AIBU to still regret getting a 2:1 instead of a first?

[onedayillmoveon]

It’s been 10 years since I graduated from university and I still can’t shake off the regret that I got a 2:1 and not a first. I know that a 2:1 is perfectly fine for the vast majority of jobs and nothing to be ashamed of, my more and more people have gotten firsts for the past 20 years or so. When I graduated in 2016, about 33% of humanities graduates from my uni got firsts. I just felt so stupid, incapable, inadequate….. I know people say that grades and numbers can’t define us, but I sort of did let it.

I still can’t shake off this horrible regret that I didn’t get one. I got a high first in my second year and was so pleased, I genuinely loved my subject and had applied myself. In my final year (which largely determines degree class where I went), I became quite depressed and stressed. I could never focus and never really adequately prepared for my exams. I just can’t stop wishing that I had pulled myself together in some way.

Some of you, if you read this far, might think, “well if you have a decent job, nobody gives a damn what degree you got”, and yes, fair. Yet there are certain supposedly ‘elite’ jobs where a first is strongly preferred, and I think not getting one ruined my chances of those.

Anyway, if anyone else has ever felt the same way, or knows someone who does, and wants to share ideas or experiences, maybe that will be helpful.

I have relevant professional training and employment history and I would say there’s a lot of excellent comments in response to the OP on this thread . I hope you will be able to take them on board @onedayillmoveon all the best

When I graduated in 1986 there were three out of around 230.

@Nottulip In my graduating year, 1977, one First was awarded across the whole Faculty of Social Sciences (Politics, Philosophy, Economics and Sociology, and all the combinations). That used to be the norm. Firsts were for the truly exceptional.

Edit to add that there were probably 350-400 students per year.

40 years ago

50 years ago!!

that poster to which I was responding graduated in 2001

In my year 1996 - 67 people and one first. I knew people who had busted a gut to get a first in other subjects but they hadn’t achieved it. I wonder if they have regrets too? I can’t imagine that they could have worked any harder.

Exactly. In the days before the value of a degree was diluted and a first really meant something.

You can still get into elite US and MC law firms with a 2:1, especially if you train at another City firm and then move firms after a couple of years. I would assume the same is true for other elite jobs, although I've never actually seen it stated that a 1st is required in any of these jobs? Maybe it's changed since my time though.

Late 90s - three out of 130.

A 2:1 from Cambridge is not bad at all!