Good whatever time of the day applies
I would like to ask The Student Room for an advice and urge not to judge me too harshly. Before turning to the main point, I have to tell a little story for you to understand why I`ve ended up where I`m now.
Before commencing my studies I have been working in Britain for a year to save up some money for living expenses (the fact that EU citizens did not have to pay tuition fees in Scotland helped me a lot), working each summer ever since to support myself. Eventually I managed to join the BA Hons Politics in a pretty good Scottish uni. Even though I did not like it very much, in the first two years I found it tolerable enough to stay on the course to pursue something else after I get "the standard" 2:1 Honours degree. Despite living on a very tight budget throughout my student life, heady challenges were fun to be overcome, so I did not really feel starved or miserable - I moonlighted occasionally and my mother did her best to support me.
I even managed to join Erasmus and spend my 3rd year in a really good European uni, which I enjoyed very much (I mostly studied in the 1st term and took part in student associations in the 2nd, drinking occasionally). Yet, as spring semester was tough and I was increasingly realizing that PS "is not my thing", my grades went down, but I still managed to backdoor my way into the 4th Year, which was the only which counted in terms of grades and classifications.
Throughout the final year I`ve been struggling both with my dissertation and regular classes. Although I managed to secure 2:1 level for my 1st semester classes, I was very late to submit my dissertation and got the mark below 40%. As I had mitigating circumstances that year, university allowed me to suspend studies and repeat my final year, which seemed like a fresh start.
I was super-motivated to seize the bull by horns and get this bloody 2:1, but in the beginning of autumn semester I had another personal circumstances (although, apart from that, I hate to say that I also have not learnt from my previous year mistakes in terms of discipline and planning), which have prevented me from starting studying before mid-October and I struggled with regular classes even more, starting my dissertation work only 1.5 month before the actual deadline. All in all I somehow regret that I took that voluntary suspension, as I was clearly already fed up with studies by then, but what done is done.
As things currently stand I`m mostly likely to be late with my dissertation again and as far as I`m repeating my final year and there are no penalties for the late submission (you either do it or don`t) , I`m afraid that study advisor will not offer me anything more than Designated Degree which leaves me pretty much in a "Charlie Foxtrot" situation.
So, I`m not a rich kid, therefore, I would like to ask TSR-ers for advice, opinions and experience on following questions:
1) Am I really screwed in terms of job market (apart from customer service jobs) /getting to Masters in Britain, or there are some options?
2) Are there any Political Science Honours conversion courses in Britain (I`ve heard something about them, but don`t really have much information about the requirements and tuition fees)?
3) Is there any possibilities to join 3rd or 4th Year in some British university again (having received a Designated Degree) to top up for Honours?
4) Is it possible to enter postgraduate studies somewhere abroad (Germany, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands)?
5) Is it possible to transfer for a 3rd (or final) year of Bachelor in some European university, to get their undergraduate degree and try to apply for a Masters here later?
6) Or It`s better to go back to my country, get some work experience and forget about postgrad studies for some time?
I`m very depressed right now to be honest, not simply because I worked many *****y jobs to get myself going (thankfully, I`ve covered 65-70% of my expenses myself, so my mum did not lose plenty of money on me), but it appears that I`ve lost many years for almost nothing.
Kind regards,
KOTL.
P.S. Sorry if I posted to the wrong section - please, transfer this thread to appropriate one.