for having one? Which also discourages me from psychology and makes me want to study something "practical" (one of the reasons I wanted to do engineering). However psychotherapy and that could also be seen as practical, so I will have to look more into that.





Well one does chemical engineering so he is "safe".
Two do forensic science, which I know is over saturated and competitive.

One is doing law, which is hugely competitive, and I did not know this at that time so I couldn't warn him about it. But I hope he knew it before applying, also he has good A levels anyway.

And one wants to do physics and will apply the same year as me.
I think physics is a good technical degree, but I have heard that engineers are preferred over physicists in industry and so unless he would go into research/teaching, that would leave him with things like finance and accounting.

Overall I think that too many people go university, and I know it sounds hypocritical since I am going too. But if apprenticeships were more flexible and taken more seriously than university, I would have taken an apprenticeship by now.

Other than that I think mass immigration also strains the job market dry, even though I'm an immigrant myself. But really my mum was so intent on coming here for a better future, and I was literally in the middle of high school pleading my mum not to leave. So yeah in a sense, sorry for coming to the UK and straining the job market and economy.

I wouldn't encourage that either.



You know what you want to study, go back, do your ALs then go to uni and study it.



Do ALs that you are interested in next time. You know right, employers don't actually care what you studied at ALs - just the UCAS points.

Again, I found this out the hard way.



I am employed and I am in the process in setting up my own business.

If I go onto work in a corporate, it will be as an experienced hire.

Do ALs that you are interested in next time. You know right, employers don't actually care what you studied at ALs - just the UCAS points.

Thank you for the warning man.
It sucks that you had to find it out in the hard way hope you will have success with your bussiness in the future.

Only thing now is the whole frustrating process of finding the money and the college where I could study A levels again. And taking another gap year.
I think I will apply to make use of this year's cycle, but I am going to start looking for exam centers and stuff to be on the safe side.



Yeah I definitely will look into doing different A levels, but the only thing I'm worried about is how would I study a whole different A level without going to college again? I will try to look in TSR for info about this.

I was also worried that I could go into university now by doing a foundation year, but I could probably have more course and university choice if I got higher grades after I retake my A levels. So it would also be bad to "rush" into university now, merely because I have the chance of getting in.

But yeah thank you for your help man, sorry for going on and on with the questions, I'm just scared of messing up since I have already massively messed up with my A levels, and would hate to repeat this at university with a big stamp of debt on my forehead.

do whatever you can to retake your a levels- its a must to beat the filters in any field/industry (im going into law post graduation hopefully). take out a loan or something dude or get a full time job for 1-2 months. loan as a last resort however i wouldnt reccomend