Poll: University Graduates

[Corax_1990]

I will be starting University this July as a mature age student, I did not attend after high school for various personal and family reasons, wanted to travel, loss in the family, not what I wanted at the time etc.

Anyway, I was wondering how many of my fellow escapists are at, or have graduated from, University. If you have, what did you study and do you think it was worth it for you? If no, why not and do you think you might consider it in the future?

Not here to judge, just wanting to know a bit more about the educational background of the people on these forums and if anybody has any tips they might like to share.

 

[Dryk]

I'm in my final year of a Mechanical Engineering/Experimental and Theoretical Physics double degree at The University of Adelaide and it's been the most amazing and stressful time of my life. Wouldn't've missed it for the world.

 

[Galletea]

I have a BA in French and Italian. Now I'm working in a bookstore but I do still think it was worth it. The life experiences and learning might not have led to much employment wise for me, but it has given me a lot more confidence and maybe I'll get to use it in the future.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I study a Art & Design (3D) related course and graduated.
In hindsight it wasn't a good course because the course itself was bad since the techer let us fend for ourselves when it come to learning how to use the softwares. It it also more Flash base then 3D which the course is suppose to be 3D orientated degee. Career prophets after graduating is a joke (I graduated when the recession hit) and we stil got to do written assignment despite our course is 3D software heavy (we did art post modern essays). The only good thing about it is there was no exams at all (your overall performance between each project determine your grades).
Despite all of this I never regreted choosing that course as I made some wonderful friends in that course, something I would never want to change (if I had chosen a different course I would had never met them). Even then the whole University was a excellent experiences for me.

 

[Soviet Steve]

Picked currently attending as I'll be going to one after this summer. Going into some course called "finance economist" and it's the gateway thing to the banking industry. I know exactly what I want to use it for and everything is being paid for by the state. Socialized education ftw.

 

[Nickolai77]

I have a BA in French and Italian. Now I'm working in a bookstore but I do still think it was worth it. The life experiences and learning might not have led to much employment wise for me, but it has given me a lot more confidence and maybe I'll get to use it in the future.

That's a surprise actually, i thought foreign language graduates were in high demand. (Or is that if you're only learning Manderin?)

OT: I'm about to graduate from uni, i studied History and International Relations and if i get a 2:1 i'll be studying for a masters in Management next year. Assuming you are 21 OP then fitting in shouldn't be too much a problem. Note however that there will still be a maturity gap between you and other Freshers who i assume to be aged 18/19. But would only be a minor problem if you are barely into your twenties.

Other than that, chances are you'll enjoy yourself and make some great friends. Make sure to join a few clubs and societies to find some like-minded people, and enjoy studying whatever interests you. Since you're Australian you probably won't have to worry about wherever going to uni will get you a job or not, you can be fairly sure it will make you a lot more employable.

 

[smithy_2045]

Most likely graduating with a BSc. Statistics at the end of this year.

 

[Gigano]

Currently (...supposed to be) writing my Master Thesis in Law.

As have been mentioned, be sure to join some clubs, be they revolving around the subject you're studying, political, or purely social. Excellent short cut to establishing a network and a lot of good times, wish I'd done it sooner than I did.

If what you're studying emphasizes very theoretical parts of subject, and less what you'll be using it for, try to get a relevant student job as quickly as possible. An additional practical angle on the subject, as well as access to casual professional sparring, can help a lot in understanding it. Oh, and it looks good on the resume too.

 

[sneakypenguin]

BA in econ(micro) and political science. Advice stay away from liberal arts, and test out of as many classes possible. College is geared so any body can make it with minimal effort, other than some advanced technical degrees

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

I graduated from Full Sail University (Entertainment Business School)
with a BA degree in Film/TV Broadcasting.

I got my first job with a bump in pay because of my degree so I would say its worth it in the end.

 

[Smokej]

One thing to consider for sure: Academic Education at the times of Mass Universities begins with the post graduate level. Here in Germany we recognized quickly that the Bologna Progress failed and that a Bachelor Degree is insufficient for most Jobs with an academic profile. So most educational programms are geared for either masters level or for our traditional degrees (Magister Artium, Diplom and State Licensing Programms, which are still held in higher esteem than the new degrees by most employers)

 

[DanielBrown]

When I started my further education I lasted about three weeks. Was a huge difference from regular school and I didn't find the subject(social work, just wanted something that would give me a job) intresting at all. Also the class was all girls, apart from me and some douche. I tend to work better with girls, but my group kept me in the dark constantly, then blamed me when something went wrong. Got pretty fucking annoying quickly.

Have dropped the idea of studying further completely and hope I can find some decent job in spite of it. Looking pretty grim in Stockholm at the moment though.

 

[Nerexor]

I have an honors bachelor degree in Rhetoric and Professional Writing (it's a fancy title for an english degree with less focus on literary analysis and more on writing) and a Masters in Library and Information Science.

I think it was worth it because I am now professionally allowed to make as many horrible library puns as I want, and have the power of the librarian "shush."

 

[SpAc3man]

Currently studying for a BE in computer systems engineering. It is hard but its things I like learning about. Its important you do something that interests you over something that looks good to get a job. That comes second.

 

[bliebblob]

Well there is one general tip I can give you: don't pay too much attention to tips from anyone who graduated more than 10-ish years ago. the game has changed drastically since back then. Especially that tiresome "these are the best years of your life" line is to be taken with a bucket of salt. It's not total misery, but heaven it ain't.

 

[Llil]

I'm currently studying to become a maths teacher. So that's maths, education and physics for now. Two years down, three more to go. If I can keep on scedchule, that is.

During upper secondary school I decided that I want to be a maths teacher, and since you need a master's degree for that, university was the only real choice for me. I'm pretty sure that I would have gone to study maths anyway, even if I didn't want to teach.

 

[PureChaos]

I graduated from university a few years ago. Was going to be a teacher but ended up working for the court service so my degree didn't matter but I'm still glad I did it

 

[Tipsy Giant]

Studied Music at University, I learnt absolutely nothing new! The course was pretentious and full of students and lecturers encouraging each other to sound the same as successful artists.

Luckily I only attended the course because I need the qualification to teach music. Now I have to get some experience together before another year of University to gain my teachers qualification

 

[Esotera]

I'm currently in the placement phase of my degree, where I bugger off to industry for a year and will be testing software and writing documentation. Seeing as my degree is biochemistry I'm not sure how relevant it's going to be, but it certainly got me this. If you have a plan for what you want to do, then go for it, but I wouldn't wander into a field without any idea of what you're going to get out of it, especially considering the amount it costs to get a degree these days.