Is university really the best path?

[FluffyMcCloud]

My son is in year 10. He is at a grammar school, doing well, very bright. School have already started talking to him about university - he stands a good chance of getting into Oxbridge so they are keen for him to do this - good for the school innit?!

But. He doesn’t know what he wants to do. He hasn’t got a clear career idea, or even what a levels he wants to do.

I think he should do the a levels he is likely to enjoy, and then get a job. I don’t think the default of university is helpful if he doesn’t know what he wants to do.

PEople keep telling me it would be a waste because he is so bright.

We don’t have much money and sending him to uni would be a real strain on our finances. And he finishes £50k in debt and possibly ends up doing a job he didn’t need a degree for anyway? BUT if it is the best thing for him we will do everything we can to make it happen of course.

If he finds a path he wants to take which needs a degree, he can do it then, can’t he?

I don’t know what is best and I can’t talk to the school because they are pushing university and umm not convinced it’s for the right reasons.

Can anyone explain why a generic English/Maths/History degree is useful for him to do at age 18? I’d really like to hear genuine pros and cons as I really don’t know what is best.

Thanks!

A lot will happen in the next two years, and your son will change. No decisions needed now but you seem a little pushy. Let him decide, it’s his decision. Unless he wants to study circus skills, chil!

OP, did you go to university? You see, very invested in him not going.

I haven’t spoken to him much about it at all. He mentioned that school have been talking about university. I’m trying to get my head round it all so I can be useful when chatting about it with him. It’s totally his decision but he doesn’t know and I’d like to be able to helpfully advise him!
Eek perhaps I shouldn’t have posted on here - I just wanted some impartial advice / opinions. I’m not pushing anything.

Perhaps my post should simply have said: is university useful if you don’t know what you want to do?
Any thoughts?

I might be a bit biased as I was the first person in my family to go to university and I've always felt strongly that money/parental background shouldn't close doors for young people....

On a more practical level I do think not having a degree will be a disadvantage for him.
Even most junior office roles want a graduate. And the next step up jobs almost certainly do.

Oxford/Cambridge will look so good on his CV regardless of what he wants to do after.

I have a ‘generic’ degree like you list above. It gave me excellent analytical skills and the ability to express myself in a professional way.
I was able to use the skills from my degree to get a decent middle management job.
University, even if you don’t know exactly what you want to do, is a great choice for many people. Your course choice is also not written in stone, you can transfer if needed.

Fluffy, in my personal experience my degree didn't do much for me, if you do degree you need 2:1.

I love learning so I enjoyed it enormously. It's definitely enriched me personally, given me a greater depth of knowledge in a subject I really enjoyed, taught me how to look at events in a greater focus etc.

But.... Not every degree would offer that, and I think now for success it's not essential. Sometimes getting in on the the ground somewhere and getting hands on experience will serve someone just as well.

It's tough!

I would definitely recommend taking a gap year (or two) working and earning some money then deciding. He won’t lose anything in waiting.

So many people in my school were forced to go to uni not knowing what we wanted to do and now not being able to afford to retrain or go back.

It’s such a big decision at 18. One that’s hard to rectify

I say this as someone with a university degree in something I hated. I’ve almost finished my second degree with the Open University in something totally unrelated and I’m doing professional qualifications on the side

The more qualifications you Have, the more opportunities you have.

University would be amazing for his future but only if he has the love for a subject or a future profession to drive his studies to success. Gap year/job until he knows. Not sure if Oxbridge would do deferred places if he did go through the application process whilst he still had the school to support him though the preparation.

A degree in a subject he enjoys from a top university will open doors. I don't use my actual degree subject in everyday life but the fact that I did it, and did it at a highly regarded university, is still useful to me over 10 years later even though I didn't and still don't know what to do.

If you were talking about someone who might just about scrape in to a bad university and struggle while he was there you might have a point. But if the school think he could be Oxbridge material and he wants to learn, even just for the sake of learning, he'd be mad to turn it down.

My DD was similar to OP son. Didn't really know what she wanted to do. School tried to push her down the university route.

She left school, got an apprenticeship in an office and is now earning similar to what she would have earned with a degree, but with no loan repayments. Her take home is more than young graduate colleagues on same grade.

Apprenticeships are fantastic nowadays and are the more economical way of gaining post a level qualifications, however it means a young person misses on on the "uni" experience and all the "life" experience which has made me the person I am today.
My ds didn't want to go to uni and I'm sad that he's missing out on three years of independent living, however financially it's fantastic for him and us. He'll be saving a fortune from his 20k salary and will be in a position to buy a house when all his friends are just leaving uni with all the debt.
Having said that, it's very high pressure studying at the same time as working and there is no allowance for the fact that he is only 18. The same is expected of him as from the graduates who are working alongside him.

On balance I'd encourage uni unless you really can't afford it.

If his school think he's Oxbridge material he should definitely go to uni. Oxford won't let you defer, presume the other place will be the same so see how he feels when he come to apply and maybe he should look at a RG uni instead where he can defer. Or go to Scotland where you are admitted to a faculty and can choose your final degree after two years.

Don't worry about the debt, he only starts repaying it when he has above average wages and he only pays back 9% of his wage above the threshold and the remainder of the debt is written off after 30 years. It's a graduate tax in all but name.

I'm actually amazed you haven't already discussed university with your intelligent teenager, my kids are at primary and already have asked about it. They know DH and I and most of their friends parents needed a degree to do their jobs (doctors, teachers, solicitors, scientists, engineers, architects, actuaries etc etc).

at that age none of my son's knew what they wanted to do. 2 of them chose A levels they loved (not having done the subject at O level). They then went on to take the subject at uni. A degree is essential for both of them as they need the detailed subject expertise. The other son has done a business degree - arguably he could have done an apprenticeship. Uni has really brought them on as individuals.

so my advice is to choose the A levels he likes and is good at and see how it progresses.

the youngest is at a red brick uni in the north and most of his friends seem to come from very impoverished backgrounds and work PT outside uni. So it can be done.

Student debt is a bone of contention but if you think of it as a student tax.
The ladt qualification I studied MA Education gave me an additional 10 k in salary. Even doing a history degree demonstrates a raft of transferable skills but none of it is any benefit if he’s unhappy. Best wait and then he can find his area of interest. There are many high level apprenticeships (level 4,5,6 and 7)now that may be more interesting for him.

Thank you for those useful replies