The Student Room Group

How do you decide what uni course to do?

In Y13 and the UCAS deadline is quickly approaching...
Most people have already made their personal statement and some have even gotten uni offers...
There is me with absolutely no clue what I want to choose.
I 100% want to go to university and currently study IT, Games Dev, Business and Graphics but none of these truly fascinate me.
How on earth does society expect me (a 17-year-old kid) to make such a life-changing choice, all on my own? All by myself...
Someone please share some insight, and don't just say 'do what you enjoy' because I have no idea what I 'enjoy'
If you don't know what you enjoy and you have no idea what you want to do, I would personally take a gap year. I would try to do productive things in that gap year and try different things out such as:

- Get a part-time job (for financial reasons but also human interaction because sitting at home all the time doing nothing is boring, if COVID-19 has taught us anything)

- Volunteer - this could help you sus out whether you're a "people-person" and whether you'd like to work with people in the future. This could be in charity shops, care-homes, charities or hospitals.

- To help you get a better grasp of what you may or may not enjoy, I'd look around websites such as Coursera, EdX and FutureLearn and do some free courses on various subjects. These give a nice introduction (or even in depth sometimes) to a specific area of academia which which you can either put on your list of potential areas of interest, or disregard if they don't interest you.
Tbh I was exact The same I had no clue and I saw going to do law and then I decided on history. I don’t really know what I enjoy either so I just picked the subject I was best at lol and what intrests me. It’s probably best to look at all options of what you’ve thought you might want to do and then cut it down to see if you actually might like it. You could also ask people who have been uni what there experiences have been. It’s so hard to choose, if you really don’t know maybe take a year or two out to do whatever you want and figure what you actually want to do before you get stuck in a degree that you have to pay for but hate, there’s no time limit on when you can to uni sometimes taking a year out of education is good for you and gives a fresh perspective on things. I know what you mean I’m from Scotland and I’m 16 idk why I’m expected to make such a big decision when I’m not 17 till next year. I’ve applied for uni now but I’m not sure if im actually going to go. I hope this helped I don’t give the best advice sometimes lol.
(edited 3 years ago)
Original post by Mesopotamian.
If you don't know what you enjoy and you have no idea what you want to do, I would personally take a gap year. I would try to do productive things in that gap year and try different things out such as:

- Get a part-time job (for financial reasons but also human interaction because sitting at home all the time doing nothing is boring, if COVID-19 has taught us anything)

- Volunteer - this could help you sus out whether you're a "people-person" and whether you'd like to work with people in the future. This could be in charity shops, care-homes, charities or hospitals.

- To help you get a better grasp of what you may or may not enjoy, I'd look around websites such as Coursera, EdX and FutureLearn and do some free courses on various subjects. These give a nice introduction (or even in depth sometimes) to a specific area of academia which which you can either put on your list of potential areas of interest, or disregard if they don't interest you.

Thanks that's good advice, but in all honesty, I'm kinda a slacker, I really don't think I have the skills to obtain a job or volunteering placement and I would really just waste a year. I can see how that would be very helpful to someone else though.
Original post by Honeyhoney1
Tbh I was exact The same I had no clue and I saw going to do law and then I decided on history. I don’t really know what I enjoy either so I just picked the subject I was best at lol and what intrests me. It’s probably best to look at all options of what you’ve thought you might want to do and then cut it down to see if you actually might like it. You could also ask people who have been uni what there experiences have been. It’s so hard to choose, if you really don’t know maybe take a year or two out to do whatever you want and figure what you actually want to do before you get stuck in a degree that you have to pay for but hate, there’s no time limit on when you can to uni sometimes taking a year out of education is good for you and gives a fresh perspective on things. I know what you mean I’m from Scotland and I’m 16 idk why I’m expected to make such a big decision when I’m not 17 till next year. I’ve applied for uni now but I’m not sure if im actually going to go. I hope this helped I don’t give the best advice sometimes lol.

Yeah it helped :smile: thanks
Original post by Jonathanツ
Thanks that's good advice, but in all honesty, I'm kinda a slacker, I really don't think I have the skills to obtain a job or volunteering placement and I would really just waste a year. I can see how that would be very helpful to someone else though.

If you don't do anything proactive, you'll probably never find what you're really passionate in. Maybe you need a change of mindset?
Original post by Mesopotamian.
If you don't do anything proactive, you'll probably never find what you're really passionate in. Maybe you need a change of mindset?

Yeah your probably right
Original post by Jonathanツ
Thanks that's good advice, but in all honesty, I'm kinda a slacker, I really don't think I have the skills to obtain a job or volunteering placement and I would really just waste a year. I can see how that would be very helpful to someone else though.

Lol this is so relatable. However sometimes you just need to go for things and try it to see if you like it cause then you’ll never know. You might think your a slacker but your probably not you just need to find something you actually enjoy to do which you won’t figure out unless you try new things and obtain new skills. Like you might love working but because you’ve never done it before you think you won’t.
Original post by Honeyhoney1
Lol this is so relatable. However sometimes you just need to go for things and try it to see if you like it cause then you’ll never know. You might think your a slacker but your probably not you just need to find something you actually enjoy to do which you won’t figure out unless you try new things and obtain new skills. Like you might love working but because you’ve never done it before you think you won’t.

Yeah, I just don't want to spend all my life looking for something I'm fascinated by, and it then being too late to actually make my contribution to that field.
Reply 10
Take a careers aptitude test! If the career that you matched with seems fascinating, look into what type of uni degree is required to get into that career.
From that, look for the best uni that does the course and apply!
Original post by Jonathanツ
Yeah, I just don't want to spend all my life looking for something I'm fascinated by, and it then being too late to actually make my contribution to that field.

I know it truly is so difficult. I have the same worries but I guess we will never know unless we try we have our whole life’s ahead of us so if we get it wrong then I suppose it’s not too bad. The course I’m applying to I don’t even know if I’ll like it tbh I’m just giving it a go and see what happen . But I guess I’m some ways it’s just that you want to be satisfied with your life and you don’t want to be stuck doing something you don’t like. Why don’t you talk to your parents or someone in school and ask for there insite I’m sure you already have but try again and see if you get any better advice. In Scotland we have careers advisors that help us decide what we want to do etc but I’m not sure if you have that in England if you do maybe try contact them.
Original post by taaad1
Take a careers aptitude test! If the career that you matched with seems fascinating, look into what type of uni degree is required to get into that career.
From that, look for the best uni that does the course and apply!

Yeah ill definitely give one of those a try, thanks
Original post by Honeyhoney1
I know it truly is so difficult. I have the same worries but I guess we will never know unless we try we have our whole life’s ahead of us so if we get it wrong then I suppose it’s not too bad. The course I’m applying to I don’t even know if I’ll like it tbh I’m just giving it a go and see what happen . But I guess I’m some ways it’s just that you want to be satisfied with your life and you don’t want to be stuck doing something you don’t like. Why don’t you talk to your parents or someone in school and ask for there insite I’m sure you already have but try again and see if you get any better advice. In Scotland we have careers advisors that help us decide what we want to do etc but I’m not sure if you have that in England if you do maybe try contact them.

Your right, thanks so much for your help :smile:
Original post by Jonathanツ
Your right, thanks so much for your help :smile:

Good luck I hope you figure it out! 😃

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