To ask if you went to uni did you regret it ?

[Lardlizard]

Yabu if you don’t regret
Yanbu if you do

I don’t regret it but I didn’t enjoy it.

No, but like other posters, I went to a top university and got a well regarded degree.

There are many universities and and degrees that aren't worth the effort and expense.

@zingally Yes, the “best years of your life” mantra that everyone always spouted about university never rang true for me at all!

I went in the early 80s. I got a tiny grant to live on, but there were no loans available, so I was really poor. No parental help.
I had an unheated bedsit with a baby belling, and shared a bathroom with the taxi driver next door( bleugh). Nearly froze.
No money for socialing, I either worked in a bar or studied in the library where it was warm. I just about survived but it was not the “experience” people expect now. It was tough.
But I have a good career as a result and I learned how to be poor, how to survive on food being sold off Saturday afternoon in Brixton market. I can still make the best goat curry

I went to a top University and got a decent degree and I was offered good opportunities after graduating. I also had a pretty great time, made good friends and met my DH while I was there so I definitely don’t regret going.

Yes and no.
I went to uni around 10 years ago, when teachers and career advisors filled our heads with what I now clearly see are falsehoods - essentially that employers will be falling over themselves to hire graduates, that any degree from any uni is better than no degree and that we'd earn more than non graduates. Fees were still just over £3k a year which was a lot but not unreasonable.

So I very much went to uni "for the experience". I didn't know what I wanted to do but knew getting a degree was expected of me and I was academic at school. I picked a generic humanities subject that I was good at and that I knew would be easy for me, at a mid- league university. Spent most of my time partying, binge drinking, smoking weed and occasionally attending lectures. Finally knuckled down in final year and got a First.
Did I enjoy it? Hell yes.
But, not one employer has showed any interest in this degree or my grade. It gave me no actual knowledge or skills to do any job, beyond "soft skills".
Thankfully I had the sense to do a Masters with a heavy practical element and a guaranteed work placement.
This led to a job and I now have a reasonable career with Ok pay for where I live, and I'm happy with my life overall. BUT If I had my time again, and especially with the fees they charge now, I'd think a lot more carefully about which uni and what degree I pick, and what my earning potential would be. I didn't give this any thought at the time.

I loved it so much I'm doing another degree now. I just love walking through the campus and soaking in the atmosphere.

I regret the course I did but that course did land me in better paid jobs.

No regrets, but for different reasons.

• Undergrad economics degree: probably not the best fit for my skills or interests, but it helped get me started in the civil service. I was a commuter student so it was quite lonely.

• Undergrad languages degree: excellent fun! Lived overseas for two years as part of it, heaps of partying to make up for my lonely economics undergrad days... I also became fluent, met my husband and now raising our kids to be bilingual in that language.

Postgrad law degree: perfect fit for my skill set, overall very interesting and made two lifelong friends here. Also got a first from a red brick-equivalent (overseas) uni. I work as a civil service lawyer and love it.

[quote GingerAndTheBiscuits]@zingally Yes, the “best years of your life” mantra that everyone always spouted about university never rang true for me at all![/quote]
Nor me. Three years of eating toast because I couldn't afford proper food, three years of not being able to afford to put the heating on. Three years of wearing the same clothes I was wearing in sixth form because I couldn't afford new ones.

And university was meant to be full of life experiences but I couldn't afford to join clubs or societies or go to the gym because they all cost money.

My degree is in IT and I am a SAHM - not by choice though.

There aren’t many IT / Tech jobs where I am (although loads in software development which I don’t like) I have a pre DC career in marketing but there’s so much competition and apparently I’m too old to be shortlisted for a marketing role now (mid 30s)

Sigh.

I want to relocate for a proper career. Or I’ll have to do a PGCE and get into teaching

Fascinating replies, especially where people ended up doing useless Mickey Mouse degree courses. This is the best but if advice new entrants can be given. Pick your course carefully, make it count. There is a reason STEM graduates are so highly valued.

The grass is always greener I guess, my biggest regret is doing such a specfic STEM course. I got a job in it, but I don't like the job. The degree isn't applicable in any way to any other job, even closely related jobs in the same field. Studying it was so boring. I wish I had chosen a broader degree like arts or science, and had the chance to really study my interests.

I don’t regret it all, my course was very niche and nothing to do with my career now but university helped me a lot in terms of confidence etc...

Maybe looking back I’d do a different course if I could change things but in terms of actually going to uni, I don’t regret that at all

No regrets at all.

I went in the 90s, loved my degree, loved the whole uni experience and met my husband there. So if I hadn't of gone, I wouldn't have my kids now.

I went into to secondary school teaching, so still use my degree every day. Now working towards my doctorate so loving the academic side again too.

Would do it all again tomorrow if I could. However, I got grants and left with very little debt.

Did well (a first) but caused massive anxiety.

I think university is a wonderful thing. I personally think learning should be an end in and of itself and that somethings our society sees a university education only in terms of ones job prospects. This is obviously important too but I think we would have a better society if learning for its own sake was valued more.

I don’t regret going, but I regret treating it like one big piss up, I regret not changing courses 1 year in, I regret not going along to any of the career fairs.

@Overthinker1988 can I ask what post grad you did?

I did English at an RG university. It was meant to be one of the top ten courses at the time. Six hours of lectures/tutorials a week, sitting in a stuffy room with silent 18 year olds who sat there like a bunch of lemons. Most classes taken by a different PHD student every week, one of whom tried to get me to stand in front of the whole class and admit that the appointment I was leaving early for was at the GUM clinic (it wasn't) and who then marked me down in all my work for that module, after I told him to mind his own business. Very little put on for students - I'm no snowflake, but it's university, at school I was lead to think it would be a revolving door of visiting speakers, talks, classes, discussions, with the odd knees up. No it was not. Ended up with a pointless degree and a strong dose of depression.

If anyone could suggest anything you can do with an English degree that ISN'T teaching, I'd be most grateful to hear.

We will not be supporting our children financially at university unless they choose to do a degree with an obvious opening to a career at the end of it. Sad, because I do believe in education for education's sake, but I also believe in not getting in 50k of debt for something that will be a millstone round your neck, as my degree has been to me - I have a better idea of what I'd be good at now but I can't afford to retrain

So glad I went and got my degree when I did. Some degrees, or at least the unis they're from are not worth the paper they're written on.

One thing I would say to those who would only encourage certain degrees, most jobs still expect something. In fact some of the lowest paid jobs still expect a degree, even if crappy. So unless you go straight into a trade or apprenticeship scheme and never change jobs, it is very difficult.

I went to uni and was very fortunate to go before fees were introduced. However, I didn't actually want to go. I went because my parents wanted me to and I grew up with the expectation that I would. My parents didn't have the opportunity to go themselves so their projected thst on to me.
I had no idea what I wanted to study and ended up with a degree that sounds impressive but isn't particularly practical. Having a degree did enable me to get a better paid job in the field I went in to but I honestly would have preferred to have got a job in banking at 18 and worked my way up. I feel that if I'd been allowed to do that I'd probably have a career in a particular industry rather than getting to 40 and feeling I've never found my niche.

@EveryDayIsADuvetDay

I did a masters in my forties - don't regret it, but didn't do a first degree.

How? I have a BA from another country and I've just been turned down for an Msc as my BA isn't enough :( I'm pretty heartbroken about it.

No regrets

Enjoyed the course
Enjoyed the city
Enjoyed the social activities
Meet up every year with some of the friends that I made

My degree has helped to keep me employed so far, even during the lock down

Best years of your life, but I do wish I'd taken a gap year to really work out what I wanted to study. I did a very well-respected course at a very good uni, but when I then travelled post-uni I really began to realise what I wish I had studied instead. My parents had been wholly against a gap year pre uni and I felt I had no choice at the time.

The power of hindsight now of course, some 20 years later is that I could have just done another degree aged 22, but that felt ridiculous at the time.

That being said, I had a wonderful career in a great industry but am now a SAHM for the forseeable, with no ambition to return to that world.

It is what you make it I guess xxx

In other countries university is for very specific career paths or if you're very studious or academic in a certain subject.
And if you're not in that top percentage, you can work hard and go into other jobs that are also as respected.

In Germany for example, being a mechanic or even a baker is a respected trade. Here people would rather go to a number 50 uni and study a bad form of social science (good social science at a good uni is different). And then get an old minimum wage job.