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Serious dilemmas regarding uni need advice urgently

Hi guys I hope everyone is well. So as you can see in the title, I'm having severe problems in my life at the moment. I did not have a good start to uni. My dad is terminally ill according to doctors and I'm having a tough time focusing on university work. But this is not the only problem. I simply don't like the university I am at right now. I'm studying engineering at Queen Mary and I don't like it. If you are currently at QMUL doing engineering you will know what I mean. The university faculty is so disorganised. It's an absolute fiscal. Everything is all over the place, the assignments are always clashing with lab sessions and other assignments. Assignments are not graded properly. Timetable is poorly designed. I'm sure QMUL is good for other subjects like medicine but they suck at engineering. It's making me have serious mental issues and stressing me out on top of everything else going on. With my dad's situation being so uncertain, I don't know whether to drop out of QMUL and resit my A levels. My A levels were average due to Covid messing everything up. I've been feeling a lot of pressure the last 2 years and now things are even worse. I got BBB and due to my family situation I must stay in London. This means other top engineering schools like Bath, Bristol, Southampton, etc are not viable options for me. In London, I am stuck to Imperial and UCL. Kings don't do engineering. Both these unis are very prestigious and hard to get into even with good grades and there is no guarantee I will get in. In that case I would have to try and transfer to one of these unis while studying at QMUL to get a 2:1 minimum and revising all 3 A levels. That would cause me a lot of mental stress. Also, resitting A levels is very expensive and I come from a low income household. Someone please help, I'm feeling exhausted by all this and don't know what to do. My situation is a very unique one so I'm at a roadblock. I hope it doesn't sound too complicated.

Thanks.
(edited 2 years ago)
First of all, I'm really sorry you're going through so much right now; that can't be easy. I hope you have someone you can talk to IRL. If not, is there someone at uni you can reach out to? A friend or flatmate?

Second, I know you say the engineering department is a shambles; but do you have a pastoral tutor you can speak to for some academic advice? I had a similar sort of situation (not the same by any means) in my final year where I wasn't sure where to go with my degree, my health wasn't great etc, and everything seemed very overwhelming, and talking it over with someone in the department who wasn't involved with it actually really helped. If not, most SU's will have some kind of advice centre you can talk to for advice when you're not sure what to do.

I ended up taking a year out of my degree just to get my life back in order and it was honestly a great decision, even if it seemed like the world was ending at the time. Even if you end up back at QMUL (if you did decide to take some time off), it might just give you some breathing room to allow you some time to focus on yourself and your family x
Reply 2
Original post by TheBrainyBaldi
Hi guys I hope everyone is well. So as you can see in the title, I'm having severe problems in my life at the moment. I did not have a good start to uni. My dad is terminally ill according to doctors and I'm having a tough time focusing on university work. But this is not the only problem. I simply don't like the university I am at right now. I'm studying engineering at Queen Mary and I don't like it. If you are currently at QMUL doing engineering you will know what I mean. The university faculty is so disorganised. It's an absolute fiscal. Everything is all over the place, the assignments are always clashing with lab sessions and other assignments. Assignments are not graded properly. Timetable is poorly designed. I'm sure QMUL is good for other subjects like medicine but they suck at engineering. It's making me have serious mental issues and stressing me out on top of everything else going on. With my dad's situation being so uncertain, I don't know whether to drop out of QMUL and resit my A levels. My A levels were average due to Covid messing everything up. I've been feeling a lot of pressure the last 2 years and now things are even worse. I got BBB and due to my family situation I must stay in London. This means other top engineering schools like Bath, Bristol, Southampton, etc are not viable options for me. In London, I am stuck to Imperial and UCL. Kings don't do engineering. Both these unis are very prestigious and hard to get into even with good grades and there is no guarantee I will get in. In that case I would have to try and transfer to one of these unis while studying at QMUL to get a 2:1 minimum and revising all 3 A levels. That would cause me a lot of mental stress. Also, resitting A levels is very expensive and I come from a low income household. Someone please help, I'm feeling exhausted by all this and don't know what to do. My situation is a very unique one so I'm at a roadblock. I hope it doesn't sound too complicated.

Thanks.


Hi, one year on I want to know what your decision was? I'm going QM next year for mech eng but I really dont want to. I can't take a gap year so my only option is try transferring. I want to know if it worked out for you?

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