If you did a non professional degree at uni, do you regret it?

[Pheonix2023]

By no professional I mean a degree that wasn’t for a specific thing
like medical degree to become a dr, dentist,lawyer,nurse etc ?

My degree was fine, but I had no idea how to use it after uni- and neither did my parents. I fell into English teaching because I thought I had to get a proper job immediately. I probably should have drifted more and worked out what I actually wanted to do.

I can identify with this. I panicked and almost did PGCE which would have been a mistake for me.
No one in my family could advise about what to do post uni. I wasn't good enough for the graduate schemes. I didn't know how to make my degree work for me.
Fortunately I did just drift, found a job in a not for profit organisation where I had some excellent mentoring and finally realised you have to keep studying, doing CPD etc it doesn't just stop once you graduate.
I now have a job I love, with prospects, which I couldn't do without my very loosely connected degree.
I graduated in 2002 with debt but not on the same scale as today.
My DS fancies uni, he needs to be prepared to work hard in his 20s to make it worthwhile.

This is interesting, especially given that my 16 year old on starting a T-level at college has immediately been told by tutors they should be already thinking about what university course to do/which university to go to. Not whether to go or not. Theoretically her T-level gives her a working level qualification and she's not sure if she wants to study further or not.

No, and people should be wary of thinking that a professional degree is the only way to a good graduate job.

80% of graduate employers don't specify a specific subject and courses such as history, English etc are highly desirable.

I did teaching and deliberately chose a degree in which I would get a job! Many friends did non vocational degrees and have not used them.
I have encouraged my children to look at degree apprenticeships. My son has one doing engineering, his fees are paid for and they pay him 20k a year. He will have no debt and is getting immediate work experience. However, I think they are limited in different industries but definitely worth looking at!

Yes, music. I enjoyed it but strongly regretted it and will be encouraging my own DC to choose more wisely.

To be blunt, if your daughter fancies studying geography at Edge Hill or Lincoln or Wolverhampton or a similar third division university, tell her not to bother. If she is an Oxbridge or RG prospect, it won’t do her any harm. Is she unusually intelligent and capable? If so, she can probably get away with geography at a good university rather than a better-regarded subject. Sorry, geographers, but you must know that geography, unfairly or otherwise, was traditionally regarded as the subject you studied if you weren’t that smart and/or couldn’t decide what to study. Don’t shoot the messenger.

Ignore this..... it's utter nonsense and completely outdated.

Not me, but a friend. Did a English Literature degree. Went back to university (graduated this year) to do a further degree in Veterinary Medicine. As a 2nd degree, she had to pay full tuition fees for all 5 years of the course (about 150k). Plus living expenses etc. Total cost was over 200k.

I think it’s fair to guess that she regrets doing her non-professional degree.

@yadaya in what way do you think that the other view was outdated?

Given the amount of people leaving school and going to university I don’t think there is an edge any more
The percentage that went to Uni when it was free/cheap is a similar percentage that pay back their student loan

A couple of people my dd knows regret very much their professional degrees. Chosen by their parents and blackmailed into doing.
Their heart and talent were in something that was an incredibly precarious profession. It was something that was time sensitive. Something that you couldn’t take 3 years out of and then pick up where you left off.
Neither use their degree. One works in an office and one has been pretty much on UC since uni Both are depressed
Both had the talent to go far in a very precarious industry

I did question one of their parents on why they thought their child would actually do a very academic and professional degree when their talent and persona were far suited to a particular career that didn’t need a degree to do.

I think the OP is thinking more along the lines of Art History, English lit, sociology.

Maths degree probably the most useful degree you can get as will lead to so many jobs off the back of it.

Not me but my husband. He did fine art degree and now works in IT. He read a lot of philosophy during his course and loved it. At various IT job interviews during the years they have discussed his degree even though it’s entirely irrelevant, but he could talk passionately about something he knows a lot about and interviewers always liked that. (He’s also a gifted programmer.) He paid it off over a long time and never regretted it.

Because that's not how graduate employers think.
Geography graduates perform well with regards graduate outcomes and have lower unemployment figures than many other subjects .

The reaction was so defensive that the poster will have a geography degree herself, or will have a child studying geography.

Yep, that’s what I think too. Cue denial!

Rubbish. Your salary is not a 'high return' job

I don’t because it was so cheap then and it was affordable to get a pointless degree for the uni experience. However I would not make the same decision with the costs now.

I don’t regret it, but I wouldn’t do it again I don’t think. I did English and Russian Literature (go figure.. I have no idea either) - got to go to Russia a few times so that was good. Equipped me in no way for working though. I fell into my profession and have done a lot of post grad professional study while working which I absolutely do recommend.

I did a Politics degree - seemingly useless and leading nowhere. Then did a Masters in Politics and Research Methods (which I've never used). The benefits of both was honing my writing and analytical skills and to some extent presentation skills though my BA was not particularly well taught. Understanding how government and parliament works was useful but the majority of my course was not.

Now nearing the end of my career in a CEO policy role negotiating with government/NHS and have an OBE (fat use that is unless I want to get married again, in which case I can do so in St Pauls !).

It's all about how you use your degree (and the university years). Did I need a humanities degree to get my senior, well paying job I am in right now? Technically no, nowhere on the job spec was an undergraduate degree required.

Would I be in this job at 33 without that undergraduate degree? Extremely unlikely.

I often see careers a bit like acting, you need your "big break", it's very difficult as a graduate to set yourself apart nowadays with so many graduates out there, even more so with generic degrees. So the more you can think about how you can upskill alongside your degree will make it much easier to get your "break" asap after graduating, the sooner you can get that and start building a career the more doors that'll open. You will likely not need a degree in your future jobs, but it's what the degree offers at the start of the career that matters, being able to get onto graduate traineeship programmes for example, but you will need to do more to set yourself apart to get onto these.

@Kennykenkencat The blackmail is stupid.

There are ways of telling young people not to go down a particular route without blackmailing them.

As I previously posted myself and a few others were encouraged not to do precarious degrees, however we were encouraged to look at what other things we were interested in and areas aligned to our first interest.

I did English and got on one of the hardest grad schemes to get on which has given me a real kick start to my career.

my profession isn’t anything to do with my degree but a lot of things do overlap and i got good interchangeable skills.

I have a music degree and within 4 months of graduating started working in admin for a construction company and have been in similar fields ever since. I’m Scottish and went to uni in Scotland so no fee’s and since they keep pushing up the limit for repaying your student loan I’ve hardly had to repay anything. I don’t regret it, I had a great time at uni and made great friends, but if I was 18 again I would have chosen differently. Probably politics which is what my mum was pushing me to do.

Absolutely nc824
Just going to university isn't enough, you need to make the most of your time while you are there. Most universities are very good at the 'add on' stuff, especially when it comes to careers and Employability.

Did English literature graduated 2000 with the student loans of not too much. Can't remember what I borrowed but no tuition fees back then.

I went to work for a top professional services firm and qualified as a chartered accountant and never looked back. My degree has been very relevant to my job (having a level maths was obviously essential too) as a lot of report writing and research.

Even now I look to recruit numerate arts graduates.

Geography is a good broad based academic subject. Does it help woth jobs in Environmental consulting? That's a good job if you get in with the right firm.

But this just isn't true! My sister did Fine Art and now earns 6 figures in an advertising agency. My friends who did history, English etc are now corporate lawyers, accountants and management consultants. An academic degree from a strong university will not lead to unemployment!