Is anyone else fed up when people scare others away from a degree?

Whenever you search forums and Reddit etc for advice on whether you should go for a particular degree, I can’t help but think they’re exaggerating the hard work that’s needed to pass in, for example, Law. I saw one guy say that in order to pass Law you literally have 0 social life and have ZERO personality and you only care about your career, rather than family or friends. Like yeah, we get it’s hard but I don’t buy it. My brother is studying medicine which is supposed to be incredibly hard. And I’m not saying it isn’t. However, he doesn’t just sit in his room and study all the time. He goes outside with the family, watches football matches and YouTube and exercises. I would say almost half of the time he’s studying and half of the time relaxing. He literally told me it’s not AS bad as what people say. Obviously it still takes a good amount of discipline to study medicine, but I’m tired of people saying “boohoo I have no social life and I can’t sleep or exercise.” That’s less because of the difficulty of the subject, rather your procrastination habits. By doing this they scare away people who would potentially love the subject.

Reply 1

JOSH4598

15

I've noticed those who say university is a waste of time are largely the ones who didn't go, and likely wouldn't have had the ability to go (at least to a well-ranked university).

There's no doubt that in your first five to ten years of your career, having a degree doesn't make a huge amount of difference in what you earn. However those who did go to university generally keep on rising through the promotions beyond their counterparts who started work straight out of school. You don't find many senior professionals in high positions who have no qualifications!

With regards to which degree you pick, that doesn't make much difference for most non-specialist careers. Graduate employers accept any degree as you gain greater specialism through experience. Chose the subject you enjoy and do well at - not the one people tell you to do!

Reply 2

Democracy

20

Original post by Leo_braun

Whenever you search forums and Reddit etc for advice on whether you should go for a particular degree, I can’t help but think they’re exaggerating the hard work that’s needed to pass in, for example, Law. I saw one guy say that in order to pass Law you literally have 0 social life and have ZERO personality and you only care about your career, rather than family or friends. Like yeah, we get it’s hard but I don’t buy it. My brother is studying medicine which is supposed to be incredibly hard. And I’m not saying it isn’t. However, he doesn’t just sit in his room and study all the time. He goes outside with the family, watches football matches and YouTube and exercises. I would say almost half of the time he’s studying and half of the time relaxing. He literally told me it’s not AS bad as what people say. Obviously it still takes a good amount of discipline to study medicine, but I’m tired of people saying “boohoo I have no social life and I can’t sleep or exercise.” That’s less because of the difficulty of the subject, rather your procrastination habits. By doing this they scare away people who would potentially love the subject.

Yes it's annoying. Some medical students, law students etc on social media present a certain image which isn't necessarily representative or accurate but gets more clicks because the internet loves to present everything as an extreme binary.

I like to think on the TSR Medicine forums we provide a more balanced representation of what medical school and being a doctor is like but individual posts on here are unlikely to be as far reaching as a viral TikTok video or whatever teens are using nowadays :shakecane:

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 3

JDINCINERATOR

21

Original post by Leo_braun

Whenever you search forums and Reddit etc for advice on whether you should go for a particular degree, I can’t help but think they’re exaggerating the hard work that’s needed to pass in, for example, Law. I saw one guy say that in order to pass Law you literally have 0 social life and have ZERO personality and you only care about your career, rather than family or friends. Like yeah, we get it’s hard but I don’t buy it. My brother is studying medicine which is supposed to be incredibly hard. And I’m not saying it isn’t. However, he doesn’t just sit in his room and study all the time. He goes outside with the family, watches football matches and YouTube and exercises. I would say almost half of the time he’s studying and half of the time relaxing. He literally told me it’s not AS bad as what people say. Obviously it still takes a good amount of discipline to study medicine, but I’m tired of people saying “boohoo I have no social life and I can’t sleep or exercise.” That’s less because of the difficulty of the subject, rather your procrastination habits. By doing this they scare away people who would potentially love the subject.

I think these expectations of what it takes to have a good Law degree speaks volumes about the law itself. You spend so many years studying the ins and out of law and being the best you can be in that field so one day you can be a judge or a high-ranking barrister that it all feels like it's a lifestyle rather than merely a career path. Anyone can do what they feel like whenever they feel like and no demanding degree can stop you from living your life. Unfortunately there are degrees that will demand a ton of your time but in the case of law you're either cut out for it or you aren't. I think you either need to be completely devoted or you look elsewhere. Students should save themselves the headache and stress and do what they want to do without being tied down-even if it's something you really want to do-be prepared before you take a huge dive, but while you're young live it up.

Reply 4

JIMIN 7

4

Original post by Leo_braun

Whenever you search forums and Reddit etc for advice on whether you should go for a particular degree, I can’t help but think they’re exaggerating the hard work that’s needed to pass in, for example, Law. I saw one guy say that in order to pass Law you literally have 0 social life and have ZERO personality and you only care about your career, rather than family or friends. Like yeah, we get it’s hard but I don’t buy it. My brother is studying medicine which is supposed to be incredibly hard. And I’m not saying it isn’t. However, he doesn’t just sit in his room and study all the time. He goes outside with the family, watches football matches and YouTube and exercises. I would say almost half of the time he’s studying and half of the time relaxing. He literally told me it’s not AS bad as what people say. Obviously it still takes a good amount of discipline to study medicine, but I’m tired of people saying “boohoo I have no social life and I can’t sleep or exercise.” That’s less because of the difficulty of the subject, rather your procrastination habits. By doing this they scare away people who would potentially love the subject.

It would depend on your academic ability some people do little work and get high grades and some do a lot more work and get lower grades.

Reply 5

Vertigo_descent

21

Depends on what is meant by 'scare', but i believe it's useful to suggest to someone they carefully consider their options and its suitability for them, rather than assuming it's something they have to do or which one automatically does after A levels.

Is anyone else fed up when people scare others away from a degree?

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