AIBU to still regret getting a 2:1 instead of a first?

Of course it is. But it takes a lot more than a degree grade to be competitive.

I've done 2 degrees and got a 2:1 in both. With both I burnt out in year 3 and struggle with pressure and depression. First one was the worst. I felt upset about not getting a first for a bit after the first one but by second I learned to accept that I'm not the academic genius I wanted to be!!! That helped me through me second degree actually. If I every do a masters I will be aiming just to pass because I know I struggle (but not due to lack of intelligence or interest in subject). Counseling really helped me.

Op, you obviously haven’t got any real problems if you are fixated on the fact that you got a 2:1 ten years ago .

I can't believe how common Firsts are these days. 5% got a First in my under grad degree (1998). How can it now be 40%. Meaningless.

2:2 were called a Desmond and was considered fatal. I got one and was told it was a very high 2:2 as if that was OK. All my friends got a 2:1. I got one and still am upset about it but now over time understand why, no money, isolated and no tutor support, not even to think about asking for a remark but it still rankles although truth is made very little difference once I started working and got my foot in the door. I would have been delighted with a 2:1.

Ha! 🤣 We could have fisticuffs!

DS2 & DS3 won't reach these dizzying academic heights, so I'm revelling in it still. However, they're both pretty great in their own way too.

Yeah these people are heavily invested in presenting themselves as high priests of a mystical intelligence cult with a high standard of membership (which they get to control of course).

It is self-aggrandisement really. Salesmanship.

The markers of undergraduate humanities essays have no window into your soul (and I'd bet you anything that they also have a dreadful level of inter-rater reliability too).

OP I did feel like this for a while, but 14 years later I have stopped caring about it honestly. I was literally one mark away from a first (averaged 69.5 and a single additional mark in my dissertation would have swung it) in my undergrad and I knew that had I not had to work in paid employment so much throughout my degree I could have got a first. Lots of my friends got firsts who didn't need jobs because their parents were paying their rent. I was working 20 hours per week in fast food, and full time every holiday.

That I came so close really stung and I gave myself such a hard time over it. I remember my dad being all "never mind, is it worth appealing though?" Instead of being proud of my 2:1 and that made me feel so much worse. I worked my arse off in my MSc and got a distinction and I still felt sore about my undergrad. But over time it has mattered less and nobody else has ever cared but me. Kindly, do try and forgive yourself if you can. You did the best you could in the circumstances you were in at the time. That is what I have come to realise about myself.

No I recall very few people getting a first and they were always odd - no one felt threatened.

Yes, but this poster mentioned a Russell Group uni so I used one as an example. Firsts in Maths at Durham were as high as 45.2% in 2022. 38% year before last.

What a weird prejudice 🤣

I suspect that this rumour was perpetrated by someone who felt threatened by the idea of employing someone who might potentially be more intelligent or high achieving than them, rather than being based on any hard evidence 😂

You don’t know my DS!

Not everyone meets their full potential in every situation or at every stage in life. Sometimes for whatever reason we coast in education, or jobs or even fail and mess up. I am an academic now and I was also really upset at my 2:1, which definitely did not meet my potential. However, like you I had reasons why I didn’t fulfill my potential at 21, and later I did in my career and other ways. I also know as an academic (which I have been for over 20 years) grades are not definitive representations of the work you do - I most subjects they are one (or two) people’s estimation of your performance against a set of criteria. Many academics in humanities and social science disciplines where I have worked even forget the existence of criteria and grade on ‘instinct’ unless you pull them up on it. So, for lots of reasons, it’s really pointless to waste your energy on this regret, which shows nothing of your current abilities, life, potential or achievements.

Good point.

I posted a more up to date one covering all universities not just Durham

30%

You are amazing OP.
I'm curious as to why you measure your success by your grade? Likely to be related to your upbringing???
I'm not judging but I have worked with people who were disproportionately focused on their 'child's' grades etc where it was competitively discussed.
We all want the best for our children, that isn't measured on educational achievements alone.
You have a brilliant degree OP, embrace and celebrate!

Gosh that's sobering. See, DS got 93%, & that's not distinct from the rest of the 40% who got 1sts. Like I said, annoying.

But he's also the coolest, funniest, kindest human I know, so there is that. ❤️

This is 2026 and across all universities
30%
https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/27-01-2026/uk-he-student-numbers-fall-second-year-in-a-row

You don’t have the right mindset for a high flying glitzy career though. You tried it (clearly the recruiter thought you were up to it) but quit. People that succeed in those sorts of careers don’t quit, or allow their imposter syndrome to dominate. They’re resilient, they don’t dwell on the past, they know they are very capable, irrespective of degree classification, they’re supremely confident.

They don’t quit at the first hurdle, choose what they assume will be a straightforward career, or blame a degree classification they got 10 years ago.

Be honest - why do you want such a career? What are you trying to prove?

Well in my experience quite a few of the graduates mentioned their scores not just there degree grade on their CV to make this point, that they were exceptional. If they were exceptional we'd have expected them to shine during the application process so it made little difference.

I used to feel like this. But perfectionism isn't healthy and getting top marks is nowhere near comparable to having qualities like resilience in the face of challenges and a willingness to constantly develop and improve yourself.

Be goal-centred. What good does regret do? What benefit does it bring? Your 2:1 is water under the bridge now. It's just a psychological niggle that you didn't get a perfect score, because you identify yourself as someone who should have - but it clearly hasn't held you back from success. Try to see it as the thing that has helped you learn you don't have to be perfect to do well or to have value.

I get you completely on this OP except that I've been on both sides of the fence.

I did get a First in my undergrad (Humanities) degree and I later got a Distinction in a Masters.

Both times I was incredibly anxious about it. I effectively decided that if I didn't get a First, I was a waste of space. I'd been raised to think like that and I was in a high-pressure uni environment (Oxbridge in my case) where doing well was treated as a mark of being special. I remember being told stuff like 'only an original brain can get a First' and really buying into it. Wow, I wanted to be original and special so badly.

More than a decade later, I returned to education again to do another qualification because I needed it for a change of career. This time around I got a Merit rather than a Distinction... and aside from a brief twinge of annoyance, I ultimately did not care much. The difference was that I'd moved on in life. I now knew that I had value that was independent of what some grading academic thought of me. I still had respect for academics but this was tempered by an awareness that they aren't the be all and end all; that most of the brightest and most interesting people I've met in and outside work don't have great qualifications on paper; that my personality and soft skills count for something; and that ultimately people's subjective assessments of how well I've jumped through arbitrary assignment hoops is not some existential verdict on my intelligence and talent.

I hope you can borrow a bit of this attitude from me. I can also assure you that having a First (even an Oxbridge one) does NOT make a person somehow magically special and different. Luck and how good you are at jumping through hoops are always going to play a role.

If missing out on a First has damaged your career, it is understandable to grieve that. I will admit to some scepticism about whether you are correct about this though. You said yourself that a third of Humanities graduates at your uni got Firsts so objectively you know it isn't that special. Likewise even pretty 'elite' employers are, at least to my knowledge, pretty cynical about the ability of a degree to greatly distinguish candidates and place much more value on skills-based assessments / whatever zany tasks they come up with for their grad scheme interview processes. Maybe you do work in an industry where you can't get into a secret inner club without a First but if so I'd be intrigued to get specifics, as I have never encountered this (and whilst my own career has always been public sector, I have friends without Firsts in pretty great law firms, barristers' chambers, accountancy firms, management consultancy firms etc.)

P.S. lest I sounded too smug, I will admit that I'm clearly not completely over worrying about being judged on paper because I still have occasional nightmares about being told my undergrad has been downgraded because I forgot to write some lengthy essential essay on 19th century economic policy or some rubbish. Hard to rewire yourself when an internal perfectionist bully has spent years in charge of the electrics.)

I got a First in the early 2000s and aside from getting my first graduate job, it’s made zero difference to my life.

Same with GSSE and A-level. I got straight A’s at A-level, and I don’t even put them on my CV. They are only useful for getting into uni, and then they’re irrelevant. It almost feels like a wasted effort considering how important you think they are at the time 😂.

It's pretty high.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/degreeclassificationpercentage

Damn, bad quality screenshot! It is there anyway.