to think my degree is as good as anyone elses?

[SecretSlattern]

I started off in 2004 doing a NVQ 3 in Early Years Care and Education, 3 months after having DD. I qualified 9 months later, with 2 level 3 qualifications and worked for a bit in day nurseries, pre-schools and after school clubs before studying a Foundation Degree in Early Years Childcare and Education.

At the start of the second year of my FD, I discovered I was pg with DS but continued on anyway and had him 2 weeks before the end of the course. I graduated from Uni in 2008, six weeks after having DS.

I finally went back to finish the last year of my BA (hons) in Early Childhood Studies. I now have 2 DCs, one of which is constantly in and out of hospital, and have now discovered I am pg with DC3. The timing is pretty shit, but there you go. DC3 is due in May, the same month that I am due to finish my degree (although will still have to write my dissertation, which I have done before so am confident I can do it again).

However, when telling a friend of mine what I was up to (hadn't spoken in a while), she sniffed, pulled a face and basically said it wouldn't matter if I didn't finish my degree because it isn't a proper degree anyway. "What can you do with a degree in kids?" was the question I was asked.

I actually intend to go on in the future and do a PGCE in primary, specialising in early years. AIBU to think that just because my degree is "in kids" it doesn't make it any less of a degree? I still go to uni, still have to do a mahoosive amount of work, same as any other undergrad.

all this degree posturing is funny.Oi my degree called your degree a puff.

my degree was soooooooo hard no time off ever
my degree was so easy i was in a coma,stone deid

Indeed. But it isn't about the subject, is it?

A 'good' degree from a 'good' university, made up of 'good' skills of analysis, evaluation, composition, comparison, etc., tested by rigorous standards of examination by experts competent or excellent in their field.

And because those skills can be applied to a wide range of professions, they are highly valued.

None of which is about the subject.

No, your degree won't be as good as some peoples. That's just a fact of life. All degrees are not equal. A first from Oxbridge will count for more in most walks of life. Although a brilliant degree will just get you through the door. What you do afterwards is up to you.

But your degree is absolutely fine for what you want to do with your life and will help you to achieve your ambitions. So that's good, isn't it?

Your friend is just being snarky

I had compulsory Saturday morning statistics classes. Now that's a proper degree.
And I'm still sulking about it 20 years on....

i had to do compulsory trampolining,labs,practicals.voluntary work,and still polish the tutors car to a high sheen

and you tell folk now and they dont believe ya

but did you do it to an acceptable standard of competency,SM??

aye superlative bounce and high sheen all round

my degree was in contemporary mime and I've never had a bad word to say about it

hahaha

That might be because she's thick though, huh?

Look, some Very Clever People write on Media Studies, and Dance, and fuck, yes, even Hotel and Catering Management. And some very thick ones do English.

I am going to be boring but I don't think subjects are intrinsically harder or easier. It's what you make of them and what you're suited to.

Poppleton Poly might well put on Meeja Studies because it gets bums on seats, that's all, while English at Magdalen College (I dunno) can compete for the best and brightest.

Yer average smart pants medic would probably do abysmally at most English degrees too, no? Although they would certainly think they would be able to do it in their sleep.

I rarely went to any lectures at all at university I have to confess, and I know I wasn't the only one. My sister has completed three degrees, a science degree at Oxford, a occupational therapy degree from West Middlesex poly and a Theology degree at Bristol. She did say that the Oxford one was the most academically hard work (she thought the OT one could probably have been done in two years rather than three) but the Theology one was the most challenging. My dh and I both have Masters degrees, mine was certainly more academic, and his was more vocational. They are both valued in their fields, which is all that really matters.

I've seen some research on some of the slightly strange new and interestingly titled degrees (like Brewery or Golf Management) and some of them are very highly regarded, with all graduates being recruited directly from university.

It's the specifics of the course and how it is regarded in it's field that matters. As for how many hours you put in that's very course dependent. My original degree is in a social science, and as such it was the independent study that mattered, and you could do as much or as little as you chose. Of course if you were a slacker (and not unfairly bright!) you wouldn't get a very good degree. My other sister has a degree in Architecture, which is very hands on, and so involved a great deal more hours. Which was "harder" impossible to judge, as so much of that depends on your own skills and abilities. I certainly couldn't have done any of my siblings courses (my brother's degree is in Engineering) but then I wouldn't have wanted to.

On the snobbism front I suspect that my sister's degree from Oxford ranks the highest, but she's not actually used it at all, so to some extent it's irrelevant.

OP, well done for working so hard! Many undergraduates struggle and complain with nothing other than college work to do, let alone with having to support a family. Sad your friend is so unsupportive.

"there's not a cat in Hell's chance my friend's DD could have cut it, doing an English degree at a decent university ..."

Would she have struggled with the hours, do you think? I mean, those five hours a week were pretty heavy. True, you could cut the lectures, so you'd just be down to seminars and a tutorial or so ...

Have I just wandered into a game of online Top Trumps Degrees?

Eeeeee in my day we worked 24 hours a day, only stopping to eat some dirt, wrote twenty five essays a week, were beaten if we weren't academically rigorous enough, slept in ditches and still had change out of a farthing.

doh!of course some subjects are more demanding than others.professionally,personally and academically

a professional degree requiring minimum hours to complete to graduate and supervised professional clinical placements is very demanding

well, I had to shag all my tutors to get my degree

problem is though that Rg unis don't do many of the more vocational degrees so what do you do if you are say prof hawking bright but desperate to study ECS...???

anyway apart from us mime artists I always felt that the vets worked the hardest hands down (that isn't part of my act)

Wilf is right there, my Masters was in Public Health, and about equally split between doctors and "ordinary folk" The elements of the course which involved more "free" thinking as opposed to learning and application of rules were easier for those of us with Humanities/Social Science degrees than for the doctors. We just had very different aptitudes and skill sets. Some of the doctors were very bright and very hard working (certainly put me to shame) but just weren't comfortable with the political parts of the course, whilst I and a few of the other non docs struggled with the more medical type bits. So we all tutored each other a bit, and learned new skills.

ideally one should do degree appropriate to abilities and personality.after all having undertaken degree you hope you use it and flourish

Are veterinary courses still the hardest to get into? When I was doing A levels, it was harder to train to be a vet than a doctor, because so many people wanted to do it.

Yep,I think what you do with it is the crux.

Funnily enough no one has ever given a flying fuck what degree I have but are much more interested in my day to dy knowledge regarding current career.