Why going to university improved your life

[ProfessorPickles]

I'm starting university soon and I'm constantly looking at the negatives and I'm very nervous.

Can anyone share some ways in which university has changed your life in a positive way?
It could be anything from getting that dream job to meeting your DP or DH

I'm usually more excited and positive but I'm finding I'm less confident lately

I met my DH in my first week. Academically I was able to relax as I'd made it to my target university and was more than happy to be average there. It was also really interesting, though i do wish I'd gone to more lectures. I met great friends at university too.

I realised that while I was never going to be a good enough mathematician to study the stars, I was a good enough biologist to get a degree and genetics are equally fascinating.

While failing to become an astrophysicist, I met DH and I know have two almost grown up DDs one who wants to be a biologist and one who wants to teach Y1/Y2

Where to start...

Friends that I met at university and that, 20yrs on, I could still count on in an emergency

Experience of living away from home, budgeting, making my own decisions, being independent, travelling, getting on with people, learning to compromise

Studying a subject that I enjoyed and that gave me a lifelong appetite for learning

The fact that having a good degree from a good university still holds a certain amount of merit in the job market

The discipline of seeing out a 4yr degree course despite wondering whether it might just be easier to quit

Getting a 'graduate' job that led to many other opportunities in the future

The stories, the laughs, the anecdotes that will always stay with me (not a great reason for going to university but a nice by-product!)

What are you nervous about?

For me, I really, really, really loved my degree. I wish I could go back and do it again (minus the bit that involved being 18, because that bit sucked quite a bit). I genuinely would really enjoy doing the whole thing over. I also really liked the city I was living in - it was beautiful and I really enjoyed always having hours to sit in coffee shops, which is just the best everyday luxury.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but it also made me feel much more confident about accepting there were things I didn't know, or couldn't do.

Without it I couldn't have got my new job, which I'm incredibly excited about.

Thank you for the responses so far

I'm nervous because I've just left a job I loved to go do a degree. I'm terrified I'll regret it but to be fair it was a dead end job so I'd have had to have left at some point

I'm also scared that I'll struggle to fit in all the work as I have a 1 year old! I'm not entirely sure of the work load for now

What are you perceiving as negatives?

i met my husband in my first year
still together 22 years later

independence-i was ready to move away from home and it gave me a safe way to do that

1. I got to move away from home
2. I got to party as much as I wanted
3. I met lots of new people, some of whom became close friends and are still really great friends OVER 30 YEARS ON!
4. I got the qualifications I needed to do the job I have loved for nearly 30 years

Oh, I get the nerves over those things, though I bet you will be fine.

Is there a group for student parents at your university? There's definitely a MN section with that title.

I did sub aqua and a bungee jump.

Other than that, it got me off the dole, and used to doing something every day.

1. I had a brilliant time
2. I got an excellent qualification which has stood me in very good stead (got me a very good - if dull - job when I graduated
3. I met DH
4. I made loads of friends who are still good friends after several decades.

But I can see that worrying now about student debt would take the edge off the sheer glee of moving away from home and running your own life.

• I had a really great time

- I gained a qualification I still use today (graduated in 1989) - I met my DH (married 23 years)

I met people who aspired to more than getting trashed every Friday night.

On the flip side, I learned how to make the most of clubbing I was too young and shy for it before Uni.

I learned how to talk to anyone, from any walk of life.

It really was amazing. I miss it so much.

I've heard a fair few people say they met their best friends at uni and they've stayed friends for a long time.
I really hope it is the same for me

I just worry me not living as a student will have an effect IYSWIM?

University changed my life beyond recognition.

I grew up in a tough council estate where many young people were heroin addicts. I was the only girl from 120 at my school to go to university at 18.

It was tough. I had to work through university unlike many of my fellow students. That did limit my social group but I made good friends.

Through those friends, I met my husband nearly 19 years ago. In a bar in Soho just before graduating.

My degree qualified me to do the job I still do today. I am now quite senior in my profession and we are comfortable. The mortgage has been paid off.

Our 2 dc will never know the hardships I had as a child, although they are in no way spoilt. I find myself still being sensible when it comes to spending money on clothes etc.

Going to university and getting my degree opened up doors and opportunities to me that would never have existed. But it was my hard work, persistence and pluckiness that turned those chances into something real.

My course (vocational/media) led me directly into an interesting although not well-paid career that has lasted for more than 30 years.

In my first few days in hall, I met three girls who are still among my closest friends now. There's something incredibly grounding and reassuring about having friends who've known you since you were very young. We've seen each other through relationship breakdowns, infertility, moves abroad (and back home). We will know each other for the rest of our lives.

Good luck with your degree OP

I needed my degree to do my job so not a difficult decision for me. I loved my time there too.