Do you hate your degree? Time for a change!
Being a student at university is supposed to be the best time of your life. That is at least what most of our friends and the media tell us. But what if that vision of a perfect student life does not come true for you? What if you are not happy with the degree choice you’ve made? A story about courage – and why it is sometimes okay to just “quit”.
«I swear, I hate my degree so much, it makes me want to vomit every time I think about it»! That does not sound too healthy, does it? I always remember how my ex-girlfriend used to complain about her university degree, telling me how her parents had pressurized her into that particular career path. At a certain point of her exasperation, she had already forgotten what she originally aspired to become in her life. And what started with simple mood swings and occasional tears would soon develop into permanent sluggishness, avolition and severe signs of depressions. I knew those signs way to well – unfortunately from personal experience. After finishing my A-Levels, I started studying “Business Administration”; not because I had a passion for business, but rather because people kept telling me how profitable such a degree would be in the long run. After ten painful months – that literally robbed me from any positive thoughts and happy emotions, just like one of those nasty “Dementors” from the Harry Potter-books – I managed to pull the emergency break. At that point, I would have actually needed professional help: The pressure I had felt for weeks and months, resulting from all those people a
round me who expected nothing but success from me, it was simply too much to handle. I felt so guilty for quitting my degree, which is probably the reason why it took me so long to put an end to it. After finally making that decision, I somehow managed to pull myself up by my own bootstraps – and later realised that I should have given up my degree way earlier than I did. However, a surprisingly big amount of students does not need that much time to realise that their academic career has reached an impasse. According to research released in 2015, 27% of UK’s freshers - that is almost every third student - had either dropped out of their course by January or were contemplating doing so by the summer. Another research conducted by the New College of the Humanities came to the conclusion that November 12th was statistically speaking the “university defection day” – the day when first year students were most likely to leave their courses.
Those students probably realised in time that something was going wrong, that something did not feel the way it should feel when it comes to what many people later on refer to as the best time of their life. Some were probably attending lectures, only to realise that they were only there physically, but with their mind somewhere between cat-gifs and the new season of Game of Thrones. Maybe they realised that while all their fellow classmates were having fervent discussions on class-related topics, they had absolutely nothing to contribute – and no real interest in changing that. And most importantly, maybe some of them realised that they were not happy with the choice they made; and no matter how trivial that might sound first, it can largely affect a person’s general well-being.
Despite a considerable number of “drop-outs”, the number of unsatisfied student is much higher than the figure suggests. As a major study for influential university think-tanks, the Higher Education Policy Institute and the Higher Education Academy pointed out in 2015, nearly 500 000 out of 1.4 million full-time undergraduates believed they were on sub-optimal courses – while student of architecture or business and administration were the unhappiest with their choice.
It is easy to see that there must be a huge imbalance between those who are unhappy with their degree – and those who are actually willing to adapt measures and do something about it. Some of them might shy away from action because they are too afraid of wasting more time while changing their degree; other simply fear that their student loans and debts might add up – or they simply do not trust their instincts and believe that they will eventually get used to the new surroundings and find happiness after all. «I was scared of throwing away three years studying something that I hate and that I don’t even consider useful, but on the other hand I did not want to go home, admitting to my parents that I had “failed” and that I had just wasted time and money to figure that out», said one of my friends my university when I asked him about his attitude towards his degree. If I thought that he should still quit, he asked me. He was afraid he might be rushing into it, being a in his 3rd semester.
In fact, it does make sense to take one’s time and mull over a decision of this import. That can be decisive for freshers. «50% of people just need reassurance because the jump between A-levels and a degree course panics them», states Margaret Holborough, a career adviser with “Graduate Prospects” in an interview with the newspaper “The Guardian”. However, the other half usually finds out that they do not meet the required standards, that the content of the programme does not live up to their expectations or that they simply «don’t enjoy it».
Speaking from personal experience, I can say that it makes sense to stick it out until the end of the first term. That way, you can make sure that you really give yourself a chance to adapt – and possibly even enjoy a degree that might not have been a “love at first sight”. However, If you go home for the winter break – and the thought of returning to your university gives you a belly-ache (somehow like Harry, going back to the Dursleys over summer), then maybe it is time for a life-changing decision. It must be clear to you that this is not going to be an easy decision to make. Your parents might try to talk you out of it, and you might feel like you are letting people down – but in the end, your happiness is what should matter. Not how much money you or anyone else has invested into your degree, or how many hours you have already spent reading books and texts you do not actually care about. And there is one thing that I know for sure: Mental health does not come with a price tag, but it is surely worth more than than whatever you have to pay for a degree in the UK.
