Going to Uni vs Not going to Uni

firesuite

I don't like those odds considering university takes 3 years to complete and is expensive.

I don't particularly like them either, which is why I will study Economics and German in first year and might go on to joint honours with one of the two; all I'm saying is that you're not entirely doomed to getting an awful job.

Reply 43

Crystaltears

I wouldn't worry about the debt. You only have to pay back like £20 a month or something.

Reply 44

firesuite

Crystaltears

I wouldn't worry about the debt. You only have to pay back like £20 a month or something.

Ignore this advice.

Reply 45

Sanity Panda

There is more to life than doing a degree for a job. /End idealism.

Reply 46

suek

tomoli

No debt
Three years headstart in career (+ earnings)
Save three years of life (less binging, takeaways - health benifits?)

What does everyone think?

I think there are valid reasons for choosing to not go to uni and all, but yours aren't that great. :wink:

A lot of people who don't go to uni don't end up in a "career job" right away. They end up doing something that they wouldn't want to be involved in for the rest of their life.

The no debt thing entirely depends on how you manage your finances too, of course. Without graduate salary it can be easy to overspend; and the sort of debts you could accumulate outside of university are not the sort you only pay back after you are earning £15k.

And the less binging/takeaways thing is crap IMO - a person who would be inclined to do that at uni would be inclined to do it outside of it. ie. favours going out and drinking lots, doesn't much like cooking :wink:

As for why I'd choose not to go to uni at 18?

- For many it's too early to really commit to knowing what you want to do with your life, and a year or two out can work wonders for this.
- Having a goal in life planned out etc and it being one that doesn't require a degree

Reply 47

Age_of_Innocence

2

Well if you take up a trade you could potentially earn some good money, the first few years are hard graft though. I went to uni and made the mistake of not having passion for the course I chose to do, so if you do go make sure you are studying a subject you enjoy. The social side of uni is brilliant and I have met some quality people, and have done things I never would have done back home, like skydiving.
Overall it depends on you and what you want to do in your life. Uni is primarily about getting a degree, social side should come second, and there is no point in going just for that.
If I had to go back and choose, I'd still come to uni. I'd just have done a different course.

Reply 48

Sanity Panda

University is about getting a degree... something odd about the sentence.

A degree for what exactly? It'd sort of conflict with studying what you have passion for sometimes.

Reply 49

It strongly depends on what subject yoyu hope to do at uni. If it's something non-vocational like English you may be better off not going to uni as you'll find that going to uni to dtudy some subjects may not improve your career prospects but may actually reduce them. You can check out the graduate forum on prospects.ac.uk, search for relevant threads and see what REAL uni graduates say about wheter uni is really worth it. You don't necessarily need to go to uni to succeed in life.

Reply 50

la fille danse

Toxic Tears

It strongly depends on what subject yoyu hope to do at uni. If it's something non-vocational like English you may be better off not going to uni as you'll find that going to uni to dtudy some subjects may not improve your career prospects but may actually reduce them. You can check out the graduate forum on prospects.ac.uk, search for relevant threads and see what REAL uni graduates say about wheter uni is really worth it. You don't necessarily need to go to uni to succeed in life.

You do realise that university was DESIGNED for the study of non-vocational subjects, such as perhaps English? Studying vocational subjects at university is a very recent development. When did people start viewing universities as vocational colleges? :rolleyes:

And what jobs can you do without a degree that you can't do with a degree?

Reply 51

gaijin

1

tomoli

Also, assuming that you could earn 15k minimum if you got a job straight away, and that student debt is at least 15k, you would be 60k better off by not going to uni.

I was offered a 16kpa job before coming to uni, but turned it down. At the end of the day, I could have took that job and been slightly debt free, but in the end, I saw my life in four years and thought I would be better of getting in debt, learning something new, increasing my circle of friends (I have about 20 houses to knock on in Japan now) and ultimately having the option of working abroad and earning far in advance what I would be earning if I had stayed at my old job.

Reply 52

*pitseleh*

20

la fille danse

You do realise that university was DESIGNED for the study of non-vocational subjects, such as perhaps English? Studying vocational subjects at university is a very recent development. When did people start viewing universities as vocational colleges? :rolleyes:

And what jobs can you do without a degree that you can't do with a degree?

Totally agree.

Plus the vast majority of graduate jobs do not require a specific degree.

Reply 53

foxo

gaijin

I was offered a 16kpa job before coming to uni, but turned it down. At the end of the day, I could have took that job and been slightly debt free, but in the end, I saw my life in four years and thought I would be better of getting in debt, learning something new, increasing my circle of friends (I have about 20 houses to knock on in Japan now) and ultimately having the option of working abroad and earning far in advance what I would be earning if I had stayed at my old job.

Indeed. I've earned around £17k in the last year working in telesales and I was offered a promotion when I handed in my notice a few weeks ago.

I'm going to university not only to increase career prospects, although I won't deny that I would like to go into journalism or perhaps academia. The main reason I'm going is because I really miss having intellectual stimulation. There is nothing more soul destroying than a repetitive job where you can quite easily get by with an I.Q. of 60.

Reply 54

la fille danse

You do realise that university was DESIGNED for the study of non-vocational subjects, such as perhaps English? Studying vocational subjects at university is a very recent development. When did people start viewing universities as vocational colleges? :rolleyes:

And what jobs can you do without a degree that you can't do with a degree?

How about actually doing some research before spewing out crap and giving anonymous neg rep? :rolleyes:

Doing a degree for 3+ years means you miss out on the valuble work experience you would have otherwise achieved if you had gotten a job. Employers LOVE work experience so you have to make sure that spending time at university studying a subject that will get you into £20,000+ of debt is worth it. ALso, if you are unable to find a graduate job (with 80,000 grad jobs and 400,000 graduates this is pretty likely) you will be compelled to take a non graduate job or a non specific job. Such an employer would be susupicious if you have a degree as they would view you as overqualified and likely to abandon the company as soon as a better prospect crops up. They will therefore hand the job to someone without a degree who would be more likely to stay and they are more likely to be able to get away with paying them less.
You seem to have been sucked into the government propaganda that going to a university to study a degree is a golden ticket to success. Well I'm afraid it doesn't always work that way .

Reply 55

*pitseleh*

Totally agree.

Plus the vast majority of graduate jobs do not require a specific degree.

Problem is, there are 400,000 graduates and only 80,000 graduate jobs - specific or non specific.

Reply 56

Sanity Panda

This whole idea of having valuable work experience is stupid. Frankly most work that a pre-graduate student can get isn't all that impressive and is fairly mundane work. Not to mention, how does one miss out on valuable work experience when they can just gain work experience afterwards?

Reply 57

prospectivEEconomist

16

Toxic Tears

Problem is, there are 400,000 graduates and only 80,000 graduate jobs - specific or non specific.

I don't care if the odds are against me. If you work hard, you will achieve what you want. Obviously, if you just get drunk and party all the time at uni, you don't deserve to get a graduate job.

Reply 58

la fille danse

Toxic Tears

How about actually doing some research before spewing out crap and giving anonymous neg rep? :rolleyes:

Doing a degree for 3+ years means you miss out on the valuble work experience you would have otherwise achieved if you had gotten a job. Employers LOVE work experience so you have to make sure that spending time at university studying a subject that will get you into £20,000+ of debt is worth it. ALso, if you are unable to find a graduate job (with 80,000 grad jobs and 400,000 graduates this is pretty likely) you will be compelled to take a non graduate job or a non specific job. Such an employer would be susupicious if you have a degree as they would view you as overqualified and likely to abandon the company as soon as a better prospect crops up. They will therefore hand the job to someone without a degree who would be more likely to stay and they are more likely to be able to get away with paying them less.
You seem to have been sucked into the government propaganda that going to a university to study a degree is a golden ticket to success. Well I'm afraid it doesn't always work that way .

Erm, neg rep what?

How did you manage to completely ignore everything I said in that post?

Please post sources showing that people without degrees have better career prospects than people with "non-vocational" degrees. I can't believe you think universities are for studying vocations. :rofl:

Please explain how my non-vocational English degree hinders my career chances, when I would not legally be allowed to work in my career of choice without a degree. Thanks.

Reply 59