Should I try out uni? What happens if I don’t like my uni?

Right so I’m very anxious about starting uni this year. It’s far from home and transport is going to be affected by corona so I’m scared I’m going to be stranded. Plus I’m not even sure that my course is actually the best for me. I do like it and think it will allow me to go into loads of different fields but I’m scared that because of the university name I won’t get a job after it.

I think I’ll try uni out but if I start to hate it within the first few couple of weeks what do I do? I know you can transfer after first year to a different uni but then I would have to continue and do well in my first year somewhere I’m not comfortable at.

you wouldn't have to continue for the full year necessarily, what specific doubts do you have of the course?

Basically my course is multidisciplinary and the first year of the course is quite bland as it’s to get everyone up to speed with info so I won’t be doing the stuff I’m really interested in until second or third year. Also I would have to take some maths modules which I know it’s useful but I don’t enjoy it.

I don’t know I feel like I originally wanted to do it because I wanted to keep my options open- get to study both biochem and chem so I could go into both biological research and synthetic/ organic chemistry- but now I feel like I like more of the medical/ human biology stuff which there’s a bit of in biochem but I don’t learn the really interesting things until second/ third year.

Primarily I’m worried about the quality of teaching because of the 75% satisfaction rate. Feel like I could have picked a better course if I’d looked into it more. I kind of just put it as my firm because it had the highest entry requirements (A*AA) and obviously at the time I wanted to keep my options open.

teaching will be different this year anyway with social distancing, is it worth considering switching to biochem on its own if they offer it?

Possibly I just feel like it’s not the best university to study straight biochem at. I only chose it because it allowed me to do a multidisciplinary degree. I feel like I could have gotten into higher ranked unis to study biochem at so doing it at this uni might not be the most rewarding thing. I don’t know maybe I’m overthinking it.

ranking isn't everything, but you won't know for sure until you've tried the degree for a bit.

Hi,

Have you considered deferring the year? It would give you a chance to figure things out and it will allow the situation to get better.

I don't recommend it as I didn't take a year out, however, my friends did. They loved it as it allowed them to figure things out and save money. During that year they have realised that they don't want to do the course they have applied for, so they have applied to a different university

That's just something to consider - there is paperwork to do so you would need to decide as soon as possible.

Good luck!

Marlena - Official Student Rep