If you have a 3rd/2:2 in your degree. What do you do now?

[eggandeggy]

Has it ever held you back?

I've taken a break from studying (psychology) but going back and my second year results are terrible. A 3rd. Realistically I'm unlikely to boost it up to a 2:1 but don't want to throw away the chance to get a degree.

Any advice to start career planning now? Btw, I have no idea what field to go in to or where to start looking. I've been a stay at home mum, so have just got caught up I'm care and domestic stuff.

My brother got a 2:2, he started work at British Rail in their IT department, stayed for 2 years, then moved to Royal Mail working on IT projects, was head hunted by IBM & worked world wide as a systems architect then returned to Royal Mail where he heads up a group of Systems Architects working on special projects.

Most PGCEs need a 2:1 and competition for places for September 2021 is expected to be fiercer than usual.

2:2 (had to think about that, so long ago!). Didn't make any difference, degree was a stepping stone to one job, then another, then there was a total change of course and it didn't matter anyway. But the degree got me well enough paid jobs that I had to do under 20 years behind a desk to be set up. Not having kids helped too!

grade was correct, I wasn't up to the very difficult maths needed. I am happy that I did the best I could.

All these posters saying that people got 2.2s and third degrees and are now immensely rich and powerful are totally irrelevant to the OP. That was then. This is now. (bangs head against a brick wall).

I don’t think any employer has asked me what level of degree I have, so it hasn’t held me back.

They would want to know if you were newly graduated though Happymum

That's another thing that has changed. Employers are more likely now to ask for certificates. Also many want transcripts now, not just a headline degree classification because a 2:1 might have been very nearly a first, or a 59.5 rounded up. Transcripts are asked for for Masters entry as well.

I found it closed doors to the graduate programmes at the time. However, once you get some work experience (by getting a foot in the door however you can) it becomes much less important. I now have an Oxbridge Masters and a PhD (which was fully funded), both based on my work record. I did my degree 20 years ago though so I don't know if companies are as strict about degree classifications now.

I'm in my second year but I browse the job adverts and yep, its all 2.1 or above. Obviously I can't compare undertaking a degree in the 90's to now but I say to my friends who did degrees at the typical age (as opposed to old gimmers like me) how the fuck did you do it without the internet?
Its not just the availability of academic papers its the study techniques that are available at the click of the mouse if you are struggling.
Absolutely no way would I have got the grades I'm getting now. Then again there is a marked difference between my grades and the younger part of the cohort who enjoy the partying that is part and parcel for a lot of the younger students.

@bumblingbovine49 when did you go if you don't mind me asking?

Dh has a 2:2 & is successful, senior IT position, good salary etc. But he’s 46, he would find it way harder now & despite his expertise there have been times (recently) that he’s been unsuccessful in applications because of the degree result (banking & finance).

It's different now.
Back then, Getting a B at A'level was very respectable.

Back in the early 90's when we didn't even have to pay fees!! a 2:1 was very respected. Most of us got 2:2's and we aimed for a 2:1.

I got a 70%, a first, in one of my Russian Literature essays. I was thrilled. It was the first that had been given in YEARS. I regularly got 2:1 marks in my essays.

I ended up with a 2:2

I was pissed that I missed out on a 2:1.

Nowadays anything less than a 2:1 is not ok.

Hasn't held me back!

@Northernsoullover

Libraries. I could tell you the interior of so many libraries

Then, there would only be two or three copies of the crucial and expensive coursebook you needed. Which was always out on loan. So you had to figure most of it out yourself and you got absolutely zero feedback as to why you got a certain grade. certainly no tips on how to improve or where you had gone wrong.

There was a shocking attitude in th past to structural errors, imo. The assumption was you knew how to do things but sadly, this wasn't true for everyone. I was literate as I was a huge reader and picked things up easily and could 'imitate' well. It only takes you so far and whilst i could manage the rest, I do think it was made necessarily hard (as though you were incapable of keeping up easily rather than there were gaps due to schooling, etc).

I got a 2:2 in 2001 and I'm a solicitor. I don't think it's held me back but I've never been particularly ambitious. These days it would hold me back.

DH got a third in 2001 and he's a part-qualified actuary. He had to be persistent but he got there. I've no idea if it would hold him back now.

I go to a '94 group university, so not prestigious but not awful either. I did work hard to get in, in fact I did better than what they were asking for.

I have found d it tough trying to juggle parenting and studying on top of working (as a cleaner). Things at home have been chaotic for me so I hadn't been able to dedicate quality time to my course.

How is it possible to go from a 3rd to a 2:1? Is that even realistic?

Oh do piss off serenada unless you can actually read what I wrote. I was very clearly talking about graduate schemes - someone who graduated in 1993 would not be applying for a grad scheme now! DH is most certainly not trying to raise his own profile at the expense of other people. You are clearly projecting!

He graduated in 1995 so a completely different world than now. As many PPs have pointed out - a 2:2 in the mid 90s is a very different thing than a 2:2 now, 25 years later. He was lucky to get onto the grad scheme he did at the time - he recognises that. He also recognises that he would never get into one now. He simply wouldn’t be good enough. That doesn’t mean he’s not good at his job (he’s proved that he is over the last 25 years, and working in an industry which has seen mass redundancies over the last few years but still not only holding on to a job, but moving upwards says a lot), it means that degrees are worth less than they used to be and recruiters have to be more selective. For his last grad scheme applicant he had almost 200 applicants and he interviewed 34 people - there were 2 spaces on the scheme!

It’s a different world now.

Without sounding negative ,I think you may struggle TBH! Most companies want a 2.1 or more and many will be looking for those with a Masters to boot!My own DS had to go back and do an MSC as he couldnt get a job with a 2.1 ! Maybe speak to your Tutors, and see if you can improve your grades a little? Also Marketing is a good road to go down with your subject .Good Luck !

My husband got a 2:2 from a pretty crap uni. He went on to become a chartered surveyor and is now an investment manager. It’s not the end!

I'm retired and got a 2.2 in a health care subject, the mid 1970s, when few people went to Uni. However, I did a part time MSc as soon as I could, 50% funded by my employer. Also did a management diploma, and had management jobs requiring clinical knowledge.

@TimRigginsHasMyHeart

Oh do piss off serenada unless you can actually read what I wrote. I was very clearly talking about graduate schemes - someone who graduated in 1993 would not be applying for a grad scheme now! DH is most certainly not trying to raise his own profile at the expense of other people. You are clearly projecting!

And yet it is you who has failed to understand my post.

I just got a distinction in my masters degree and I teach my degree subject.

A lot of big companies lower grad scheme intake to boost overseas (particularly Indian professional) junior intake. But most will take UK / USA / EU 2:2 students through the back door via consultancies / non-grad scheme jobs and it won’t affect your promotion prospects.

People are still totally ignoring that degree classes from the last century are NOT RELEVANT to the OP's current predicament.

I got a 3rd. I graduated in 1987. I then did a conversion Masters in another subject. The 3rd didn't hold me back with getting my first job but it was a sellers market then. Employers were crying out for grads especially in STEM subjects.

I now work in a job with a very high salary, top 1%, in a country where the class of your degree doesn't matter at all as they don't have degree classes here. Either you have a university diploma or you don't.

OP I got a third and unfortunately it massively held me back. I’m not trying to make excuses here but my year was the first to try a new style of course. One person got a first. 2 people got 2.1, 6 got a 2.2 and the rest of us got thirds.
I’d been accepted into a PGCE course that then told me I couldn’t do the course because I needed a 2.2, I couldn’t do any post grad courses and even now I look at unrelated post grad courses and they won’t accept me.
I ended up working a crappy job, and I’ve bounced from admin job to admin job ever since (now 35). It really did affect my career opportunities I’m afraid.