I haven't logged into this forum for ten years. I remember reading posts, and honestly used to make me feel a bit inadequate and slightly stress me out. All so competitive, and very hierarchical.
I thought about this forum, because I paid off my student loan last week. It was about 25k when I graduated, a lot of money, but probably tiny compared to what most people have to deal with now. Made me think about how pointless all that worrying was - essay deadlines, presentations, seminar debates. Nothing can prepare you for real work.
I loved my time at uni, but having paid off that student loan, it was pretty poor value. I received a 1st from an OK red brick, but to my disappointment, not once have I ever had to show my degree. I vaguely remember it coming up briefly in my first interview, but was very much just a tickbox. After that, no one cared (I ended up going into tech, so my humanities degree wasn't exactly relevant).
I suppose some might argue that my degree means I can communicate slightly better, and indirectly means I can manage my day to day work better, but I'm sceptical. Maybe this is why humanities are falling out of favour.
With hindsight, I don't regret uni, but regret studying quite as a hard. The experiences with friends, having several years of completely free enjoyment was worth a lot more than the piece of paper I received at the end.
Curious to see what others think? Now I'm approaching 30, I'm probably too old for this forum now anyway...