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.

Can you repeat your second year? A student on my course repeated hers and is graduating this year with much better grades.

My undergraduate degree is without Honours because I did a top-up course around my full time job, and the programme didn't offer the Honours year. Everybody did prescribed classes and then exited with an ordinary degree.

I didn't want to leave it at that so I self-funded a Masters (I should get my dissertation mark back in a couple of weeks - eek!) and ended up enjoying it so much I'm jacking in my job to do a PhD. I've got a funded place lined up for later in the summer.

2:2 in law. Solicitor. Still get rejected from some firms who absolutely won't consider anything below a 2:1. I did my degree 16 years ago 🙄

2:2 in Dance Studies. Now an SEN teacher (was primary class teacher) with a PGCE and an MA, currently doing a PG Dip.

But that was 20 years ago. I think a lot of companies (certainly teacher training) arenow more picky and will look at 2:1 or 1st graduates only.

I've got a 1st, a Master's and a PhD (all STEM) but I have been rejected from 2 jobs based on my A Levels, which were shit because ill/lazy/boys hahaha! Sometimes it is very blinkered out there.

I have been rejected from 2 jobs based on my A Levels

I'm shocked!

eggandeggy as the parent of a university student I am not at all shocked. In very competitive professions where there are a lot of students with the same degree and the same classification of degree they do go back and look at A levels as well. I know it happens when graduates are looking for law positions for example.

There's not many people with the same degrees as me but many companies will use an electronic sifting system and any deviation at all is rejected before you even speak to a person. Even before they get to your degree! Having a higher degree to skip doing a grad scheme is a lengthy and often knackering way around it!
To be a bit more positive, I think a few of the larger organisations are realising that a more human touch is preferable despite the competition aspect.

@QuestionableMouse

I worked in course management at a university for six years and we wouldn’t allow anyone to repeat a year just because they wanted to better their grades. Even repeating a semester requires serious extenuating circumstances, so it’s very rare to repeat a full year.

Students can only carry a certain number of failed credits so if they failed all of their classes at the first attempt and at resits, they would be facing compulsory withdrawal from the course.

I should also say that if someone failed everything due to serious extenuating circumstances, they would go into academic suspension for the following year. They would re-do all of their failed classes but the failed year would be on their transcript, so I’m not sure that would be any better than a lower classification from an employer’s perspective.

So a repeated year will go against a student?

If you're thinking about doing further study I'd recommend looking at the entry requirements. For some careers you need a further qualification which you'd need probably a 2:1 to get on to (I did for mine plus work/voluntary experience). However, with some jobs there are other ways in. Some companies offer grad schemes with different requirements for example. As pp have said, you may be able to bring your grade up as well, you should speak to your tutor and careers service for advice.

I reckon you could raise your grade to a 2:1 OP. What's the ratio of 2nd year to 3rd year? As in 20% to 80%? I had a very poor start to my final year but still managed a 2:1 overall.

So a repeated year will go against a student?

I think if you were really ill or lost a parent or something, that’s understandable but you’d have to hope that the employer asked about the reasons behind that year (or include it in a cover letter).

As far as we (as uni staff) are concerned, it doesn’t go against you. You wouldn’t be disadvantaged at all and you would retake the same classes with no prejudice but your new marks do not overwrite your failed marks for that module. They would both be on your record.

I got a 2.1 in the 90s and I’m very happy to hear that it was harder then . I moved from a 2.2 to a 2.1 between my second and third year mostly because I acquired a boyfriend ‘at home’ so I wasn’t falling out of night clubs and snogging unsuitable boys.

I’ve got an OK job. My lack of faith in myself (oh I couldn’t do that job) has held me back more than my degree.

Hats off to you, OP for doing a degree with a small family. It’s hard enough at 18. When I’ve recruited, I always give people who get their degree later in life a bit more credit.

I am shocked there are teachers with such poor degrees. I expect a teacher to be well educated.

I got a Third on my first degree from a very elite performing arts college due to being in a physically and emotionally abusive relationship. Later I went back to university in another subject, got a First, a scholarship to Oxford and eventually a DPhil (PhD). I'd escaped from the bad relationship by then.

Now, ironically, I'm back in career 1 (the Third) with an internationally respected and successful career. Nothing to do with the PhD, entirely in the field of the Third.

I attribute my success to 1. dumping what was holding me back, 2. versatility and ability to reinvent myself and 3. The ability to work for myself, so I am not reliant on the judgments of HR etc. I am self employed and stand or fall on my portfolio of work.

Admittedly right now in corona world I'm not smug about future prospects... but I don't attribute anything I do or don't do to my degree grade.

Its 40/60 at my university. I havent worked it out, but it seems impossible to get a 2:1

Graduated 1995 with a 2:2 in languages got a place through assessment on the BT grad scheme. Now an operations director. It’s never held me back, it wasn’t seen as something so dreadful at the time. I didn’t enjoy my degree that much and was depressed for quite a bit of university.
My sister got the same grade a couple of years later and is now on the leadership team of a large secondary.
I dare say I know plenty of others but it’s not remotely important years later!

My pgce provider (primary) only accepted candidates with a 2.1 or 1st.

Some providers do, however I’ve been looking courses recently and the majority seem to accept a 2.2 for a PGCE

Oh and I was at a Russell Group Uni (was it even a thing then ?)

I graduated in 1993 with a 2:2. Back then most people got a 2:2. A handful got a 2:1 and one or two from the whole cohort got a first. I think it's different now, far more people get 2:1s. I'm a teacher and i also practised as a solicitor. The headteacher at my current school also got a 2:2.

I got a 2:2 in psychology about 20 years ago. I'm a consultant clinical psychologist now and manager of a team.

I had to get two distinctions in two masters to get me to the point of doing being accepted onto the doctorate course though.

Honestly it will make a difference if you go on to try to do something really competitive but other opportunities will come your way, a degree is always useful.

I don't work
I work like 2 hours a month

A Third was a smoking man's degree
A 2:2 was a drinking man's degree
A 2:1 was somebody who worked hard
A 1st was for the one or two students per year per course who the faculty wanted to join them

But that was in the days when we got grants
and hall fees were a pittance
and Union Bar beer was 50p a pint
and we could get housing benefit in the summer holidays

A different world