Is choosing a good university course an impossible choice?

[Sleepdrifter]

This year I'm going to back to study in my late 30's. Working is getting me nowhere, jobs aren't offering me skills training or progression, so school is the best decision.

That's all great until you reach the question. What DO you study? The number of variables you have to consider is massive.

My aim is marketing, and to work for brand design studios or publishing agencies - I enjoy creative concepts and art, so that would be highly satisfying. But I'm good with computers and would consider computer science. And also economics as learning about the financial industry in my spare time is fascinating.

Problem is with all these choices, I really have no idea what I'm truly getting into. Or if the university will be helpful in getting work. Or if it will be a compatible environment. It's fine with statistics being dumped on a website, but that tells you absolutely nothing about the reality of the industry or the human expectations involved. Websites are faceless and not always accurate.

Consider medicine for instance. Great choice because it's high in demand, but the competition is much higher than other fields. Like UX/UI development and graphic design - high demand, but high supply, thus high competition.

Or then computer science. Ideal until you find out it's one of the least reliable degrees to get a job (at least here).

What about law, oh wait you're supposed to go to law school, not get a degree.

What about Communications, wait that's just there to extract money out of you, ad nauseum

You try going to advisors and they will talk about growing up and taking risks. But then they need hard facts about your background and run a mile if they're not all good ones. Or the "experienced" grads who talk tough and.. work for their daddy's firm. Wow big guys.

So should I feel guilty if this blows up? Getting a degree is one of the best professional decisions you should aim for. But if statistics are unreliable and without a network, how can you competently choose a subject matter? Why do profs and tutors expect undergrads to have a crystal ball? Jfc.

 

[come to dust]

It reallt depends where you live. In the US, you need a degree for many jobs because of profession regulators being lobbied by universities to make them mandatory. In the UK, degrees are worthless for almost all careers because you can get apprenticeships that allow you to train without one, or self employment and training is often seen as valid.

Overall, university is a huge moneymaking scam and is only necessary and worth it in countries where regulations force you to have to go to university for a career. But everything you learn at university (with the exception of maybe practical scientific lab skills) can be learnt with a google search.

 

[Sleepdrifter]

In the UK, degrees are worthless for almost all careers because you can get apprenticeships that allow you to train without one, or self employment and training is often seen as valid.

It's funny, if I speak to people in the USA they talk about vocational training as if you can call up a place and go learn how to be a plumber, or just turn up on a construction site like Roddy Piper in They Live and get to work. You have nothing like that here. The law changed so that technically anyone can be an apprenticeship, but the wages are so low, the competition is very high and most people will expect younger people. If you're lucky you can get an NVQ (which is usually what an apprenticeship offers or a City & Guilds qualification) but to get the NVQ, you need a job. To get the job, you need an NVQ. This is the system in the UK. In other words: training isn't an option you choose.

Yes I agree degrees are hugely expensive and demanding, and not all universities are trustworthy, however I disagree that all jobs can be easily obtained without a degree level education. The engineering and utilities sector, medicine, insurance, software engineering sectors etc. they are expected. And no, definitely not everything can be learned through Google, that is misleading. Most jobs are advertised and obtained through connections, not online.

Also there is the probability I am just too retarded to make a decision.

 

[come to dust]

It's funny, if I speak to people in the USA they talk about vocational training as if you can call up a place and go learn how to be a plumber, or just turn up on a construction site like Roddy Piper in They Live and get to work. You have nothing like that here. The law changed so that technically anyone can be an apprenticeship, but the wages are so low, the competition is very high and most people will expect younger people. If you're lucky you can get an NVQ (which is usually what an apprenticeship offers or a City & Guilds qualification) but to get the NVQ, you need a job. To get the job, you need an NVQ. This is the system in the UK. In other words: training isn't an option you choose.

Yes I agree degrees are hugely expensive and demanding, and not all universities are trustworthy, however I disagree that all jobs can be easily obtained without a degree level education. The engineering and utilities sector, medicine, insurance, software engineering sectors etc. they are expected. And no, definitely not everything can be learned through Google, that is misleading. Most jobs are advertised and obtained through connections, not online.

Also there is the probability I am just too retarded to make a decision.

That's not how it works in thw US. For manual vocations, you have to at least go to a technical college, and then try and get a job

As someone who went to a top tier university, I can tell you I made zero connections there.

At my company there are also many apprencticeship positions, in areas such as accounting, data analysis, software engineering, business administration and more. Within 1 year you earn as much as any umiversity graduate.

 

[Sleepdrifter]

That's not how it works in thw US. For manual vocations, you have to at least go to a technical college, and then try and get a job

As someone who went to a top tier university, I can tell you I made zero connections there.

At my company there are also many apprencticeship positions, in areas such as accounting, data analysis, software engineering, business administration and more. Within 1 year you earn as much as any umiversity graduate.

Sounds like a very good company. In my line of work there is NEVER training for other positions available or even my own job. I teach myself which is crazy considering some of the work is highly sensitive (police/government) and also technical in terms of the telecoms sector. That's what is getting really old now, training myself then told to train new starters after 12-18 months. I taught myself PowerBI and built some Excel reports for my line manager 3 months ago to help them save time, and they just said thanks. Now I ignore people if they tell me my operational knowledge isn't up to date, it's fucking stupid.

How did you make zero connections at a top tier university??

 

[LongtimeLoser]

Not that long ago, people went to college because they were interested in pursuing a passion. Now people go to college because they think it's what you are supposed to do. That has led to so many people dropping out, receiving degrees that aren't worth a shit, sky high student loans that they can't pay back, etc.

You don't have to go to college to make it in the USA. That is BS. If you go to college, get a degree that will pay for itself within 5 or so years.

I got a business and computer science degree, then got my MBA. I got scholarships from good grades (paid for tuition 100%), and worked almost full time (paid for living expenses). I only took about maybe $25k in student loans, and only because they were offered to me… not because I needed them to pay for anything. I ended out using my student loans for a down payment on a house and then slowly paid them back over 5 or 6 years.

College doesn't have to be so hard. I absolutely loved college. Graduate school was a blast. Don't take out student loans. Apply for grants and scholarships!