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University - overrated?

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yep

Original post by RELAXED

Don't mean to be a bore, but 3+ years doing anything is life changes, especially at age 18. Your life will change in 3 years of doing anything new. In my opinion, you grow up faster in 3 years of life in the "real world" - working and getting a place to live that you pay for.... career progressing.

Also, it's not uncommon that graduates will start lower down than if they had worked for the last 3 years instead.

University is still the real world. Where did you get the idea that university students don't have to pay for their lodgings or manage their own bills?

And you can't get everything from career progression and experience. Everyone has to learn to become skilled, sometimes learning is best achieved through experience on-the-job (I guess this is what you are thinking of), but some learning for some careers has to happen in university. I'd like to see someone pursue a research career without a degree. Or become a teacher without a degree. Or a dentist.. etc

An unrealistically negative attitude toward going to university or not going to university just makes you look ignorant. It really depends on the job you want to do.

I think uni is a really big change.

A big part of that is just the move from home. Less noticeable because it is kind of phased.. moving from mum+dad to halls is one step, moving out of halls into private accommodation is another.

And the course is very different from 6th form. Much more work, much more self-management, and geared toward a profession (well in my case) so you start to feel more like a trainee than a student.

And you might make closer friends at uni simply through living with them and not your family. But the same again could be said of anyone who goes into work and moves into a shared house.

A lot of people who go straight into work may not move out at 18 so perhaps the change is less extreme than uni. That's not a bad thing, it's just that if you're starting off (not much money) and you can live at home it makes financial sense to do so (whereas you can't if you're going to a far away uni).

University does also give you the opportunity to do a lot of things you might not have been able to do, because of financial discounts etc.