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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask if you could start again what would you study??

183 replies

Londoner90 · 31/12/2020 09:35

Or would you study at all? Would you go to uni ? Would you consider money as in what salaries might be in the industry or would you follow your passion ?

OP posts:
cheapskatemum · 31/12/2020 18:15

Law. I didn’t have the confidence at 18 and studied English and History of Art, which I was good at, but wasn’t vocational.

CMeredithC · 31/12/2020 18:16

NC as outing.
I'd have done the same degree I have (a very specific performing arts training course), but would've added intensive language courses next to it.

I was 15 when I got my uni place and started shortly after. I don't regret that, however my family was extremely low-income but not UK based so I couldn't access all the loans and bursaries I needed. That meant I was working a mixture of 4 zero-hour jobs and taking on freelance gigs, while doing my degree.

It was extremely good training (though super stressful), but I'd take a year out between my undergrad and my postgrad instead of going straight from one to the other - to work more solid hours and have some money to pay for all those languages courses I mentioned earlier Grin

nickymanchester · 31/12/2020 18:16

I did a course in statistics and computing and have never regretted it.

The only thing I might have done differently is to have taken the course at a different university. My university years weren't the best - mental health wise.

Hollybutnoivy · 31/12/2020 18:17

Speech therapy. Or, if I could actually go back in time, I would invest in property rather than study!

heydoggee · 31/12/2020 18:17

Literature. I really want to go back and do another BA in it, but it would be a very expensive indulgence that wouldn't go anywhere.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 31/12/2020 18:18

Library science - I would love to be a librarian. Or history - from the start of the Plantagenets to the end of the Tudors.

RedRec · 31/12/2020 18:21

Did English. Should have done German or Geography / Geology and ended up either as a translator or geologist.

Focalpoint · 31/12/2020 18:24

I rather randomly and with frighteningly little research picked actuarial maths when I was 17 and it turned out to be a great choice and I still love it 30 years on.

SharedLife · 31/12/2020 18:24

Learning disabilities nursing. I'm so, so sad that I can't afford to go back and study this. I'd be a bloody brilliant LD nurse.

MichelleofzeResistance · 31/12/2020 18:27

I went with the most practical of my two preferred options, but do fondly think of the other. I'd have studied history and art history, something combined, then sidelined in estate management and antiques/restoration.

ThatIsNotMyUsername · 31/12/2020 18:28

Engineering. But I am pretty crap at maths!

SarahBellam · 31/12/2020 18:28

I did a psychology degree and then an MBA and a MSc in IT. Loved them all and work in a field which makes good use of all three degrees. I’d love to do a degree in international relations, politics, philosophy or ethics - just for fun.

2021optimist · 31/12/2020 18:33

History rather than economics A level and then a Classics degree.

ScrapThatThen · 31/12/2020 18:35

Genetics

TheCanyon · 31/12/2020 18:37

Completed a HND in social sciences at 18, really no interest unfortunately.

At 34, I've just not long graduated in finance and accounting, such a lack of self confidence to really go for it though. I'd do a maths or engineering degree if I could, right up my street.

OvaHere · 31/12/2020 18:40

Something science related. I really liked and did well in Biology and Chemistry at school and I think ultimately I might have enjoyed something in research.

I think I didn't pursue it because I was shit at Physics (due to the maths element) and by the time I did GCSEs it was all one package so being weak on one really pulled down your average. If I could have studied them as separate subjects in the final year it might have made a difference to my confidence.

Other than that if I had a do-over knowing what I know now I would definitely be thinking longer term and more vocationally. I enjoyed my degree but in reality it qualifies me to do absolute squat. Grin

HotChoc10 · 31/12/2020 18:43

Another for Engineering. I love the idea of solving puzzles and making things which actually serve a function (though there is a possibility that I am romanticising what an engineer does all day.)

Would have to go back for A level Maths first though.

pilates · 31/12/2020 18:44

Psychology.

MrsMiaWallis · 31/12/2020 18:45

Law. Would have been really good at it. Had an awful chaotic homelife and got absolutely no guidance.

Bunnybigears · 31/12/2020 18:46

Well I would have to do the same again so I could meet DH and have the DC's but if I could still have them and do something different ai would train to be a Paramedic, now a degree I understand but I dont think it was a degree when I was 18.

windysocks · 31/12/2020 18:48

@MrsMiaWallis

Law. Would have been really good at it. Had an awful chaotic homelife and got absolutely no guidance.
Me too i do work i law but nor a lawyer. I didn't even know it was something i could have done
Larsingsong · 31/12/2020 18:48

I did start again in my 40's and studied Diagnostic Radiography. Was a tough few years but totally worth it, this career has so many variations and modalities. A job is pretty much guaranteed.

Jenjenn · 31/12/2020 18:50

I did genetics up to a postgrad. If I had another chance I would do quantity surveying, medical engineering or actuarial science. I love maths!

littlemisslozza · 31/12/2020 18:50

Veterinary medicine

elp30 · 31/12/2020 18:52

Back in the late 80's, I knew very few people who had gone to university. Most people I knew who decided to go into further education went to vocational schools to learn a trade.

I wasn't a fantastic student but i did well at my exams and my school counselor was highly dismissive of vocational training and steered me towards university. I went to study journalism and I crashed and burned as I knew it was not right for me.

I left at age 19, married a guy who worked at the university, had a baby at 21, was divorced at 22, worked in a job until I remarried at 25, had two more kids and 25 years later I'm here.

If I could do it over again, I'd have joined the military and become a language expert and worked in embassies around the world.

All is not lost, I could always immerse myself in language learning and travel and do more exercise! 😂