DD disappointed with uni course - what are the options? Would appreciate your thoughts!

[AnonAnora]

DD has had a most difficult time with choosing a uni. She is very bright and had all As predicted, got offers from all the RG unis she put down. Took a really long time to firm up and then before the results day decided to switch unis via clearing. All those courses were in Clearing this summer. She was absolutely set on Bristol. We had visited and she loved it.

On the results day, her first choice was confirmed but she was adamant she wants to switch. Unfortunately, she just missed out on the course at Bristol that she wanted but was offered a course in a similar subject. She still wanted to go and thought she would try to transfer later.

Well, she is now at Bristol and her tutor said that she cannot switch as there are no places. She cannot change to a combined degree either, for the same reason.

She doesn't know what to do. She regrets not taking up the other offer - although she was absolutely sure when she made the choice and that she was happy with the risk. What can she do now? Start the other course and see how it goes? Transfer in the end of Year 1, back to Year 1 in her chosen subject (and pay 20k plus for the loss of the year)? Withdraw now and take a gap year?

And to think, she had her pick of the great unis!

And if it’s not acceptable in other countries, it will be because those countries finance the sector centrally and/or pack many more students on courses with less contact time.

That makes sense. I was only looking at from the point of view of a bright student missing a seat but it’s true universities need money to exist.

Good point.

If she's registered on a course she WILL have been given the contact details of the programme support team.

Don't go to the tutor or higher up academics. At this time of year everyone is run off their feet and random student emails will just get redirected onto the programme teams anyway but it'll take longer.

The programme teams are usually very very helpful if you're polite. If she can, she should arrange a meeting with them. (If it's on teams makes sure she knows to turn her camera on!)

The programme team will have the ability to get her switched. If there no places this week her best chance are the next two weeks when everyone does the first few lectures and realises it's not for them and/or the international students don't turn up, which is fairly common.

Pull out now work and travel
reapply for what she wants to do

Please, please, please check with the accommodation provider that this is the case.
I have unfortunately learnt the hard way that the 28 days notice is just to terminate staying there, however was still liable for the rent for the remaining 44 weeks or until another tenant could be found to take over the tenancy.
This seems to be very common with student accommodation which is abhorrent in my opinion.

These are the terms regarding cancellations for my dd accommodation

People can be quite down on Sociology, but it was my first degree and I loved it. It has been so useful throughout my career too - I've worked in research, policy development and lobbying in and around politics. It gave me research skills, strong critical thinking skills, a really good understanding of how society works and what the root causes of many of the challenges that people face. I did some modules in Politics and went on to get a Masters in Political Science which probably made me more employable early in my career because people can get a bit sniffy about a Sociology degree, but I think what I learned in my first degree was much more useful than all the technical stuff you learn in Politics about how institutions work that you can pick up on the job.

All the patriotic Brexit voters still don't see that their actions have consequences. They were told at length and in detail...

@Boofips it seems like it is 28 days thankfully

Oh OP I really feel for you. You've done your absolute best to be helpful and supportive and it seems to have gone wrong despite your efforts. I'm sure in the long term it will all work itself out for her - but right now it's a bit shit. Sending you strength!

Thank you very much @Quintsharkfishing I sent the screenshot of this, and earlier very helpful instructive posts, to DD

Being brutally honest, if she’s doing a fairly useless social science subject, neither is going to lead into a job in the field (I say this as a Poliyics graduate!). Does she know what she actually wants to do with it? Does she want to go into politics like as a politician? Even then, internships and work experience will mean much more and specializing via a masters.

Typically a social science degree like that is useful for a law conversion, or if you’re somewhere like the LSE, or Oxbridge, consulting and finance will recruit heavily.

@Happyhappyday thank you for your post. Does this apply to all Humanities degrees then, unless they are from LSE or Oxbridge?

Why are these courses so popular then and have entry requirements of A and A stars in top Unis?

I am being serious, if DD drops out she can reapply for something more potentially valuable.

DD wants to work in politics, yes.

@AnonAnora I do feel for you. I spent comparatively little time advising my DDs. MN parents delve into every detail! Maybe she should take control of decisions and learn to live with them instead of wanting yet more options? Over analysis leads to indecision I feel. So maybe you need to extract yourself from her choice of course because she’s not learning to be an adult.

Sociology used to be a degree you did at a sought after uni if you couldn’t get into History. Tales of years ago when there were far fewer grads isn’t 2025 or 2028 when she graduates. Different world.

Gently - many politics grads want to work in politics. A degree in politics is a bit of a con in my view in terms of that ambition. Politics at the coal face is far more who you know and what experience you bring. It’s highly competitive to get a civil service job at the centre of politics and then there’s SPADs and party staff - assuming she doesn’t want to be an MP. Again it’s contacts. Bristol is as good as anywhere for ambitious people but dc need way more than the degree to get noticed.

Why not stay in Bristol and do Sociology for a year but get involved with politics there? She could change degree next year? Or come home and get immersed in politics? Oxford doesn’t offer politics but Bristol offers debating as well. LSE won’t feel like Bristol.

We have a friend whose DS has a masters in Political Policy and now constructs polls and analyses them. On a low salary and after a year unemployed. These days, thousands of grads with a myriad of degrees want jobs in politics and policy. There’s not enough to go round.

This paints a pretty bleak picture.

She can get into History degree. Will it be more valuable?

Genuine question. What's out there for children who do not like STEM, Medicine, Law and Finance? If Social Science and Humanities courses are pretty much interchangeable in their uselessness?

Yes this is what I've wondered when people say this. I dont think its true. Grads are still more likely to be employed than non Grads and politics is a generalist degree, so the skills learnt are useful in many jobs. People have been saying ' go into tech/ humanities degrees are useless' for decades, but I have a humanities degree as have most of my friends and we have all been consistently employed since we graduated. My brother has a degree in IT which was the golden ticket when he did it and he has had to see his job constantly being offshored and being made redundant. If everyone who wasn't into stem went into the trades, as people always glibly say (as though its something that you dont need to have tech/stem skills for) then there wouldn't be enough jobs in the trades, or in stem actially, especially when you consider the 60% of people who dont go to uni. Maybe our dc won't be politicians but there are many other areas that offer fulfilling careers, in other areas. No one knows what the jobs market is going to be like in 5 years. Especially when you look at AI, when jobs in the last ' big thing' IT and coding/ programming will probably be one of the first things to go.

I think the subject is a bit of a red herring here. What led your DD to this impasse sems to be a (late developed?) fixation with Bristol above all else - and that's why she took the clearing offer. Why did she suddenly get so fixed on Bristol? It's good, of course, but she obviously didn't choose it as either firm or insurance after Open Days etc.

I teach and tutor sixth formers and last year there was an obsession with 'justified' indecisiveness and 'trading up' on results day (it was circulated on MN too). I have never heard of so many people dropping good offers to try and game things.

Anyway, what's done is done. There is usually a two week window (sometimes more) to internally swap subjects. She needs to find the right people to talk to in the politics department (there will be someone in charge of the subject and a student services person too), write a really formal email, and/or try to see them in person.

My DS swapped after a few weeks (from social sciences to history : totally different reasons) and it took quite a lot of negotiation. He is not assertive but he was very persistent. They found the room on the course for him and it hadn't been in clearing. She might need to think about the reasons she gives them as 'I never wanted to do sociology' might not come across well. My DS's reasons were to do with the organisation of the course he found himself on.

I wouldn't be surprised if she can swap after attending some actual teaching. At the moment she is being treated as if she is in clearing/a very late applicant and that's probably a different department/set of people.

It's nonsense OP. A good social sciences course gives you excellent critical thinking, most require advanced maths and comms skills. Humanities are excellent too for logic and ability to reason. The best grads I've seen are philosophy ones.

There are relatively few vocational degrees. Most are to demonstrate ability to learn/intellect. It isn’t about “value”.

she needs to study what she is interested in or it will be a pretty miserable few years. The fixation with one university is foolish - particularly when it isn’t even oxbridge/lse (which can get you a job just by virtue of the name on your cv).

if she wants to do politics and IR then she should find a university that is offering this either this year or next. There are top universities which still have this exact degree in clearing for this year.

I did Politics degree and found that whilst it gave an overview of the subject there was a lot of crossover with history, sociology, philosophy and economics. I took a different career path (communications) and no one I knew went into a career in politics.

Since then those people I know who work in the field (policy, civil service, think tanks, international relations, party politics, parliamentary work) all tend to have studied beyond undergraduate level and choice of initial degree has been varied - think history, philosophy, PPE, French, English Language.

i think what you put into course and what grade you get as well as post graduate degree and work experience matter most. She will thrive wherever if she works on confidence and connections

Really appreciate everyone's thoughts.

Classes begin on Monday. So DD will get in touch with the programme office again and also attend the first lectures. I am mindful of the two-week deadline so all the efforts will need to made during this time or it will be too late. She hasn't studied Politics nor Sociology on A LeLevels. However much I worry and however much she is unsettled, ai cannot do anything for her, she will need to do it all herself

She needs to get in touch with the course leader for politics. There will be a person in charge. Not just an 'office'.

Not having done either at A level is part of the problem I guess. Does she have any better understanding of what politics entails?

What did she do : History, and...?

History, Psychology, French and English.

I don’t think not having studied Politics A level is an issue, many schools don’t offer it and there is usually repetition of relevant content in first year. Nor do you need a Politics degree to follow it as a career.